You should probably try to save up 100k and then move to Cuba permanently. With the 4% withdrawal rate, you'll have around $300 a month to play with, which is far more than the Cuban pension of $20 per month. You'll live like a king, and can bide your time.
Either that, or start up a side hustle, that way if you go insane, you can take time off as needed.
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Interesting idea. If I had 100k I'd probably just pay it off and take a short vacation. I'll keep that in mind if I have a big windfall and feel like not working. Stranger things have happened.
I've been reading through the forum looking for ideas on side hustles.
Sorry to hear what you are going through. I have a SIL that went through something similar and it took her a while to get back on her feet. It took a lot of help from family members and her VA benefits finally kicking in to get her through it. It took 2 years for them to process her benefits for PTSD and bi-polar disorder. Without her VA benefits she would be homeless right now.
I would seriously recommend looking into disability benefits until you get better. I would also look into discharging the student loans, I know that everyone thinks that student loans can't be discharged even in the event of a bankruptcy but they can be discharged if you are disabled*. Even if you can't get them discharged you might be able to lower the payments and have them forgiven after a certain amount of time if your income is below a certain threshold.
Do you have any family or friends that can help you through this period in your life until you get the medical treatment you need? I would focus on getting better first and don't be ashamed to ask for help. From there you can start worrying about the finances.
*https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-forgiveness/student-loan-disability-discharge/
I'm through the worst of it for now and would rather omit some details, but yeah family is helping me out. I am honestly lucky that I was not arrested.
I got into a clinic about six or seven months ago, meds worked first try and I've been stable on them since. A bit flatter and more Spock-like than old friends remember but the two or three work friends find my stories about manic episodes hard to believe, so that's probably a good sign. Management knows nothing. I've been 100% sober so good things did come of it.
re: VA benefits - If it's relevant I have no family who were ever in the military and was never in the military. I don't think I have PTSD. If applying for disability requires a psychiatrist's note I seriously doubt she'd testify anything beyond I have bipolar type I, i.e; it's only disabling in the two to five months after episodes.
Get Out of Debt Guy said (paraphrase) that if you have a cosigner, your problems are not relevant, the cosigner is there to make sure somebody is going to pay the debt off. I'd rather not have my elderly parents have to keep working to pay off debt that's not theirs. Really .. worst case scenario and I actually succeed in getting rid of all my debt public and (somehow) private, I would be stuck with a 60k tax bill plus my year's income, so roughly 100k @ 25% tax rate .. still 25k in debt but to the IRS and not the loan companies. I would probably owe a lawyer at least 5k if not more. Honestly I am not sure which is worse at that point.
The first thing you need is to get well, either by going on disability or finding the right combination of health contributors (therapy, meds, whatever).
Second, evaluate where to go from here. Actuarial science might be up your alley but you might need more schooling.
Yeah the way it looks is keep doing what I'm doing (making minimum payments) and just try to find something that pays more.
Hi,
With the degree you have there would be a multitude of jobs willing to take you. From banking to teaching, you should be able to get jobs easily.
I'd look into banking if that is something that interests you. However, that is also an incredibly broad field and it might do you well to do your research. However, some banks really regard physics/engineering/math majors well.
It is broad, yeah. I'll take a look again I suppose.
I was looking into government jobs and spent four wasted months applying only for them to suddenly reject my application(s) part-way through the process, claiming information in 'pre-employment screening'. They stress you should be 100% honest and so I checked under the 'disabled' and would not be surprised if it was held against me. If anybody on this forum is bipolar and employed, at least sporadically, I guess hit me up via PM and share wisdom if you'd rather not over the forum.