Homeownership remains a challenge despite $2.4K monthly income

I, 30, am working as a doctor with a monthly income of about VND40-50 million. My husband is an engineer, earning about VND15 million per month. If we only spent on basic necessities, we could live comfortably with this level of income. However, my husband and I still have to save diligently to buy a house.

Both of us come from poor backgrounds in a rural province, where we had to strive independently without any family support. Therefore, we are cautious about not wasting money and only spend on essential things, saving the rest for our goal of buying a house next year.

Every month, we spend nearly VND20 million on living expenses. I rarely shop for clothes or cosmetics, and even when I do, I keep it minimal. We do not travel, dine out or socialize with our friends often. My daily life consists of just working and coming home afterward.

Sometimes, my life feels dull as we have to calculate and save every penny, yet our dream keeps getting out of reach due to the ever-rising home prices.

There are months when we put our entire surplus of VND40 million into our savings account without spending a single dime. It has become so habitual that I do not even know what to spend on if we happen to earn extra.

I think renting is not so bad since it only costs us VND5 million a month for a spacious and well-equipped home, allowing us to live much more comfortably. We could then use our income to enjoy health care services, beauty treatments, or relaxing trips instead of constantly cutting costs to save money.

As a doctor having to witness death quite often, I sometimes ponder why we have to keep striving so hard for assets like a house or a car. How long do we have to endure until we can truly live for ourselves?

Reader Mai

*This opinion was translated into English with the assistance of AI. Readers’ views are personal and do not necessarily match VnExpress’ viewpoints.