by Holly Cox
I'm just gonna be open about our finances. I know it's a taboo subject, but I find it to be more helpful if actual numbers are used. So here's the deal
my husband (Tyler Cox) and I did full time college and part time jobs at the same time before medical school. We probably made somewhere between 20k and 25k a year. We had no kids at that time, but we still had time and money for fun. Medical school has actually been about the same time wise, but our situation has changed with a one year old and another one on the way. I don't currently have a job that brings in money and obviously neither does Tyler.
We take the full amount of loans out during medical school so after tuition is paid off that leaves us about 34k to live off of a year.
Here's a break down of our monthly budget:
Rent- $1,000
Utilities- $100
Car Loan & Insurance- $275 (we have one car)
Internet & Phone Bill- $110
Life Insurance- $35
Health Insurance- $0 because we are on Medicaid.
Gasoline- $120
Subscriptions- $15
Weekly Fun (Entertainment)- $80
Vacations- $100
Groceries- $0 because we are on food stamps.
Car & Home Maintenance- $250
Gifts- $50
Baby- $100
RVU- $50 (supplies he's needed to get like headphones or a new remote)
Emergency Fund- $115
Credit Card Debt- $100 (I've got a little side business of sorts that I hope will pay off in like a year, but right now it's just a money pit, hence the credit card debt)
Total Spending= $2,500
So with that monthly budget above, you can see we have time for fun still and traveling as well and that's a 30k yearly budget. We both have family that live up north just 4 hours so we take vacations probably every other month. That includes hitting up Vegas or other out of town locations.
Our apartment is called Sierra Pointe Apartments. It's 1,000 square feet, 3 bedroom, 2 bath. We live 4.5 miles from the school and there is a bike path that leads all the way to the school for Tyler to take.
What I'm getting at is that we live comfortably. I hope that in the next year or two we won't have to take out the full amount of loans and I can make a decent income to meet all our expenses and just have the loans pay for tuition instead, but for now this is what we do. Hope this helps give you an idea and understanding of finances in medical school.