Why we're poor
It’s hard to explain really. We both have a high school degree, bachelors degree and graduate degrees to add to the list. Everything we could have possibly needed to succeed according to the current dogma. But despite that we have a tough time making ends meet.
It’s not like we’re desolate. Or homeless. We have a small house. Our first house in fact. And it’s a little bit of a fixer upper but we don’t mind hard work and its in a good location.
I have a job where people call me doctor and let me perform surgery on their furry family members. Mr has a job where he’s called a physicist and gets good state benefits. But on Saturdays when we want to go to dinner AND a movie we know that we won’t be able to buy new shoes or a new gym shirt on Sunday. And currently my bank account is in the double digits until I get paid on Friday. We have no real savings or a nest egg. We have our possessions and that’s it.
Part of the problem is that in my profession it is acceptable to pay a doctor who is seeking further training (intern, resident, fellow) a minute salary. In veterinary medicine, once you finish 4 years of vet school you can go into general practice and start making some cash (on average about $70,000 per year for an associate) but if you want to focus on a specialty you have to jump through many highly competitive but low paying hoops to be a board certified specialist.
It goes like this: 4 years of vet school (accumulate $240,000 in loans), 1 year internship (average salary $27,000), 1 year fellowship or additional specialty focused internship ($27,000), 3 year residency in specialty of your choosing ($30,000 per year for 3 years). Its disgusting really, this niche of medicine where the very highly motivated, over achievers are content making pennies because that is the only option if you want to specialize, if you can even get a residency as there are about 140 applicants for a single position. Of course the argument is that it will all pay off later because veterinary surgeons (and other specialists) make more than a general practitioner. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000-200,000 (unless you want to remain in academia in which case its a lot more like $90,000). Of course if you were a human medicine surgeon you'd easily make $500,000. But none of us got into vet med for the money right?
Anyway, hopefully we can hang on for the next 1.5 years while I finish out the residency. The Mr. is looking at going back to school for a more fulfilling and useful degree (more loans!) and we will struggle through and max out credit cards until we make it big, right? Totally sound financial plan.
