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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

I have a Question Already...

I hope this doesn't seem nosy and I don't have to know any details but I see that some of you work and some of you don't. I realize that there are some small "cost of living" loans associated with med school but what do you do to make up the difference? Private loans? Also, for those of you that are at home what do you do in regards to health insurance? Just curious because I do hope to work but I don't think that whatever I do will equal my husbands current pay. We are planning on selling the house etc. before he begins his post bacch - I just don't know how we'll make it! I know that the Lord will provide but I guess I just worry a lot...

Labels: discussion question

9 Comments:

Mrs. Dawkter said...: Will your hubby be going to a pvt or public med school? I think that can make a HUGE difference! My husband goes to a state school and his government loans cover tuition plus living expenses so that we don't have to take out any additional loans. And since I got a job we now try to only take out the necessary amount of loans for tuition and fees and try and use my salary for food/books/housing etc. They also allow you to apply for smaller additions to your loans for things like laptops and test fees along the way. For example Drew just applied last month for a $1,000 to take Step 2 - yeah the test is that much!- so we put it on our credit card for now and the loan should come in any day now. For the semester we were both in school I used excell sheets to budget out every penny of the loan money to last us until I could get a job! If he goes to a state school you should be just fine without private loans.; March 24, 2009 at 5:00 PM
Melisa said...: Yes, loans are heavily relied on. We didn't need to use private loans until our vehicle died. And during MBA year because they don't give you any money! ;o)

I wanted to stay home with my children, and it didnt' make much sense monetarily for me to work after the expenses of child care. It has been tight, be we live frugally anyway. There is no way we could afford private insurance while he was a student. We were on Medicaid. Now we just use what his residency provides.

We try to live comfortably, but we don't have tons of luxuries. We don't have cable TV. Our TV is 7 years old. We buy furniture off Craigslist. I get clothes at Goodwill (and from grandparents). I don't get my nails done and I haven't had my hair cut since August (my brother's wedding). We don't go to nice restaurants very often and limit eating out to once a week.

We do have cell phones, which I consider a necessity. :o) We had to get a text plan because the residents and attendings page him so much, but we don't have internet on them or anything.

I don't know if this answers your questions or not... :o); March 24, 2009 at 5:37 PM
Alexandra said...: Yeah, all our living was covered by our student loans and I worked the first 1-1/2 years to give us some savings. We have always paid for our own private insurance which is about $400/month which isn't fun but we couldn't live without it! We have just lived on our loan money and if it didn't fit into the budget we didn't get it.; March 24, 2009 at 8:43 PM
MW said...: R actually handles all of his loan stuff; I don't know the details regarding those yet. However, I can talk about being the breadwinner! :)

You have kids, so it's a little different, but here's what we do:
*Student loans for tuition and that's it
*My paycheck goes toward rent (student housing), utilities, cable, groceries, books, my tuition, phones, discretionary spending, our savings and my 401(k).
*We get dental and vision insurance through my work
*R gets his health insurance through school (look into this! I've never been to a school that didn't have health insurance)
*I get my health insurance through work (I see you're in real estate, but just as a general tip - BigLaw firms tend to have the best benefits)

Good luck! :); March 24, 2009 at 10:40 PM
MW said...: Oh - also I should note that I could also be on R's plan through the school and he on mine. I just love, love, love my insurance policy (even covered ~75% of my Malarone prescription!)...and I think R just finds it easier to be on the school's plan.; March 24, 2009 at 10:42 PM
TheFamousStacie said...: Here's my recipe for staying home:

Food Stamps
Medicaid
WIC
fed and private loans
and a dash of scholarships
(we also qualified for section 8 housing but didn't ever use it)

Get all you can from the Government before you have to pay for everyone else to be on welfare : ); March 24, 2009 at 11:54 PM
Tasha said...: Most schools provide with the loans a living expense--you should ask how much. My hubby's school allows us 1600/month of living expenses (that's regardless of whether you're married or have kids) which is enough for us as a couple, but we're hoping to start a family too and it has become a concern for me. My brother-in-law had six kids before the end of residency and had two houses at the same time (they couldn't sell one of them for a year). They honestly lived off of credit cards, private loans, and stafford loans. Now he's been done for a couple of years and they live very comfortably (considering their amount of debt). I wouldn't recommend this route, but it illustrates how it is possible. I don't know your situation, but it is possible and there always is Medicaid and Food stamps and possibly housing as a back up (but it wouldn't be my first choice); March 25, 2009 at 7:19 AM
Kelly said...: Thanks for all the info. everyone - I really appreciate it! I guess it's just trying to determine what amount of debt is "normal" and since we'll be so old by the time this is over I worry about paying off the debt and living reasonably well after all that time in school/residency! By the time my husband is done with everything our oldest will be in college himself! Scary thought!; March 25, 2009 at 7:48 AM
Trisha said...: We did the student loans and a program in OK called Physicians Manpower Training Commission (is this just in OK?). They paid us $1250 a month and in turn we agreed to work in a smaller OK town...a year to year agreement. Working in a small town was our plan anyway, so this really worked out for us.

Kyle had insurance through his school. I had an indivual plan through Blue Cross. The kids were on Medicaid. Be very careful about the insurance through the school... it is cheap yes, but ours sucked! The prescription plan was a joke and we ended up having to take a $13,000 private loan out for Kyle's gall bladder surgery. They didn't pay squat. I'm changing subjects now because I'll get all worked up if I keep going. :)

I stayed at home all 4 years so we had no income. This was a second career path for Kyle so he will be 37 by the time he is out on his own. So that makes the debt payoff a little scary when we think about it. But, it's just worth it to us.; March 25, 2009 at 2:42 PM

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

I have a Question Already...

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