3. Financial Realities of Social Work with Sam B. Part 1

Taylor (00:00)
everyone, welcome back to the Social Work to Wealth podcast. I'm Taylor and I'm here with my co -host Faith. And we have our first interview guest today, my friend Sam coming to talk about her social work journey. We're gonna talk about some money stuff, debt stuff. We're gonna get into it all. yeah, Sam, just give us a little...
Faith (00:10)
Yes! Yay!
Taylor (00:26)
little background, little info about like what you do now, your journey to where you're at.
Samantha   (00:34)
Okay, I am Sam. I'm a licensed clinical social worker. I have my bachelor's and my master's in social work. And I'm sure we'll get into this a little bit more, but I got my bachelor's in Georgia, where I'm from. So I got my bachelor's at Georgia State University, then I got my master's at Louisiana State University and
Faith (00:40)
You
Samantha   (01:01)
worked my way through getting my LCSW. I'm currently in Oregon, on an organ procurement program as a donor family advocate.
Faith (01:11)
great. Can you tell us a little bit more, maybe what your first job was out right out of like your masters and kind of your, your job progression and what you kind of have done and how you ended up getting into the line of work you do now? Cool.
Samantha   (01:17)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, so I can start at the very beginning. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So I was living in Athens, Georgia. I didn't go to UGA, but I was kind of like, I was never really good at school. through high school, I was way more focused on my social life and just never really cared about academics.
Faith (01:32)
Do it. We love hearing from the beginning.
Taylor (01:35)
Hehehehe. Hehehehe.
Faith (01:55)
Same.
Samantha   (01:57)
Never cared. and you know, I also have a learning disability. I'm dyslexic. So I was also like struggling with that, like feeling like I was dumb, but also like I had gotten like pretty much through high school and all the way through college, I would always get this feedback like from my teachers, like when we talk in class, you understand the material, but for some reason, when you sit down and do the test, you don't do well. I don't understand what's going on. So we never, I never figured that out until I got to college.
Faith (02:16)
Hmm.
Taylor (02:19)
Yeah
Mm.
Samantha   (02:26)
I never really had like a teacher that went, Hey, I think you're dyslexic. So anyways, I'll say all that to say, I was 19, I, noticed everybody around me was a lot farther along in their life. And in the grand scheme of things, it's hilarious. Cause I was only like six months behind everybody. Like I took six months off after high school and worked for my dad and.
Faith (02:48)
Right, right.
Samantha   (02:53)
And then all of a sudden it hit me. was like, I'm getting left behind. I have to do something. So I went to like a little community college in Athens where a whole bunch of my friends were. I had a really, around the time that I was 21, I had lost a family member that like really rocked my whole life. it sent me to therapy and a tip for everybody out there. If you're having a tough time in college,
Your college most likely has free therapists there for you, which was a huge game changer for me. was like, my God, I can go to therapy for free. And at that point, like I only knew one person that ever went to therapy and it was my friend, Hannah. my friend, Hannah, who I'm so fortunate had been in my life at that, at that time we lived together in Athens. She, her brother is a recovering drug addict. And at that moment he was in the thick of his drug addiction.
Taylor (03:22)
Yeah.
Faith (03:24)
Hmm.
Taylor (03:27)
Hmm.
Faith (03:32)
Wow.
Samantha   (03:47)
And she went and saw the therapist at school, recommended that I go and that therapist within two sessions was like, hey, what are you doing with your life? Because I think you're a social worker and you don't know it. And I was like, okay, yeah, have I never told you this, Taylor? Yeah, and I went down a huge rabbit hole trying to find this lady's name again and her phone number, like I can picture her therapist office.
Taylor (04:00)
interesting.
Faith (04:00)
Wow.
Okay.
Taylor (04:04)
No.
Faith (04:11)
Yeah
Samantha   (04:14)
the waterfall in the back, like the little like fixture in the background. Like I can picture all of that, but I can't remember her name because I just want to send her a thank you letter. I know she completely, you know, it has, you know, we all have been taught so many things and it's so funny to think about it now because she totally interjected herself into my life and was like, hold up. You need to explore this.
Taylor (04:24)
Aw.
Faith (04:24)
amazing amazing
Taylor (04:39)
Yeah.
Samantha   (04:42)
And I was like, okay. And so she taught the intro to social work class. And that was it. Like I did that class and I was like, I am a social worker. This is what I'm supposed to do. How can I get into this? Because I was always motivated by helping people, but I never really got like any actual career advice from somebody.
Taylor (04:42)
Yeah.
Faith (04:44)
Hmm. Yeah.
Taylor (05:08)
Mm -hmm.
Faith (05:08)
Yeah.
Samantha   (05:09)
Neither of my parents went to college. You know, they worked blue collar jobs pretty much my whole life. so no, nobody was really like in academics in my family or like, you know what I'm saying?
Faith (05:20)
Right.
Taylor (05:22)
Mm -hmm.
Faith (05:22)
When you got that, when you were going through that first class and you kind of knew what was that feeling like for you? Like what feeling came up for you when you were like, is what I'm supposed to do, like I know this is what I'm supposed to do. What did that feel like when you finally figured it out or you were in that class? Like what was that feeling?
Samantha   (05:41)
I don't know. It was almost like it was like a light bulb moment for me. You know, and at that time I was like 21, 22 and I know I didn't have these words then, but it was, it was like, I finally completed a puzzle. Like I, I, I was never good at math, have never been good at chemistry, but I always wanted to either be a doctor or a surgeon or like all of these things.
Taylor (05:48)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Faith (05:59)
Mm -hmm.
Right.
Samantha   (06:10)
As I was moving through college, I was like, I can't pass these classes. How am I ever gonna do O chem? But I knew I always wanted to help people and I had been helping people my whole life. I've always been that friend. I could call my mom right now and she would tell you all of my friends all through middle school would call me for advice. I would be on the phone with my best friend for an hour figuring out why her and this girl were fighting.
Faith (06:15)
Hmm.
great.
Taylor (06:31)
Hehehehe. Hehehehe.
Faith (06:31)
Hahaha
Samantha   (06:39)
And it was, it was like a light bulb moment. I was like, this is what I'm supposed to do.
Faith (06:42)
Cool. So then, that's awesome. That's such a cool moment, I think, that, you know, Taylor and I have talked about too, for each of us, like that moment when you figure out, like, this is what I wanna do, like, I wanna help people and you get into the industry, so tell us more about, from grad school. So, wait, you were 21, were you an undergrad at that point then, still? Okay. Okay.
Samantha   (07:00)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I was behind because I was like flunking my classes. I was not doing well in college because I was really depressed. I was, you know, drinking. I'm 21. So I'm like running around Athens, Georgia, which might as well be a 21 year old playground. all of my friends were doing the same thing. You know what I mean. And so around 22.
Faith (07:16)
Sure.
Taylor (07:24)
Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (07:28)
22 or 23, it's hard for, I think 2023, I knew that I had to go to a different school because the school that I was at didn't offer social work as a bachelor's program. And again, luckily that therapist that I was seeing was like, hey, if you get your bachelor's, you can skip the first year of grad school in the advanced standing program. So just plow through all of this and you'll be done. And I was like, okay, so I won't be too far behind because
Taylor (07:48)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Faith (07:56)
Hmm.
Samantha   (07:57)
Unfortunately, our society, you know, really puts that pressure on us. So I got into Georgia State University, which was in Atlanta. So I moved to Atlanta, moved in with my friend Stephanie, who is in a very similar situation as me. She was kind of meandering around, not, you know, not really knowing what she wanted to do. So we both got in at the same time and moved to Atlanta together. And it's so funny to think about our, like,
curriculums that we have in school and through college and grad school because the moment that I Started taking all of my social work classes. I made straight A's So it's like you can literally look at my transcript and go, okay. Well Sam does okay in English, but Does terrible in math and then all of a sudden and I'm making straight A's. It's it's wild I don't know I just I was in gay I don't know you guys get it
Faith (08:38)
Mmm. Mm -hmm.
Taylor (08:38)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, that's just that you're interested in. Yeah, yeah, totally.
Faith (08:53)
Yeah. That you enjoy and you, yeah.
Samantha   (08:53)
Like I'm doing something that, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
a long time, I thought I wanted to work with kids. So I have to tell you that cause that's kind of where my first job, it will all make sense here in a little bit. I thought I wanted to work with kids. So I worked, my first, internship in grad school. Cause we had to do our practicum, our, our last year.
Faith (09:18)
Right.
Samantha   (09:20)
was at an agency for behaviorally difficult foster care children. And it was wild. Absolutely wild. I was also taking sign language classes at that time. So I thought like, I could work with the deaf population and like really get into that because the Georgia School for the Deaf is 10 miles from where I grew up. So I had always been around the deaf community.
Taylor (09:30)
Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (09:50)
And I say all that to say when I got to grad school, I got placed at a private practice that private private practice slash nonprofit agency for the deaf community in Baton Rouge. And yeah, very niche, very, very niche. And I was extremely fortunate to just like kind of drop myself in the deaf community. My supervisor is like,
Faith (10:04)
Wow.
Yeah.
Samantha   (10:16)
Literally the most incredible person in the whole world. And if I ever win the lottery, I'm going to give her half of my money so that she can take care of these kids. no, seriously, I learned it was like the first time I think I truly learned that, there are pieces of our population that are extremely underserved because I was witnessing it. Really witnessing it.
Faith (10:25)
Wow.
Taylor (10:38)
Yeah. Yeah.
Samantha   (10:43)
there were these kids that were like graduating from the deaf school with a third grade reading level, but you could compare that to kids in New York at this really, or Austin, a more comparable city in the South. And they're graduating on a 12th grade reading level. You know, what's going on? Why is this happening? But she was doing individual therapy for deaf children directly, directly in their language. And so I was, it was incredible.
Taylor (10:59)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Wow. That's amazing. I know, seriously got chills too.
Faith (11:06)
Amazing.
I like chills. I'm like this is so... Yeah.
Samantha   (11:13)
I know, know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shout out to Paula Rodriguez. She is literally changing lives. yeah.
Taylor (11:19)
Literally angel on this earth.
Faith (11:21)
badass. Yeah.
Samantha   (11:25)
She is an angel among humans. It's incredible. And so I learned a lot about that population, kind of like how they experience the world differently, you know, and all the while, while I'm doing that, I'm also,
I'm insane. I was going to grad school, had a practicum, also working a part -time job.
Faith (11:48)
This is like the social work story though. I feel like Taylor, same for you, same for me. It's like to make it through, right? So you are doing very similar like practicum, working part -time job, or maybe more than that, I'm not sure. And also going to school. Wow.
Taylor (11:51)
Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Samantha   (11:51)
Yeah.
Taylor (12:03)
Yeah.
Samantha   (12:03)
Yeah, definitely through undergrad, I was going to school, working a full -time job as, you know, at a country club. So I was also doing that. was like going and seeing these foster kids and then at four o 'clock having to drive to a country club and yeah, yeah. And that's a whole other separate story because there was a hot moment in my life where I was like, my God, I'm never gonna make any money. Maybe I should just.
Taylor (12:10)
Mm -mm.
Samantha   (12:32)
stick with being in the country club world and become a Psalm or a beverage manager, you know, like all these different things. And I had a really, really bad day one day and I was just like looking around and I was like, I am just like perpetuating this inequality of wealth and I can't be a part of this anymore. And I can't do it. Yeah, I can't believe I was thinking all of that stuff.
But when you're like, and you guys understand when you're plopped in your practicum, I swear to God like opens up your whole mind Because they're they're in front of you. You can't ignore it. You can't run away. You're like, okay This is really happening in front of me So I was back to when I was in grad school my part -time job
Taylor (13:05)
I know.
Faith (13:07)
Mm
Yeah, can't ignore it, right?
Taylor (13:12)
Yeah.
Samantha   (13:23)
was actually a mental health technician at the hospital in Baton Rouge I was working in the ER and that is kind of my segue into my first job after I graduated with my MSW. They moved me from being a mental health tech to being at that hospital. It's called a cope specialist, C O P E.
Faith (13:31)
Hmm.
Samantha   (13:50)
It's basically just an ER social worker,
that job started me out at $17 an hour.
Taylor (13:59)
Hmm, were you, did you have your bachelor's at that point?
Faith (13:59)
Hey.
Masters, right?
Samantha   (14:02)
Yeah, bachelor's and my master's, but that was the, that was a pay.
Faith (14:07)
I mean, this is what, as you go through, yeah, as you go through the jobs that you had, if you can share a little bit more detail about what you made, like what your salaries were. know Taylor and I did that as well, but so right out of your master's program, you're making $17 an hour. What is that per year? What is that? Yeah. Do the calculations. Right. right. And huh.
Taylor (14:22)
You're making 17, I was just about to do the calculation, 17.
Samantha   (14:25)
Yeah, keep in mind, that's the most money I've ever made.
Taylor (14:30)
$35 ,360.
Samantha   (14:31)
Yeah. Yeah. I I was like, I'm rich. Like I can do anything. Yeah.
Taylor (14:36)
Right?
Faith (14:38)
What year, what year was that? Like, when did you get your masters? Okay.
Samantha   (14:41)
2016. Yeah. Yeah.
Taylor (14:43)
my gosh. did you feel... So you felt like you were rich? Like you didn't think that you were like, what is this? What is this salary? Like with my masters? You were like, this is amazing.
Samantha   (14:49)
yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. And I, yeah, it's ridiculous. And so, especially now. Yeah. Yeah.
Taylor (14:56)
I love that.
I mean, you know, it's like our frame of reference, you know, it's like, if that's the most money you've made, you're like, my God, this is amazing.
Faith (15:08)
Right.
Samantha   (15:09)
And I was splitting my time. So I was working two days a week practicum that I was at, So I was doing two days a week doing like some case management for some of the...
deaf population there because I still really wanted to be there. They were paying me $13, $12 an hour because they had no money. And then I was working part time in the ER and picking up shifts. So I was doing shift work in the ER and they had like a, they had not incentive pay, but shift differential. So if I worked after 6 p I got $3 extra an hour. And if I work,
Taylor (15:24)
Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (15:48)
After 6 PM on the weekends, I got $5 extra an hour. So I was pretty much always picking. Yeah. yeah. Like we had a, I remember this girl that I worked with, she worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the seven to seven P to seven a shift. And it was a huge difference in her pay. Huge difference. Yep. Yep. Yeah. And it is.
Taylor (15:53)
Mmm, that's pretty good.
Right. I mean, that's like eight more dollars an hour. That's a lot of money.
Faith (16:09)
Yeah.
That's a lot of money.
Samantha   (16:17)
And I was working the 4P to 4A shift. So from four to six, I would make $17 an hour. And you you see what I'm Shift work is a gift and a curse, you know, because you can really make a lot of money, but then it's still shift work. But yeah, working in the ER. And if I was going to give any social worker any advice that might not know what they want to do with their lives, like go work in the ER, you'll see every single thing you can ever imagine.
Taylor (16:26)
Mm -hmm.
Faith (16:26)
Mm -hmm.
Taylor (16:34)
Mm -hmm.
Faith (16:47)
Hmm.
Taylor (16:47)
Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (16:48)
Everything that I learned in school, everything in the DSM, every type of crisis intervention skill, you're going to use it. It's going to happen in the ER. And I'm so thankful that I did that, but I'm so grateful I don't work in the ER anymore.
Taylor (17:02)
Same. I've done my ER share and it is, it's a beast.
Faith (17:02)
Ha ha ha!
Samantha   (17:10)
Yeah, this particular unit in Baton Rouge was really interesting because it was, it was a lockdown unit and it was people that would be on, you know, every state calls this something different, but a 72 hour hold. So I was doing the initial psychosocial assessment of like, what's going on with you? What brought you to the ER and where are you now? And so we would do all of that. I would get them placed in a,
Taylor (17:21)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Faith (17:23)
Right?
Samantha   (17:37)
mental health facility and then, you know, they'd be with us for three days and then move on.
I was at some point while I'm living in Baton Rouge, I decided I don't want to live there anymore. And I moved to New Orleans and then I'm driving back and forth from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, like five days a week. And it was killing me. And so I decided that I needed to find a job in New Orleans.
which led me to my next job at what was called Behavioral Health Group.
I took a 50 cent pay cut. So that job started me out at 16 .50. Again, thought I was rolling in it. Even though I, you know, I took a pay cut, but I was like, man, I'm gonna save so much in gas and, you know, I'll just try it out. But this was a methadone clinic. And I didn't really know a lot about methadone, but I'll tell you, I only stayed there for three months. It was probably the worst job I've ever had in my life.
Faith (18:14)
Okay.
Taylor (18:14)
Mmmmm.
my
Faith (18:36)
year was it when you then transitioned to this methadone clinic? 2016 was your first kind of job right outside your masters and then what year did you kind of make 1650? Pull up the resume. 2017.
Samantha   (18:49)
I if I have my resume. I feel like it's 2017. But I feel like it was 2017 because I was, yeah, I was not there for very long. I was there for three months. I don't regret it at all because through that whole process, I had like a panic moment where I was like, my God, what am I doing? I can't be here anymore. And I'm literally in my office, door closed.
Taylor (18:53)
Hehehehehe
Samantha   (19:16)
applying for all of these different jobs. And I'd always wanted to work in the medical field. So through my bachelor's program and my master's program, you you fill out your top three choices of where you want your practicum to be. And mine would always be a hospital. I want to know what it's like to work in a hospital. What's up with medical social work. And I just never got matched. There were other people that got picked before me. And so when I was applying for jobs, I saw
kidney transplant social work job And I thought that is the most niche job I have ever heard of. What does that even mean? And luckily I applied and I got it and I got more money. And so I think I started out there at $23 an hour. And I can tell you when I left that job, I can't tell you how much it was an hour, but I left making $48 ,000 a year.
Faith (19:52)
Yeah.
Taylor (20:01)
Mmm.
Faith (20:01)
Okay.
Okay.
Taylor (20:12)
Hmm. When do you leave?
Samantha   (20:13)
Yeah.
Taylor (20:15)
gracious. That is, I mean, this is in... yeah, yeah.
Samantha   (20:15)
Yeah.
Faith (20:16)
That's, I'm, I'm, I'm really shocked at how low that is. I...
Samantha   (20:21)
yeah. If you interview anybody else from the South in social work, you'll be appalled at the money that we would make. And so the other side of this coin is that you have to have a master's degree to work at any hospital in the country. Period. You have no other option. And not to mention, if you want any type of significant pay raise,
Taylor (20:31)
Mm -hmm.
Faith (20:39)
Exactly. Right? You have to.
Taylor (20:40)
Yeah. Yeah.
Samantha   (20:50)
you have to get your LCSW. So, which is, as you guys are well aware, more money added on top of it because, you know, a supervisor should be compensated for their time, but you have to pay for it. It's pretty rare that you...
Taylor (21:03)
You have to pay for it. have to pay for your, you know, curriculum that you want to, I mean, you know, study resources, which is hundreds of dollars. I know here in Oregon, like, registering for the exam and all of that, like paying for the license. Once you get it, it's like $300. Who has that kind of money? We ain't got that kind of money. No, what you're making 48.
Faith (21:21)
Hmm.
Samantha   (21:25)
Yeah. Nope. Well, you're, yeah.
Faith (21:25)
We ain't got that kind of money. Not when you're making $48 ,000 a year and you have student loans and you have your rent and you maybe have a car payment. Yeah, I mean, how much did your master's cost?
Taylor (21:33)
Gosh.
Samantha   (21:38)
Couldn't tell you. Blocked it out. Don't know. I can tell you exactly how much I owe in student loans and we can get into that because this is kind of like right around this time is where I start really understanding the financial choices that I had made and the mistakes that I made.
Taylor (21:40)
It's okay, that's okay.
Faith (21:42)
It's out of my, it's out of my mind.
Taylor (21:48)
Yeah.
Faith (21:49)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Taylor (21:59)
Mm. Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (22:04)
of my parents really talked about it. They followed what society had been saying and they gave me and both of my brothers this same advice. if you get your degree, you'll get a well -paying job and you'll be able to pay it off. Don't worry about it. Not really fully understand that I can't file for bankruptcy on these loans. They also don't make enough money to support me.
Taylor (22:16)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (22:29)
so I have to work a full -time job, but I got to figure out a time to find, I have to figure out a way to study. when do I do that? When I work nights and I'm up until 12 or 2 AM and have to go to class at nine the next day, you know, and I only have one day off a week, which is Monday, but I'm in class, you know, there's like all of this stuff going on. but.
Taylor (22:37)
Mm -hmm.
Faith (22:37)
Yeah.
Totally.
Samantha   (22:55)
had a boyfriend while I was in Athens who was kind of the first person who planted the seed about the mistakes that I was making because my parents had given me the advice to just take out a private student loan. Take out a private student loan and that can pay for your rent for the whole year so you're not worried about.
working an extra shift to a four -year rent, which is comical to me now because, I mean, not for the mistake that I made, but what's comical to me now is my rent was like $300.
Faith (23:22)
Hmm.
Taylor (23:30)
my God.
Faith (23:31)
wow, wow. You're like, Ike!
Samantha   (23:33)
And I was stressed out about it. please. Like now I could have, I could, I would have been fine. I should have never taken out my private student loans. Like I was working enough that I would have totally been able to afford that every month. but I didn't have that perspective. And, and that boyfriend at the time caught me filling out, a private student loan application. And he was like, what are you doing? Do you understand what interest is?
Faith (23:40)
you would have been fine.
Taylor (23:40)
Yeah.
Hehehe
Faith (24:00)
Hmm.
Samantha   (24:02)
Do you understand what that means? I should also mention he had a finance. He was getting his finance degree. So I listened to him and I was like, you're right. my God. I have three of these. And he was like, you have three? What do you mean? Stop doing that. Like don't take out any more private loans. Like here's what you need to do. Was I ready to hear that? No.
Faith (24:08)
You're like, okay. Yeah.
Taylor (24:08)
Mmm.
Mmm.
Samantha   (24:26)
I didn't want to hear my boyfriend telling me that I'd made all these mistakes and you know, he had no idea that that's what my family had been advising me because I thought everybody was doing it. Go ahead.
Faith (24:36)
So, well, and I don't, yeah, yeah, and I don't mean to interject, but I don't even know if it's a mistake. I kind of feel like this is a lack, like an issue with financial literacy for just...
Taylor (24:47)
Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (24:47)
Yeah.
Faith (24:49)
people in general and it's kind of you're making decisions based on the information that was provided to you at the time from your parents who are authority figures, you know, like you're figuring this out and I think a lot of people find themselves in these situations and it's not really, I think, mistake necessarily per se. It's lack of financial literacy and knowing what to do and I wasn't, I mean, I wasn't educated on like finances or interest or investing or whatever. When I was making $35 ,000 out of college or whatever too, I was like, I'm rich!
Taylor (25:09)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -mm.
Faith (25:19)
Right? Same kind of feeling. And you're like, wait a minute, wait a minute. Right? So totally get like, it feels, it's complicated. It's a complicated feeling, a complicated system though too. And we just don't educate. And we're not allowed to talk about it as social workers either, which, or at least, I don't know, we're trying to change that. We're talking about it. -huh. Yeah.
Taylor (25:19)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (25:34)
Yeah. Nope.
Taylor (25:37)
Yeah. We are now.
Samantha   (25:41)
Thank God. Yeah, we do need to talk about it because something Taylor and I have talked about a lot and I know I've shared this feeling with you, Taylor, is unfortunately, I feel like social workers as a whole have put us in this position and we have to get ourselves out because if you think all the way back to the original social work professions in Chicago at Whole House, like when they were doing their whole thing, they wanted to help.
Faith (25:57)
Yeah.
Taylor (25:59)
Mmm.
Samantha   (26:10)
And unfortunately, helping positions will take less because we care more about the feelings of other people, what they're going through. They're less fortunate at us. How can we help? You know what I'm saying? And, and it has perpetuated throughout the development of social work as a career. And I think like, and I say that also knowing that I did that, like, I'm going to tell you guys,
Taylor (26:21)
Mm -hmm.
Faith (26:21)
Mm -hmm.
Taylor (26:29)
Yeah.
Samantha   (26:37)
a really crazy story that happened at Osher. Because it was like the first light bulb that I was like, shit, I did not do any of the stuff that I could have been doing to get a higher pay when I first got hired on. But I accepted the $23 an hour because I was like, my God, that's more money than 1650. Like I'm getting a raise. It's a super cool job. And I didn't negotiate at all.
Faith (27:01)
Yeah.
Taylor (27:06)
Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (27:07)
when I could have, because I kept thinking, well, I only have like a year and a half of experience. This is what I'm going to make. Didn't negotiate. And then as I'm moving through the transplant world and learning all of these different things, feeling really confident in my decision to go to this job, really loving it, feeling like this is the career that I want to be in. I start like,
questioning my other co -workers like what do you make what's going on through doing that I found out that a male that just got hired got like $5 ,000 more than me a year and we had equal experience and because he negotiated and I could have gotten that but I didn't I didn't do it and so I talked to my boss about it and she was like
Faith (27:41)
Hmm.
Hmm.
Taylor (27:53)
Mmmmm
Faith (27:58)
Hmm.
Samantha   (28:06)
I'm sorry, we're not in a place to do this right now, blah, blah. So I started applying for a second job because I had a car that was not functioning very well. I can tell you, like if I pulled up my, I had like a makeshift spreadsheet of all of my bills and like everything I owed, I had $200 left over every month. And I was splitting an apartment with my boyfriend.
Taylor (28:29)
Hmm.
Faith (28:29)
Hmm.
Samantha   (28:34)
and, and trying to save for another car. So I'm applying for other jobs I can just like pick up a shift on the weekend and not knowing, that my boss's boss is getting flagged for this. She's getting notifications. She's like getting eight notifications from me applying for these jobs internally. And she calls me into her office and it's like, Sam, why are you applying for?
Faith (28:57)
Mmm.
Samantha   (29:02)
these other jobs? we not?
Taylor (29:02)
This is your boss's boss.
Samantha   (29:06)
Yep. Yep. And she goes, are we not paying you enough?
Faith (29:06)
wow.
sorry I can't well the action of applying implies I'm not making enough I'll let you answer that question Wow Wow
Samantha   (29:21)
Yeah. Yeah. And so she pulled my other boss in who, who is an amazing human. and I'll get back to her, but they were like, okay, let's figure something out. You know, like you, you shouldn't feel like you need to work a second job when you already work five days a week. both of them are women, so keep that in mind. And so they, they gave me a $5 ,000 raise and
Taylor (29:42)
Wow.
Samantha   (29:51)
You know, I was super thankful for that. but, I mean, I was still struggling, cause I really needed another car and, somewhere around 2019, I think I had saved up like $1 that I could use for a down payment, which will, yeah, which was a lot of money to me. It was the most money I had ever, the most money I had ever saved up in my life.
Taylor (29:57)
Mm -hmm.
Faith (30:10)
payment. Yeah.
Taylor (30:14)
That is a lot of money. Yeah.
Faith (30:18)
Hmm.
Samantha   (30:19)
And I was able to get another car. So now I've tacked on a car payment on top of student loans, bills, all this stuff, because I desperately needed a car. ultimately, somewhere around 2019, my partner and I came to Oregon for a wedding.
Taylor (30:26)
Hmm
Samantha   (30:44)
while we were here, we were like, let's, let's just see what jobs are like out here. And, we both doubled our salary. Well, he didn't double his salary. I doubled my salary. Like we learned like, my God, they pay social workers so much more money. And like, and just like talking to him, and kind of everything that we had been talking about up until that point.
I was in so much debt at that point. Like I had stopped paying my private student loans, couldn't afford them. If I pulled, actually, you know what? think I have it right here.
Faith (31:18)
Mm.
Samantha   (31:22)
I had three, $7 ,000 loans through Wells Fargo.
Taylor (31:31)
Mmm.
Samantha   (31:32)
And the interest rate was anywhere from 10 to 12%.
Taylor (31:36)
my! That is high. That's high. Yeah. That is high.
Samantha   (31:40)
Yeah.
Faith (31:41)
That is high. Yeah, no, but that's the reality. Like that's what people face with private loans.
Samantha   (31:43)
Yeah. Yeah.
Taylor (31:47)
Yeah. Yeah.
Samantha   (31:47)
Yeah. Yeah. And I was going through a lot of shame and guilt about it and I wasn't paying them. from pretty much the time that I graduated until 2020, I was not paying on these loans. Obviously my credit score took a huge hit, which resulted in me getting a 10 % interest rate on my car.
Taylor (31:53)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Mmm.
Samantha   (32:16)
so that was really rough. even though I bought in a, mm hmm.
Taylor (32:20)
Yeah, it's like there's this trickle down effect, right? It's like we're not being paid well as social workers. We have these student loans, regardless of if they're private or not. Some people's federal loans are, their payments are so high that they can't afford them too. So it's like, well, I can't pay for that. So I'm not going to, but I also need a new car. But now since I didn't pay on my student loans because I'm not getting paid enough money as a social worker, my credit's being affected.
And now I have this like high interest rate on my car, which is going to cost me more money. And the reason why I have this high interest was because I couldn't pay for this other payment because I don't have enough money. Like it's just this cycle that is really, it's really frustrating.
Faith (33:10)
Yeah, and then you're sitting with like the shame and embarrassment of like, should have known better or why didn't I know better when real realistically there was no education on financial literacy in high school that should be across the board provided in high school. Same with mental health options across the board in high school. You should know what loans you're opening, what the interest rates are, what that means before you ever take a loan for college. Like I just don't even understand that. That's just crazy to me.
Taylor (33:34)
Yeah, and then and then you're getting paid paid these low salaries.
Samantha   (33:36)
Yeah. Yeah.
Faith (33:38)
And then you can pay those low salaries, which does not make up for how much you pay for a master's in social work. A master's in social work should never be 90 grand, period, ever. It should never be 90 grand. There should be, yeah. So all the things are just stacked up and then you're sitting with that feeling of shame and embarrassment on top of it. It's just bullshit. That's all I got for it. Yes.
Samantha   (33:43)
No.
Yep. Yeah.
Taylor (33:57)
Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (33:58)
It was, it was, it is bullshit. It was really rough. It was so rough. I, one thing that I figured out early on was public service loan forgiveness. Thank God. And so I, you know, at least my federal loans I got on a, income based repayment plan. So I could, I could pay my federal loans, but I couldn't pay these private loans. And so, you know, at some point,
Faith (34:10)
Yeah. Cool.
Taylor (34:18)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (34:24)
I finally talked to my partner it and he's super smart and really good with money. So we sat down and we talked about how I could tackle these private loans. And ultimately, I mean, it came down to, have to make more money. there's no way around it. And, I was, we all, he also, he also read like a letter that I had gotten, cause at that point I was just throwing them away, ignoring it, ignoring every call.
Taylor (34:49)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Faith (34:50)
Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (34:51)
They were calling my job. They were calling my dad. They were calling everybody. yeah. And I read one of the letters because I was like, all right, I have to deal with this and something interesting. And I, and I hope that I can spread this information out to people that have private loans is private student loan banks will offer what's called a discharge settlement.
Taylor (34:55)
Wow.
Samantha   (35:16)
So they will offer if you pay a percentage of the original loan, they will discharge the rest now there is a tax problem that happens later with that but So for my $7 ,000 loan One of them and I did it in a domino effect, but I'll and I'll get to that they Offered me. Okay, if you pay 60 % of the original loan, we will discharge the other 40 %
Faith (35:16)
Okay.
Samantha   (35:46)
No interest, just pay it. I was like, okay, because you have to think these banks just want, they want some money. they can get at least a little bit of money after out of you. They're okay. so I can't remember. I used to, I used to keep up really well with this piece of paper that had everything broken down. cause I had written it while I was on the phone with the guy. it came out to $179 a month for two years for one loan.
Faith (35:49)
Yeah.
Taylor (35:53)
Mm -hmm.
Faith (35:53)
Mm -hmm.
Taylor (35:58)
Yeah.
Samantha   (36:16)
and then I would roll over and do the next one. And so I was like, okay, well have a six year plan of how to get all of these private student loans discharged. Okay, great. So now I can tackle this because at that point me and my partner are also talking about buying a house, but we can't put my name on the house because I have a terrible credit score.
Faith (36:38)
Ugh, these layers, right? Of just like, feeling that burden. Yeah, that's just... That's hard. That's hard.
Taylor (36:38)
yeah.
Samantha   (36:45)
Yeah, it's awful.
So gonna backtrack a little bit. So when we made the decision to move out here, Ross got a job pretty quickly, but I was struggling. I kept trying to stay in the transplant world and I had probably interviewed at the transplant, one of the big transplant centers here. I interviewed for their heart transplant position, but I wasn't gonna get my LCSW in time, because I was also.
finishing up my LCSW in New Orleans. I had a target finishing date around Thanksgiving and they wanted me to start in December. So by the time I sat for my test, applied for my license, I wasn't going to have my LCSW in time to be able to work for them. Or even applying for my CSWA here in Oregon, none of it was going to happen in time. So it wasn't working out. So I didn't get that job. And it took me a while to get another job here.
Taylor (37:28)
Ugh.
Yeah.
Samantha   (37:42)
so luckily I, luckily I got a job at a dialysis center here in Oregon and they offered me 35 an hour, which was huge upgrade.
Faith (37:55)
Okay.
Taylor (37:56)
Okay. Okay, okay. She's moving up.
Faith (37:59)
So yeah, you jumped from 23 to 35. Yeah, 23 to 35.
Samantha   (38:02)
huge upgrade. Yeah, yeah.
Taylor (38:04)
35 that's $72 ,000
Faith (38:08)
Yeah, 48 to 72.
Samantha   (38:08)
Then it must have been more than that. Because I know that it might have been more than that.
think anyways, it doesn't matter. I know that it was a lot and I couldn't believe it. Now granted, we did move into an apartment that was significantly more and the taxes here are a lot and, we're totally living in a more expensive place. But
Taylor (38:22)
Mm -hmm.
Of course. Of course.
Faith (38:31)
Possibly, yeah.
Samantha   (38:37)
I was finally seeing a little bit of hope. was like, okay, so I won't, I won't have $200 leftover every month. I should also mention, now that I'm done with my else, my supervision, I don't have to pay a supervisor anymore. Cause that was costing me $200 a month. and my supervisor was charging me a reasonable amount, 50 bucks an hour. But when I sat down and did the math,
Taylor (38:53)
Right?
Faith (38:53)
Right, right.
Taylor (38:56)
All right.
Samantha   (39:06)
Louisiana is one of those states that requires a hundred direct supervision hours, but like 500, 760 clinical hours. So an insane amount of clinical hours on top of getting your supervision. And I think, I think I ended up paying my supervisor somewhere around $5 ,000, just like straight to him. So that was also wrapped up in why I was not able to afford
Taylor (39:20)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (39:35)
anything. But we lived here. I made that much
Taylor (39:37)
Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (39:40)
I really did not like working at Davida for a lot of different reasons. If I'm being honest, probably because I just wanted to be back in transplant. Like that's where I'm supposed to be. I love that world and we can talk about that. But I think that ultimately
Faith (39:53)
Hmm.
Samantha   (40:04)
Davida really helped me understand like the the steps that it takes a patient to get even towards the transplant process because at that point I had only worked with recipients in kidney transplant and I knew they were all on dialysis but I didn't quite really understand what dialysis meant from a psychosocial perspective and so I worked at Davida for about 10 months.
Taylor (40:14)
Mm -hmm.
Samantha   (40:32)
And it really helped me understand like their day -to -day life and what they have to sacrifice. And then we talk about transplant and all of these different things. And I really love, I call it specialty social work. Like Taylor and I have talked about this a lot. I feel like when I was in grad school, nobody had let me know that there was something more.
And there's no hate towards case managers, but there was something more than just being a case manager or, working with kids or, CPS or like all these different jobs. I knew that I ultimately wanted to, I knew I needed to find like a, a field of social work that was, that I actually felt like I could do some good in.
Faith (41:07)
Yeah.
Samantha   (41:29)
Like this was one of the few jobs, this is one of the few jobs I feel like I literally witness somebody come in that is sick. They go through this really difficult workup. They make the decision with their healthcare providers that this is the right choice for them, their body, their spirit. Let's go through this together.
Faith (41:29)
Mm -hmm.
Taylor (41:39)
Thank you.
Samantha   (41:54)
they get the transplant and then I, and then I literally watched them physically get better. They can start going back to work. They're not dealing with the three day a week dialysis schedule. Now they have to go through a lot on the recipient side, but I feel like it's like the one field of social work where I saw happiness. I know it sounds terrible, but you know, when the social worker, yeah. Yeah.
Taylor (42:03)
Hmm.
Hmm. We all have that. We all have that. Yeah.
Faith (42:19)
No, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Samantha   (42:24)
When the social worker gets called to the room, it's not for anything fun. So it's like, know what I'm saying. So this was like one of the few jobs that I was like, my God, I was literally a part of a team that helped this person get better and it worked and it was awesome. it was like one of the few times I, so at that moment I knew like I have to do this for the rest of my life, like period. But I digress.
Taylor (42:27)
Yeah.
Faith (42:28)
Right, right, yeah.
Hmm.
Taylor (42:42)
Mm.