This week, I attended a dinner set up for my wife to meet the physicians at a practice she may potentially join. It was hosted at a pretty swanky country club. I generally feel comfortable being just about anywhere and talking to anyone. I am comfortable in this setting as well, but I tend to roll my eyes at the concept of a country club. For starters, considering the membership dues, how come the dinners aren’t free?
That said, I know I need to keep myself in check. How people choose to spend their money is nearly as personal as religion and what one person is comfortable doing is fine by me, as long as I don’t have to do it as well. Instead, I need to just take the experience in, enjoy the free taste of what it is like and then go about my business. I can’t imagine ever joining a country club but I also don’t know the ins and outs of what people consider when joining or how much of their budget goes into being a member.
The Big Debt
Although I took this experience as a way to make sure I am financially tolerant of other’s choices, I am a long way from considering a country club (or much else). I have made mention of my wife’s med school debt before and how we plan to aggressively pay it. To this point, the subsidized loans part were paying enough that it did not yet make sense to start the aggressive payments. This fiscal year, however, is the first time that we filed our taxes jointly and the minimum payments that will be assessed based on that will make the subsidized part very small. So we are in the process of devising our payment plan during her last year of residency and after she joins a practice.
I plan to chronicle our progress in future posts. I’ve never dealt with debt like this before and I want to make sure that I walk the walk in paying it down and avoiding other unnecessary costs during that time. Those that have read earlier posts from me about my finances know that I avoid getting into too many specifics about our income. I have yet to decide how much I will divulge about how the numbers break down. I will start by saying the amount is six digits and the first digit is not a one. Also, the interest rate is 6.7%, so I think very few other investments will be promising enough to be higher than this percentage. We are waiting for the government to process our tax documents and tell us the minimum payment based on our income. The new job I start in a couple of weeks will certainly make our payment strategy easier.
Have a great weekend!