Hey all,
I am a HUGE fan of spreadsheet AND I’m pretty much cheap (till I get these student loans paid off). This is the exactly the spreadsheet that I have made and plan on using for my loan repayment plan. As you can see, I have made 2 payments, totaling $18,100 since I started my job as a CRNA in July (I paid off all my credit cards debts too). The last post I made, I stated that I was planning on paying off all my student loans in 36 months. However, there is a possibility that I may pay them off in about 24-25 months.
Looking at the spreadsheet, blue payments ($1666.67), and they are the payments scheduled to be made by my employer as part of their loan repayment program starting October 2021 (3 months). They will pay a total of $60,000 over 36 months. I will pay my share of the payments in about 25 months and the only payments remaining will be my employer’s payments. I am hopeful that I can stick to my payment plan and continue to cut my expenses. My next payment is scheduled for 9/2/2021 for $3800s. I will keep you all posted.
Even Better news –> my credit scores went up after I paid off two of my student loans and all my credit cards debts (my credit utilization went from 56% to 3% . I use to be in the 690s (fair), after I paid off two of my loans, my credit scores jumped to : (see pic below)
I did not want to spend money. So I obtained the above copy of my credit scores from credit sesame. They offer a 7-day free trial when you sign up for sesame premium. I plan on canceling it on the 5th or 6th day. I really don’t want to pay any money on credit companies. I only went on credit sesame premium because I doubted my free creditKarma scores (initially). I just couldn’t believe that my scores went up. But, as you can seen, my scores below from credit KARMA and those up there from credit sesame premium were exactly the same. So, stick to the free credit karma (or free version of credit sesame).
MY next post I will talk about my plan about reducing the number of credit cards I currently have (14 credit cards). Major ones includes Apple Card, Chase, Discover, and Capital one.
Stay tuned.
Are you on your journey to financial freedom too?
Please share your experience and comment.
Student Registered Nurse Anesthetist 
Linsay,
I must say that all of your posts are so inspiring! I am an RN and have been for about 4 years now. Nursing is my second degree after getting a bachelors in Biology. After my first year in nursing school I was interested in becoming a CRNA. I have worked on a Trauma MedSurg/step down for two years and at a critical access hospital for a little under a year. For the last 6 months I have worked on a Neuro Trauma ICU at a level 2 trauma center. I am now retaking a few classes to improve my GPA. I was drawn to your blog by one of your first posts about being unhappy as an RN. Overall, I enjoy helping people but feel that I also do not like many aspects of my job. I enjoy critical thinking, titrating drips, and etc, but I hate being short staffed and always feeling like I never have the time to complete everything that needs to be done at the end of my shift. I struggle with constant interruptions and find it hard to get back on task once I’m interrupted. When I did rotations in the OR, I noticed that the sole thing the CRNA focused on was the one patient. I also like that the OR was a quiet controlled environment. I realize a patient could code and it’s up to the CRNA to control the environment but I feel that those are skills that are learned in school. As of now I am weak at code situations on my unit and I feel that in 6 months I have learned a lot but still don’t feel confident in my practice and I feel it shows with my coworkers. I still ask a ton of questions even when I feel I know the answer just to be sure. When you were in the ICU do you feel like you waited until you were fully confident to apply for CRNA school or did you just take in all that you could while you were there? I will be 30 this year and I realize that I don’t know how long it will be until I feel confident. When did you know you were ready to apply?
LikeLike
Thanks for reaching out Tiffany. My situation was a little different. I did complete 3/4 of my NP program before I even started working in the ICU. Therefore, I was confident about taking care of ICU patients. I did not wait to apply for CRNA school. I applied to CRNA school as soon as I was eligible (13 months of experience only). ICU nursing job and CRNA job are two different jobs. As a CRNA, depending on where you decide to practice, you may go years and years without having to care for very critically ill patients. I work at a level III trauma hospital and most of my patients I extubate at the end of the surgical case. We don’t use levophed, vasopressin, and all those other ICU drips every day, not even every month. I am just about to complete one year as a CRNA and I am yet to hang a levophed gtt on a patient. Now if you go work at a level 1 trauma center you may have to take care of sick patients every day. At the end of the day , whether you decide to work in a very stressful environment (Level1 trauma) vs a relaxed environment (level III trauma) is up to you. Just know that the big trauma centers won’t compensate you more. You take care of ONE patient at a time and when emergencies or issues arise, you have to call your anesthesiologist to the room to help. You’re never alone and you’re never expected to run a code alone. EVERYTHING you will do as a CRNA , you will learn to do in anesthesia school. If you’re willing to study hard and you do not have any distractions in your life , you’re more than ready for CRNA school. When you apply, make sure you are ready to study in ways you’ve never done it before.
LikeLike