We’re now six years into my husband’s attending job, and all the loans are paid off. But we still don’t have the fancy “doctor house.”
I was a regular White Coat Investor columnist for a while–writing about topics like the expenses of two households during my husband’s out-of-state fellowship year, how we maximized the benefits from my job as a teacher, and our experience adjusting our financial plan to work with our growing family. During the first few years after he finished training, we worked incredibly hard to pay off $330,000+ in student loans. And we did it! Four years and two months into his attending role, we had the loans fully paid off.
I took a break from sharing our story with the WCI audience for a bit, but now, I’m glad to be back. If we haven’t met, I’m a middle school teacher, and my husband, Brandon, is a partner in a private PM&R practice. We live in southeast Michigan with our two boys. For a long time, I’ve said Brandon was a new attending, but I think we’re past that point now. We’re still finishing up the buy-in into his practice, and we still have a mortgage on our “starter home.” But since September 2024, we’ve been free from student loan debt.
We worked so hard to get those student loans paid off. By tracking every single penny in our budget, we sent a minimum of $5,000 per month toward the student loan payments. He took on extra weekend coverage shifts at the hospital—and accordingly, I took on extra weekend shifts with our kids!—to earn additional income that we sent entirely to student loans.
So much of our energy was focused on getting rid of those loans. A bonus from work? Straight to the loans. Extra money in the budget for a particular month? Loans.
I swear to you, one year, he even asked for an extra student loan payment as his birthday present from me. I’m a pretty terrible gift giver at baseline, but what was I supposed to do with that? He said, “There’s nothing I want that outweighs how much I want to be done with these loans.” Cool, cool. Have a happy birthday, bro.
To stay motivated as we were getting rid of those loans, we planned the things we’d do once they were gone. He promised himself new golf clubs—which he got, along with ongoing golf lessons. I ended up getting a nice watch, made here in Michigan and featuring a Petoskey stone, a state symbol.
And we often talked and dreamed about our next house. Our real house; you know, the ‘doctor house.’ We talked about a BIG house–room to host our families for regular dinners, and extra space for guests to stay over. A house with a big yard with big trees. Brandon daydreamed about a golf simulator (he’s nothing if not consistent). We both hoped to be close to school and work.
Starting the Home Search
We promised ourselves we’d start looking at houses right after the loans were gone. I can see now that this plan does not make sense. If we just paid off the loans to which we had been sending all of our extra money, where would our down payment come from?
We contacted our realtor in the fall of 2024, a few months after paying off the loans. He had helped us buy our current home back in 2017 (before we were even married, which perhaps had been an unwise plan on its own . . . ). The bank wrote us a pre-approval letter. Essentially, it said, “Oh, you’re a doctor? How about $1 million? Is that enough?”
We spoke with our realtor about what we were looking for and saw a few houses. We really, really considered one; it was the right square footage in a great neighborhood and in a convenient location. But the lot was a little small, and we weren’t ready to compromise on that. Now, we’re glad we held off. That house was at the high end of our budget.
Had we gone through with it, we would have ended up with a big house that we probably couldn't afford—the mortgage payment would have consumed far too much of our monthly cash flow. House poor, as they say. We’ve already done the aggressive budgeting thing while paying off med school loans, and we don’t want to go back to that lifestyle.
We continue to look at houses off and on. We saw one that had an incredible yard with woods and a stream on the back end of the property (my dream!), but it needed some significant updates and renovations. We’ve seen a few tri-levels that were the right size and location, but my husband, the PM&R doc, is prioritizing no stairs to enter and a primary bedroom suite on the main floor. I think he’s had too many patients who’ve had to relocate after an accident or as they age because they can’t navigate the stairs in their house. I’m being pretty picky about the yard and lot size, so I figure I can give him the stairs. We have seen a few houses that meet all of our requirements, but the prices have been far beyond what we’re looking to spend right now.
So, here we are. It’s been almost two years since those loans disappeared. And still, we’re looking at another year or more before we move into that “real house.”
It’s fair to say we’re surprised to still be in our starter house. When we bought the house in 2017, we took out a seven-year adjustable-rate mortgage with an interest rate of somewhere around 3%. We figured we’d be moving out of the house well before the adjustable rate would kick in, so we might as well take advantage of the lower rate. A few years ago, we refinanced in a bit of a panic. We suddenly realized we were going to be here long enough for that adjustable rate to kick in, and the rates, at the time, were still ticking up.
We’re desperately ready for more space. A 1,000-square-foot ranch is not a lot of space for two adults, two very active little boys, and a dog. Our basement adds a little more space–functioning as a multi-use playroom, gym, office, laundry room, and storage space. Our yard is measured in square feet, not acreage. There’s not enough room to host our family as much as we’d like, and that part especially stinks. Yes, plenty of people raise kids all the way to adulthood in houses just like ours, and we understand that we’re fortunate to be in a stable housing and financial situation at all.
More information here:Settling into Financial Flexibility
We could technically live somewhere with more space. But we are choosing other priorities instead, and I think that’s the tough part. Our mortgage is low and, without having to make those student loan payments, we have plenty of extra cash flow. We can save pretty aggressively, and we caught up on the investments that we weren’t making while paying off those loans.
We decided to get out of the leasing cycle with our cars, so we paid off Brandon’s vehicle and saved up to pay cash for my new car. We’ve increased and diversified our investments. (Let’s be clear: we haven’t gone crazy. He drives a 2018 Jeep something. I got a new mom car–a GMC Acadia, with some extra space for the kids and our dog on road trips up north. It's nothing too wild, but it’s nice not to have a car payment.)
With the extra cash flow, our threshold for an emergency has really changed. Our refrigerator broke on a random Tuesday in September. We bought a new one based on two criteria.
- Will it fit in the space?
- How quickly can it be delivered?
We certainly didn’t choose the fanciest one, but we had the freedom to get what we needed. This is a huge contrast to our residency and early attending years when we carried a home warranty to help pay for things like this.
We can now spend money on fun stuff, too. Brandon has continued with the golf lessons. I joined a gym that includes childcare, and that's been literally life-changing.
We have a standing babysitter for “date night” once a week–we go to dinner or do something fun together. Typically, we’ll grab food at a casual place, or in the summer, we’ll do nine holes on the golf course. Sometimes, we end up running errands (but without the children!). This is embarrassing to admit, but we’ve even been known to do some mall-walking during the Michigan winter. Our daily lives are busy, and it’s nice to have a guaranteed time to catch up with each other. We can enjoy the evening without any guilt of “Is this too expensive? Is it going to cut into our student loan payment this month?”
More information here:- Financial Flexibility – Don’t Spend It All at Once
- We’re (Finally) Broke! Why Being Worthless Feels Amazing
Waiting to Make the Move
Zillow alerts land in both of our emails a few times a week, and we still get regular updates from our realtor. We know exactly what we want in our next house, and now we’ve realized that it’s not going to be cheap. We only want to move ONE time—to the big house with the big yard. So, we’re sitting tight for at least another year. Finishing the buy-in for Brandon’s practice this winter will free up even more income and will help us save for a down payment on this next house.
During those last few years of paying off the loans, we kept putting off house projects and other expenses. We figured we’d be out of here as soon as the loans were gone, so we didn’t need to finish the basement bathroom or figure out an organizing solution for the front closet. Sure, our couch is super worn, but maybe we should wait until we’re in the real house to get a new one. Yeah, the boys would love a playset in the backyard, but that’s going to be too hard to move.
We’ve finally accepted that we’re going to be here for a little longer, and we are trying to keep that in mind now. We work really hard and want to enjoy the home we’re living in right now. We did get that Container Store organization system for our front closet. Everyone has their own backpack shelf and shoe bin now. We replaced the couch, too. And we installed a swingset in the backyard to give our boys some space to get out their energy. We haven’t tackled the bathroom renovation yet, but I think we get to do something even less exciting—replacing the electrical systems throughout the house.
We’re here because we’re super clear on our priorities. We really do have a written financial plan. As frustrating as it is right now, we’re committed to following it. According to our plan, we have to save 25% of our income each year. This means that even after we finish that buy-in, we still can’t take all the extra money and put it directly toward a down payment. We have to invest some for the long term first.
It’s annoying. We’re annoying. But we try to keep our priorities in mind—we want this bigger house to create more space for our family—for our boys to play like hooligans, to host family for holidays and random Saturdays. We know what we want in a house, and we are willing to wait until the numbers make sense before we buy it.
Do you wish you had waited to buy your so-called doctor house? If you did wait, what did you do to eventually get there? If you bought it when you shouldn't have, what were the consequences?
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