Pre-Approved Straightjackets

Seeing how all of us are going to be doctors and earning an income in little more than three months, the university medical society organized a “Finance Evening 2008” tonight in case we don’t know what to do with all these money we’ll be making.

We gathered at the auditorium. A bunch of people in spiffy pin-striped suits took turn and gave us talks on the ins and outs of managing personal finances and services their companies offer. New words were being thrown around: salary packaging, superannuation, negative gearing, capital protected borrowing… I’ll have to look up these words later, but I did learn that, apparently, there are so many ways for these companies to minimize our taxes – and they are all legal. I’m listening, tell me more…

In the middle of their talks, almost every company told us about these pre-approved lines of credit up to $10,000 sitting there waiting for us as soon as we start working. And then there are car loans and 100% home loans. They are practically throwing money at us. I guess the credit crunch in the US has not come across the Pacific yet. Some may salivate at these “generous” offers, but, to me, each one of these pre-approved loans dangling in front of us looked like someone holding up a straightjacket, just waiting for us to turn around and put our arms through, then ziiiiiiip, we’re trapped for the next thirty years. I am already graduating with a bunch of mortgage-size student loans; the last thing I need is another loan on top of it, no matter how favorable the terms may appear to be.

So, no, I don’t need a new car, my little three-cylinder Daihatsu with 240,000 km on it will do just fine, until it dies. House? I’ll be okay living in my rented hovel as long as my net worth is in the red. No, I don’t need a line of credit either. Now, about that tax minimization…