{"id":466,"date":"2017-12-03T00:01:47","date_gmt":"2017-12-03T00:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/?p=466"},"modified":"2017-12-03T00:01:47","modified_gmt":"2017-12-03T00:01:47","slug":"student-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/2017\/12\/03\/student-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Debt and Tax Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After 14 years of intensive training and studying I finally can pursue my passion of being a doctor. Though I have incurred years of debt and hardship for my family to put me through college and medical school, I shall hopefully be able to pay off loans that have been accumulating interest since I began my undergrad many years ago. I am fairly concerned about\u00a0 my ability to pay off my debt as soon as I can, however with the reliability in the job market for specialized doctors, I am certain I can pay it off.<\/p>\n<p>However, I am not sure how long it will take for me to pay my debt off. The current tax system works against me in that I must pay a higher rate of tax than my colleagues who make significantly less than me. Though I sacrificed my twenties to be able to attain the highly coveted position of a doctor, I am subject to an unfair tax bracket. Does this equalizer make up for the years I spent studying on Friday nights while my peers were out in the city? Making memories I will never be able to have for myself?<\/p>\n<p>To that my answer is no. I do not regret the profession that I have picked, as I find great happiness in the ability to save someone\u2019s life. However I do believe that the years of hard work I have put in merits the extra income I make.<\/p>\n<p>Today, I have found out that there is this tax reform that is in the process of being passed that serves to correct this taxation imbalance. If this passes, I will be taxed 4% less than what I used to be taxed.<\/p>\n<p>All this time, though I made more money than my peers, the debt and the higher tax bracket I was in negated those benefits. I should not have to suffer so that others have not made the same decisions of me shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Though I am aware of the negative impacts this tax reform could have on others, I know that the bracket system by nature is made to give a helping hand to those who do not make as much. While I agree with the idea of this tax-based assistance, I am happy that this reform will slightly restore the balance because I know that people like me are the beneficiary of the act.<\/p>\n<p>I can use this extra income to pay off my student loans and focus more on enjoying the life I now have. I come back from work less stressed now that I have a more flexible budget and can choose how I want to relax, whether it be staying at home or going out to a fancy dinner to treat myself.<\/p>\n<p>A lifetime of hard work merits this lifestyle, for I have sacrificed more than early financial liberation to get here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After 14 years of intensive training and studying I finally can pursue my passion of being a doctor. Though I have incurred years of debt and hardship for my family to put me through college and medical school, I shall &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/2017\/12\/03\/student-debt\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":467,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions\/467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}