House goals

[teambringit]

We all have goals when we graduate. Mine is to buy a nice house. What kind of house would an average podiatrist be able to afford? I know there are other variables, but I want a rough estimate. What are we talking? 400K?

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[air bud]

Depends, what are you goals? What do you value in life? Where do you want to live? 400k is huge in the middle of Iowa, tiny in the Bay Area. I bought a 900 sq foot house for 68k. Its what my wife and I wanted. I am starting my first job at a few multiples of that.

 

[heybrother]

Your goal before you start practicing should be to increase your financial literacy. The variables matter. The word "afford" means many things to many people. If you go to a mortgage calculator online you can put in any amount and determine the monthly payment. If afford to you means - do I have the cash flow to make the payment then the answer is probably yes if you have any sort of decent income. My personal family experience is that banks are more than happy to lend you more than you can afford. The words "house poor" exist for a reason. For very good reason, people historically tried to put down 20% when they purchased a home. There's a number of benefits to that, but in your example that would require $80K.

Unfortunately your school isn't going to tell you the grown up financial things you probably need to do when you graduate. A distant family member of mine actually pulled me aside a week before I started residency and reiterated all the things I'd read on whitecoatinvestor.com (a website you should absolutely check out). Term life, umbrella insurance, Roth IRA, a personal Disability Insurance policy, saving 20+%, attacking your student loans, etc.

Anyway - I hope you get the house you want someday. That said - there's only so much money to go around and you can only work for so long.

 

[teambringit]

Your goal before you start practicing should be to increase your financial literacy. The variables matter. The word "afford" means many things to many people. If you go to a mortgage calculator online you can put in any amount and determine the monthly payment. If afford to you means - do I have the cash flow to make the payment then the answer is probably yes if you have any sort of decent income. My personal family experience is that banks are more than happy to lend you more than you can afford. The words "house poor" exist for a reason. For very good reason, people historically tried to put down 20% when they purchased a home. There's a number of benefits to that, but in your example that would require $80K.

Unfortunately your school isn't going to tell you the grown up financial things you probably need to do when you graduate. A distant family member of mine actually pulled me aside a week before I started residency and reiterated all the things I'd read on whitecoatinvestor.com (a website you should absolutely check out). Term life, umbrella insurance, Roth IRA, a personal Disability Insurance policy, saving 20+%, attacking your student loans, etc.

Anyway - I hope you get the house you want someday. That said - there's only so much money to go around and you can only work for so long.

I wasn't talking about buying a house right after I graduate. I was talking about when I become a practicing podiatrist for a few years.

 

[ExperiencedDPM]

There is no answer to your question. As already stated, in some areas of the country $400,000 will buy you relatively new construction and a 3500 sq foot, 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom home with a full basement, gourmet kitchen, den, living room, dining room, study/office, laundry room, 2-3 car garage, .....and more. In other areas 400,000 will buy you a shack that needs lots of work. You need to understand that you need to do your homework to understand that some questions have no real answer, since there are so many variables. My friend's daughter just bought a 850 sq ft apartment in NYC for $750,000. What's your definition of a "nice" house? It's all relative.