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orange · Feb 6, 2006, 05:48 PM

My husband recently finished his residency as a family physician. He now has a dream of specializing in psychiatry, possibly child psychiatry. This would mean another 5 years of training.

I am all for him pursuing the speciality, because he wants it so much and knowing him as well as I do, I don't he'd be really happy or challenged enough, being a family doctor. However, he is concerned about debt and also supporting our family. We are buying a house this spring and expecting our first child in the summer. He had to take out student loans all through medical school, and if he goes on to specialize as well, we will be at least $250,000 in debt by the time he graduates. We decided before I even got pregnant that we would NOT put our kids in daycare, that I would stay home and care for them until they were school age. And besides, even if I did go to work, what I would make would not be enough to support us and pay for my husband's schooling, let alone pay for daycare.

I figure my husband should just go for it, take the specialty like he wants. Things will be tight for us, but we won't have to pay back the principal on the student loans until he is completely finished school. When he finishes in 5 years, he can establish himself in private practice and will be able to pay off the student loan debt quite quickly. And I've even offered to be his receptionist in the office for a couple of years, haha, so he doesn't have to pay anyone. As a medical specialist he will make nearly twice as much as he would if he stayed with family medicine.

The alternatives are, he could give up his dream to be a psychiatrist and settle for being a family doctor permanently, OR he could put the psychiatric specialty on hold until he pays off his current debt and we are better off financially. The second option sounds good in some ways, but my worry is he will forget what it's like to be in school if he waits, and it will be harder to go back.

What are everyone's thoughts on this? Financially, happiness wise, etc? Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks! :)

talaniman · Feb 6, 2006, 06:22 PM

Money is nice,I wish I had some.I may not be able to shop till I drop but I am one happy son of a gun.I'm doing the things I want and truly living my dreams,I'd never tell someone to give up his/her dreams for a few lousy bucks.Sometimes though we have to sort of make sure our obligations are fulfilled first,but we should never forget our dreams as they are what give us the strength to keep on with life.:cool: :)

Fr_Chuck · Feb 6, 2006, 08:44 PM

Why are you planning on buying a house at this time. Why not continue to rent a much cheaper place until he is at least within a year of completely finishing. Also don't over spend trying to live like a doctor, this is a critial mistake I have heard from doctors family on national credit talk shows a lot.

orange · Feb 6, 2006, 09:33 PM

Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

Why are you planning on buying a house at this time. Why not continue to rent a much cheaper place untill he is at least within a year of completely finishing.

As a wedding gift, we received a sizeable amount of money from both sets of parents and also my husband's grandparents, which is to be used as a downpayment on a house. The money amounts to more than half of what a reasonably priced starter home costs where we live. So purchasing the house will actually be cheaper for us than renting.

Fr_Chuck · Feb 6, 2006, 09:56 PM

Sorry, I have just listened to about two days of doctors and lawyers calling a national credit talk show. Almost everyone of them had bought a 500,000 up house either their last year or before the person was going to be earning any big money. Or for the lawyers before they found out most lawyers don't make any big money for years if they ever do.

And my advice, do the job you want to do, not what job pays the most.
If he decided to move to Africa and be a missionary, he should do what you and he wants to do, not what society expects him to do, what he thinks is required of him.

I had a good friend ( we are sort of having a tiff right now) but he is a doctor, he only works about 1/2 time and sends the rest of the time during church work and spendingit with his family. He has a general practice but only works 3 days a week.

If money was not a factor what would he do? That is what he should do and figure a way to afford it

orange · Feb 6, 2006, 10:32 PM

Oh no our house isn't going to be anywhere near $500,000 haha. I WISH! Actually our upper limit is about $150,000. You can get a really decent house here for that price... housing costs are fairly reasonable. Personally I just want a small "wartime" house with 3 bedrooms... one for us, one for the baby, and ideally one for a studio for me, so I can do my artwork from home. The wartime houses are within our price range, and have large lots, which means there will be a big yard for our dog and our child. When we pay off the mortgage, and if Alex is finished school by that point, we might consider a bigger home.

If money was not an issue, he would definitely continue with school, no question about it! I really think he should continue with school. Other than his student loans (which are sizeable! ) we don't have any debt. I look after the budgeting and I always manage to save about $200 a month, sometimes more. We saved for our honeymoon for a year and paid for it all with cash, and we only have 2 credit cards between us. I try to make sure that most if not all of the credit card bills are paid every month.

It's just that $250,000 debt seems like a HUGE scary amount!!

I had a good friend ( we are sort of having a tiff right now) but he is a doctor, he only works about 1/2 time and sends the rest of the time during church work and spendingit with his family. He has a general practice but only works 3 days a week.

That sounds really cool, but I'm not sure it can be done here... maybe if you worked only at the hospital and thus had no overhead you could, but if you're in private practice, I don't think you could afford it. Because in private practice, you are an entrepreneur who bills the government for your medical services, but you still have to pay to lease or buy your clinic space, and pay any receptionists or nurses you employ, medical supplies, etc.

Anyway thanks for your advice. I tried to give you a comment, but I got the old "pass reputation around first" thing. Alex is going to read everyone's responses. I hope it will help him to decide what he wants to do. I agree that he should do what makes him most happy.

Fr_Chuck · Feb 6, 2006, 10:42 PM

Now I do feel bad, I live in a bigger house than you are looking at. Guess I may want to consider my own advice.

I know it does and it is a lot of money but in the right department and position and a good budget this should be able to be controlled.

orange · Feb 6, 2006, 10:55 PM

Oh haha... well you ARE older than us and you have more kids! If I end up having 4 or 5 kids I will want a bigger place for sure! ;)

Renting a house is actually pretty expensive here. The one we are just moving out of costs us $850 a month rent, plus our total utilities are about $500 during the cold months when we need heat, which is pretty much all year haha. We would likely rent an apartment or get a condo if it was just the two of us, but... we're going to have the baby, plus we have a cat AND a large dog, AND my adoptive mother and my mother-in-law want to both come for a while and help with the baby, so... with husband, baby, cat, dog and 2 mothers I think I would go crazy if we were in a tiny apartment! :D

talaniman · Feb 7, 2006, 05:06 AM

After all the sad stories it is refreshing to hear someone with hope who is happy with their life,thanks orange for starting my day on a good note!:cool: :)

orange · Feb 8, 2006, 01:38 PM

Oh thanks I'm glad I made your day. I guess I am basically pretty happy. Then again, it's probably because I never expect much LOL.

orange · Feb 10, 2006, 05:19 PM

Well, I just wanted to let everyone know that Alex has made his decision... he is going ahead with the psychiatric residency. He'll begin in the fall, and in the meantime will work in emergency at the hospital. He's made quite a good contract with the hospital, and we're both looking forward to the extra money. Thanks again to everyone who replied! :)

talaniman · Feb 10, 2006, 05:23 PM

Don't forget your friends on payday :eek: :) seriuosly only the best of luck!:cool:

talaniman · Feb 10, 2006, 06:50 PM

ROFLMAOOOOOOOOOOOO!! hey take it easy on the old man and speak english

orange · Feb 10, 2006, 07:13 PM

Haha. You do know what ROFLMAO means though don't you? If not, I'll tell you... it means "rolling on the floor laughing my a** off". I added the extra O's for effect, haha. But if you DID know what it meant, sorry just ignore this message. :D