DEBT
If you are a med school grad, you have debt. It's like saying the sky is blue. Obvious, inevitable, and for some, crushing. The debt payoff is a marathon, not a sprint, but this program at least has some perks to get there a little faster *cough* GC call *cough*
Debt may be crushing, but emergency expenses can devastate. You should start by trying to save at LEAST $1000 for an emergency fund, so if something happens you don't have to overdraw or put it on a credit card that will charge you 21% in interest.
I like the Dave Ramsey way of describing tackling debt. He describes 2 ways of dealing with it, the "snowball" or the avalanche.
Snowball is you start by picking the smallest amount of debt you have. Eg if you have 100K+ of student loans, 30K of car payments, and $1000 in credit card payments, snowball has you start paying the credit card payments so you can get the motivation of ticking something off the list when you pay it off and will encourage you to keep on the repayment path.
I personally like the avalanche method better bc I hate interest that works against me. The avalanche is that you pick the debt with the highest interest rate and you pay that off first. Eg car debt is 12% debt, credit card is 8% and student loan is 4%, you choose to pay off the 12% first (while still making the minimums on your other debts so you don't get in trouble and tank your credit score), and then when the 12% is gone you start tackling the 8%, and so on.
Choose what works for you mentally and stick with it.
I'll speak to retirement specifically in another section, but even while you are aggressively working to decrease your debt, it is 100% worth putting away money to get your full employer match rather than throwing every scrap cent at your debt. the match is literally free money that you have to put zero effort to get. Might be worth throwing in any extra money in a ROTHIRA (in retirement) bc those are tax-free savings that have a set yearly contribution limit, but I understand that new city, new job, crushing debt, it might be difficult. But get your 403b match, every time, no excuses.
Normally, the Ramsey "baby steps" has you completely eliminate your debt before moving on to a proper emergency fund, but we are in a marathon, not a sprint. Try to save a little every month to build up at least 3 months of expenses.
Important to note, that your emergency fund shouldnt just sit in a checking account. in theory, 3months worth of expenses is at least a couple thousand $$$, and checking gives you almost zero interest. Instead, throw it in something flexible like a high yield savings account. they typically run at 3.5-4% annually in interest, yes you will have to pay taxes on this, but you are at least making money without effort. These typically can get your money to you in 1-3 days, so in theory you have an emergency, you might have to put it on a credit card, but then you can pay that off in full when the transfer comes through well before you are at risk of accruing high interest credit card debt.
I've personally been advised to keep no more than 5k in checking and put anything else in a HYSA for exactly that reason, but do what you are comfortable with, just make sure you don't lock it in something that will cause penalties if you withdraw too early bc you actually have an emergency. In this case flexibility > growth