Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents

Two Examples of How To Slash Your Interest Rates: Consider these private companies stepping into the void left by the federal government: SoFi (SocialFinance), backedbyprivateequity investors, became one of the early entrants into this space. In a discussion on DoctorFreedomPodcast.com, founder Dan Macklin said, “I was at Stanford Business School - it’s one of the best business schools in the country. These are very smart people, very employable people, but we saw that our classmates were paying really, really high rates for their loans. First, a lot of people were borrowing and secondly, they were paying ridiculously high rates for their loans: six, seven, eight percent. We thought it was strange that once you graduated you couldn’t then refinance that debt.” Today, SoFi specializes in refinancing loans AFTER a physician has transitioned to practice. However, one drawback is they currently do not have a program for which a physician in residency is eligible. Another company that specializes in refinancing medical school loans is Laurel Road (formerly DRB). They started a little bit later than SoFi in the debt refinancing game, but are aggressively moving into the territory. Laurel Road has very similar interest rates and offers to those of SoFi: however, they did note in a recent interview on DoctorFreedomPodcast.com that they do not base their rates on a bell-shaped curve, and instead tend to offer lower competitive rates to many physicians. In addition, Laurel Road recently launched a program that allows residents to refinance their loans WHILE they are in residency or fellowship. This option is currently unique to the marketplace. Laurel Road has tried to imitate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF) and income- based repayment program (IBR) as closely as possible by limiting themaximummonthlypayment to $100/mo. while physicians are in residency. At the end of the day, it's all about who gives you the best rate. SECTION III: T MINUS ONE YEAR CAREER AND LIFE PLANNING GUIDEBOOK FOR MEDICAL RESIDENTS 378