I do want to say while I think a lot of things regarding the debt is true, having a nice house really isn’t so bad if you live frugally. It’s all in what you want for your life. I have about 300k in loans and on the SAVE plan based on the calculator I will pay the least over time and it will be forgiven at 25 years. My house is 560k, at the rate we are paying it we will have paid it off in 12 years while still paying my loans and putting a good chunk in retirement and savings. Then we will have about 5 years after the house is paid off to save up for the tax bomb when my loan is forgiven. I only make about 175k a year… it’s doable my friends but if you want to go out to fancy dinners and fancy trips all the time, well it may not be. But I don’t like the fact everyone on here saying getting a nice house is a mistake. If you do it right it will work out just fine.
Nice house is technically not a mistake from the investment standpoint (assuming it keeps its equity and there are buyers - aka borrowers - to take it someday when you need to sell).
The problem is, big mortgage payment cripples the budget... can't pay off the house fast, have to pay low/minimum on other debt if mortgage eats most of the monthly budget. You drown in interest. It is hard to have free cash for opportunities (start own biz, investment, retirement, solid EF, etc) when in perma-debt. The house/mortgage is an awesome thing IF you can afford it with budget space to spare (pay it down early, pay other debt, invest/retire).
Interest just crushes. For your example, you will basically pay 850k for a 560k house (if you can indeed pay it off in 12yrs)...
and you will pay on 400k++ in minimum payments on 300k student loans (assuming $20k/yr for 20yrs IBR and then they're eventually forgiven).
The caveat, for most ppl working podiatry, is that
you don't know you'll even be at the same job in 12yrs. You don't know in 3 years.
If your income goes up, your minimum pays on student loans goes away. If you have to move, your mortgage plan goes away.
People get fed up with pod PP groups, PP groups cut them or shave their pay, PP groups will grind more work for same pay, a fair amount of PP groups are getting sunk or severely wounded by graft clawbacks right now. Even podiatry MSG or hospital jobs are not immune to changes; many well-trained docs on SDN and elsewhere have changed jobs quite a few times. Our job market is terrible. I personally worked for 4 PPs, one MSG, and one hospital, and one house call gig all in my first 10 years out. No joke. Sure, you're employed today, and that could change.
Moving and forcing a quick sale of a mortgage house can be anywhere from fairly good to disastrous... but any forced asset sale (house, stocks, etc) is very often during an overall economic downturn. At the end, you know what's best for you, though. I hope it works well (the job and the area/mortgage).
...I also concur that $560k is seldom a nicer or newer house with the inflation of real estate. It's a fairly good one where I live, but I'm pretty rural (no Walmart, CVS, TBell, etc)... and my partner paid ours which cost a bit over 600k off in under 3yrs (I just pay rent to her, and the utility bills). I would never dream of borrowing on a lux house or car myself until I finish my loans off (and catch up on retirement invest that I dwindled a bit to start solo PP). Jmo