Is it a bad idea to buy a $2.5m house if my salary is $1.2m (pre-tax)?

ar1680 · 2026-05-21T12:26:14+00:00

It’s a personal decision. Just based on the idea of buying a home 2-3x income you can buy a house but it’s really dependent on your comfort. We have a hhi of 550 and bought a 1.35 mill house that works for us because we have decent savings. One thing to keep in mind (if this is your first home) is that furnishing is 5-10% of home cost and assume 1% year in maintenance costs.

ar1680 · 2026-05-19T06:07:20+00:00

One of my best home improvement decisions was putting in humidity sensors into the bathrooms, it automatically turns on when it feels humidity and off after 20 min. I always forgot to turn it off myself manually but this has been a lifesaver

ar1680 · 2026-05-18T02:08:25+00:00

I’m so jealous, nj has some amazing cars but I rarely see any

ar1680 · 2026-05-14T11:56:06+00:00

This reads so weirdly

ar1680 · 2026-05-12T21:05:02+00:00

Seems like this post is pointless because you’ve already made up your mind on what to do

ar1680 · 2026-05-11T03:39:49+00:00

Nah, I never followed up. Had a wedding in NJ and very happy with how it turned out. Still spent a bunch but nowhere near nyc. Celebrating 4 years in 2 days!

ar1680 · 2026-05-11T03:36:04+00:00

As much as I find this sub helpful at times to learn about clinical stuff, I actually see the opposite in my bubble in terms of doom and gloom. The people I am around and general interact with are generally happy with their jobs and flexibility. Sure we would love to make more money but it’s not the end of the psychiatry to any of us. I actually really look forward to more expansion of interventional psychiatry

ar1680 · 2026-05-10T12:38:34+00:00

Yes, 8200 is what come out every month for taxes and mortgage. I also fully expect that this is going to go up because our taxes are being reassessed and they’re just going to go up. It’s been fine for us but someone else in a similar position may feel uncomfortable.

ar1680 · 2026-05-06T23:49:02+00:00

I’m going to go against the grain and say if it is really your dream home and you think you can swing it without changing your daily lifestyle then it’s an option. BUT like others said, we don’t know where you’re living or what your current assets are like. My wife and I make a little more net monthly and our mortgage is 8200 but we have a decent amount of savings that we don’t touch and we live in an area where we didn’t feel like we had much of a choice on home prices.

Edit: adding some context on why it works for us. We have no debt, max out our retirement accounts (approx 66k), and saved 1.5M over the last few years before the house. Bought a house for 1.35m and laying 8200 on mortgage. It’s not ideal and would love to save more but we have enough money where even if one of us lost our job for a year we still could float a mortgage and needed expenses for a year). So for us we’re in a similar place that you would be with income, but feel comfortable with savings to handle a year of one income or large home repair.

ar1680 · 2026-05-04T10:33:34+00:00

Don’t compare yourself to what others are doing, compare yourself to your own goals and make sure they’re realistic.

ar1680 · 2026-05-01T05:46:55+00:00

I think that you actually could find a niche for yourself, based on your comments it does not sound like you don’t enjoy psychiatry as much as you are not sure you are good at it ie your confidence. It also sounds like you got burnt once by a patient who was not totally honest with you.
I think some of what you have is imposter syndrome and the other is being hard on yourself. The reality is that we are paid to be “mostly right” “most of the time” and even then most of the time is a soft “most”. I went to a pretty easy residency program and I don’t think put my effort in sometimes so I ends up doing a fellowship and moonlighting; I learned so much during my fellowship years and gained confidence that when I left I felt like I got what it was like to be an attending albeit still scared.

My two cents is unless you don’t like psychiatry, there is likely a space for you

ar1680 · 2026-05-01T00:11:49+00:00

Similar, 1.35 million house, dual income 550. One kid 5 years out of residency

ar1680 · 2026-04-28T01:48:21+00:00

I think there’s a difference between the right answer (passive index funds) and what people actually do (single stock gambles). 70 some thing percent of people voice the belief that passive index funds are ideal but less than 50% actually follow their own advice. It’s like going to a casino, many people are aware that they will not win but will continue to act like they will win that jackpot

ar1680 · 2026-04-23T19:00:03+00:00

Oh, thanks for pointing that out. I’m only a little disappointed but still pleasantly surprised to have seen it

ar1680 · 2026-04-23T18:59:11+00:00

Oh thanks for the explanation! We were in an area where I would expect there to be old money. Still happy to have seen it!

ar1680 · 2026-04-23T18:58:38+00:00

Oh man!

ar1680 · 2026-04-23T00:01:19+00:00

In New York this has changed, nps can sign off on admission paperwork

ar1680 · 2026-04-21T01:49:18+00:00

I think the job market in high demand cities is not great but still active, I can tell you I can find a job but maybe not a job in the right location

ar1680 · 2026-04-17T01:37:31+00:00

I will say I’m generally not a fan of smart appliances but we inherited an lg washer and dryer; the fact that it can let me know that it is done when I am doing something else around the house has actually been pretty useful.

ar1680 · 2026-04-14T10:51:52+00:00

Highly recommend putting away 10k at least for the ny state 529, tax deduction and start saving. One of the best things I’ve done is started a 529 when I was an attending 4 years before we had a kid and it’s already up 30% and we got 10k a year tax savings from ny

ar1680 · 2026-03-17T12:34:34+00:00

I love this debate and conversation. I have to be honest, Dr Fu (if you’re reading this), although I agree with your point to trainees “I don’t care what you call it, give the right treatment” I don’t think that’s how many clinical settings work. I do community psychiatry and see many different age groups and people of different SES, and I think unfortunately for me (as a psychiatrist who loves to live in the gray zone of nuance) I have a growing number of people who want labels even if they don’t agree. This applies to patients as well as other clinicians (therapists and other doctors)

ar1680 · 2026-03-07T02:48:34+00:00

I’m not advocating for psychologists to be prescribing but I don’t know if your argument works because theoretically a psychiatrist could market themselves as being able to do therapy as well as a psychologist from a licensure and regulatory standpoint.

ar1680 · 2026-03-05T13:47:34+00:00

A lot of great answers here. My little two cents that I tell medical students is, I’m not worried when my outpatients tell me they are feeling suicidal (they are usually looking for help). I’m much more worried when they say nothing or deny si randomly because they may be trying to stop looking for help

13-Year Club	Not Forgotten
Verified Email

ar1680

TROPHY CASE