While it might sound amazing to have the earning power of two doctors, lawyers, engineers, professional athletes, or any combination thereof, there are some unique challenges faced by such couples.
When nearly half of one person’s salary is taxed and you’ve got $600,000 in student loans, between the two of you, maybe you don’t have it as good as other people think you so.
One of the worst parts about being a dual high-earner couple is that you start out with a much more negative net worth. If the average med student graduates with $200K, the average couple may have $400K. That might be $600,000 by residency graduation, and that’s average.
If you’re above average (which you are likely to be since you had no working spouse to help support you in school) that could be $800K or even $1 Million!That debt burden alone prevents many couples, who would prefer to have one of them stay home with the kids, from doing so. They simply both have to work in order to make the loan payments.
Luckily, that bigger hole is typically matched by having a bigger shovel. Sure, you might owe $600K, but you also may earn $600K. Dual income couples can throw gobs of money at student loans every month.
Imagine living on only one physician income and throwing the rest at the loans. Or living like residents. Or even like A SINGLE resident. A $600,000 loan goes away very quickly when you’re throwing $30,000 at it every month.
But here’s what’s cool. Even after the student loans are gone, that $30,000 can go toward paying off a house or reaching financial independence just as easily. That big shovel doesn’t go away when the student loans are gone.