What does medical school mean?

Here's what I just found on Urban Dictionary:

"Medical School: The place Biology majors go to have their dreams of becoming an ethical physician brutally slaughtered whilst simultaneously getting into insummountable debt."

"I have a 4.0 GPA, 10 years of my life I'm not doing anything with, masochistic tendencies and the desire to owe an unforgiving financial institution $200K at 24% interest...I know! I'll apply to medical school."

A place where one wastes the prime of his youth studying ridiculously long, hard, tedious, dry, and unbelievably boring subjects, which he will totally forget about after the exams. Most likely going suicidal and severely depressed in the process, the stress will eat his life span like fire through wood, his hair starts to fall quite early, said subject's diet consists of energy drinks and caffeine.

Not only is one expected to be an academic genius, and a a God-like clinician, society demands that you become a social angel, smiling at everything and everyone, treating everyone like a king/queen, excellent with small talk, ..etc. Basically you have to be the enslaved incarnation of Mother Teresa.

If you manage to pull it off, you will then discover a fact that will shake the boundaries of your life, and either drive you mad, or causes the return of the suicidal thoughts ... The fact that Medicine is the absolute most inaccurate science on the face of the earth, and I mean light years more inaccurate than chaos math; each case presentation will make the text book seem like a fairytale book.


Wow, talk about nihilistic!
Now, bearing in mind that that UrbanDictionary is not the best place to get your advice, I don't think the situation is necessarily that bad. At the same time it definitely makes me think about what I'm doing here. Maybe I'm just a mover at heart.

November Budget

Woohoo! $600 scholarship.

Current bank account $1688.26

Current debt:
BCSL $4730
Canada SL $25,403

Expected expenses:
Still owing uni for this year: $2826.53
Other expenditures: $1000

Expected income:
December $500
January $500
February $1500 grant
$5720 BCSL

Total debt @ August: $35,853
Total cash @ August: ~$8000

Medical students can't manage money

I've noticed that there are extremely few blogs out there addressing what it takes to get out of debt quickly on graduation.

Like I said in a previous post, physicians and surgeons are notorious for being poor money managers. There's this myth that entering the pearly gates of medicine brings you all the wealth in the world.

But take me as an example: I'll be 26 when I graduate, with about $100,000 in debt. Due to low pay in residency, I'll earn only $45,000-$65,000 gross until I'm at least 31! That's standard, whether I become a family doctor or a neurosurgeon. Neurosurgeons earn these paltry amounts for between 7-10 years.

Talk about sacrificing our youth.

I'm dreaming of travel, living abroad, and being debt-free while still in my 20s. And I'm wondering whether any of that is still possible.

Makeup essentials

Girls love makeup.

It makes our eyes look bigger, our face look brighter, and can make our demeanor more seductive and sexy.

Some surveys suggest that men take women more seriously in their jobs if they wear at least a little makeup.

Personally, I believe girls should wear a little makeup. If you live in a big city and go out at night time, you already know that makeup is an essential for looking good at nighttime.

But go into a Sephora and you'll find everything costs $20 or more! Plus drugstore cosmetics sometimes just don't cut it, like for mascara, foundation, and eyeliner.

A look into a girl's makeup cabinet can reveal purchases totalling easily $300 or more. Budget-conscious beauties are going to wonder: What do you really need?

*Note: this is for my individual case, everyone should do this exercise for themselves.

The bottom line is that you should have the BASICS with a little FLEXIBILITY, and one DAY look and one NIGHT look.



1. Eyeliner ($15-20). Pencil, gel or liquid, and black or your color of choice.








2. Versatile 4-shadow palette ($15-20) with:
a) Black for blending eyeliner
b) Brown for shading, doubles as brow powder
c) White for highlighting
d) Color for fun





3. Concealer ($20). Some people don't need it but I have some rosacea (a red nose) so I need this cover.

4. A good eye makeup remover ($35)- to prevent clogged eye glands and nasty infections

If I go anywhere, I bring along these things and I will be fine. Sometimes I like to play around with other colors or combinations, but realistically, you don't need much else.

NIGHT LOOK EXTRAS

95% of the above makeup should also cover you for night. For smokey eyes, I shadow and define more with the darker colors. For the other 5% I like to add:

1. False lashes ($10). They just add that extra oomph, especially on people with smaller lashes like me.









2. Lipstick (Cheap to free). Bold lips work well with less-defined eyes, and soft pink lips with big shadowy eyes. I don't use lip liner, lip prep, lip gloss over lipstick or any of those other frills - I find I do very well with a moisturizing lipstick on its own or tinted lip gloss on its own.







3. Mascara ($20). If you're wearing falsies, wearing mascara is almost a must.










Assuming you are starting from scratch, this makeup basic set costs you $110. Let's face it, most girls have most of this already. If you go with drugstore brands (Maybelline, Rimmel, Revlon, Cover Girl, ELF, NYX), it should be even cheaper, almost by half.

I hope this helps as a guide for some of you, and for others to encourage you to cut back on your beauty-junkie habits.

Secrets to maximizing your hotel dollar

Ok, not really a cheap hotel.

I'm writing this from Las Vegas, where we're staying at the Palazzo, the Best Hotel in Las Vegas as ranked by Travel and Leisure magazine. On Saturday we're going back to Miami.

Although I'm a student, I'm a big big traveller. My family never took me anywhere, but I've managed to go to 21 countries on my own, finding money from external sources that allowed me to have a great time while spending very little of my own resources.

I'm travelling with friends who work in the hotel industry on Miami Beach. They're the best of the best. Here's how to get the most of your time in the hotels:

1. Forgot your toothbrush? Ask for a free one at the front desk. They stock extra toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash, floss - everything you need.

2. In-suite refrigerator not included, and they're charging you $20 per night for a fridge? You can ask for a free one if you need it for health reasons. For example, if you're diabetic and you need to store your insulin in a cold place, this is a great place to store it.

3. Negotiate upgrades! Just a bit of discussion with the front desk got us a free upgrade to bigger beds, a view of the Vegas strip, and a higher floor - FOR FREE. If it's not high season, hotels should have no problem giving you an upgrade.

4. Stock up on water and night-time snacks. Hunger and thirst are what rack up the hotel bill. Save yourself some money and plan ahead.

Cautionary tale of debt from a Harvard lawyer

A lot of people I know in medical school are spending a lot of money right now.

J just bought a brand-new car, to drive to a 9-5 rotation at a clinic 15 minutes' commute from his house.
M wants to live downtown VANCOUVER, spending around $1500/month for a beachfront view.

Everyone does this thinking there's going to be a lot of money coming down the pipeline a couple years down the road.

But is there?

Here, a really interesting post by a Harvard-trained lawyer speaking about his view on debt a couple years down the line:

http://abovethelaw.com/2010/01/debt-the-silent-killer/

October

Debt: $30,000 (not counting January instalment of funds)
September expenses: $50 cell phone bill, $150 eating out, $100 during time in Saskatchewan for conference.
Current bank account: $6800

Crap - I still have to buy a plane ticket for my trip to Europe. Splitting it still brings the cost to about $800. Craps!

Update on the phone bill

My phone bill for the last 3 months:

July: $11.40
August: $26.54
September: $9.79


Ahh, peace.

Why high-savings department stores are not your friend

Right by the hospital where I work, there's a Winners. For those of you who don't know, Winners is a chain of off-price Canadian department stores - where moderately high-end products are sold at a discounted price, like Marshalls in the United States.

Bottom line, people shop at Winners because they feel like they can get a good discount, and they feel like they're saving money.

But is this really the case?

Case study: Beauty products

In many Winners stores, the first things you see are the beauty shelves. Mounds and mounds of makeup, nail polish, creams, lotions, powders, bath salts, and everything to tickle a girl's inner pamper. All of these products claim to be sold at a discount - for example, a Joico shampoo I saw claimed "$16.99 - compare to $22.00 regularly!"



Now I'm totally open to the idea of good-quality hair care products. I notice the difference in my hair texture when I use a $16 Redken shampoo versus a $2 Herbal Essences shampoo. But is Winners really the best place to go for bottomed-out prices??

While I was at the mall, I went to a hair salon on the way. They were selling the same shampoo for $14.99.

Key lesson here: don't think Winners has the best deals on products - in fact, most of the time you can buy products elsewhere for much cheaper. The only exception to this rule is the "Clearance" rack - where you can find products at a much more appropriate price range.

Save $3000 per year: eat at home

Everyone should eat at home! Honestly.

You smart chic fashionistas know I don't have to do the math for you on this one. But I will.

The Bachelorette Lifestyle
Here's a very rough and underestimated estimate of what I was spending when I lived out by myself.

Groceries $150
Eating out - Lunch $8 x 20 times/month = $160
Eating out - Dinner $10 x 15 times/month = $150
Total: $460


Home cookin'
Here's an overestimate of what I spend living at home.
Groceries $0
Eating out - Lunch $8 x 8 times/month = $64
Eating out - Dinner $10 x 3 times/month = $30
Total: $94


A savings of over $300 per month x 10 months of school = $3000.
I completely understand that this isn't feasible for everyone for a million different reasons. But there are also a million of you out there who can very rationally do this but don't.

While you're in school, why not consider staying at home? Use that extra money for a nice year-end boat cruise with champagne - or better yet, to pay off your student loans.

August

Current debt: $20,000
July expenses: $500 (travel - plane ticket mostly). My expenditures during my month in a rural area was covered by my medical school, as well as by my boyfriend coming over and cooking for me. Yesss.
Current bank account: Still hovering around $6000.

I won a $2000 scholarship! That should help matters. Although I just recently spent about $200 on a bag (as an investment into my chic doctor image)

Why I am anti-jumpsuit

Jumpsuits are pretty cute.


Definitely not me anytime soon. But super cute!
Image credit: Lookbook

But they're also the most impractical thing on earth.

1. Bathroom incompatibility. You have to strip down to go to the washroom. Strip. Down. I'm sorry, I have other things to do than get naked every time I drink too much Orangina. This is also the worst thing possible for travel in general, and squat toilets in particular. (Think Turkey and China).

2. Transient presence in modern wardrobe. If you're trend-conscious (which this blog does NOT advocate - if you're getting a jumpsuit only because it's trendy, then you probably also own Uggs, and Crocs, and a velour sweatsuit, in which case, we have a long journey ahead of us), this trend is on its way out. Then you'll be left with a rendition of something you'll probably never wear again, except for gym class.


I bought a gorgeous Club Monaco jumpsuit the other week, thinking I could convince myself to wear it on a regular basis. Let's just say I returned it after one day. Not a good choice. Nope.

If you can thrift one for under $10, though - give me a minute.

July

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

Current debt: $20,000
June expenses: $80 for new power cord for laptop, $500 to register for medical licensing exam, $150 for subscription to online question database (those moneysuckers!). I'm in China for this month, so I intend to spend a very very small amount.
Current bank account: In terms of China, I still have about $500 of my budget from China. My boyfriend has the apartment paid for, and he pays for food. Sweet. I'm in the clear until the end of the month.

Looking good.

Thrifting, consignment, vintage - what every smart student knows

First of all, I don't want you to go shopping.

Ok, fine. You really, really, really desperately need to get something new for your closet. But you don't think you have the money to get stylish clothing?

Let me help you out.

Exhibit A:


LOOKBOOK.nu: "the scholar. " by Erika A

Pardon my medical jargon, but I think we can all agree that this chick looks hot. Now, let me break down for you how much she spends on this outfit.

As she says on Lookbook:

White blouse: from Mum - $0
Shorts from Value Village - $4
Black leggings - (doesn't say, but these are negligible for summer purposes)

So let me drive home the point.

FOUR DOLLARS. FOR A HOT OUTFIT.

Really, you don't really have to spend more than this on ANYTHING. And look hot! Four dollars for a hot outfit? Now that's something I can get used to!

And that is the first secret of student shopping. If you haven't discovered it already. Thrifting makes cents. (haha.)

I won't belabour the point. Tavi here gives a great newbie guide to second-hand shopping. If you want to get unique pieces that you can use over and over again, and that you won't feel heartbroken if it gets unwashable food stains/ripped/drawn on by your 2 year old nephew, go thrifting. It's good in every way.

Why $350 boots can be a smart choice

I am constantly frustrated by people who only shop at low-budget places like H&M, Suzy Shier, Aeropostale, and the like. Sure, I love the stores too. But my H&M tops have all unravelled, or shrunk, or become so low-quality that I didn't want to wear them anymore.

On the other hand, You see your dream boots in the window of the Holt Renfrew/Nordstrom. They shine like the wings of an angel. They beckon. They call. And to top it all off, they're on 70% off sale for $200! But your stomach tells you that it's not right to spend $200 on boots when your rent is $500 a month. What's a Student Sophisticate to do?


New clothing = money

Price Per Wear Theory

The big buzz around smart fashionistas is Price Per Wear. Price per wear states that the value you get out of an item depends on how often you use it. Do a quick calculation on your iPhone by the shop window:

Price per wear (PPW) = Price / # of times you will wear it

So let's say you buy that awesome, hot ball gown for the grad formal. $200 down the drain. That's expensive, and you'll be wearing it once or twice. So your price per wear will be about $200/2 = $100 per wear! Not the cheapest option.

On the other hand, if you buy that fun, crazy fuschia belt from a thrift store for $5, but you only wear it once, that's only a $5/1 = $5 per wear item! Way better for your conscience, and your wallet.

I wear my mink-brown BCBG boots pretty much every day in the winter, and often in the fall and spring. That's about 100 days per year, conservative estimate. I've also had my boots for 2 years, and I estimate they'll be going strong for a third year, which is 300 days. That's $200/300 days=$0.67 per wear.

The same logic applies to my Aritzia Tahlua Babuton wool pea coat - roughly the same price, and it's definitely going strong for the next two years. I estimate the PPW at $200/(100 days x 4 years) = $0.50 per wear.

I try to aim for PPWs of less than $0.50. If you hit the magic number, pat yourself on the back and pour yourself a glass of red to celebrate your stylish awesomeness. Keep up the good work.

The bottom line
Student Sophisticates do not balk at high prices - we know that quality items will last much longer than those $15 cheap shoes from Chinatown, anyways. We also know that we'll look sexier as we strut down the road, leaving people in our tracks gaping at how awesome we look in our super boots!

Use your iPhone for good, not evil

As I mentioned before, I have a love-hate relationship with my iPhone, because iPhones are ridiculous moneysucking monsters when you let them be. They lure you in with promises of social and productivity bliss, make themselves seem indispensable, lock you in for the long term and then drain you of wallet-health.

But deal with them the smart way, and they can be your best friend on the way to student financial freedom.

Meet your new financial planner

How to train an iPhone: four tips to using your iPhone to help you reduce spending in style

1. Use the Notes app to make shopping lists and menus. This is paper-friendly, efficient, and you never have to worry about going to the grocery store without it. Remember to never spend money on apps if you can help it!

2. Make daily scheduled To-Do lists. Either in Notes or in your favorite free To-Do app.

3. Track your expenses with iExpenseIt. You can download this for FREE, and it lets you track your finances over 100 transactions, which is about 2-3 months. This is lovely for student finances. I almost jumped for joy when I found it, and so far it`s helped me cut down on expenses by about $200. It makes personal finance make sense.

4. Never buy apps. Unless absolutely, absolutely necessary. Chances are the advertisements you see in the App store make the App seem too good to not buy. It`s all marketing, baby. Save that money up for a nice new bottle of polish.

Moneysuckers - the phone bill

Last September, I joined the iPhone world. I had moved home for a couple months and decided that the save on rent was worth justifying the data plan. I signed up for another 3-year contract with Fido, with a 2-year data plan option, and committed myself, for better or for worse, to paying a lot of money every month.

Yeah, exactly.
Image credit: Toothpaste for Dinner

A snapshot into the phone bill

Let's take a look at how much I've been paying.

Apr 6, 2010	81.26
Mar 6, 2010	106.42
Feb 6, 2010	85.08
Jan 6, 2010	87.27
Dec 6, 2009	80.02
Nov 6, 2009	93.15

Ouch.

If on average I'm paying $85 a month, that's like $1000 per year! I could take a sophisticaed Parisian holiday on that money. Smart students know better. By making a couple tweaks, I paid $55.94 in May - $30 less than I would have otherwise. By making another couple of changes, my June phone bill is slated to run around $20. Now that's something a Student Sophisticate can swallow.

The data delusion

Most people who get the iPhone inevitably sign up for a data plan. They make you do it, in a sign-up-or-pay-$800-for-your-phone kind of way. Most people pay the $30 for 1GB plan - if you were "lucky", you might have even gotten $30 for 6GB.

But unless you're downloading movies onto your iPhone every day, chances are you'll never hit 6GB. You won't even hit 500MB. A quick look at MyAccount showed that I hovered around the 250MB range for most of the 7 months I used the phone.

So it won't surprise you that the first thing I suggest is....

1. Quit. The. Data. Plan.

Wifi is everywhere now. Cancel your data contract and enjoy the same amount of productivity as you did pre-iPhone.

Cost: $200 penalty for premature end to contract.

Payoff: A savings of $30 a month. Yowza.

If you're not willing to go that far...: If you say you're going to cancel and put on your best angry voice, you'll be transferred to a customer relations agent who will offer you $15 for 500MB instead, a "secret plan". That's still pretty good. When I did this, they added 500MB but forgot to remove the 6GB, so I had 6.5GB for $15. They're so organized. :)

2. Take off the System Access Fee

One of the greatest secrets cell phone companies don't tell you is that the system access fee is no longer a "mandatory" component of your payment. That's right, it's no longer an integrated part of any phone package. What that means is that if you're still paying the SAF, you're paying them an extra $6.95 a month for no reason.

Get them to take it off. They won't do it right away, but again, acting angry gets you all sorts of benefits with the Phone Companies.

Cost: about half an hour of phone time, negotiating and acting your best bitchy self

Payoff: An extra $7 a month, baby. Almost $100 per year (not including taxes saved).

If you're not willing to go that far...: Seriously, just do it. There's absolutely no change to your phone plan, and they're ripping you off. With this in mind, why wouldn't someone want to act like their best bitchy self?

3. Slash and burn

Warning: This one is not for the weak of heart. I'm telling you to get rid of your voicemail and caller ID. Will your social life die a painful and tragic death? Will your job prospects diminish and suffer? I don't know. But mine haven't, and I'm saving about $150 a year.

Cost: Nothing! One simple phone call.

Payoff: An extra $11 a month, or about $125 a year (not including taxes saved).
If you're not willing to go that far...: Try taking off just one, or the other. A couple dollars makes a difference.

June

So here we go for another month.

Current debt: $20,000
Summary of expenditures in last month: $600 total: $300 credit card bill, $300 food, shopping, visa for travel, student fees for summer session, $200 for cancelling phone bill. Mom covered rent for the month in exchange for me finding her a tenant for another place = awesome.
Current bank account: $4,300 (Still waiting on that $1,000 reimbursement from school. WTF.)

Apparently surgical trainees suck at managing money. Trainee doctors, it seems, spend more, save less, and know less than other people of the same age and income. Not really a big shocker there. But the credit card debt! The study abstract reads:

"Only 60% of residents budgeted expenses, and 25% and 10% maintained cash balances <$611 and unpaid credit card balances >$10,000, respectively."

Seriously, you've got to be kidding me. Smart people know that credit card debt is the worst kind of debt you can possibly be in. Seriously???

Don't be that person.

Cuffed high-waisted shorts for $0

Summer is coming, and shorts are out again in a different 80s incarnation. I really love the high-waisted shorts look. It's so classy, and such a flashback to old times.


Image credit: sartorialist.com


Image credit: painfullyhip.com

The great thing about high-waisted shorts is that you can show a whole lot of leg, without having the feeling that your clothing is barely-there. Mile-long legs without skank? Style without trash? Perfect.

But, as usual, I don't have any money to buy new ones. A quick look at Aritizia shows that their new wilfred high-waisted denim shorts are in the $110 range. Yikes. So, being the frugal and crafty person I am, I decided to make my own!



And they look super hot.

It was about 100x easier than I thought. Think of the easiest piece of clothing you've ever made - this was about 100x easier than that. I just cut off the legs of my mom's old 80's Esprit pants. Then I rolled up the cuffs and stitched the simplest stitch to keep them in place.

How to make your own

















Materials
1. Pair of old high-waisted pants. Jeans or pant material all work. You can grab these from your mom's unwanted storage, or thrift them at the Salvation Army for about $2-$5. Seriously.
2. Scissors
3. Pencil, pen or piece of coloured chalk
4. (Optional) needle and thread

Instructions
1. Wear pants. With your pencil, pen, or chalk, make a mark where you want to cut the legs off. I made this mark about 2 inches longer than I wanted the final short length so I could fold the cuff over twice.
2. Take off pants. (Put something else on... or not.) Fold pants so the two legs are on top of each other and you can clearly see the mark you just made.
3. Cut off the legs.
4. Put on your new shorts. Fold the cuffs to your desired length - you should fold it at least twice.
5. From the inside, sew a running stitch (that's the basic stitch, people) to secure your new cuff. If you don't want to sew, that's fine, because jean material will naturally fray into a rough-and-tumble look.
6. Look hot.

For further reading:

Why $350 boots can be a smart choice
Why department stores are not your friend

The fashion manifesto

Let's get something straight:

1. I love to shop as much as the next girl. I love spending hours in BCBG, ogling over the latest heels and dresses. I rejoice when I see Banana Republic has put their latest jewelry on sale.

2. There are plenty of websites helping you to part with your cash by "saving" money on 60% off designer merch. Gilt Groupe is probably the best-known, though by far not the only one.

I am not here to help you buy more goods. I am very much anti-spending. If all the clothing I owned were to be perenially chic, original, and weather-appropriate, by heaven I would wear the same pieces from now until kingdom come. And I hope to show that this is the case.

The Student Sophisticate Fashion Manifesto

1. Style is not achieved by buying more clothing. Style is about what you do with the clothing you already own.

2. When wanting to inject something new into their look, budget fashionistas will be resourceful and look into their own closets, their parents' closets, their grandmother's attic, the thrift store, the vintage store, and then the sale racks, in that order.

3. Student Sophisticates do not bring out the wallet without a premeditated reason.

4. Student Sophisticates do not splurge on clothing that will fall out of their price per wear range.

Stores would like us to think that by spending our money there, we're helped to look more fashionable - but chances are, it's not the case.

My Budget Plan

May 2010
Current debt: $20,000
Current bank account: $4,700
(awaiting $750 from council - $430 for SL=$320, $250 from student organization)


Let's get something straight - students are in a lot of debt.


This much money? Yeah, right!

It's said that the average Canadian medical student graduates with $100,000 of debt. In the States, this number is around $150,000. My financial planner likes to quote these numbers to "help me" get a line of credit and plunge further into the borrowing pool.

I don't buy it.

This is my journey to buck the high-spending, debt-spiralling student lifestyle. I am going to live well, eat well, and dress well while taking on my medical education, being incredibly busy, and trying to maintain my sanity.

I plan on graduating medical school with a minimum from my line of credit, and minimizing my spending to as close to zero as humanly possible. My goal is to pay off my debt by the end of residency, and have at least started an annual savings account contribution by my last year of medical school.

I'll give you some background. I come from a single-parent family, I don't have an inheritance, I don't have high-value stock options or a high-paying under-the-table student job. I also dress well, buy clothing from BCBG, French Connection and Club Monaco, carry a Chanel purse, and eat organic. I refuse to sacrifice my lifestyle, but I try to make smart choices.

Let's see how this plays out.