<prompt> Human: Sorry for posting this in a throwaway account, Im a little embarrassed that Ive made it this far in the educational system and still dont understand an ounce of finance.Im about to graduate and have a job lined up. My wife is very, very excited and adamant about the prospect of purchasing a home. I cant fully blame her as weve been living in a small apartment for the past 8 years and shes antsy to have a real home. My parents are also pushing for us to buy a home, but in all truthfulness, theyve never been very financially savvy and insist that owning a home is the ultimate in financial security. Im not entirely sure thats true given the volatility that home ownership can bring, though.My wife is looking at homes in the 4-600k range. In our area, this is a mid-upper priced home. We could easily find a nice home for 200k, though. I think we can financially swing it, but my instinct is that we should keep living as if were poor for a few more years since we really are in the hole quite deep, and in a view starkly contrasting my wifes opinion, that we really are poor. Id like to continue living in our apartment 700mo and put every spare dollar I can towards my student loans until theyre at least significantly smaller, if not fully paid off. The brief synopsis of our situation: wife earns 38kyear with a steady government position Job offer is at 220kyear with a 15k sign-on bonus emergency medicine position in a nearby ED no appreciable savings other than 8k between an IRA and a 401k and 6k in our savings account just shy of 400k in student loans ranging from 4-7 interest rateMy wife keeps insisting that were soon going to be pulling in 20kmo before taxes and that we can start affording more luxuries in life. I have a very different viewpoint in that were still significantly poorer than the average person and we really cant afford this. Who is right? Can we afford a home? Is it at all the responsible thing to do? Is my inclination that we should continue living in our apartment, despite our soon-to-be large income, so that I can pay down my debts?Edit - I lied. Approximately 45k of the 400k student loans is at 11 interest, deferred from my undergraduate loans. I would like to pay that off immediately, of course.Edit 2 - Thanks to those of you with helpful comments. Those who keep replying that my wife is a gold diggerwants to spend my moneyetc., youre reading way too much into her wanting a new home. She wants to live in a certain area. I dont blame her, its a nice area and weve lived like dog shit for the past 8 years. Luckily, we went through this thread and she agrees after seeing the countless comments that this is something that should wait. Compromise initiated, were going to look at some nicer apartments. I certainly cant deny that as we live in a borderline-dump of an area right now. Thanks much for the help, glad to hear I wasnt crazy.Assistant: Are you one of my residents? It is that time of the year, after all.Several people have spoken regarding the financial implications of taking on a mortgage while youre 400k in debt, but let me speak to the practical matter of being an EM attending and locking yourself in geographically.DO NOT lock yourself into mortgage in your first job out of residency unless you are financially secure. The vast majority of EM attendings spend 2-3 years in their first job before moving onward. Of the 15 people in my graduating class 5 years prior, 2 of them are in the same institution. A little less than half are in the same area geographically. The last thing you want to do is lock yourself into a work situation that you cant escape from due to your mortgage. Give it at least a year or perhaps two before you commit to buy in the area, once you have a sense of the institution or group you are working for. Incidentally, we have a similar take home i work in academia. If you max your 401k or 403b and perhaps your 457b, if your institution offers one, and pay for benefits, your approximate take home on a monthly basis will be 10k. Consider this before you commit yourself to a 2-3k mortgage while the clock ticks on the 400k debt.Human: Haha, possibly! Reddit is surprisingly popular in my department. I had also thought of the geographical constraints, I like our area but Im not sure its a forever home kind of place. Im also still waiting to hear back on some other interviews to see if an offer is made.  <response>: Dont buy a house. If you hate your first job, it would be a giant pain in the ass to try to sell your house when you have no assets, huge student loans, and not much job experience yet. Rent for a year or two. Get a nice place so that your wife doesnt feel like shes suffered through med school and residency just to land in the same place youve been all along, but dont buy anything yet. 