Money Madness!

Well, I thought I would throw this one into the ring...I have seen it brought up a few times and it definately applies to us right now as well! We have really struggled financially the last few years, but the last two months have been unbelievably hard. It is true that people make the assumption "doctor=money" without realizing that residents and their families actually qualify for the earned income credit the first year (At least we did!). We didn't have dental insurance during training , etc...and we had friends that were insulted that we didn't pay for them to visit us, etc...Even my own father, who receives free travel tickets from the airlines (he is a pilot) wouldn't share them with us and was offended that our family of 5 couldn't afford to fly out to visit.....

Right now, we are seeing this from a different angle. We are finally finished with residency/fellowship but are so in debt that we can't see straight. We have our house, but it is EMPTY! (Not a bad thing...it is much easier to clean )Our loans have begun coming out of deferrment and with the payments for them (YIPES!) and our needing to put something in a retirement account and college fund, we will not be able to furnish the rooms for a VERY long time! I'm not complaining...I think that things will financially be better now than they were, but it is a mistake to believe that even when you finish that you will have a landslide of mula coming in!

But we have seen the attitude even in our neighbors who were "surprised" that we would be sending our two children to public school. The schools are very good here, it is one of the reasons we moved back to the north......Initially, I asked about the schools the kids would go to and she replied "well, IF you send your kids to public schools........" in a tone that I thought meant that she didn't send hers to public schools. I said "Oh...do you send your children to private schools" and she said "no, WE don't". I explained that we would be using the public school system as well and her attitude definately softened.

Thanks for letting me share...

Kris

[Meenah]

Hi Kris,
I know exactly what you are talking about. When Jory and I got married I got so many comments about money it made me sick. As I've said before, this is a second marriage for both of us. People I work with still ask me WHY are you working? It really makes me angry. I have worked with these people for 10 years. They don't realize (or want to acknowledge) that in the first place I love what I do for a living, and I have two children and he has two children. My daughter starts college in September and her father and I will be paying for it. Jory's daughter is in college and he is paying for that. Then we each have another in high school. Well, you get the picture. With child support, alimony, and college we are financially starting over. When we were looking for a house to buy the real estate agent said "are you sure you aren't just starting to practice". It really hurt him.
Hang in there Kris, it will get better. Thanks for letting me vent - I feel better now!!!!
Luanne

AH MONEY--I will leave it at that--

Luanne,

I've heard the same kind of comments...crazy, huh? Well, at least for all of the residents and their families out there it is nice to know that there is hope! We were pretty creative about how we did things.....we went out on dates where we just went for walks and we did put a lot of things on layaway as opposed to buying it with a credit card....The number one thing that helped us though was not taking the credit cards with us when we went shopping. It forced us to think about whether or not we truly "needed" the item to be purchased...of course....we did bring the card with us sometimes..... ...but that visa bill is another story!


FYI though, the absolute WORST credit card you can get is a NEXTCARD! Seriously, it is the pits! They have consistently not received our payment on time regardless of when we mail it...and then they tack on late fees, etc...stay away from NEXT!
Kris

[DCJenn]

Well, having just bounced a check to my parents....add me to the list! Just when i think there is a light on at the end of the tunnel- that we can actually start paying back some of these huge accumulated credit card bills- BAM- something else hits. Richt now its registration for the Boards- That's what we're spending our gift from "W" on. Sorry- won't be doing idle consumer spending to continue to prop up the economy! And let me just express my moment of thanks that I went first on the tax return- we're part of the first group- otherwise- we'd be part of the last! And have I mentioned my beloved's penchant for toys? How about the new Sony Clie he just opened a Best Buy account to get!!! UGH I swear, the man will make me crazy- It's a damn good thing he looks good in uniform.

oh yes I am afraid the king of gadgets lives in my house--it it is "cool" he wants it

just as an example he once bought some little gadget that you attach to the phone that once you push the button you all of a sudden hang up on the other person

yes your questions I am sure are the same as mine--"Uhm dear, why wouldn't you just hang up on the person?"

He looked at me with that "duh dear its a gadget" look

Anyway the next thing he wants to buy is one of the palm pilots that has the phone attached--I have started saving now for that Christmas present--good lord

And when he heard I was getting a new laptop from work--he about fell over--its a gadget dear its a gadget--whatever

are we chatting tonight i don't see anyone in the room

Home of another gadget king here...his new favorite: DVD player and an online membership in Netflix, which delivers your choice of DVD's to your door . But, I have my own vices..esp. the computer!

Ouch about the bounced check! At least it was to your parents and not a store...Although it might have been more embarassing!

Kris

[Meenah]

I just hope the check I will be writing to Penn State doesn't hitr before my paycheck gets into my account!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Luanne

does the trick still work that we used in college--you know send the check but forget to sign it--you get credit for sending in your payment but it takes a month to get it back

good lord that saved my back end dozens of times when I was in college--however it doesn't work too well with checks to your mother as they just sign your name. Something about "carrying you in my body for nine months" kind of thing.

At least that is what I was told

Hope all is well--yes it is 6:35am--was up at 4:00am--couldn't sleep--Happy Wednesday everyone--Kris let me know what is up for this weekend--do you want to meet half way or maybe I should have you come all the way in and I will show you around my neck of the woods--Thomas can have a quality day with the kids--call me at work Kris

[DCJenn]

Well- luckily my parents aren't going to starve to death. But they are in the process of buying a condo in Jersey for my Dad to use M-F so I'm sure they would like some extra cash to play with! Oh well- they still love me.

So, what's with the Doctor=gadget guru? I was going to say Gadget King except some of the girls (I'm sorry- one graduated from high school the year AFTER I finished my masters) that are 2nd years with Rick are in to the gadgets are badly as he is!

Jason- lets start our own company doing something fabulous, OK? Only I guess it'll have to be somewhere in Kansas so we'll have an equal commute!

Jenn

PS- ripping the routing number slightly is also a fabu way of delaying Ye Olde Check Processing...amazing what we all took from college, isn't it!

I wish my husband was into gadgets. Now that he's not a resident, I learned that he's possessed by cars. I won't go into it, but it's taken more than a few second hand (old "treasures" that I call corpses) and a couple of brand new vehicles to work it out of his system.

When your doctor does get done with residency, you might just have a wee spending spree on your hands. They go a bit nutso with the extra cash sometimes, and it takes a couple of years to realize it is NOT a bottomless pit.

Geesh...

[houseelf]

Oh yeah, the car thing.

Sean drives by the Porshe dealership several times a week. I tease him about being able to fit a car seat in a two seater. Poor guy. As an alternative to a sports car, we're talking about getting a minivan, a huge blow to his ego.

Kelly

Thank god mine is only into gadgets--if he was a car freak as well we would be in big trouble

we should start a company but only market products to doctors who have been out of residency for about 10 years--we can hit them in the mid life crisis mode--"instead of horrible gold necklaces and shirts unbuttoned to you navel, how about one of these hand helds that doubles as both a phone and a microwave?"

Anyone want to pay our mortgage this month?!!

Enough said.