What is the max physician loan a resident can get approved for

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My partner and I will be buying a home for residency and our budget is $650k max. Both credit scores 800+ if it matters. He has a six figure salary and job history and I of course have had no income history since prior to med school. Will the loan be based off of our "combined" salary aka his, or just mine? We are common law and not married so I'm unsure of how this will effect the lone amount if at all. Do you think there be a problem getting a physician loan approved for 500-650k?

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What does "six-figure" salary mean? $100k? $200k? $800K? Big difference to the bank.

Ultimately, the only way to know is to apply for the loan (ideally with a few lenders) and see what they approve you for. If your partner is cosigning your loan their income may be taken into account. But you may have to be legally married. Again, that's really going to depend on your lender, and is something to ask them.

We were approved for up to $180k or so on my residency salary alone. That was also enough to buy most reasonable homes where I did my residency.

Whether buying a home as a resident is smart is another question.

If you don't plan to stay in that home for at least 5-10 years, buying a home in the current market is likely not a great decision. We essentially broke even with our home that we owned for four years of residency (about 10 years ago), compared to renting. That was after taking into account the repairs/issues that came up. I really enjoyed the home and working on it and the yard was one of my primary hobbies, but I really can't recommend buying a home for the majority of residents as they'll have far less free time/interest than I did in maintaining a home.
 
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What does "six-figure" salary mean? $100k? $200k? $800K? Big difference to the bank.

Ultimately, the only way to know is to apply for the loan (ideally with a few lenders) and see what they approve you for. If your partner is cosigning your loan their income may be taken into account. But you may have to be legally married. Again, that's really going to depend on your lender, and is something to ask them.

We were approved for up to $180k or so on my residency salary alone. That was also enough to buy most reasonable homes where I did my residency.

Whether buying a home as a resident is smart is another question.

If you don't plan to stay in that home for at least 5-10 years, buying a home in the current market is likely not a great decision. We essentially broke even with our home that we owned for four years of residency (about 10 years ago), compared to renting. That was after taking into account the repairs/issues that came up. I really enjoyed the home and working on it and the yard was one of my primary hobbies, but I really can't recommend buying a home for the majority of residents as they'll have far less free time/interest than I did in maintaining a home.
Good point. Low 100's! I'm planning to do an in house fellowship (hopefully) which would have us there for 5 years in total so that we could get equity in the house. Potentially will rent this house out once I'm an attending. Yes, this market really blows.. we would have bought when I started med school and rented it out if we had only known the skyrocketing price of homes.
 
What does "six-figure" salary mean? $100k? $200k? $800K? Big difference to the bank.

Ultimately, the only way to know is to apply for the loan (ideally with a few lenders) and see what they approve you for. If your partner is cosigning your loan their income may be taken into account. But you may have to be legally married. Again, that's really going to depend on your lender, and is something to ask them.

We were approved for up to $180k or so on my residency salary alone. That was also enough to buy most reasonable homes where I did my residency.

Whether buying a home as a resident is smart is another question.

If you don't plan to stay in that home for at least 5-10 years, buying a home in the current market is likely not a great decision. We essentially broke even with our home that we owned for four years of residency (about 10 years ago), compared to renting. That was after taking into account the repairs/issues that came up. I really enjoyed the home and working on it and the yard was one of my primary hobbies, but I really can't recommend buying a home for the majority of residents as they'll have far less free time/interest than I did in maintaining a home.
I am with you…in the vast majority of circumstances, I do not think it is a good idea to buy a house as a resident, and I have no idea why so many people seem to be determined to do so.
 
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I am with you…in the vast majority of circumstances, I do not think it is a good idea to buy a house as a resident, and I have no idea why so many people seem to be determined to do so.
Even if you're going to be there for upwards of 5 years? Partner saved up about 200k for emergencies so we have the funds to do it. We're just tired of renting at this point and are >29..
 
Even if you're going to be there for upwards of 5 years? Partner saved up about 200k for emergencies so we have the funds to do it. We're just tired of renting at this point and are >29..
Markets change. Things change. Your case is a little bit different since you have a partner who has savings and is making money, but in general, no. I have seen people who are single residents clamoring to buy houses, and I think they’re absolutely crazy.

I had no time whatsoever as a resident to do home/yard maintenance, and I actually enjoy doing that stuff.
 
I would in no way purchase anything with someone you’re not married to. Ever.

You’re taking way more risk than you realize and have no protection of a marriage.
 
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Good point. Low 100's! I'm planning to do an in house fellowship (hopefully) which would have us there for 5 years in total so that we could get equity in the house. Potentially will rent this house out once I'm an attending. Yes, this market really blows.. we would have bought when I started med school and rented it out if we had only known the skyrocketing price of homes.

When I purchased our home I thought I'd either be doing an in-house fellowship (and thus stay another year) or go straight into practice and make an attending income. I hadn't thought I'd do what I actually ended up doing--doing a fellowship elsewhere.

It's tough to sell a home and finance selling the home/renting a new place on a resident's salary (since you still have to make mortgage payments). I was a PM&R resident with a nice work-life balance as I alluded to above, so time wasn't an issue, but it would be for the vast majority of other residents. Selling a home means lots of time coordinating with a realtor, and opening your home up for showings (and typically leaving the house for an hour or so when people want to look at it). And cleaning the entire place each time!

What it came down to was we couldn't really afford months of double rent/mortgage because again, I would be getting resident/fellow income. So we listed our home early and fortunately sold it, but did have to find a two-month rental nearby while I finished residency. Last thing I wanted to do was sell from afar (or rent it out from afar), or not be able to sell it at all. So we were happy with that result. It was kind of a pain to move into a temporary place for just a couple months, but again PM&R residencies are often closer to 40hr/week, so I had the time, and we boxed most things up and kept them that way until we moved across the country two months later, just taking out the basics/necessities.

I get it because we were tired of renting as well and wanted our own little space. As I mentioned earlier, we didn't end up making any money despite the equity we had in the home, due to the repairs/maintenance we did. So we broke even and I did a lot of extra work. But I'd do it again if we had the choice because I gained a lot of knowledge about what to look for/how to maintain my current attending home. Again, I really enjoyed working on the home/yard and I had the time as a PM&R resident to work on the home.
 
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Good point. Low 100's! I'm planning to do an in house fellowship (hopefully) which would have us there for 5 years in total so that we could get equity in the house. Potentially will rent this house out once I'm an attending. Yes, this market really blows.. we would have bought when I started med school and rented it out if we had only known the skyrocketing price of homes.

Buying sounds like a bad idea at $600k+. If you can find something around $100-150k, ok, but not at $600. You want to keep an emergency fund, so I wouldn't be wanting to put all/most of the $200k fund into a house.
 
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Buying sounds like a bad idea at $600k+. If you can find something around $100-150k, ok, but not at $600. You want to keep an emergency fund, so I wouldn't be wanting to put all/most of the $200k fund into a house.

Most places $100-150K won't get you much more than an AS-IS teardown in the middle of nowhere (and that would be a steal). Not sure of OP's market, but I agree $600K probably a good way to become house poor. OP doesn't specify their situation though. How far are your along in residency? How long till you expect to make attending salary (and what's the ballpark for that?) and do you intend to stay in the area? Just because you can get a physician loan for that amount doesn't mean you should take it. But I don't have enough information to say it's a crazy idea.

I bought midway through residency with a VA loan for about $300K. It worked out fine for me and I ended up staying in the area and now I have a pretty cheap mortgage (with a nice 2020 interest rate) compared to my income. Someday I'll probably move, but right now, I'm not motivated to do so.
 
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Most places $100-150K won't get you much more than an AS-IS teardown in the middle of nowhere (and that would be a steal). Not sure of OP's market, but I agree $600K probably a good way to become house poor. OP doesn't specify their situation though. How far are your along in residency? How long till you expect to make attending salary (and what's the ballpark for that?) and do you intend to stay in the area? Just because you can get a physician loan for that amount doesn't mean you should take it. But I don't have enough information to say it's a crazy idea.

I bought midway through residency with a VA loan for about $300K. It worked out fine for me and I ended up staying in the area and now I have a pretty cheap mortgage (with a nice 2020 interest rate) compared to my income. Someday I'll probably move, but right now, I'm not motivated to do so.
The Majority of people move after residency. They often move after a couple years of attending because they didn’t know what they didn’t know when they took their first job.

$600k is a lot of house for someone making less than $200k. I’d want to make closer to $300k to afford that house.

If you are not married, and buy a house together. You effectively are forming a general partnership without a partnership agreement. This can go sideways and set you back a decade financially.
 
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Most places $100-150K won't get you much more than an AS-IS teardown in the middle of nowhere (and that would be a steal). Not sure of OP's market, but I agree $600K probably a good way to become house poor. OP doesn't specify their situation though. How far are your along in residency? How long till you expect to make attending salary (and what's the ballpark for that?) and do you intend to stay in the area? Just because you can get a physician loan for that amount doesn't mean you should take it. But I don't have enough information to say it's a crazy idea.

I bought midway through residency with a VA loan for about $300K. It worked out fine for me and I ended up staying in the area and now I have a pretty cheap mortgage (with a nice 2020 interest rate) compared to my income. Someday I'll probably move, but right now, I'm not motivated to do so.

Which is why renting may be a better option in the OP's situation.
 
The Majority of people move after residency. They often move after a couple years of attending because they didn’t know what they didn’t know when they took their first job.

$600k is a lot of house for someone making less than $200k. I’d want to make closer to $300k to afford that house.

If you are not married, and buy a house together. You effectively are forming a general partnership without a partnership agreement. This can go sideways and set you back a decade financially.
I didn’t even realize OP was not married…in that case, it’s a hell no.
 
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Bought my first house with my spouse before Pgy1 started. Best decision we have made. The caveat is my spouse paid the mortgage during those years I was a resident. This was 2016 and did VA loan with low down payment and low interest rates. The plan was to stay past 4 years, but didn’t happen due to covid effects. However we ended up selling for 30-40 k over what we paid. Lived in a nice suburban neighborhood with good schools and parks for the kids. Had nice areas to run and bike. Had good neighbors. Have never thought it was a bad financial decision, even for 4 years. Sold the house within days. Never had excessive time to have to clean and prepare house for sale much more than usual daily cleaning (depends how you keep your house). Yes, owning a house comes with repairs and overhauls, which we had several. But if you can remodel yourself you save money. The only things I paid someone to do was paint the exterior and replace hot water heater.

By the way I think I was the only resident in my program who bought a home. So it is kinda rare. Most rented. Most had no business interests or had assets saved away before residency. Most wouldn’t have considered going home and mowing the yard or some other daily task that comes with homeownership. But at the end I had equity, others just paid rent down the drain. We just paid interest down the drain, but still got money back.

Now I didn’t use a physician mortgage. And I wouldn’t have considered it if I wasn’t married. Also mortgage rates are more than double now and the time for resale can be variable. What will it be when you have to move, no one knows. Homeowning comes with risks. Are you prepared for that?

I’m now on my third home. Physicians tend to move, at least early in your career. But I have always made more. My 2nd home I sold for 100k more.

So really you need to just assess your plans and willingness for risks. If you want to buy, then apply to mortgage companies to see what you get pre approved for and interest rates. Your partner having 200k in savings is well beyond what we had when we bought our first home.
 
Bought my first house with my spouse before Pgy1 started. Best decision we have made. The caveat is my spouse paid the mortgage during those years I was a resident. This was 2016 and did VA loan with low down payment and low interest rates. The plan was to stay past 4 years, but didn’t happen due to covid effects. However we ended up selling for 30-40 k over what we paid. Lived in a nice suburban neighborhood with good schools and parks for the kids. Had nice areas to run and bike. Had good neighbors. Have never thought it was a bad financial decision, even for 4 years. Sold the house within days. Never had excessive time to have to clean and prepare house for sale much more than usual daily cleaning (depends how you keep your house). Yes, owning a house comes with repairs and overhauls, which we had several. But if you can remodel yourself you save money. The only things I paid someone to do was paint the exterior and replace hot water heater.

By the way I think I was the only resident in my program who bought a home. So it is kinda rare. Most rented. Most had no business interests or had assets saved away before residency. Most wouldn’t have considered going home and mowing the yard or some other daily task that comes with homeownership. But at the end I had equity, others just paid rent down the drain. We just paid interest down the drain, but still got money back.

Now I didn’t use a physician mortgage. And I wouldn’t have considered it if I wasn’t married. Also mortgage rates are more than double now and the time for resale can be variable. What will it be when you have to move, no one knows. Homeowning comes with risks. Are you prepared for that?

I’m now on my third home. Physicians tend to move, at least early in your career. But I have always made more. My 2nd home I sold for 100k more.

So really you need to just assess your plans and willingness for risks. If you want to buy, then apply to mortgage companies to see what you get pre approved for and interest rates. Your partner having 200k in savings is well beyond what we had when we bought our first home.

You sold at a really good time. Now, you're buying high.
 
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I would in no way purchase anything with someone you’re not married to. Ever.

You’re taking way more risk than you realize and have no protection of a marriage.
We've been living together and sharing finances for over 10 years though?
 
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We've been living together and sharing finances for over 10 years though?
This is not a judgement or a puritan view. If you enter into purchases together without marriage then the purchases/finances are not protected. If you bought a house and god forbid they die, you end up owning half the house with your fiance's mom or brother. Any large purchase together is not going to simply 'go to you'. Same for bank accounts, cars, etc. If one of their family members is not doing well that you don't know about, you can even be sued to collect "their portion."

Or if you end up getting cheated on serially, and you decide to leave, there's no guarantee you get 50/50. If they decide to stick you with the bill, the bill doesn't get split in half as it would in a divorce.

If this person is the one then get the paper at the court TODAY. You all can do your big wedding later and no one has to know. Im writing this out because people on this forum may not understand how dangerous potentially these things can be. Hopefully it all works out.
 
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This is not a judgement or a puritan view. If you enter into purchases together without marriage then the purchases/finances are not protected. If you bought a house and god forbid they die, you end up owning half the house with your fiance's mom or brother. Any large purchase together is not going to simply 'go to you'. Same for bank accounts, cars, etc. If one of their family members is not doing well that you don't know about, you can even be sued to collect "their portion."

Or if you end up getting cheated on serially, and you decide to leave, there's no guarantee you get 50/50. If they decide to stick you with the bill, the bill doesn't get split in half as it would in a divorce.

If this person is the one then get the paper at the court TODAY. You all can do your big wedding later and no one has to know. Im writing this out because people on this forum may not understand how dangerous potentially these things can be. Hopefully it all works out.
Agree. Things get very complicated.

I think if you’re ready to buy a house together you’re serious enough to get married.

If OP insists on buying without getting married, it’s best for the home/loan to be in one person’s name only.
 
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We've been living together and sharing finances for over 10 years though?

If you’ve been living together and sharing finances for 10 years and you’re looking at buying a house, why aren’t you married?
 
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Agree. Things get very complicated.

I think if you’re ready to buy a house together you’re serious enough to get married.

If OP insists on buying without getting married, it’s best for the home/loan to be in one person’s name only.

Which means it would probably be in the name of the person who earns more - the other partner.

This sets you up for other problems. If there’s a breakup, the partner can kick OP out of the house and OP would likely have relatively little recourse (aside from if they tried to argue they were renting the property or something).
 
Bought my first house with my spouse before Pgy1 started. Best decision we have made. The caveat is my spouse paid the mortgage during those years I was a resident. This was 2016 and did VA loan with low down payment and low interest rates. The plan was to stay past 4 years, but didn’t happen due to covid effects. However we ended up selling for 30-40 k over what we paid. Lived in a nice suburban neighborhood with good schools and parks for the kids. Had nice areas to run and bike. Had good neighbors. Have never thought it was a bad financial decision, even for 4 years. Sold the house within days. Never had excessive time to have to clean and prepare house for sale much more than usual daily cleaning (depends how you keep your house). Yes, owning a house comes with repairs and overhauls, which we had several. But if you can remodel yourself you save money. The only things I paid someone to do was paint the exterior and replace hot water heater.

By the way I think I was the only resident in my program who bought a home. So it is kinda rare. Most rented. Most had no business interests or had assets saved away before residency. Most wouldn’t have considered going home and mowing the yard or some other daily task that comes with homeownership. But at the end I had equity, others just paid rent down the drain. We just paid interest down the drain, but still got money back.

Now I didn’t use a physician mortgage. And I wouldn’t have considered it if I wasn’t married. Also mortgage rates are more than double now and the time for resale can be variable. What will it be when you have to move, no one knows. Homeowning comes with risks. Are you prepared for that?

I’m now on my third home. Physicians tend to move, at least early in your career. But I have always made more. My 2nd home I sold for 100k more.

So really you need to just assess your plans and willingness for risks. If you want to buy, then apply to mortgage companies to see what you get pre approved for and interest rates. Your partner having 200k in savings is well beyond what we had when we bought our first home.

"My partner paid for it so it was a great financial decision."

Lolllllll
 
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My partner and I will be buying a home for residency and our budget is $650k max. Both credit scores 800+ if it matters. He has a six figure salary and job history and I of course have had no income history since prior to med school. Will the loan be based off of our "combined" salary aka his, or just mine? We are common law and not married so I'm unsure of how this will effect the lone amount if at all. Do you think there be a problem getting a physician loan approved for 500-650k?
I think that’s too expensive of a house for your alls combined salaries. Could you buy a condo for cheaper? We got lucky and were able to buy a detached condo in a foreclosure when I started med school. Sold it when I started residency, bought another house. Made money each time but our first house cost like $75,000, second one was under $200,000. I couldn’t imagine taking on that amount of house payment not as an attending. Honestly even with an attending salary it would make me queasy on top of student loan debt.
 
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Which means it would probably be in the name of the person who earns more - the other partner.

This sets you up for other problems. If there’s a breakup, the partner can kick OP out of the house and OP would likely have relatively little recourse (aside from if they tried to argue they were renting the property or something).

True, but it sets you up for fewer problems than buying jointly (when unmarried).
 
Because some people don’t believe it’s necessary…people even have children out of wedlock now a days!!😱

Maybe @Neuronix and @smq123 have opinions?

As noted by other posters above, this is not some sort of “virtue judgement” so much as it is an observation based on the differences in the protections afforded to married vs unmarried couples in this country.

As with so many other things in America, you’re free to do as you wish - but when things fall apart and the system doesn’t help you because of how the laws are written, don’t be surprised…

Doesn’t change the point many of us have been making in this thread, which is that buying a house as a resident is already a questionable idea…but buying one with an unmarried partner is probably especially foolhardy…

(EDIT: in case anyone is wondering…I’m someone who has been divorced. I’m remarried to someone who is a member of the LGBTQ community. We lived together for a fair amount of time before getting married. So no, I am not some sort of preachy member of the religious right - very far from it, in fact. But even as someone who more or less got screwed in family court the first time around…I think anyone approaching a long term relationship with children, joint owned houses, etc while being unmarried in America is a fool. Marriage is not “just a piece of paper”, it’s a way of getting the government to actually acknowledge and respect your relationship, and it affords you various rights and privileges not afforded to unmarried couples. There are alternative ways to get SOME of these rights and privileges in some states, but not all of these privileges and not in all states, and when **** hits the fan it can be very hard for an unmarried couple to accomplish things that would otherwise occur more or less automatically if the couple was married. There is a reason the LGBTQ community fought so hard for marriage rights in America…and it’s not just to be able to say “we’re married”. Oh, and guess what? If you have kids and joint property etc and you break up, you’re still going to be going to family court to hash all that out. You don’t get around that just because you never signed a marriage certificate. (Just ask my wife, who has kids from a previous unmarried relationship, and whose family court situation has been a total debacle for years.)
 
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"My partner paid for it so it was a great financial decision."

Lolllllll

Nope didn’t say that at all.

Id imagine you’d probably say the same of every family that has a stay at home spouse who doesn’t make any income.

But no, the cost of renting at the time wasn’t much better than the monthly mortgage we paid. So ending up with 30k in equity plus getting back the initial investment wasn’t a bad choice. The renting choice for a family of 4 to have a similar house environment over 4 years would have cost easily 60-100k in lost rental payments in my area.

And BTW my spouse hasn’t paid a penny more on mortgage since I got out of residency. So not a bad investment for her to pay 4 years of rent to have the rest of time without. But those are the types of things that happen in marriage.
 
As noted by other posters above, this is not some sort of “virtue judgement” so much as it is an observation based on the differences in the protections afforded to married vs unmarried couples in this country.

As with so many other things in America, you’re free to do as you wish - but when things fall apart and the system doesn’t help you because of how the laws are written, don’t be surprised…

Doesn’t change the point many of us have been making in this thread, which is that buying a house as a resident is already a questionable idea…but buying one with an unmarried partner is probably especially foolhardy…

(EDIT: in case anyone is wondering…I’m someone who has been divorced. I’m remarried to someone who is a member of the LGBTQ community. We lived together for a fair amount of time before getting married. So no, I am not some sort of preachy member of the religious right - very far from it, in fact. But even as someone who more or less got screwed in family court the first time around…I think anyone approaching a long term relationship with children, joint owned houses, etc while being unmarried in America is a fool. Marriage is not “just a piece of paper”, it’s a way of getting the government to actually acknowledge and respect your relationship, and it affords you various rights and privileges not afforded to unmarried couples. There are alternative ways to get SOME of these rights and privileges in some states, but not all of these privileges and not in all states, and when **** hits the fan it can be very hard for an unmarried couple to accomplish things that would otherwise occur more or less automatically if the couple was married. There is a reason the LGBTQ community fought so hard for marriage rights in America…and it’s not just to be able to say “we’re married”. Oh, and guess what? If you have kids and joint property etc and you break up, you’re still going to be going to family court to hash all that out. You don’t get around that just because you never signed a marriage certificate. (Just ask my wife, who has kids from a previous unmarried relationship, and whose family court situation has been a total debacle for years.)

With zero value judgment, just look at the revealed preferences and actual behavior of upper middle class/upper class folks in the United States. They are overwhelmingly likely to be married, especially if they have children. They are also less likely to get divorced. When the people who are most successful at playing the game that is our society all seem to follow one strategy, it may tell you that there is something advantageous about doing things that way on a strictly practical level. These are, remember, the people who are good at making the system work for their interests.
 
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With zero value judgment, just look at the revealed preferences and actual behavior of upper middle class/upper class folks in the United States. They are overwhelmingly likely to be married, especially if they have children. They are also less likely to get divorced. When the people who are most successful at playing the game that is our society all seem to follow one strategy, it may tell you that there is something advantageous about doing things that way on a strictly practical level. These are, remember, the people who are good at making the system work for their interests.

Alternatively, this is a socioeconomic population segment that frequently does things “because that’s the way things are done” - because getting married and having kids is historically a pretty ingrained societal norm that is just beginning to be questioned on a broader scale, from a human timeline perspective.
 
Alternatively, this is a socioeconomic population segment that frequently does things “because that’s the way things are done” - because getting married and having kids is historically a pretty ingrained societal norm that is just beginning to be questioned on a broader scale, from a human timeline perspective.
Sure, but that just makes it more likely that they will have shaped the social and economic structure of society to be favorable to their modal lifestyle, no? We are probably getting way off into the weeds for this thread, it occurs to me.
 
650k is too much if he is only making low 100s. You don’t know what the market is going to look like when you’re an attending. He could get laid off and you could maybe only find a job making 150k. Then what? Rent and save up for a bigger down payment
 
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Thank you guys. We’ve scaled back our expectations to probably 400k max depending on the market of where we go. Between the 2 of us our salary will be probably $150-180k
 
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Thank you guys. We’ve scaled back our expectations to probably 400k max depending on the market of where we go. Between the 2 of us our salary will be probably $150-180k
Also make sure you have budgeted paying your student loans during residency. It counts towards your number of years of income based repayment before you have to make the larger amounts you’ll have to as an attending.
 
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