Post-match fourth year is a great usually “less-stressful” time to get your required education in personal finance. My free book is a nice, readable, and to-the-point primer on the essentials of personal finance including student loans. Read (or download it) here. Note that the new SAVE plan has simplified the student loan part for the majority of borrowers going forward.
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Not everyone should try to buy a house during residency. With the recent housing boom and higher interest rates, home ownership is probably out of reach for a larger proportion of residents than at any other time in recent history.
But, if you are considering trying to buy a home as a trainee, you’re likely going to need a physician mortgage. One quick way to get your feelers out to several potential companies at once is LeverageRx, a totally free handy platform that will let you rapidly comparison shop multiple physician loan lenders.
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Senior medical students are also eligible to try to lock in their eligibility for disability insurance. Disability insurance isn’t cheap—and you may not be able to afford it on your current budget—but again this is a great time to at least learn about it and price out some options and see. A small ~$2k/mo benefit medical student policy will often cost in the $40-60/mo range and will lock in future insurability. The folks at LeverageRx and Pattern both offer a great no-cost no-commitment way to see what your choices look like.
It’s always good to price out different options through different agents, and it’s possible the discounts available through your medical school affiliation are better than the ones you’ll have access to as a resident. Also, you’re unlikely to get younger and healthier. It’s worth doing some due diligence.
Life insurance, on the other hand, is straightforward: if you have a spouse or dependents that are relying on you, you need term life insurance.
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(Those are both affiliate links, which means that using them supports this site at no cost to you. My aging book is just free, no strings attached.)