Wife, Child, and Loans

[Akaandykay]

I am a nontraditional medical student applying to schools at age 28. My fiancee wants to have a child in about three years, just the time when I will be a 3rd year medical student. After that, she intends to stay at home with our child. I know others have made this work, but the kicker in our situation is that she still has a large amount of student loan debt herself. In a few months, her payments go up to $1400 per month, which she would assume I would take over since she will not have a job to stay home with our child.

Is there any way her lenders might grant her a deferment at least until I enter residency? I know there is no way schools would allow me to borrow that much extra per month.

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[devlyyn]

I can't really speak for deferment, but my wife and I also want to have kids during my 4th year. She doesn't have any debt, but we are hoping to move back home so my parents can help take care of our kid while she works, even if just part time. If that's an option for you, I would consider it, especially since she has put in the time/money for a college degree.

 

[cali-ob]

I am a nontraditional medical student applying to schools at age 28. My fiancee wants to have a child in about three years, just the time when I will be a 3rd year medical student. After that, she intends to stay at home with our child. I know others have made this work, but the kicker in our situation is that she still has a large amount of student loan debt herself. In a few months, her payments go up to $1400 per month, which she would assume I would take over since she will not have a job to stay home with our child.

Is there any way her lenders might grant her a deferment at least until I enter residency? I know there is no way schools would allow me to borrow that much extra per month.

She needs to wake up to reality. In the best case scenario, $1400 will be half of your monthly income as a resident. And before that you will have to find some way to pay that $1400/month during the last 1-2 years of medical school. I believe you can get a deferrment to stay at home with an infant or when you are pregnant, but I cant recall, best thing to do is check with her lender/loan servicer. If she is planning on taking this (med school) journey with you, then she is going to have to accept that the stay at home mom dream may not be feasible in the setting of educational debt and no income earners.

 

[LADoc00]

I am a nontraditional medical student applying to schools at age 28. My fiancee wants to have a child in about three years, just the time when I will be a 3rd year medical student. After that, she intends to stay at home with our child. I know others have made this work, but the kicker in our situation is that she still has a large amount of student loan debt herself. In a few months, her payments go up to $1400 per month, which she would assume I would take over since she will not have a job to stay home with our child.

Is there any way her lenders might grant her a deferment at least until I enter residency? I know there is no way schools would allow me to borrow that much extra per month.

the extra 1400/mo wont be doable for you for a very very long time. Any chance of a debt-free girl in your future?? I would start looking now.

 

[touchadream]

Couple of ideas for you: 1. she isn't pregnant yet and you don't actually know when/if that will happen, so you are making a lot of assumptions there. 2. If she works now and saves now, the debt can be less of a problem if/when, she does get pregnant 3. She can work with kids, take in a few extras for day care, or work in a day care, and be with your baby to cover her debt payments. This has many advantages, socializes your child and wife, improves both of their immune systems, will make her less crazy to be alone with an infant all day, one of the worlds toughest jobs. If you are crazy for this woman, you can work this all out...just not in your head, ahead of time. Best of luck to you, overachiever.

 

[Caristra]

IF she is really insistent on this then you are going to need to look into work from home ideas for her.

Here are some places to start:
http://www.squidoo.com/great-ways-to-earn-money-from-home
Wahm.com

 

[TMP-SMX]

Look into economic hardship deferment

 

[The White Coat Investor]

With or without the child (I recommend without) she needs to keep working until her loans are gone. She took them out as an investment and needs to work that investment at least until she's back to even.

If you want to take over the payments when you start making an attending salary that's one thing, but as a med student? Or even a resident? You're setting yourselves up for failure.

And 28 hardly makes you nontraditional. Half my class was over 30.

Edit: Fiancee? $1400 a month is a lot of baggage. That's like a $200K mortgage. You sure about this?

 

[dpmd]

This seems like a really bad idea. You guys are both in debt, right? Now you want to increase your debt load (by not servicing a 1400 a month loan or by financing it with more loans) and increase the outflow of money (kids cost money in case you weren't aware) and take away your primary (probably only) source of inflow. Even if you wait until residency you will not be a much better situation (1400 will be more than half your income in most cases, and now your loans will be coming due as well, plus kids still cost money).

At the risk of getting a stream of offended replies, not everyone is in a financially secure enough position to have children. Doing so anyway is irresponsible. Delay until your position is better (or plan ahead you don't rack up a large debt then decide you just want to be a stay at home parent), or evaluate whether you really need to have a child.

Or the more PC answer, do whatever you want and apply for government assistance.