What kind of lifestyle can you afford as an OT?

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐓?

Generally speaking, OTs earn a pretty good living - my only qualm is that we can’t always fully enjoy it because of how expensive it can be to become an OT + student loan debt, but that’s another topic for another day 😅 Today I want to chat about what my lifestyle looks like as an OT (in student loan debt!)

For transparency and perspective: I am currently earning higher than the national average salary living in AZ, have 2 jobs, paying off six figure student loan debt, and investing. 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯 𝘖𝘛 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦.

💚 I live in a luxury high rise studio apartment (obviously from my stories you know I’m not there at the moment lol) I can only afford this because I scored it at 40% below market value (God is good) would have loved to buy a condo instead but wasn’t in the cards as a new grad!
💚 I lease my car (generally do not recommend this UNLESS you are an independent contractor due to tax benefits/write-offs)
💚 If it weren’t for a pandemic, I could realistically afford ~2 vacations a year
💚 I can’t afford any frivolous spending so have significantly cut down on Amazon hauls and visits to TJ Maxx
💚 I can afford to dine out 1-2x per month
💚 I get a facial every 6-8 weeks
💚Currently on a 5 year debt free plan with hubs (if I were single, it’d look more like 9-10 years)

All in all, I’m pretty comfortable. The debt does suck and significantly impacts my budget 🥲 but I’m not living paycheck to paycheck, I have a healthy savings account (6 months living expenses), I’m still investing, and overall feel financially secure 🙏🏾

So although I complain about the cost to become an OT and I still think as a whole we need to be paid more, rest assured that it IS possible to still be financially secure in this profession whether you’re in student loan debt or not 💸🙌🏾

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒚𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝑶𝑻 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆? 𝑫𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒚𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍?