What You Can Learn From A Surgeon’s Debt Payoff Journey

Dr. Ryan Bly never imagined making student loan payments for twice the amount of his mortgage. Still, making those extra payments toward his medical school debt somehow made all the sense in the world.

“I didn’t want this looming behemoth of a loan to be the only thing that was driving my life,” says Bly, a Wisconsin-based general and trauma surgeon.

That mindset — plus leveraging student loan refinancing three times — helped Bly and his family dispatch about $450,000 in federal loans. This amounted to paying the six-figure debt off three years ahead of schedule, in July 2023.

And yes, Bly’s fortunate station in life, considering his high-income career, helped too. But given the size of his education debt, every little bit helped.

“It’s kind of terrifying when you send $5,000 to a [lender], and your principal goes down $247 or something like that,” Bly says. “It just goes to show you what interest can do.”

Bly’s exact repayment strategy won’t work for everyone — and we’ll get to more relatable methods if you don’t have the highest income or best credit — but his family’s story might inspire yours nonetheless.

Racking up student loans as an ‘investment’

Bly describes his upbringing as “solid middle-class.” His parents, who were the first in the family tree to graduate from college, helped pay for his undergraduate degree. That isn’t to say Bly didn’t contribute — he worked three jobs to pay for part of his undergraduate degree. But they made a deal: paying for medical school was his responsibility.

So, Bly borrowed repeatedly until he had racked up well into the six figures in student loans. All of his loans were federal except for, he says, a $7,000 Chase Bank private loan for his undergrad degree.

“I know some people that I went to school with, it was almost a fear, paralyzing-type of thing that they would continually check their balance and have a small heart attack or anxiety attack,” Bly remembers.

But he didn’t feel the stress of piling debt, thanks to his “financially-savvy” mom.

“She really made money stretch, and she showed me that there can be such a thing as good debt as opposed to just bad debt,” Bly says. “And so, she helped me to frame this in terms of an investment: ‘This is an investment in your future, allowing you opportunities that we never were able to get. However, it is going to come at a cost, and that cost is the loans and associated interest.’”

Salary, repayment aid affecting career choice

Bly recalls consistently talking about education debt with his fellow medical school classmates and, later, his colleagues.

“It’s not even an elephant in the corner of the room — it’s a beast in the corner of the room,” Bly says. “It’s a reason why some to a fair number of [practitioners] choose the subspecialty within medicine that they do … If you’re coming out of school with a half a million dollars in debt, you want to look at a subspecialty that’s going to afford you the option of paying it off quickly.”

To combat the average medical school debt, many graduates seek out positions with signing bonuses or employer student loan repayment assistance. Others elect to work for a nonprofit or the government to achieve Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). In Bly’s case, he put PSLF to the side and joined a private practice that could award bonus payouts and the possibility of “making partner,” which later came to fruition.

Asking for help, personal and professional

If Bly’s eventual last student loan payment was an emotional high, submitting his first was a low.

“It was very demoralizing when I saw how little of a dent this payment was making to the principal of the loan,” he says. “This is where I decided to get aggressive about paying it back.”

The wake-up call made him realize he needed a strategy, and some help executing it.

“My wife and I knew early on that we were going to need to make some sacrifices to get rid of this burden,” Bly says. “And thankfully, we both were of very similar mind in terms of financial strategies, working through this whole process, taking a look at a three or five or 10-year plan and how do we get there.”

Taking a high-level view of the family’s overall financial picture with a certified financial planner also helped.

It was “an overall global strategy of, yes, ‘We’re going to finance a little bit of our retirement. Yes, we’re investing in the kids’ educational accounts …’” Bly remembers. “But at the same time, ‘We are going to take a majority or a huge bulk of any of our excess [cash flow] month to month and make additional payments to knock that principle down.’ That was front and center for years here, trying to make these [loans] go away.”

Refinancing, again and again

Entering a stable, high-paying career made Bly and his family feel OK about giving up the safety net of federal student loans for the lower interest rates of a private lender. So, student loan refinancing became the focal point of their medical school debt repayment strategy.

Bly shopped around and landed on SoFi. Friends relayed good experiences, and the lender offered the lowest student loan refinance rates at the time.

While his career and income no doubt strengthened his student loan refinancing application, strong credit was equally critical. He gives his mom a nod for his credit score remaining in the “high 700s” and “low 800s.”

“She gave me a credit card at 16 in addition to a checking account that I’ve had since I was 12,” Bly says. “And so my credit has been good to very good here for most of my adult life, which opens doors, allows for better interest rates or opportunities that might not be there.”

After the first refinance, Bly kept an eye on available rates. Twice more it made mathematical sense to refinance.

“Within the SoFi application portal, there was the ability to kind of compare and contrast using current interest rates and amounts versus potential [scenarios]. And that was helpful, especially with my wife, to kind of show as opposed to just talking about it.

“She was a bit more scared of it than I was just because of the total number. And we live in Wisconsin, which is a communal marriage property [state]. So, as soon as we got married, she got to inherit half my debt. So, she was motivated too.”

They remained driven to the end, realizing that their $5,000-ballpark monthly payments could soon be put to a more fun use. Like family trips, for instance.

When an employment bonus arrived in July 2023, the Blys decided to make one last, extra-large payment.

“I don’t want to use the word monumentous occasion,” Bly says, “but it sure was a fantastic relief to move on from what can be such an onerous, overbearing situation.”

What to learn from Dr. Bly’s repayment success

Bly acknowledges that his high-income career expanded his repayment options far beyond what the average student loan borrower has at their disposal. Still, there are pieces of his debt payoff journey that are replicable.

What if you don’t have a six-figure income and strong credit?

Safe to say: The majority of student loan borrowers don’t earn the salary of a surgeon or have a pristine credit score, thanks in part to being given the responsibility of a credit card as a teenager. And the purpose of sharing Bly’s story isn’t to rub it in, trust us.

Successful repayment for you might not resemble Bly’s. For one, student loan refinancing with bad credit might not be possible or even beneficial, unless you have a workaround like a cosigner or co-borrower. For what it’s worth, refinancing with a low income may be more realistic, assuming you have strong credit or a co-applicant.

But student loan refinancing, if it’s the right answer for you at all, is something you can work toward over time — perhaps when interest rates are lower anyway. So, you might start simpler. Consider the questions above. Also, create or update your budget, and learn about repayment strategies.

It all takes time, but there’s a zero balance in your future, too.