300k In Debt - What Should I Do?!

"My fiancée is graduating from med school in two years and will have 300k in loans before she starts residency (50k/year). I make 200k a year. How do we handle it while saving for a home/wedding?" We'll walk you through that question and more in today's Q&A episode! Jump start your journey with our FREE financial resources Reach your goals faster with our products Take the relationship to the next level: become a client Subscribe on YouTube for early access and go beyond the podcast Connect with us on social media for more content Bring confidence to your wealth building with simplified strategies from The Money Guy. Learn how to apply financial tactics that go beyond common sense and help you reach your money goals faster. Make your assets do the heavy lifting so you can quit worrying and start living a more fulfilled life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:28Speaker 01

  Para los grandes, para los chicos, para los bajos y los altos, los pacifistas, los valientes. Para los optimistas y los pesimistas, los que valoran lo de adentro. Para los que están lejos, los que no ven de lejos y los que no ven de cerca. Para los introvertidos y los extrovertidos. Para los que piensan y los que hacen. Para los que nos mostraron el camino. Coca-Cola, para todos. Compra una Coca-Cola en una tienda cerca de usted.

• 0:58Brian Preston?

  Thanks for tuning in. We're out with the family, but we want to reward you with something so big that the team had to call me and I was like, y'all have lost your minds.

• 1:09Speaker 03

  Brian, that's right. It is Black Friday and we know that you love Black Friday.

• 1:13Brian Preston?

  I love a deal.

• 1:14Speaker 03

  So we want to make some deals for you. So right now, you can actually get 20% off both of our Know Your Number course as well as our net worth tool, but that's not all.

• 1:25Brian Preston?

  Bo, you gotta tell them because 2024 was the year of Millionaire Mission.

• 1:29Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 1:29Brian Preston?

  So this is the origin story of the Financial Order of Operations. So we were like, you know what? Special year, special things need to happen. So this was the cray cray part. Tell them the deets.

• 1:40Speaker 03

  This is nuts. We've never offered the Financial Order of Operations course for this low, but we are going to make it available to you for $49 because we believe it's something that you should have access to that realistically can change your life. But you can only get this deal from now until December the 2nd. That will be your last day to capitalize on it. So make sure if you've been waiting to work through the course, you jump on it right now.

• 2:08Brian Preston?

  Yeah, this was the moment, like I said. They called me and they said, "Bo has an idea." And I'm like, "That is crazy." But I think it's actually brilliant, so let's do it. So I gotta tell you, this is an opportunity. I want to tell you also, thank you, thank you, thank you. We could not do any of this stuff without you guys and all of your support. And I love that we get to spend Thanksgiving paying it forward and giving you deals of a lifetime.

• 2:40Brian Preston?

  So what happens when your big life priorities are competing?

• 2:44Speaker 03

  Brent, I am so excited to talk about this because this happens to all of us. We want to get different things done. We have different priorities in our life and we try to figure out, how do we prioritize them? I love that we can speak into that kind of stuff. And I love that we can speak into questions that you have. It's why every single Tuesday at 10 a.m. we like to do a live stream where we answer your questions. So with that, I'm gonna throw it over to you to creative director, Reeve.

• 3:13Speaker 04

  Yeah, I've got a question about this very thing from Dev to kick us off. He says, "My fiance is graduating from med school in two years and will have 300K in loans before she starts residency at 50K a year to start. I make 200K a year. How do we handle this debt and this what's going on while saving for a home slash wedding?" That's a lot of things, med school, home, wedding. What do you have to say to Dev and his fiance?

• 3:42Speaker 03

  Well, let me, Dev, first, let me give you the good news, the good part. It sounds like you guys have a big shovel. If your income is 200,000 and your fiance's income is gonna be 50,000, that's a quarter of a million dollars a year you're gonna have coming in. So it's okay to have a lot of competing financial priorities when you got a really big shovel to figure out how to tackle those. Now, the one downside that Dev said is, "Oh, but in addition to this big shovel we have, we have 300,000 dollars of loans and we have other priorities." I mean, I'm sure we want to get rid of this debt and we want to pay it off and we want to... Again, building for financial independence in retirement, but also we want to get married.

• 4:24Speaker 03

  And I'm guessing by the fact that you have to save it for the wedding, that you have to shoulder some of the responsibility for that. And as we start our lives together, we want to buy a home. And so the very first thing, Dev, I think that you and your fiance need to do is if you've not yet had the financial conversation around, hey, what are our priorities? You should do that. And you guys should sit down and talk about, hey, are we working towards being financially independent one day? Do we want to live a life where we get to do what we want to do on our terms, the way that we want to do it? Or do we want to have like a knock down, drag out, amazing, blow it out wedding? And you have to figure out how you prioritize those types of things. And based on how you prioritize your goals,

• 5:07Speaker 03

  we'll determine how you should begin funding said goals.

• 5:11Brian Preston?

  What kept popping in my mind was begin with the end in mind. And I think that on paper, first of all, there's a lot of chaos because you've got $300,000 of student loan debt sitting out there. You got marriage, you know, coming up. You're asking about housing. That is messy middle for a whole different reason than typically it's kids and other things. But I still begin with the end in mind because what's going to happen is right now, you feel the pressure, you feel the weight of that student loan debt. And it's in that deferred building stage right now, but you still feel the weight of it. What I'm worried about, and this is why I want to change your mindset, there's

• 5:54Brian Preston?

  going to come a time when your fiance graduates from her residency and gets actually her first real big job. Probably going to be making $300,000 plus.

• 6:05Speaker 03

  Hopefully, if that's the student loan debt.

• 6:06Brian Preston?

  I mean, because that's, remember the whole thing, hopefully doing this for what's your first year salary. And with medical, I know there's sometimes some weirdness to it. But it's going to be a big shovel. You make $200,000, which great income. So you guys all of a sudden are going to go from a situation of essentially, it's like Cinderella. You know, you're running around in your raggedy dress and then all of a sudden now, boom, you've got this big income coming in. You've just got to make sure when the clock strikes midnight, that it all doesn't go back to you being in rags again. And the way I would encourage you, instead of going from this rags to riches, let's actually, don't make the mistake that most medical students do is I would go ahead and encourage you and your fiance, go ahead and have those difficult conversations right now and say, hey,

• 6:51Brian Preston?

  what can we be doing right now to make sure we don't get out of hand on the wedding? Second thing, what can we do right now to make sure that maybe the house we're trying to get into isn't the house that we're going to live in in seven to 10 years, but it's the house that we're going to start this relationship and maybe even start this family with? So it can check those boxes, but not be what I think everybody thinks that a doctor and a successful professional should have. Because if you get that out of your mind, you're going to already be in a head start because you've got a lot of pressure. And right now, you'll be in the faking it until you make it phase just because you have a lot of potential, but you haven't actually met the opportunity to get out of debt and everything else that's coming your way.

• 7:34Brian Preston?

  So those are the two big things that I see right now. And then after she gets her first real job, and I'll move on. By the way, take into account that she might get her first real job out of state. Y'all go ahead and have that conversation too.

• 7:48Speaker 03

  It is now the right time to be buying a house even.

• 7:50Brian Preston?

  And then figure out how that impacts your job because you have a big shovel as well. So these are the bigger, begin with the end in mind, bigger elements that need to be addressed. And then just navigate as you get more and more of the picture becomes clear. Think about how do we get ourself out of this? And I would use the financial order of operations to kind of be your navigator. So that then you come out on the other side of you actually have your dream job. She has her dream job. Y'all know all the parameters of the debt. And you look at the financial order of operations and you figure out, hey, how do we build this wealth in a great way? And then have this life that is the fairy tale, just like Cinderella.

• 8:31Speaker 03

  The other thing that I would encourage you to do, since you guys are thinking about homeownership, is if you go to moneyguy.com/resources, we have an entire home buying hub out there where you can walk through a home buying checklist. And can you affirmatively answer, hey, if we buy this home today, we feel pretty confident we're going to be there for at least five to seven years? Because that's a great point. If she gets a job somewhere else, or if you have to move home, ownership might not need to be one of the top priorities that you guys have right now. So make sure you go to the website, use all of the home buying resources out there so that you can make a wise financial decision and live your happily ever after. I was trying to tie it in with you. I was trying to stay in the fairy tale.

• 9:11Speaker 04

  No, that was great. You showed a lot of the nuance that is in this situation like this because personal finance is personal. So Dev, thank you for asking that question. Hopefully that gives you some things to think about as you think through your financial situation moving forward. All right. Next up, we've got a question from Gemax1999. It says, "On the last video, you talked about parents helping kids. Do you have any advice when it's the other way around?" Currently, we are helping our parents in our native country. However, this prevents us from getting all the way to the 25% savings rate. Since in our retirement, we will not be helping our parents, do you think this is okay?

• 9:55Speaker 04

  Currently, we are saving 16%. We're 30 and 25 years old, and we're dink, so double income, no kids. So what would you have to say to this type of a situation? Because we honestly get this a lot. There are different family dynamics, different structures where sometimes it is this other way around.

• 10:12Speaker 03

  So you said they're 30 and 25?

• 10:15Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 10:16Speaker 03

  Well, this is a hard one, or I should say this is a nuanced one. Because here's what we're not going to say to you. "Hey, you know what? Your parents, they're kind of on their own. Just kick them to the curb." Right, because that's not the way that we want to approach how we interact and how we handle this life. And you have to remember that money is nothing more than a tool that allows you to achieve the goals that you have. And for you, as the child, one of the goals you may have is, "Hey, I want to make sure my parents are okay. I want to make sure my parents are provided for." You know, we talk about how it's okay if you don't prioritize saving for your kids because when they get to college, they're going to be able to get student loans, and they're going to be able to work, and they're going to be able to do all of these other things. When it comes to your parents, it's a little bit different

• 11:01Speaker 03

  because likely, there's not government, there's not retirement loans from the government that are going to be available to them. So you're forced with a really difficult predicament in terms of, "Okay, what are our financial priorities and what are our goals?" And if one of the goals is, "Hey, I want to be able to provide assistance to my..." My parents, there's nothing inherently wrong with that, but you need to have a very real understanding of the opportunity cost that exists there. If that is something that is going to be a goal and that's something you're going to prioritize, you may be giving something up. It may be early retirement, or it may be a more fruitful retirement, or it may be more flexibility, or whatever those things be. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

• 11:45Speaker 03

  You just need to go into it with eyes wide open. You need to figure out, okay, what are the things that we, or what's the way that we want our life to look later on? Can we still help our parents and be a resource for them and, and, and show assistance to them while not completely sacrificing our total financial future? But also recognizing, hey, if we only save 16% from now until the time we get to retirement, that's going to be a very different looking retirement than if we were able to save 25% starting at the age of 20 and 25.

• 12:18Brian Preston?

  Well, I, I got excited when I heard the ages because I, I first want to take a little pressure off and then I'll, I'll come back with the tough love part. But, um, we pull up and this might be something pull up right on the screen, but I always call it what can 25% do for you?

• 12:32Speaker 03

  Love it.

• 12:33Brian Preston?

  If you pull that illustration up, you'll quickly see that one of the few places that are bright spots is that when you're below 25% for people in their twenties and even at the, right at the early 30 part, you're, a little bit goes a long way. So I want to take a little pressure off of you in that aspect. And then the second homework I would give you after you go to moneyguy.com/resources and look at that, that, that resource is you might want to go ahead and do the full know your number course to figure out how much you're actually hurting yourself or is this just a, a reality of your life? But I think by actually modeling out your cash flow, your savings rate, anticipated

• 13:15Brian Preston?

  rate of return, inflation and all the other things, you're going to be able to quickly see, is this changing your trajectory in a big way? Or is this just a course correction where you're off one or two degrees and you just need to make some lifestyle decisions right now? But you're not going to know that unless you actually do the work. And then the good news is because you're also addressing this at such a young age. Like right now, I have a case where I'm helping figure this out where it's a very similar situation. You have an adult parent that they know that in the next eight to nine years, they're going to have to really start providing a lot of the income. But I'm like, that eight or nine years is actually a huge blessing.

• 13:53Speaker 03

  It's a lot of time still.

• 13:54Brian Preston?

  Because it lets you really do some planning to see if you can mitigate the actual impact of this. The first thing is, are you in this alone? Meaning, are there any siblings? Because if you have eight to nine years, or you have some period of time, you could pull together the committee of all the loved ones that are involved in this. And because it's a group, and you have time, maybe the solution is very small. Hey, can each one of you guys, can we start putting $50 a month into this account that we're going to be growing for the parents' benefit? And you'd be shocked, just like we talked about the power of compounding growth, those small decisions, especially when you get multiple people involved with it, can have huge impacts. So that's what I would, I would try to figure

• 14:37Brian Preston?

  out, are there things that can mitigate by knowing how much time you have, how many other loved ones are involved in this decision-making, and you just take the reins of leadership, but you've got to do the homework. Don't skip out on figuring out how far or how far ahead you are through the 25%. Don't skip out on Know Your Number course, and then don't skip out on going ahead and attacking this right now. So every ounce of time that you have on your side can be going towards finding the solution.

• 15:04Speaker 03

  Love it.

• 15:05Speaker 04

  Fantastic. Jim X 1999, thank you for the question. If you want that resource that Brian talked about, you can go to moneyguy.com/resources, click on "How Much Should You Save?" It's going to show you exactly how much of your income you can replace in retirement based on your current savings rate, and you can see what 25% can do for you. All right, Ryan's question is up next. Ready for it?

• 15:27Speaker 03

  Yes, ma'am.

• 15:28Speaker 04

  It says, "Is it better to rent out your first home when you're ready to buy and move into a new home, or should you sell it and invest the equity in an index fund? I have 200K in equity with 2.6% interest on my first home. Thank you. What would you say to Ryan?"

• 15:47Speaker 03

  It depends. Next question.

• 15:50Speaker 04

  Wow, that's all.

• 15:51Speaker 03

  No, I'm just kidding. Of course, it depends, right? Sometimes, sometimes, if you find yourself where maybe you got a steal of a deal, you got an amazing first home, in a community that had not maybe fully developed, and you got in that home, and now all of a sudden that community is blown up. And it is a highly desired community where there are people who are desperate to rent in that community, and the home values are continuing to increase. We've seen a lot of this in the metro Nashville area where people bought homes that were not crazy expensive eight or 10 years ago. The homes have ballooned in value, and they're still going up in value, and there's an amazing, robust rental market. If that's the case, you may very well decide, "Man, I've got this mortgage rate at like

• 16:34Speaker 03

  2.5%, and I know that I can fill renters in there, and the rental income that I have coming in more than covers my mortgage and creates free cash flow for me," then that mathematically might suggest, "Hey, it's a great idea to keep the first home, and keep it as a rental, and then move on to your next home," so long as you don't run afoul of any of the money guy rules. Meaning that on your second home, you gotta put at least 20% down. You wanna make sure that you don't have all of your housing payments exceed 25% of your gross income, and for the new home, do you see yourself being there for at least five to seven years? Now, the opposite could be true, too. You may have bought a home, and it went up in

• 17:19Speaker 03

  value, but maybe it's in a more suburban area, and there's not a robust rental market, and so you don't know what the tenants are gonna look like, or maybe you don't even wanna be a landlord. If that were the case, then perhaps selling the house makes it. In my mind, I think it really does depend.

• 17:35Brian Preston?

  Well, I look at this as, when I visualize, I think of somebody who's in a beautiful picture with a fork in the road moment, meaning that blue skies, sunny days, meaning this is a beautiful moment to have yourself in. It's where it's really two great opportunities. Because if you have $200,000 of equity in this house, and you have this low interest rate of 2.6%, here's the part that I didn't hear you ask about, which, like I said, you have two beautiful opportunities here.

• 18:06Brian Preston?

  On your primary residence, as long as you lived in it two of the last five years, as a single individual, it's $250,000 of tax-free gain. Meaning the government's just gonna let you take the proceeds, throw them in your back pocket, you put them into the new house, you put them into your investments, it's your choice, choose your own adventure. That's incredible. By the way, if you're married, because I don't know, I can't remember if Ryan shared if he was single or married, it's $500,000, half a million dollars, pretty incredible opportunity. Second thing is, with good opportunities, the other fork of the road is turning it into a rental property. And look, and I get it, if your interest rate's 2.6%, that's like, wow, you hate to walk away, you know that there's actual value just in that loan itself, plus the fact that

• 18:50Brian Preston?

  you have all this equity that's in this house because of how much houses have appreciated, that can be a pretty good opportunity too, as long as, and Bo hit on all these things, you're not skipping the step of making sure on the second home you're putting down 20%. You don't get out of that just because you have this great opportunity with this primary that you're considering turning into a rental. And then I would ask you to really do the gut check. I think I have a client who did outstanding in real estate, and the fact that he bought a whole fleet of rental properties right after the Great Recession. There couldn't have been a better time to do rental property, because let's face it, interest rates were super low, banks had more homes than they knew what to do with,

• 19:34Brian Preston?

  so they were literally selling homes for cheaper than the material that went in to build these homes. This was a once in a lifetime, but even this client who struck gold with his rental real estate portfolio, he's getting in his late 50s, and he told me, he's like, "Look, I love these houses, they've created a lot of wealth for my family, however, I just don't want the headache anymore." You know, there is, even good rental real estate is not going to be completely passive to do it right, to keep your tenants well, and make sure nobody's tearing stuff up. So I would do a gut check on yourself, do you have the aptitude, meaning you're actually gonna be able to keep up with the accounting of doing the rental property right, where

• 20:16Brian Preston?

  it's reported on your tax return, where you're doing all the repairs right, you have somebody who's gonna kind of take away the stress of somebody calling you at 3:00 in the morning because they have a big leak in the house, and just make sure you have that desire. I'm not going to get mad at you either way because like I said, you are at the beautiful crossroads of two incredible opportunities, but just make sure you measure twice, cut once, and do what works in your life appropriately. What I don't want you to use is turn this beautiful situation, disregard the financial order of operation, disregard the guardrails that will keep you out of the financial ditch, and then turn this beautiful thing into an actual nightmare. That, don't fall into that trap.

• 20:59Speaker 03

  This is a prime example of where personal finance becomes incredibly personal. It's unique to your specific situation.

• 21:07Speaker 04

  Love it. Brian, good question. Thanks for being here. We always appreciate hearing what's going on in your financial life.

• 21:14Speaker 03

  Hey Brian, you know, as we're recording this, it's the time of year, and look, I know you are a little bit more sentimental at this stage and age of life, and this is the time of year we get to talk about all the things that we're thankful for, and you were saying some stuff pre-show. You're just talking about, you know what, life's pretty good, things are pretty good, this thing that we're doing is pretty good. And I just wanted to acknowledge what a heart of gratitude that you have, and it influences all of us around here, and I'm thankful that you do that for us.

• 21:43Brian Preston?

  No, I am very thankful for what we get to do. I mean, I had a studio tour come by last week, Jody.

• 21:50Speaker 03

  Hey!

• 21:50Brian Preston?

  And she was so sad she missed you, Rebi. I think she was sad. I went and cut her off at the Passau and told her that you were unavailable.

• 21:59Speaker 03

  She specifically said, "Oh, man, I wish Rebi was here," and I was in a meeting, and there was no...

• 22:04Speaker 04

  Sorry, I don't think I was in office that day.

• 22:07Brian Preston?

  But I tell you, just because you guys have no idea how much you're the rocket fuel for when I meet you guys, and you come in and you share how your life has been changed, or some piece of content that kind of helped you out. Even Megan, one of our main writers here, shared something that her parents heard on our show. I mean, she probably doesn't realize that that little sidebar comment really motivated me in ways, and that's... So, I have a heart of gratitude in the fact that you guys have made this possible. We're already way...

• 22:39Brian Preston?

  Beyond where I ever thought this thing was going. Not Bo. I think Bo still thinks we're probably at the 60% mark. But I am way beyond where I ever thought. And I would be remiss if I didn't say, thank you, thank you, thank you for making all this possible. It means a lot to us. That's why we try to load you up. If you go to moneyguy.com/resources, there literally is an entire library of free information to try to get you to be the better version of yourself that much faster.

• 23:06Speaker 03

  I'm thankful for every subscriber we have out there. And if you're not one of them, make sure you subscribe right now to the channel so that I can also be thankful for you hanging out and doing this with us every single week.

• 23:19Brian Preston?

  And then last thing, I'd be crazy. 2024 was the year of Millionaire Mission.

• 23:24Speaker 03

  I love it.

• 23:25Brian Preston?

  And what's funny, I'm still a sucker. I'm out there reading the reviews.

• 23:28Speaker 03

  No, you're not. You're not still reading.

• 23:30Brian Preston?

  The other thing.

• 23:31Speaker 04

  You haven't mentioned it. I was like, I'm impressed.

• 23:32Brian Preston?

  I know. It's my own little guilty pleasure. You guys are still super nice. I keep thinking, at some point, we're gonna be done with all my financial mutants and we'll actually see what the public really thinks. But every now and there's still a lot of you guys that are still buying the book. The other thing is, is every week, and Rebi knows, every Thursday, I get the sales numbers. And I haven't said anything, but it is crazy, like clockwork, hundreds of copies of this sell every week. And then like last week, double the number of books. Just so I'm like, what caused that?

• 23:59Speaker 04

  I don't, I actually saw it too. And I was like, I don't know why. People just like it.

• 24:03Brian Preston?

  But you guys make it all possible. I love that so many people have enjoyed the book. So 2024 forever will be the year of Millionaire Mission.

• 24:12Speaker 03

  I love it.

• 24:13Speaker 04

  True that. Good stuff. Well, speaking of loading people up with free advice, you want to do some more questions?

• 24:18Speaker 03

  Rebi, I'm thankful for you. I don't know if I said that. I'm thankful that you throw us these questions and you keep us on track and you heard the cats so incredibly well.

• 24:25Brian Preston?

  Now, see, what's funny is you're sitting there thinking that. I was like, man, we, we should thank Rebi. And I was like, oh my gosh, we have a whole room full of people. Is this like a band? Is this where all of a sudden we're gonna let everybody do like somebody, he does a drum, Nate does the drum solo. We let, we let Nick get up there on the bass and start ripping some, some, I mean, what are we gonna do here to make sure everybody can introduce themselves and how thankful for you? Then Matt, we have to make Matt happy.

• 24:49Speaker 04

  I don't know what's set up for that production level.

• 24:51Brian Preston?

  Matt's like, you know, there's certain groups, like the media, you don't want to upset them because they can just kill you with unlimited publicity and other things. That's the way Matt over on social media is.

• 25:03Speaker 04

  That's how our social media works.

• 25:04Brian Preston?

  You don't want to, you gotta keep him happy because he could, no, you gotta tell him what he's gonna put out there.

• 25:08Speaker 03

  He could end us, that's right.

• 25:09Speaker 04

  Oh my goodness.

• 25:12Speaker 05

  The Money Guy Show is hosted by Brian Preston. Abound Wealth Management is a registered investment advisory firm regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission in accordance and compliance with the securities laws and regulations. Abound Wealth Management does not render or offer to render personalized investment or tax advice through The Money Guy Show. The information provided is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, investment, or legal advice.

• 25:39Speaker 01

  Para los grandes, para los chicos, para los bajos y los altos, los pacifistas, los valientes, para los optimistas y los pesimistas, los que valoran lo de adentro, para los que están lejos, los que no vende lejos, y los que no vende cerca, para los introvertidos y los extrovertidos, para los que piensan y los que hacen, para los que nos mostraron el camino. Coca-Cola, para todos. Compra una Coca-Cola en una tienda cerca de usted.

• 26:09Speaker 06

  Espolón Tequila, balanced, delicious, 100% agave, 0% ego. Just add ice, lime, and your mouth. For a real margarita, ride the rooster. Espolón Tequila, 40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof. Copyright 2026, Compaq America, New York, New York. Drink responsibly.