Another general post-med school lifestyle question..

I'm just feeling so frustrated tonight. It's two days after payday, we've payed all the bills (including the dreaded student loan payment), and AGAIN it seems like we have very little money left. We're mostly paying off the moving expenses and the student loans but otherwise don't have too many weird expenses. He makes a fair amount of money and we live a pretty frugal lifestyle but it just seems like we're not making a lot of progress in getting ahead. We both need glasses and now we're going to be needing a bigger car and we're trying to save for a rainy day and it just seems like crap keeps popping up.

Is this just the American condition? Do people just never have as much money as they think they need?

Please feel free to move this to financial matters if needed.

[Vanquisher]

If you need to, I highly suggest loan deferment. I am always stunned when people manage to start paying back student loans in residency.

[ides]

Definitely look into loan deferment. Residency salary is too low imho to be paying on student loans. Ours are over the 200k mark and there is no way we could squeeze that in. I've come to the conclusion that we will be in a similar boat for quite a few years. We don't spend much either, but I have found that expensive crap always pops up whether you have the money or not. Try to defer your loans and move that money into a saving account for the unexpected expenses that always come up. Hang in there.

[Vishenka69]

We are the scarce freaks who have started repaying loans in residency. Granted we don't have as much as most and they're all federal (so we have lower rate and more repayment options). If the loans are federal and consolidated, you may have the option of paying them over 30 years with the lowest amount for the first 2, then a bit higher in the 3rd and then regular later on. It's working well for us so far, but we didn't have that much to start with and we're both working now.

I think having two incomes (even small ones) definitely helps to keep the finances afloat. As is renting and lack of kids. I would definitely love to have more money (the more the better), but we're doing ok. Our only debt is student loans and we're trying to agressively save both in 401 and for a future house. Although I defnitely believe that the more you have the more you spend. Even though our income has doubled since med school, we're not saving significantly more.