One of my goals is to eventually be able to purchase a house. Many of my nursing colleagues are purchasing homes that are worth $450,000, $500,000 or even more. Sadly, my budget is about half of that or even less, which means the houses I have to choose from are not appealing. Most of them are small, old, or both.
I am just curious how other nurses manage to purchase decent houses? I've been looking through my income, and I just can't find a way to make it possible to incorporate such a house into my budget. I am salary, so there are no opportunities for overtime.
What are other nurses' experience with buying houses? How did you make it work? Did it require switching jobs? Inquiring minds want to know!
I just can't determine if you are really a nurse, (describing your financial situation) accurately or a con who thinks taking dates on a private plane for a concert will dazzle us or your tale of flipping houses. Would you post the web site of your company...you must have one if you are legit
I just can't determine if you are really a nurse, (describing your financial situation) accurately or a con who thinks taking dates on a private plane for a concert will dazzle us or your tale of flipping houses. Would you post the web site of your company...you must have one if you are legit
You're sort of full of yourself aren't you? Do you really think that I would feel the need to validate myself to you? Ask yourself, what does it say about you, that you feel the need to believe if an online presence is real or not?
You must live in a different reality. You should first realize that you are responsible for what and who you believe in and accept the consequences for those choices. Maybe, start questioning if you should turn the other cheek author etc.
By the way, thank you for reinforcing and validating how I judge people! It's a good system that hardly ever fails.
Also, get a life for yourself and stop living vicariously either through others or tv or social media. It's Spring, great weather. Get out and enjoy yourself if you can.
I do have a reasonably good income but I worked for it. Anyone making over $60k as is most nurses can afford a good house.
I just rented a house out last week with four converted apartments. I picked it up in October from the bank foreclosure. 3200 Sq ft. $185k. Needed cosmetic work. I converted the top three floors and the basement into individual apartments. I spent $47k on the conversions. I expect it to value currently over $350k because of the conversions. That is over 100k in equity, no taxes because I'm not selling, to play with on my next project. All in under 6 months. The 250k loan I took out will convert to a conventional for around 2.5% quickly until I find something lower. You do the math.
That's how nurses can afford 450k if they want them. I'm planning to move into a used 40ft construction trailer fully equipped that I can get for under $20k and rent my house out. It's all about perspective. I don't need to keep up with the Joneses, because I don't keep people like that around me.
All I can say is that you are doing better than me. Between my SO and myself we will gross (before taxes) around 500K this year and we are no where near being able to afford a home. We also have no (in our early 50's) IRA, or medical insurance, owe a combined 230K in student loans and have 35K in credit card debt and another 15K in car loans. I am grateful for our $1800.00 per month rental and expect to work until I'm 85 or dead or in a Medicaid nursing home unless I can find a way to do my "nomad" telepsych thing.
All I can say is that you are doing better than me. Between my SO and myself we will gross (before taxes) around 500K this year and we are no where near being able to afford a home. We also have no (in our early 50's) IRA, or medical insurance, owe a combined 230K in student loans and have 35K in credit card debt and another 15K in car loans. I am grateful for our $1800.00 per month rental and expect to work until I'm 85 or dead or in a Medicaid nursing home unless I can find a way to do my "nomad" telepsych thing.
Your combined loans are about what I owe on the house I just rented out and that includes mortgage, taxes, water. Your rental is what I get for the top and basement apartments combined. The other two apartments is all profit minus taxes.
Of course it took me a while to build up the credit and establish a team that I can trust but just as you invested in your education, I invested in a business and other small businesses. If I see an opportunity, I go after it after doing my due diligence of course. I continue working three shifts per diem weekly because I like nursing, flexibility and it keeps me doing something else. Also CEUs of course. I have an older nurse who is my business partner because she's very detail oriented and like me, stays away from other nurses. IMO, nurses occupy a space where they have just enough education to understand most things, that leads them to believe that they actually KNOW what's what! I tend to stay away from know it all people because they always have excuses or reasons for why things can't be done or the possible pitfalls.
I don't make anywhere near 500k annually but I also don't have any bills that isn't covered by my investments. Think of your local Chinese or small businesses owners who sometimes barely speak English but seem to be doing well enough to put their kids through college and live in nice neighborhoods etc. You are a highly organized person based on your specialties. I don't see how your skill set converts to 'psych' though. Empathy and insight is what you need. So using insight, you are taking home about 25k net monthly and your outgoing should be around 7k with rent, loans etc, that still leaves you with about 15k to play with, if you invested 3k in whatever. $15k a month is a lot of play money. I don't see how you are so stressed about money or can't afford a house?
My credit score is 630 and my SO's is around 750. We keep our finances separate and I have only been "self employed" for about a year (I pay her about $4500.00 per month to help with bills). I take 36% off the top to pay social security, Medicaid, and Medicare taxes and income taxes along with Washington state excise tax (about 2.5%). Also my SO has recently just changed to my job from a different company so she would not qualify for loan since she has to rebuild the income (with a new client set she was at a fixed $80.00 per hour in the old job). Even though we have been together for about 30 years we keep separate finances so there isn't a great deal of coordination on financial matters. I don't even own a car but do drive my SO's 10 year old minivan (she has one from 2018). I have managed to acquire about 5K in silver, $1000.00 in cryptocurrency, $1000.00 in stocks and about $5000.00 in various guns and ammo over the last year and paid down about 15K in credit card debt. I also pay for my son's college and pay him about$600.00 per month to d0 various things that help with my business. I am about a year from paying off the credit cards. We cannot even agree on a place to buy a house since I want to move to Wyoming and she is more apt to want to stay in Florida so that is another issue. She does have about 50K "cash reserve" saved up and I probably have about 18K, but will be paying for the two week vacation this Summer which will run about 12 K (to Wyoming) and it is pretty much the only time we do anything as a family.
Also as to my skill set mainly what I do is prescribe medications, offer complementary and alternative approaches and lifestyle interventions. Although I do add billing codes for "supportive therapy" (and provide it to the best of my ability) most people pay for my ability to prescribe medications.
Not really. Not sure how much you have traveled or how long you spent in those countries when you traveled, but the North American continent specifically America, is quite unique to the rest of the world. I have been privileged to move in brief periods in the upper middle class parts of the world in the UK, Denmark and Sweden as well as here in America and I can assure you that they have a similar level of wealth at those levels, but their cultural values and interests are very different.
In America we almost appear to be showing off in a look at me kind of way. There they try to hide their wealth almost in embarrassment, it depends on what class they came from of course. In these circles, I have noticed that even mentioning money of any kind is likely to get you a dirty look or ostracized. They appear to view loud voices and ostentatious people as crude and shallow. In America we seem to need affirmation that we have arrived so we have all sorts of friends and things. There, they seem to have a close cadre of people they socialize with because they have different criterion for the friendship. They don't gossip and seem to respect each other's privacy. They don't have the insecurity factor that knowing some information, elevates their status. Conversations are rarely personal. It just appears that there's more respect for individuals than what we have here. People just seem to have their own lives that they are involved in and are not interested in other people's.
I view current nurses wages as middle class based on our purchasing power. But consider this, imagine that for less than $300 for a weekend, full board, you could fly in under four hours as far as Moscow, Vienna, or Istanbul or Gibraltar or so many different places from London and experience so many different cultures and people. Where can we fly to in four hours, full board and not find a Walmart or a McDonalds? That might explain why their lives might be fuller and they don't need 450k houses to feel good about themselves!
I'm generalizing of course and limited to just my experiences and impressions.
I have been to virtually every one of the countries that you specify and noted several things (in general).
a. Much less ability for those in the working, and middle classes to live outside the city in a rural environment.
b. Effective tax rates (especially when considering VAT taxes that are integrated into virtually all good and services) that commonly range of 50% of income (especially when you consider gas taxes).
c. Less effective ability to "choose what you want to do" there is more "tracking" on to vocational or professional tracks at younger ages.
d. Less ability to afford a place of decent size, and cars that are not tiny (and therefore subject to greater risk when auto accidents occur).
e. Relatively tiny portions of food. Indeed, in visiting over 10 EU countries I actively searched for buffets and found almost none and the few I found were very expensive.
f. Almost no ability to defend oneself. Here I can have my AR-10's, AR15's, shotguns, pistols and rifles. There I could spend a lifetime just trying to get a permit for a revolver.
g. Very truncated free speech rights with no firm constitutional protections.
h. With certain exceptions a very secular society that respects traditional Christian values to an extent that makes even most left of center states seem like a Christian tent revival.
I. I have also traveled to virtually every state in the United States except Maine and Alaska and find great cultural variation from one state to another.
To be sure there are some advantages to Europe in terms of social services (I really like Swiss, Poland, and Romania for example) however it is a different social contract. I cannot speak for others but as for me give me liberty or give me death.
All I can say is that you are doing better than me. Between my SO and myself we will gross (before taxes) around 500K this year and we are no where near being able to afford a home. We also have no (in our early 50's) IRA, or medical insurance, owe a combined 230K in student loans and have 35K in credit card debt and another 15K in car loans. I am grateful for our $1800.00 per month rental and expect to work until I'm 85 or dead or in a Medicaid nursing home unless I can find a way to do my "nomad" telepsych thing.
You make 500k a year and you can’t pay off your quarter-million dollar student loans? And... what sort of degrees did you get that you spent that much money on? And... And what the hell did you buy with a credit card for thirty five THOUSAND dollars?!? And you also have more than one car loan? Honey. I don’t know where to start.
My husband also had an insane student loan (Ivy league law school). Fortunately he also got a high paying job— not nearly as high as your 500k, and I was a SAHM, but he made probably 350k— and we lived on rice and beans for two or three years while we paid it off. So I am absolutely baffled by your story about needing to work until you’re 80 and have cheap rent.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
58 minutes ago, CommunityRNBSN said:
I hope your SO is an MD because there is no other way that a quarter million dollars in student loans makes sense. And what the hell did you buy with a credit card for thirty five THOUSAND dollars?!? And you also have more than one car loan? Honey.
Right! I have no intention of working til 85. I guess I got lucky? I was active military and used my GI BILL to pay for college tuition and wound up with zero debt there. My husband got his degree free and clear while active duty. Even if I had not been military I would not have allowed myself to accumulate 250K in school debt, that's close to what I bought my home for (which appreciates and is worth at least 150K more now).
Honestly, I am so grateful after reading the referenced post.
Your combined loans are about what I owe on the house I just rented out and that includes mortgage, taxes, water. Your rental is what I get for the top and basement apartments combined. The other two apartments is all profit minus taxes.
Of course it took me a while to build up the credit and establish a team that I can trust but just as you invested in your education, I invested in a business and other small businesses. If I see an opportunity, I go after it after doing my due diligence of course. I continue working three shifts per diem weekly because I like nursing, flexibility and it keeps me doing something else. Also CEUs of course. I have an older nurse who is my business partner because she's very detail oriented and like me, stays away from other nurses. IMO, nurses occupy a space where they have just enough education to understand most things, that leads them to believe that they actually KNOW what's what! I tend to stay away from know it all people because they always have excuses or reasons for why things can't be done or the possible pitfalls.
I don't make anywhere near 500k annually but I also don't have any bills that isn't covered by my investments. Think of your local Chinese or small businesses owners who sometimes barely speak English but seem to be doing well enough to put their kids through college and live in nice neighborhoods etc. You are a highly organized person based on your specialties. I don't see how your skill set converts to 'psych' though. Empathy and insight is what you need. So using insight, you are taking home about 25k net monthly and your outgoing should be around 7k with rent, loans etc, that still leaves you with about 15k to play with, if you invested 3k in whatever. $15k a month is a lot of play money. I don't see how you are so stressed about money or can't afford a house?
Yeah I’m over here scratching my head too. Maybe they’re heavy drug users?? Or running from the law and they have to pay six grand a month to a crime syndicate?
Yeah I’m over here scratching my head too. Maybe they’re heavy drug users?? Or running from the law and they have to pay six grand a month to a crime syndicate?
First off my loans about about 160K most of it occurred to get my ASN over 12 years ago. During that time I "maxed borrowed" to help pay rent so I only had to work part time. Also, I took more loans for my BSN again to subsidize my income since I went down to part time as an RN ICU nurse to make it through school. No loans for my Masters (but since I haven't made payments 30K or so is interest thus the original amount was around 130K). The rest of the 30K in credit card debt was run up over the years (it was around 45K in Jan 2020 went I started working as an NP). My SO owes her own 60 K in student loans also ran up during her ASN when she max borrowed to only work part time. So my gross is around 25K per month. Here is where that goes:
a. Around 9k to a tax account I take off around 36% in taxes Leaving around 16K.
b. I give my SO around $4,500 in expense money since she switched jobs to my company and is just now rebuilding her income (back up to around 8K per month before taxes she was making $80.00 per hour at her old NP gig).
c. I pay for my son to help me in my business doing clerical things about $600 per month. Straight cash so I cannot write it off as an expense.
d. I pay about 4K each month to the credit card companies.
e. I spend about 2K per month eating out since I don't finish until 11PM EST we never eat at home. However, since I fast three days per week I only eat food on Sat, Sun, Mon, and Thur.
f. I don't own a car so my SO pays the one car loan. I do drive her 2012 older minivan paid off.
g. I buy about $500.00 per month in ammo.
h. I buy about $800.00 per month in Silver.
I. I buy about $300.00 per month in supplements for myself and my son. I treat our severe ADHD naturally and I purchase most of the supplements that I advise to my clients.
K. I spend about $300 month on professional journals, podcasts and paranormal podcasts that I like.
L. I buy about $300.00 per month in Crypto currency.
M. I buy about $300.00 per month in stock on E-trade.
N. I buy mom son's groceries at college each week about $600 per month.
O. I buy all of my sons science books also for myself so that I can meet with him each week and try to tutor him in Anatomy, Micro, and Chemistry, but we usually end up arguing because he doesn't want my help any longer.
Keep in mind my income started at $1700 in Jan of last year and only increased to the present level in Nov of last year.
Not really sure where the rest goes. Although, I have built up about 10K in my checking savings account and my SO has built up about 60K or so in various accounts (but we keep our finances completely separate). Honestly, I aspire to have maybe an RV that I pull with a truck and live as a Nomad either on our own land or someplace with internet so I can do my job. I would work even if I won the lottery. It would be nice to be able to afford a place of my own and be able to have a garden. I was sad last week when I tried to plant some flowers and a few vegetables on the back side of my house behind some bushes and the homeowners association still cut them down. .
LibraNurse27, BSN, RN
972 Posts
Wow! I didn't know that. I guess if not even a prince can buy this house I better let it go!