moving with a self-employed spouse

[Grazia Lamberti]

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Hi to all and congrats to my fellow newly-matched med students! I'm a longtime lurker who finally got motivated enough to start an account.

I currently live in a major US city where the economy is booming and stable. I just found out that I matched to a "reach" program- such a reach, in fact, that I barely considered the fact that the economy isn't necessarily the best in that area. My husband and I agreed about its place on my ROL because it seemed about as likely as pigs flying, and would be such a great opportunity if it did pan out. I'm really excited, but also concerned about my husband's job status. He hates the term "handy man, " but that may be the best way to describe him, as he holds multiple licenses for electrical work, building, and just about anything else you could do with a house. He's built his self-run business up from the ground where we are now, and has many wealthy clients that really keep him going. It's a whole different ball game where we're about to move, as the area is mostly underprivileged. He doesn't like the prospect of working for someone else, especially since we have kids, so his making his own hours has been essential. He also doesn't like the prospect of starting from the ground up, only to move in another 7 years.

We initially planned to buy a foreclosure and have him focus on pimping it out so we could turn around and sell for mucho dinero when I'm done. Looking at the housing market, although costs are very affordable, there doesn't seem to be a large margin of difference between, say, the foreclosure that lacks a floor and the high-roller Victorians. Based on this, he's worried that we wouldn't make much off of it even if we did go with this plan. Obviously, this also doesn't address the issue of us living solely on my piddle salary for goodness knows how long. (Do people even do that?)

Sorry if this is rambling, but our brains are both overflowing right now- if anyone can offer some advice regarding any of this, it would be appreciated!

Edit: I should add that we definitely plan to buy, as we are current homeowners who can roll some money from the sale over into our new house. Also, my residency is super-long.

 

[HopefulCanadian]

Assuming your still young why not go for it. I mean he can always start his thing again from the ground up. Even if it isn't an affluent area there is still work to be done. You being a doctor and him having the ability to work and be ambitious tells me that money isn't ....and shouldn't be an issue. Additionally, working for someone isn't the worst it can teach you good skills while you build up your network and connections. As for the house flipping business, I don't have a clue what the market is doing in your particular area but unless you have done it before it is very risky and you typically tie up your money in a place for up to 6 months. I think you should seriously consider it, this is part of the reason why online businesses or businesses with an online component are great.

Good luck

 

[NotAProgDirector]

If he has wealthy clients now, see if any of them have connections in the city you're moving to. There are wealthy people everywhere. A good referral to someone local, followed by some quality work, and he can build a similar network of clients.