Still no pics? I miss the old Thom.

Perhaps if you showed her the actual numbers & layed everything out for her she might be persuaded. $500 a month could mean the difference between a 500 & a 700 series BMW. ;)

Ouch.

How does one figure this interest thing? And don’t scream obvious answers at me like Suzy Orman.

Tom’s girlfriend borrowed $172,733 at 8.5% interest over 30 years which makes her payment $1328. This is based on him saying after 132 payments she owes $150,000.

If she refinances the $150,000 at 5% over 30 years her payment will be $805 but will be making 41 years of house payments.

What factors go into what is smart? 15 year loan? Pay it off? 30 year loan with higher early payoff payments? Closing costs? Total interest? (I would lean to refinace with 30 but make the current payment, but that might not buy you a BMW)

seriously?

You did the math, but can't answer your own question? Not every refi is a 30 year.

Right. She could probably refi into a 20 yr or 15 yr and save a bunch of money every month. She might even be able to get into a 10yr for payments similar to what she is making now.

They talk about how long it will take to break even for refinancing. You shouldn't refinance unless you will stay long enough to see it pay back. I can't imagine it would take that long at 5% vs. 8%.

Maybe she is going to take one of Thom's cars and disappear next month and doesn't expect to be around long enough to break even.

You don't have to be smart to understand that 4/15 is the law, not a matter of opinion. Maybe she should consider it legal, not financial, advice. I can't understand why anyone thinks it makes sense to give the gov't. a free loan for a year, aka get a big refund. I'd rather burn that money in my fireplace than have the gov't. keep it for a year. Really chaps my hide that you have to pay a penalty if you owe them too much money, but if they owe you the same amount, they don't pay a penalty. Ask me how I know.

If she turns out to be the one, you should consider taking a course like Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. Every single issue you brought up is covered in the first few weeks.

She's lucky she makes good money. She sounds like like a train wreck waiting to happen.

I refinanced from a 5.8% to 5% earlier this year, the break even was 4 months. Going from 8% to 5% would probably be something like 4 minutes.:)

Ummm, yeah. Considering that money is cited as the #1 issue that leads to divorce, I don't think anyone would be betting on your marriage making it very far. After all, you're annoyed enough by it to post on here about her pissing away HER money. How will you feel when she's pissing away YOUR money?

Proof positive that doctors make too much money.

What he said.

My wife and I used to have a constant stream of disagreements about $$$, we have *very* different ways of handling our finances.

I tend to spend, then check in every month (or so) to see where I'm at budget wise. I get off-track pretty easy and am not much of a saver.

My wife watches the accounts like a hawk, budgets down to $5 a month, spends VERY carefully and is ALWAYS putting money aside... even if it's $20. She just *HAS* to save something in order to sleep well.

So obviously, it was a $chit show when we went to joint accounts. Yikes. We battled for a couple years, and it was bad enough that we were about to switch back to seperate accounts.

However, I knew that *I* was the problem on this one. So, I made it easy. Now, she gets my paycheck, pays all the bills, balances the budget and handles all the banking. I get an "allowance" every 2 weeks, and that's the only $$ I have to think about. I know that would drive a LOT of people crazy, but I just LOVE it. My life has never been simpler and we both sleep WAY better.

You should be commended for seeing the problem clearly and accepting the solution. Not easy to do. Most folks would fail that test.

Fixed it for you Matt!

I would *NEVER* advocate having the wife take care of the finances, especially in tough times? That's a no, no, no in my books, fwiw.

Last time i let the woman have full financial control she stole every god-damned dime i had to my name.

Never again.

Hardly. The woman sounds like she may have come from a life of privilege or cares very little about what money can buy. She may not be a "planner" and depended on others to take care of that aspect of life. The fact that she is a physician has little to do with this. (Physician related financial issues have much more to do with I'm finally earning money at age 33, now I should be able to buy anything I want). Thom should give us more background.

You've seen countless people here say the same thing. Doctors suck with money.

Why? Because they make so much it has no meaning to them.

As a huge generality, physicians make poor decisions with money. They tend to be income-rich and asset-poor. I'd guess they have funded more than 1/2 of all failed restaurants, own unused time share condos around the globe and generally are a good mark for investment scams.

Why is this? This is my armchair opinion: The money is not important to them because it does not define who they are. For most, after Med School, Internship and the beginning of Residency, they are in massive debt and barely making enough money to survive. But they are an MD, which is all they dreamed about, and all they wanted to be. They are regarded as important by their patients, support staff and by the community. Whether they make $1 or $1M, they are an MD. So one day, big checks start showing up in the bank account. And they are still an MD, making life/death decisions, nothing has changed in what they do on a professional level, but suddenly, they start to have lots of disposable income.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure most enjoy the fringe benefits lots of income provides. But the money does not define who they are, the two initials at the end of their last name does.

A fair hunk of MD's I know are very smart when it comes to medicine, but very dumb when it comes to the practicalities of everyday life. Part of that comes from a job that requires 12+ hours a day for decades. Some of it must come from the mono-focus to be good at their craft. While some are fantastic to talk with, many are the most boring people I've met.

My $0.02 anyway.

PS - Thom, yipes. She's not passing the common sense test - If you extrapolate, how would you feel about someone that can't agree with the fact that you have to file your 1040 by 4/15 raising kids?

PPS - Moses, since you are not in the category above, but know more docs than I do, curious if you agree with my analysis.