Crash Course: Applying for Grant Money

A crash course in US Federal Government grants, grants of the European Union, Carnegie Corporation grants, and Federal Pell Grant for students in the US presented on wikiHow.

How to Apply for a Grant [WikiHow]

How to Repay Medical School Debt

The median debt load for the 87 percent of medical school graduates who have some debt was $155,000 in 2008, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, up 11 percent from just one year earlier.

Sharply rising tuition explains much of the increase — the American Medical Student Association says public medical school debt has grown by more than 300 percent in the last 20 years

• If you’re consolidating federal loans, the sooner you lock in the better because rates today are low… For details, go to loanconsolidation.ed.gov. Remember to only consolidate variable-rate loans so you can keep your lowest fixed-rate loans from being wrapped into a consolidated higher rate
• Loan forgiveness programs offered by the federal government or individual states in exchange for public service can wipe out a lot of debt worries, but only if the terms (such as living in a rural area) are right for you… It makes little sense to spend a fortune on a medical education just to end up in a practice situation you dislike for years, he says.  FinAid offers details on forgiveness programs.
• If you can’t afford the payments under an income-based repayment plan, you’ll likely need to consider medical residency forbearance, which postpones payment of principal and interest during residency years. But be careful: Unlike traditional deferment, loans in forbearance keep accruing interest while you delay payment

Repaying Medical School Debt [Physicians Practice]

Correlate: How to Defer Federal Student Loans

Correlate: How to Live with Debt

2008 Physician Compensation Survey – Assessing Average Physician Income

Sample size unknown.  Salary ranges reported in $K

Specialty	Low	Hi
Cardiology(Invasive)	389	561
Radiology	386	600
Orthopedics	372	512
Radiation Oncology	357	453
Urology	352	426
Cardiology(Non-Inv)	332	439
Anesthesiology	331	446
Gastroenterology	330	490
Plastic Surgery	300	792
Oncology / Hematology	296	410
Dermatology	287	385
General Surgery	271	356
Pathology	239	331
Ob-Gyn	231	304
Emergency Medicine	216	300
Neurology	203	298
Internal Medicine	175	209
Hospitalist	174	217
Psychiatry	171	248
Family Medicine	150	204
Pediatrics	140	202

Specialty	Low	Hi
Cardiology(Invasive)	389	561
Radiology	386	600
Orthopedics	372	512
Radiation Oncology	357	453
Urology	352	426
Cardiology(Non-Inv)	332	439
Anesthesiology	331	446
Gastroenterology	330	490
Plastic Surgery	300	792
Oncology / Hematology	296	410
Dermatology	287	385
General Surgery	271	356
Pathology	239	331
Ob-Gyn	231	304
Emergency Medicine	216	300
Neurology	203	298
Internal Medicine	175	209
Hospitalist	174	217
Psychiatry	171	248
Family Medicine	150	204
Pediatrics

Physician Compensation Survey [Modern Physiccian]

Cut Grocery Waste with Biweekly Shopping

By Jeff Yeager,

According to government sources, roughly 25% of the food Americans buy goes to waste.

Shop for groceries no more than once every two weeks – Cook two or three meals’ worth of each recipe at the beginning of the two-week period, and immediately freeze the extra portions for the second week. Freeze any meat that you won’t be eating within the next 48 hours.

Learn to cut your food bill 25% [Yahoo Green]

Correlate: Save on Groceries with SuperCook

Correlate: Clever Money-Saving Tips

Guide to Student Taxes

This extensive guide will help you to

1. Determine your need to file a federal income tax return
2. Learn about the various tax benefits available to students
3. Find low/no-cost tax preparation assistance.

College Student’s Guide to Taxes [GoCollege]

Correlate: Prepare your Taxes with IRS Free File

The Cost of Residency Application

From MedObsession…

Application Fees

• $290 – ERAS fee for 30 programs in 1 specialty ($60 for 10 programs, $8 each for 11-20, $15 each for 21-30)
• $60 – USMLE transcript fee
• $40 – NRMP registration fee

Transportation

• $2069 – 10 plane flights (it pays to cluster interviews regionally if you can)
• $141 – rental car for 2 days (in a city where I had 2 interviews and 2 socials to attend)
• $78 – cab/airport shuttle fares (share cabs where you can, or book round trip shuttles to save)
• $34 – parking fees for the 2 programs that didn’t reimburse (UCSF and UCLA)

Hotels

• $266 – 3 hotel nights (roommates and Inns cut costs)

Grand Total

$2978

The Cost of Applying to Residency [MedObsession]

Reduce Your Rent with a Letter

To Whom It May Concern:

We’re writing in regards to the renewal of our lease at [insert your address here].

On [date you moved in], we [names of tenants] moved into a unit in the aforementioned property. Since then, property values in Manhattan [replace with your city or neighborhood] have declined by 5.6% for two-bedrooms units, much more steeply than the nationwide drop of 0.4%. Further, apartment vacancies overall rose to 6.6% in the quarter from 5.7% a year earlier. [I used footnotes here to cite the WSJ story. I suggest also putting in data about your local market from local papers, etc..] Economists and real estate experts predict the decline to continue through 2009-2010.

In our building, that has meant facing an empty unit for several months. Units similar to ours have been rented in recent months to tenants with credit scores and incomes lower than ours at even cheaper rates than what we’ve paid. A rent hike seems inconsistent with recent market conditions and unfair to paying tenants like us with flawless records.

We’ve confirmed that a unit nearly identical to ours is renting at $2,350 a month for a one-year lease. We ask that our lease, at the least, should match that. This would satisfy your interest in keeping our unit occupied and our interest in staying in our apartment at a reasonable rate. Ideally, a discount would be lowering our rent to $2,100 a month for a one-year lease. [At first, I thought this was too bold, but I'm glad I started low.]

As one property manager recently told The Wall Street Journal: “If they’re good payers, we will give them a discount.” Here we are, good payers, asking for a reasonable discount. The $50 off our current rate [original manager] and Ms. Pilon spoke about is inconsistent with other rates in our building and current market activity and projections.

We look forward to continuing the conversation and hearing from you shortly.
Sincerely,

[Names and contact information of tenants here]

How to Reduce Your Rent [WSJ]

Most Common Bank Fees

Here’s a list of the three most common bank fees and how you can easily avoid them.

Overdraft fees: …charged when you make a financial commitment (a check or debit card charge) you can’t fulfill …the fees get larger each time …they’re the result of carelessness, you need to keep close tabs on how much is in your account. At the back of your checkbook there should be a “check register,” …By keeping an up to date check register, including debit transactions, you can practically prevent these fees from happening.

ATM fees: Whenever you use an ATM that isn’t affiliate with your bank, you will get charged ATM fees. First, the ATM owner will charge you a fee. Then, your bank may charge you a fee. S

Minimum balance fees: If you fail… to have a daily balance above this minimum, they’ll hit you with an “administrative” or minimum balance fee …avoid all accounts with this requirement. There are plenty of banks that offer free checking without a minimum balance requirement

Battle Bank Fees [Consumerist]

Prepare your Taxes with IRS Free File

IRS Free File

Free File is the fast, easy, and free way to prepare and e-file your federal taxes online.

The Free File program is only available to taxpayers who have a 2008 Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $56,000 or less. Each participating software company sets its own eligibility requirements and not all taxpayers will qualify for all companies. Individual company offers may be limited to AGI, geographic location, specific states and include other criteria. Carefully review the Free File offer criteria before selecting the company. Using the “Help Me Select a Company” wizard to assist you in selecting a program that’s right for you.

Eating Out on the Cheap

Ueatcheap.com

Find places to eat for $10 or less