High Earner, Not Rich Yet: How Much Does CRNA School Really Cost? Episode 11

High Earner, Not Rich Yet: How Much Does CRNA School Really Cost? (Tuition, Debt, and 3 Years With No Income) "Tuition is 250, 300, 350, almost 400,000 dollars" at the pricier programs, our guest says, and that's before three years of no income on top of it. Add the two together and you can graduate CRNA school half a million dollars behind before your first paycheck clears. He built an entire platform, The Finance Focused CRNA (@the_finance_focused_crna on Instagram), around exactly that gap, and he does it under a pen name he explains himself on mic, a nod to Mark Twain: Henry stands for High Earner, Not Rich Yet, Sink stands for Single Income, No Kids, his own joke about a salary that still doesn't feel like wealth. We get into the one thing he says almost nobody does before school starts (run an actual budget), the real math behind a W2 offer versus a 1099 one, why he says not every CRNA needs an S-corp, and the income-protection insurance most CRNAs have never priced out. Then it turns personal. His mother is 68 and still works part-time in labor and delivery, and she still gets told at work that it "must be so nice" her kids are both CRNAs, like nobody worked for it. If you are holding an acceptance letter right now, this is the one to listen to with a calculator open. Chapters 00:00 Welcome, and meet "Henry Sink" 02:46 Why the pen name, HENRY and SINK explained 09:37 The real cost of CRNA school, tuition plus three years of no income 13:29 Run a budget before day one, the mistake almost everyone makes 18:56 What actually lands in your account: W2 vs. 1099, and the S-corp question 29:50 Long-term disability insurance, the risk nobody prices in 45:19 Family, and "must be so nice" 1:10:04 Would he do it again