My Path to FI: Part 3, Medical School
This is my third post in the My Path to FI series. My goal in this series of posts is to share my own personal experiences with money in the hope that you can learn from both my successes and failures, as well as get to know me a little better. If you haven’t done so yet, please read Part 1 and Part 2.
With that, let’s continue with my story.
Moving to Minnesota
My senior year of college was quite busy. I was working 3 jobs, finishing my degree in biochemistry with a minor in Japanese, interviewing at a large number of medical schools, and my wife and I had our first baby, a son. But all of our hard work and effort paid off and in the summer of 2003 we moved our little family to Rochester, MN where I had been accepted to medical school at the Mayo Clinic. I was also blessed to receive a full tuition scholarship relieving us of a significant financial burden.
The first thing we had to do was find a place to live. My wife’s parents helped us with the transition and purchased a modest home, which we, in turn, rented from them. I was very grateful that they had always been responsible with money and were in a financial position to help us during this stage of our lives. Prior to moving we sold our two vehicles, a 1996 Honda Accord and a 1993 Toyota truck, and purchased a new 2003 Chevrolet Impala. We decided to go down to one vehicle for our family, with plans for me to primarily use the city bus to go to school.
Living on Loans
Although I had a full tuition scholarship, we still needed to have money to live on. We still needed to pay for rent, groceries, utilities, auto insurance, gas, clothing, internet, phone (cell phones weren’t a ubiquitous thing yet), etc. We knew that I would be too busy with medical school to work full time. While it was an option for my wife to work outside the home, we decided together that it was a priority for us to have her stay at home to raise our son and future children. So, we decided to live primarily on student loans.
Each of the 4 years of medical school we took out the maximum amount of federal subsidized and unsubsidized student loans for living expenses. I don’t remember the exact amounts, but I believe this ended up being in the ballpark of $35-40,000 per year. In retrospect, I wonder if we could have lived on less. We probably could have, but things still felt pretty tight financially at the time.
Now that I am on this side of it, I realize how naive I was.
I had an interesting mindset as a medical student. I really didn’t have any worries about taking the student loans. I felt justified because I thought I was doing it for a good thing. After all, I was getting an education, right? I also felt confident that it wouldn’t be a big deal to pay off the loans because I was going into a high paying profession. Now that I am on this side of it, I realize how naive I was. It isn’t play money, these loans are real money, and ultimately these lenders have to be repaid. I’ve learned that no matter how much money you make, IT IS a big deal having to pay off student loans.
Learning to Budget
Living on student loans is a unique experience. Never before had we been without regular paychecks. The student loans were paid in a large lump sum twice a year. Each payment we had to make sure the money would last us for the next 6 months or we would be in trouble.
As a result, we learned to budget. We had to add up all of our fixed expenses and set money aside for the next 6 months to make sure we could always pay our bills. The money that was left (and it wasn’t much) had to be divided up for the expenses with more flexibility, such as groceries, gas money, clothing, and any entertainment or fun activities. This forced us to learn discipline, and it wasn’t always easy. Furthermore, anytime we had an unexpected expense like a car repair or a cavity, it was very stressful and we had to figure out where we were going to take the money from to pay for it.
Managing Money Together
As you might expect, going to medical school can be a very busy and demanding endeavor. To allow me to focus my time and efforts learning medicine, my wife and I had initially planned for her to manage most of the household affairs, including the finances. As time went on, however, we found that while this sounded good on paper, in reality it wasn’t the best for us.
This segregation of responsibilities made it feel like we weren’t on the same team. In fact, at times it was more like we were playing two completely different games. I would be oblivious to the day to day, week to week financial situation and she would be left to make many of the financial decisions alone. She also came to realize it was difficult to be financially disciplined in a relationship when you are the one that both manages AND primarily spends the money. There are no checks and balances.
During my second year of medical school she spoke up and said that our current system wasn’t working. She felt alone in making financial decisions and bearing the stress of the finances when things were getting tight. We needed to be doing this together.
Although we didn’t have a lot, we were happy. It didn’t take a lot of money to enjoy what was most important in life . . . each other.
So, from that day forward we have made an effort to manage our finances as a team. I primarily manage our account balances and pay our bills. My wife purchases the items we need to maintain and run our home. We discuss any major purchases before making them. We plan for our financial future together. This has helped us be on the same page financially, be more responsible with our money, and avoid the conflict that enters so many marriages due to money.
Finding Ways to Make it Work
Given the constraints of a fixed income, we had to become more resourceful during this period of our lives. Nearly all of the furniture we had were hand me downs or items we found at garage sales. My wife had an amazing talent for finding old furniture at garage sales, sanding it down, and then refinishing it to look like new. I taught myself to do certain home and auto repairs/improvements. This included installing recessed lighting in our living room, fixing the main sewer line from one of our bathrooms, re-shingling our roof, and replacing the alternator in our car. It’s amazing what you can learn how to do with just a few internet searches.
During medical school our family continued to grow and we had two more children. We regularly purchased clothing and other items for our kids at thrift stores. We qualified for and used the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program which helped with groceries and health services. We found inexpensive things to do as a family like go to the park, visit free museums or zoos, and go on bike rides (with a hand me down bike trailer for our kids). We also grew a garden in our backyard which was not only a great family activity, but also helped with our food budget.
As I mentioned above, I rode the city bus to get to school during my first two years of medical school. During the third year of medical school, clinical rotations would begin and have more irregular hours, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to make the bus work. Fortunately, one of our friends was finishing up his residency in orthopedics and was looking to get rid of their family minivan that they had essentially driven into the ground. The inside was really beat up from their kids, some of the doors and windows didn’t work right, and the gear shift had to be in a specific spot between neutral and park to get it to start. But it ran and could get me from point A to point B, and I was grateful to have it.
Although we didn’t have a lot, we were happy. It didn’t take a lot of money to enjoy what was most important in life . . . each other. I believe that once our basic needs are met (food, shelter, clothing, safety, etc.), real happiness comes from non-monetary sources, namely our relationships and experiences. As our income has increased over time, and things have become more convenient, this is a lesson we have tried to never forget.
Finding Ways to Earn Extra Income
Even though life as a medical student was busy, we found ways to bring in some extra income to supplement our student loans. While I was a medical student I continued to teach MCAT classes for Kaplan when I could. During my third year of medical school I also worked as a teaching assistant for our Anatomy Department. I had also scored very well on Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) and was hired by my school to teach a USMLE Step 1 review course for our underclassmen.
My wife utilized her talents and abilities to earn income as well. She is very musically talented and actually taught herself to play the piano as a teenager. Her parents gave her the piano she learned on as a gift when she moved out of the house. She used that piano to earn extra money by teaching piano lessons in our home. We still have that piano to this day. She also taught herself to make jewelry and sold it online and in local craft fairs.
Choosing Neurosurgery
When I started medical school I knew that I wanted to become a surgeon. I love working with my hands and completing a physical task. I initially thought I would become an orthopedic surgeon and sub-specialize in sports medicine because I loved sports. However, during my first year in medical school I took a special interest in the nervous system. I was amazed at both its complexity and its beauty. I began attending neurosurgery conferences and started scrubbing into surgeries with some of the neurosurgery faculty. By the end of my first year, I knew that neurosurgery was what I wanted to do.
I spent the next three years doing everything I could to make myself the best candidate possible for the competitive field of neurosurgery. I worked hard in every class to earn good grades. I studied very hard and did well on the USMLE Step 1 exam. I did extra basic science and clinical research to get publications in the medical literature. I spent as much time with our neurosurgery department as possible.
When it came time to apply for residency, my hard work had paid off and I received many interview offers from some of the top programs in the country. I ultimately had to turn many down and decided to interview at 10 programs for my neurosurgery residency, including the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Columbia, and the Barrow Neurological Institute. This may seem like a lot of interviews, but it actually was about half the norm due to the competitive nature of neurosurgery. When I was applying, there were about twice as many applicants as available residency spots, so most applicants interviewed at 20 programs or more to increase their chances of matching into a program. Again, because of my hard work and achievements during medical school, I felt I had a very good chance of getting into a great program without as many interviews. Still, traveling to 10 interviews meant 10 round trip airfare tickets, 10 hotels for 2-3 nights, meals on the road, a new suit to interview in, etc. This just wasn’t possible on my medical school budget. So I ended up taking a $10,000 private residency interview loan to help fund these trips.
I knew all of these programs would mold me into an excellent neurosurgeon. The main question was would I be happy at the end of that process?
Interviewing at 10 top neurosurgery programs was a great experience. I was able to meet many of the national leaders in the field. As the interviews went on, I also began to notice that many of the same applicants were at each interview. I started to become friends with some of the best neurosurgery candidates in the country, and among those many have become leaders in our field today. I think I would have had a wonderful experience training at many of these programs, but I had to ask myself where I felt I would fit in best. Neurosurgery residency training is very vigorous. I knew all of these programs would mold me into an excellent neurosurgeon. The main question was would I be happy at the end of that process? Taking all of this into consideration, I felt I would be happiest staying at my home program at the Mayo Clinic, so I ranked them #1 and ended up matching there for the next 7 years.
Finishing Medical School
I graduated from medical school with my medical doctorate in the summer of 2007. It was realization of a goal that I had had for most of my life. Medical school was both a challenging and amazing experience. I had the privilege to learn from some of the greatest minds in medicine today at the Mayo Clinic. The caliber of my fellow students, the school administration, and the medical faculty inspired me to become the best physician I could be. I felt so blessed to find the field of neurosurgery and to match in the residency program at the Mayo Clinic.
We had survived 4 years of living primarily on student loans. Our plan was to put our loans in forbearance and deferment until residency was completed and then begin to start paying them off. I was excited to finally be earning a regular paycheck again as a resident physician, even if it wasn’t a large one. It was time to turn the page and begin the next chapter of our lives.
Lessons Learned
- Student loans are a BIG deal, no matter how much money you think you are going to make. Make sure you carefully consider the consequences before taking out any student loans.
- Creating and sticking to a budget teaches you to be financially disciplined.
- Money doesn’t make you happy. Once your basic financial needs are met, true happiness really comes from our relationships and experiences.
- If you are motivated and determined, you can find ways to use your skills and abilities to earn extra income no matter what your situation is.
Thanks for reading more of my story. If you have enjoyed learning more about me and the information I am writing about, please subscribe to the blog!
