The EMS Survivalist: How to Survive on the Salary of a Paramedic or EMT

Getting started in EMS is easy. A semester at the local EMT program followed by a job interview and you’re in. If you’re really motivated, you can keep going all the way through paramedic school and start running the show on emergency calls. Let’s face it, there’s a lot about the job that attracts people. The adrenaline rush, the idea of saving lives, the respect and looking cool in our uniforms. Sounds like the perfect career, right?

Fast forward 5 years and you’re divorced, struggling financially, out of shape, experiencing health problems, stressed and desperately seeking a way out. You’ve become so used to the relying on overtime that you dream of the day that you can just work the 10-day-a-month schedule that you used to think was so awesome. You’re probably working two, maybe three jobs, you have no social life, and you can’t remember the last time you had a full nights rest.

This is a reality for a lot of us in the profession. It’s easy to forget why we got into the job when we can’t see past our personal problems. We look for ways out in hopes that our lives will improve when we move on from EMS. It’s sad but true.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. We all got into this job for a reason. That reason didn’t go anywhere; we just lost sight of it by not taking care of what’s important—ourselves. There are plenty of resources to help jump into EMS and even more to help get out. What we don’t find are resources to help us STAY.

The EMS Survivalist is a series about helping those of us who truly love the job, stay in the job. It’s about reigniting that spark that turned us on to the job in the first place. It’s about taking care of our personal lives, finances, health and emotional wellbeing so that we can enjoy this profession and be the best caregivers that we can be.

Part 1: How to Survive on an EMS Salary

When I started my EMS career, I’d just turned 19 and had barely moved past working minimum wage. I started working for a rural EMS service in a small farm town in central California. The job didn’t pay much, but I didn’t care. I was doing the work I loved and as long as the bills were paid, I was fine.

As I continued throughout my career, my opinion of the job gradually started to change. I started to feel like I wasn’t making enough money. At first I blamed the small-town ambulance service. I sought employment with a much larger service that paid significantly more. After getting hired there, I went to paramedic school and received yet another significant pay increase. A couple years after that, I received a promotion to field supervisor and started making more money than I ever thought I would. The funny thing is, at every step of the way my financial situation became worse and I started blaming the industry as a whole for “not paying us what we should make.”

Fast forward a few more years and I was severely in debt, behind on all my payments, divorced, paying child support and working three jobs in a desperate attempt to stay above water. These were clearly problems of my own creation, yet I somehow managed to blame EMS.

The industry never changed, I did. When I started out, I was making $7.00 an hour and had no complaints. So how did I go to making over $80,000 a year and still not be able to keep up with a moderate mortgage payment? I was living beyond my means and making bad money mistakes every day. I didn’t budget, I didn’t track my expenses and I spent money I didn’t have.

I guess my 19-year-old self was on to something. I had no debt, very little monthly expenses and I actually set money aside every paycheck. It wasn’t until I started feeling like I needed things like a new car, motorcycle, nice computers, etc. that my situation started to deteriorate.

Identifying the Real Problem

Until recently, I’m not sure I had ever met someone in EMS that didn’t have something negative to say about what we get paid. Myself included. When I finally accepted responsibility for my situation and took the steps to get out of it, I realized how much I actually love being a paramedic. I suddenly stopped trying to convince myself that the only way out was to leave the profession.

Getting on a budget and living within my means made me feel like I took a massive pay raise. Actually, within two months of my journey toward financial peace, I quit two of my jobs. I didn’t need them. It was the first time in over 10 years I only had one job.

When I thought up the idea for this article, I decided to reach out to people to see where they stand on their financial situation. I surveyed 50 EMS workers and 50 people outside of EMS. The average wage among the EMS workers I spoke to was between $30,000 and $70,000 a year. Every single person who was surveyed said they weren’t happy with their wages and had at least considered leaving for careers with better pay. Actually, all but one person who claimed to make over $120,000 a year identified their situation as being either “a struggle” or that it “could be better.” While this may or may not be an accurate reflection of the overall mindset in our industry, it does make me wonder what’s really making us leave.

Now, here comes the interesting part. When I surveyed people outside of EMS, I found there was absolutely no connection between the amount of money people made and their sense of contentment or financial security. What was even more interesting is that of everyone who identified themselves as being happy with their income and secure in their finances, all but one participant made between $30,000 and $70,000.

One thing I was able to determine with the survey is that financial practices did have a direct impact on the participants opinion of their financial situations. Of all the people who were satisfied with their wages and identified their situation as “secure,” 90% of them had no debt, saved for emergencies and planned for retirement. The rest had minimal debt and saved for emergencies.

Making the Change

Being financially secure is a choice. If what you’re doing isn’t working, stop doing it. We have to take accountability and stop blaming the industry for our financial woes. Nobody forced us into this line of work and nobody is holding a gun to our head to keep us here. If you’re convinced your situation will never get better if you stay in EMS, then by all means go do something that works for you. But if you love this job and you want to be here, then this article is for you.

The first thing we have to do is figure out where we stand and get caught up on our essential bills. Don’t hide from the mailman, don’t ignore your phone calls, don’t go months without checking your bank statement and don’t pretend the problem isn’t there. Open every bill you can find and start listing your debts from smallest to largest. If you’re behind on bills, call your bank, phone provider, mortgage company, etc. and work out plans to get caught up on your payments.

Figure out exactly what you’re bringing home every paycheck and start hacking away at monthly expenses that aren’t essential. It’s going to be painful, but trust me when I say you might miss your cable TV, but you’ll never miss your negative account balance.

When you’re broke, everything is for sale. Do a complete inventory on everything you own. EVERYTHING. Figure out what everything could sell for and start listing those items largest to smallest. Once you place a price on everything, you’ll quickly see a direct connection between that old set of golf clubs you’re holding on to and how fast you’re achieving your financial goals.

Get on a Budget

To budget doesn’t mean to limit. We all live on a budget, it’s just a matter of how many categories. When you run out of money, you’ve maxed out your budget. You can either tell your money where to go, or wonder where it went. When you budget, you are in complete control. Don’t let the declined debit card transaction be your indicator that you’ve reached your limit. Figure out what you make and give every dollar a job.

After you cut your monthly expenses as low as you possibly can, then use the rest to start saving for a small emergency fund. I recommend following Dave Ramsey’s advice and setting aside $1,000 for emergencies. Once you pay off your debts, you can build this to a higher number.

Budgeting takes practice. It’s going to take a few months to get it right. Don’t give up. There are plenty of resources to help you along the way when you’re starting out.

Get Out of Debt

Being debt free is going to be absolutely essential to your financial wellbeing. Cut the credit cards, pay off the cars, tackle the student loans and make a commitment to never borrow another dime again. With debt comes risk and with risk comes stress. You might be able to comfortably make your loan payments every month, but that’s 100% dependent on your ability to maintain the income that you have. Losing your job, becoming sick or injured or losing a contributor to your household income could destroy your life overnight.

Let’s pretend you got laid off and lost your income, meaning you suddenly couldn’t make payments. The banks are going to come take your house, your cars and anything else you financed. They are concerned about one thing and that’s making interest off your debt. Imagine the same scenario if you were debt free and had three months worth of expenses saved up. Nobody is going to come take your belongings and you will have a nice little cushion to get by until you come up with a plan.

Once you save up your $1,000 emergency fund, start dedicating every spare dollar you can toward paying off debt. Continue to make the minimum payments on everything and put anything extra toward the smallest debt. Continue to pay off your debts in this order until you’re debt free. This is called the “debt snowball” method and you can find plenty of information on it by going to Dave Ramsey’s website or doing a simple Google search.

Moving Forward

EMS can be a very rewarding career if you approach it with the right mindset and don’t have the burden of debt and financial instability. If you are truly unhappy with your career, be real with yourself about the reasons. If you’re still convinced that it’s money, then I challenge you to take a long hard look at what you’re doing. I know I did and it saved my career.

Good people leave this profession every day in hopes of finding higher wages. Many of these people don’t even really want to leave but feel there’s no other way to get their life back on track. Unfortunately, the high turnover makes it very difficult for us to advance our career. By promoting financial responsibility we can literally change the course of the industry and take back control of our lives.

Sean Eddy has worked as a paramedic for 10 years and now resides in North Texas. He is the author of MedicMadness.com and the founder of the #MoneySmartMedics campaign.