Monday, May 5, 2008

Doctors Shouldn't Marry Other Doctors

I found an article here in CNNMoney about a husband and wife who are both residents and looking at a huge amount of debt. I know it's early but it is something to consider later on down the road. I think their case is extraordinary because they are both training to be physicians and are shouldering a huge amount of debt from medical school. I love how all these articles always paint doctors as these hard luck cases..."such are the lives of medical residents: med school graduates getting years of on-the-job training, putting in brutal hours for salaries that, on an hourly basis, work out to a little more than they could earn stocking the shelves at Costco." I actually read that the average resident makes 12/hr given the amount of hours they work relative to the pay. And no I am not making this number up out of thin air, I just can't remember where I read this. Another great quote in the CNNmoney article is "for this generation of doctors, and for Meg and Chris in particular, financial security won't come guaranteed with their medical licenses. As health-care economics squeeze physician salaries, rising college and med school tuitions are putting young doctors ever deeper in the hole." Does this mean that doctors will have to be waiting tables on the side? Anyways it's a good read and the take home message here is if you have to get married, don't marry someone that has just as much or more debt than you because not even a doctors salary can get you out of that hole.
Graphics Credit: http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/16/pf/young_doctors.moneymag/index.htm

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heh. The problem is that young docs in training don't get out much and residents are in the hospital so much so... there you go :o) At least that's how it was explained to me when I made the comment "Huh, there sure are a lot of Dr./Dr. and Dr./RN couples around this hospital."

Johnny Utah said...

That's true...but can you imagine what the debt for a doctor couple must be? Maybe the trick is to get married before med school to someone in a totally unrelated field.

Unknown said...

have u ever heard of a dr. that couldnt pay off their loans? no.

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