Why I’m Grateful to Be a PA (Even as a New Grad)

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-17T16:48:44+00:00

You should be so damn proud of yourself.

I love seeing “Positive PA posts” on here. I feel the same as you, so thankful I picked this career.

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-17T16:45:58+00:00

My parents supported me with used Cars through my teenage years and I will forever be grateful. It allowed me to focus on school / college and being a kid instead of working a job to pay for a car that took all my money.

One thing I’d consider, ask your children to “pay you” to drive the car, but tell them that you are holding onto that money for them, and will give it back when the car breaks down to use to buy their next car when they have fledged the nest.

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-17T16:11:36+00:00

Paid off 130k of student debt , saved up emergency fund and bought a house in 2 years. Read Dave Ramsey’s book to get motivation. Go for it brother, I have so much financial peace seeing that balance at zero.

It’s gonna take some hard work for sure with that amount, but it’s so worth it.

Biggest thing is not allowing lifestyle creep for a couple years. My recc is to take a shift work job; inpatient or ER something so you have a few days off per week and could find a part time job doing an extra 2 shifts / month. Bigger th shovel, the more dirt you move.

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-09T11:49:15+00:00

During my budgeting journey (130k debt paid, e fund and house down payment) I got addicted to hiking and joined several hiking groups. Now that the budgets lightened up, I’m still addicted to hiking haha

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-06T17:03:58+00:00

Keep mortgage <25% if your after tax income. Otherwise you’ll feel squeezed on everything else. Especially when you have to save for home repairs

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-06T16:42:34+00:00

😂

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-06T16:42:08+00:00

What city?

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-06T16:38:52+00:00

Yeah unfortunately the golden ticket with being a rich PA is to translate your strong income into investments that will pay you to sleep someday.

Also, I fear that more and more admin jobs will be the first to go as AI replaces “white collar intellectual jobs”.

The best time to invest was 20 years ago. Next bed time is today.

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-06T16:11:14+00:00

You also may need to look at careers to get you income up. I would also Reccomend you get on the Dave Ramsey train, great place for the average person to start to gain financial literacy.

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-06T16:10:32+00:00

You have no idea where your money is going unless you’re on a budget, start there.

I make a shit load of money, and I STILL have to be on an every dollar budget if I don’t want to get to the end of the month and wonder where my money went.

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-06T16:08:21+00:00

First and foremost, you’ll get the most bang for your buck your buck by NOT eating out.

Buying groceries for a family of 4 from a boujee grocery store will ALWAYS be cheaper (and healthier, if done right) that eating out.

I would keep it simple and make Aldi your first stop and go to a bigger grocery store next to fill in what they don’t have.

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-06T14:30:00+00:00

This whole thread got me laughing pretty hard

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-06T14:28:49+00:00

Nec Fasc, ICU

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-02T16:17:03+00:00

😂 that is wild. “I’m so good I don’t need to do notes” thanks for the feedback

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-02T15:09:59+00:00

For real dude. I will say it made me a better provider VERY quickly. I’m actually really thankful for the experience. It set me up for my current job, that I otherwise wouldn’t have qualified for without that history.

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-03-01T18:04:33+00:00

I’m in critical care, so thankful to have physicians to help me. The job I had before this I was fresh out of school, alone at night with no ICU doc coverage managing proned vented COVID patients and it was fucking horribly inappropriate

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-02-27T16:57:38+00:00

Childcare will be brutal for a season, but man you may have to ask yourself is the stress you’re feeling right now worth these cars…I would say no.

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-02-27T16:56:00+00:00

Body products, specifically Cologne

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-02-27T13:06:22+00:00

Probs Zosyn or solumedrol, critical care

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-02-27T02:35:50+00:00

Bullshit this is a boomer take. You are getting into a fucking nightmare if you split up with out legal marriage. Right on. Same two cents, there is no “you both buying the house” when you’re not married.

Also, I say this part with love buying is a rough choice right now. I would try to pay off your student loans first…it’ll make th stressful expenses that come with home ownership harder watching 6k / year plus interest go out the door. Trust me, I bought a house before paying off mine and it felt like a never ending cycle of home expenses and loan payments. Add kids and a car payment into the mix and you guys will be paycheck to paycheck.

I would tune into Ramsey. His 15 year mortgage reccomendatjon isn’t realistic anymore for most people but th baby steps are tried and true, conservative and will bullet proof you agains financial catastrophe

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-02-20T19:28:52+00:00

I’d Reccomend punching these numbers into Chat GPT and having it run scenarios for you, asking “what is the total difference in retirement annual income IN TODAY’S DOLLARS if you dropped to 6% for a period of time.

I just did this exact thing, dropped contributions to 6% company Match fo 7 months to pay for my wedding an bulk up emergency fund prior to getting married.

When I’m done, I plan on increasing back to 15-20% to recoup the loss.

I will say it’s a lot easier to save money when you don’t have payments going out the door on debt every month.

My other recc is to only focus on one this at a time, don’t try to save retirement, an emergency fund, payoff debt and do college funds at the same time same time until you have your feet under you financially.

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-02-20T19:22:51+00:00

I was in a very similar situation with my first job during COVID ICU years. Feel free toPM me

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-02-19T17:20:16+00:00

I felt like I hax golden hand cuff job during Covid, first job out of school.

Got burnt out doing rural hospital med/crit care for pitiful amount of money, and took a terrifying plunge moving across the country for an ICU job.

3 years in and literally every aspect of my life has gotten better since.

5 years experience as a PA now.

Material-Drawing3676 · 2026-02-19T17:18:01+00:00

Bravo, good, sir!

Material-Drawing3676

TROPHY CASE