family living expense

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roballan14

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Here's the deal...

When I get into med school (trying to be optimistic) is it better to:

A) take loans to cover what I make in my current job (not alot) so I don't have to sell the house, make my wife work more, etc

B) sell the house, move the fam to an apt and totally change our lifestyle

Just for the sake of hypothetical numbers, let's say that I bring home $1500 a month and my wife brings home $1000. Could I get loans to cover my part, or ought we start eliminating things from our budget (like to mortgage)?

FYI- there are two med school very close to us, so I don't envision having to leave the area.

Thanks for your input.

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roballan14 said:
Here's the deal...

When I get into med school (trying to be optimistic) is it better to:

A) take loans to cover what I make in my current job (not alot) so I don't have to sell the house, make my wife work more, etc

B) sell the house, move the fam to an apt and totally change our lifestyle

Assuming you qualify, you can take out up to $8500 in subsidized loans plus more if you need in unsubsidized loans. For my wife and I we calculated that we would pay the same amount in mortgage + property taxes as rent for a equivalently sized place (Houston,TX); for us it made better sense to build equity in the house. However, this situation will not work for everyone. How much will you save if you move to an apartment that you think you would be appropriate? When you sell the house, you may have to pay for expenses such as real estate commission (6% in our area), repairs, title insurance (~1%), moving expenses so if you recently purchased this house, I don't know how much it has appreciated. However, if your house has really appreciated in price, maybe you can use that profit towards funding your education; especially if you know you may not do residency in the same area. Making your wife work more is a personal decision; in return for my wife working more, I took on more chores and housework since she is not around as much.

A much riskier alternative is to move out, find an apartment and rent out your house at a profit (i.e. the rent would pay for mortgage and property taxes). This requires some major number crunching to figure out if you will come out on top. I was able to do this for a year because the area that I live in has a high percentage of medical residents/students/staff since it is close to two medical schools and multiple hospitals in the Texas Medical Center. This option probably is not very good if money is really tight and is very dependent on whether or not you can get a renter. Good luck.
 
Keep in mind that you CAN borrow 8500 subsidized and 30,000 unsub every year to cover tuition + overage. Overage = living expenses. If that isn't enough, either you or your working spouse with good credit can obtain a private loan that does not have to be certified by the medical school. A loan which has to be certified by the school will have a ceiling cap that precludes the sort of aid you have in mind for your situation.

Your wife is not making very much money. You are very likely to need cosigners with good credit if you need anything more than a nominal amount of living expenses from a private loan. Note this as well.

Private lenders favor people with assets - hold onto the house.
 
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roballan14 said:
Here's the deal...

When I get into med school (trying to be optimistic) is it better to:

A) take loans to cover what I make in my current job (not alot) so I don't have to sell the house, make my wife work more, etc

B) sell the house, move the fam to an apt and totally change our lifestyle

Just for the sake of hypothetical numbers, let's say that I bring home $1500 a month and my wife brings home $1000. Could I get loans to cover my part, or ought we start eliminating things from our budget (like to mortgage)?

FYI- there are two med school very close to us, so I don't envision having to leave the area.

Thanks for your input.

Wow. I don't envy you at all. Threads like these make me very glad that I am single. Good luck--I'm sure you'll make it work.
 
I am in a similar situation. Except..we have a 3 and half yr old in the house too.
I have been thinking about the very same issue for a while.

What I am curious though - is it that crazy to work say 10 hour per week? The way I am planning is if my wife doesn't work (she doesn't work right now), then I will try to work 10 hours per week and/or do some consulting work from home at my own time. For instance, I do some web design work.

Wish you the very best man! I am sure somehow it will all work out - it always does. I had harder days when I was an undergrad on my own.

Shahab
 
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