How do you do it?

[triplerox]

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For me, being a doctor is my ideal career. The problem with that is the amount of money it takes to get there. Now before anyone brings up the whole you shouldn't do this for the money debate, let me just say that I am not. My point is in the time and money spent to get there, how do you deal with your finances if you have a family?

I'm a non-trad so right now I'm in my mid-20s. If I were to pick up a med school route, that means 1-2 year consisting of SMPs and 4 years of med school. During those time, it's pretty much guaranteed that I will be broke unless I take out an absurd amount of loans lol. Anyway, I will be living by below my means and if I am single it's not a problem at all. But what if you plan to start a family? I know some will say you shouldn't and I completely agree but I just want to see if anyone has done it before.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is how do you manage your finances BEFORE and DURING med school if you are a non-trad!

 

[The White Coat Investor]

I don't understand how a "non-trad" can be in his mid-20s. Half my med school class was in their 30s. I nearly went straight through and didn't start med school until my mid 20s.

You're single? That's easy. Sell your car. Get some roommates. Get a job. Take a ton of credits each semester. Live very cheaply. Bust your butt. Get into medical school.

I don't see why anyone has to take out loans for undergraduate. The average tuition is $7K/year. Add on another $7K per year for living expenses (you're a single student without a car or house so you don't need much.) $14K a year is all you need. If family can't help, you have to earn it yourself. A part-time job may pay you $500-1000 a month, let's say $750. So for nine months of school you get $6750. Now you need to earn $7250 in the 3 summer months. That's less than $2500 a month. If you can get a couple of $10 an hour jobs, and work say 250 hours a month, you're got it made.

Now you move on to med school. You've got three good options and one bad one. The first option is to get into a cheap school. If you can get into a state school with tuition of less than $20K a year, you can get out of school with less than $100-$120K in loans-very manageable, even for a pediatrician. Option two, hopefully combined with option one, is to get someone to support you. Starting a family isn't all bad from a financial perspective if the other member of that family comes with a paycheck. My wife worked through most of med school. She didn't make much, but even a little helps. Option three, which may or may not be a good idea (see my blog post here: http://whitecoatinvestor.com/personal-finance/should-i-join-the-military-to-pay-for-medical-school/) is to join the military to pay for school. $2K a month stipend, all tuition/fees/expenses paid etc. It has its downsides sure, but if you're going to a school where tuition is $60K a year, it has some awfully big upsides. The bad option is to go to an expensive medical school and rack up huge loans, especially if you're adding them on to huge undergraduate loans. Coming out of med school with $300K in loans at 7%+ is a recipe for financial hardship. You'll be closing a lot of doors specialty-wise and even with a high-paying specialty, will be severely restricting your later financial options.

You're going to work hard as a doctor, you might as well get started now.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

Exactly how is the book free? The link goes to Amazon which lists it at $2.99, which is close to free, but not exactly the same.

 

[freqflyer82]

For me, being a doctor is my ideal career. The problem with that is the amount of money it takes to get there. Now before anyone brings up the whole you shouldn't do this for the money debate, let me just say that I am not. My point is in the time and money spent to get there, how do you deal with your finances if you have a family?

I'm a non-trad so right now I'm in my mid-20s. If I were to pick up a med school route, that means 1-2 year consisting of SMPs and 4 years of med school. During those time, it's pretty much guaranteed that I will be broke unless I take out an absurd amount of loans lol. Anyway, I will be living by below my means and if I am single it's not a problem at all. But what if you plan to start a family? I know some will say you shouldn't and I completely agree but I just want to see if anyone has done it before.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is how do you manage your finances BEFORE and DURING med school if you are a non-trad!

Yikes.. can't imagine going through school with young kids. 🙁 What I did that helped a lot was to use Craigslist.org for almost anything you need. Forget about buying new stuff.. figure that you will replace almost everything anyway once in residency, so buy used. I'm talking all your furniture, car, etc. The only thing I did was to get a new mattress for obvious reasons.