Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

Financial education for doctors 101

Nii-Daako Darko, MD, MBA
Finance
September 26, 2018
Share
Tweet
Share

An excerpt from the Docs Outside the Box podcast, episode 4: Financial Ed. for Docs 101

Dr. Nii: All right, everyone. Welcome to another episode of “Docs Outside the Box.” We have a treat for you today. Today, we’re going to be interviewing Katie Brewer, CFP, and owner of Your Richest Life. Katie, thank you for joining the show. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself before we go ahead and start the interview?

Katie Brewer: Yeah, I’m so glad to be on the show. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m a certified financial planner. I’ve got some fancy schmancy credentials behind my name. I’ve been in the industry for about 11 years now. Started off more in the brokerage world, decided I wanted to do more comprehensive financial planning where I got to look over people’s entire finances, so I went into that and I started my own firm about a year and a half ago so that I could work with people more around my age, like in their 30s and 40s, being able to give them advice without having any sales or products tied to it.

Dr. Nii: What you just said at the last end of your sentence, that is what we call the fee-only approach?

Katie Brewer: Yes, it is. There’s commissioned based, or there’s commission only, there’s fee and commission also known as fee-based and there’s fee only. There’s actually not really that many of us fee-only financial planners out there.

Dr. Nii: You guys are like unicorns.

Katie Brewer: Yeah. You have essentially three ways that financial advisors can get paid. The first is a commission-only financial planner. I will say that this used to be a lot more prevalent, but honestly, I don’t see that many people that are only commission. Really, even if they worked for an insurance agency, a lot of times they can get an additional license and do financial planning and charge for it. Commission-only would be they don’t get compensated any other way other than selling products. With a fee-based financial planner that’s somebody who has a license to be able to actually charge a fee for a financial plan but they can also sell products on the back end. For some people, that might be fine, but once again, you need to just think about if I’m getting advice back, is that advice going to be because it’s truly in my best interest or because that’s the product that this person is getting better compensated for this month, or that their sales manager is telling them that they need to sell more of this month?

Dr. Nii: I’ve been pitched cash value/universal life insurance. Everything that you said earlier in the interview, I’ve heard that. Variable annuities, all of that stuff. This is being pitched this product after saying that, and I’m very open and honest. Me and my wife combined have about $600,000 close to $700,000 in student loan debt. Obviously, that should be the priority above other things, but yet we still get pitched these plans.

Katie Brewer: Yep, exactly. There’s a lot of different things that are being pitched but they can even go beyond traditional investments where somebody might convince you that you should buy this real estate property so that we can develop it so that we can put medical offices in it, and then you’d be able to rent one of your own offices and you’d be able to actually make income off of it. All of that sounds great, but if you’re a doctor, you are probably not a real estate professional nor are you a real estate investor, and if you wanted to do that, maybe you should hire an impartial third party instead of reacting to somebody else telling you what a great deal that it is.

Dr. Nii: All right. The first one is what is a 401k?

Katie Brewer: All right. A 401k, along with other retirements accounts, it’s not actually an investment vehicle. I always tell people to think of it as an umbrella. You’ve got an umbrella and it’s over different types of investments. A 401k is an umbrella that is over retirement accounts. A 401k is not actually an investment. Within a 401k, usually you have mutual funds, but you could also have ETF’s or stocks or bonds, or things that you shouldn’t have in 401k’s like options and stuff like that. It’s always connected to an employer. If you’re self-employed, you could start up a self-employed 401k, but if you are a W-2 employee at a place where they don’t have a work retirement plan, then unless you have income that’s outside of it, you usually can’t establish a 401k for yourself because it’s an employer plan.

Dr. Nii: OK. 401k, you have to be attached to a job.

Katie Brewer: Yes, exactly.

ADVERTISEMENT

Dr. Nii: It seems like after 2007, 2008, this whole notion of passive versus active investing has come to light, and it’s almost like two people at each ends corner of a boxing match, like who’s going to win. It seems like there is a lot of studies that are showing that passive investing is just as good as active investing. Can you explain the difference and basically the philosophy of each approach?

Katie Brewer: Yeah. Passive versus active. Passive means that you essentially buy into a mutual fund or an ETF or stocks or bonds, and that you essentially buy into different types of investments in the market. Then, you leave it alone. That’s the buy and hold strategy is passive investing. Active investing is where somebody, usually not you but it could be you, but usually people have a money manager that will go out and do research and say we project out that this particular segment of the industry is going to make more money than another segment of the industry. They might skew or they might focus on a particular industry or country, but they charge a premium for it because they’re actually having to go out and do the work to actually find those investments. That’s usually the difference between passive and active.

Nii-Daako Darko is a surgeon and founder, Docs Outside the Box.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

A case of instant gratification in primary care

September 25, 2018 Kevin 0
…
Next

The dismantling of informed consent is a disaster

September 26, 2018 Kevin 2
…

Tagged as: Practice Management

Post navigation

< Previous Post
A case of instant gratification in primary care
Next Post >
The dismantling of informed consent is a disaster

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Nii-Daako Darko, MD, MBA

  • “I love my patients … but I love myself, too!”

    Nii-Daako Darko, MD, MBA
  • How a physician found success and fulfillment living outside the box

    Nii-Daako Darko, MD, MBA
  • A conversation with a doctor who was tired of feeling burned out

    Nii-Daako Darko, MD, MBA

Related Posts

  • Why doctors-in-training need better nutritional education

    Abeer Arain, MD, MPH
  • Why do doctors who hate being doctors still practice?

    Kristin Puhl, MD
  • The financial barriers of applying to medical school

    Shin Mei Chan and Jamieson O’Marr
  • We’re doctors. We signed the book.

    Jonathan Peters, MD
  • Doctors aren’t just white coats without a face

    Devon Romano
  • We need more doctors. International medical schools can provide them.

    Richard Liebowitz, MD

More in Finance

  • The business lesson new doctors must unlearn

    Stanley Liu, MD
  • The hidden impact of denials on health care systems

    Diana Ortiz, JD
  • Why physicians are unlike the “average” investor

    David B. Mandell, JD, MBA
  • Signing bonuses and taxes: What physicians should know

    Shane Tenny, CFP
  • 5 steps to ride out a non-compete without uprooting your family

    Stanley Liu, MD
  • What every physician should know before buying into a medical practice

    Dennis Hursh, Esq
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • 2 hours to decide my future: How the SOAP residency match traps future doctors

      Nicolette V. S. Sewall, MD, MPH | Education
    • Why removing fluoride from water is a public health disaster

      Steven J. Katz, DDS | Conditions
    • When did we start treating our lives like trauma?

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • In a fractured world, Brian Wilson’s message still heals

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Physician
    • When your dream job becomes a nightmare [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How doctors took back control from hospital executives

      Gene Uzawa Dorio, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • Why shared decision-making in medicine often fails

      M. Bennet Broner, PhD | Conditions
    • My journey from misdiagnosis to living fully with APBD

      Jeff Cooper | Conditions
    • Why we fear being forgotten more than death itself

      Patrick Hudson, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • When your dream job becomes a nightmare [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Finding healing in narrative medicine: When words replace silence

      Michele Luckenbaugh | Conditions
    • Why coaching is not a substitute for psychotherapy

      Maire Daugharty, MD | Conditions
    • When the white coats become gatekeepers: How a quiet cartel strangles America’s health

      Anonymous | Physician
    • Why doctors stay silent about preventable harm

      Jenny Shields, PhD | Conditions
    • Why interoperability is key to achieving the quintuple aim in health care

      Steven Lane, MD | Tech

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

Leave a Comment

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • 2 hours to decide my future: How the SOAP residency match traps future doctors

      Nicolette V. S. Sewall, MD, MPH | Education
    • Why removing fluoride from water is a public health disaster

      Steven J. Katz, DDS | Conditions
    • When did we start treating our lives like trauma?

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • In a fractured world, Brian Wilson’s message still heals

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Physician
    • When your dream job becomes a nightmare [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How doctors took back control from hospital executives

      Gene Uzawa Dorio, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • Why shared decision-making in medicine often fails

      M. Bennet Broner, PhD | Conditions
    • My journey from misdiagnosis to living fully with APBD

      Jeff Cooper | Conditions
    • Why we fear being forgotten more than death itself

      Patrick Hudson, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • When your dream job becomes a nightmare [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Finding healing in narrative medicine: When words replace silence

      Michele Luckenbaugh | Conditions
    • Why coaching is not a substitute for psychotherapy

      Maire Daugharty, MD | Conditions
    • When the white coats become gatekeepers: How a quiet cartel strangles America’s health

      Anonymous | Physician
    • Why doctors stay silent about preventable harm

      Jenny Shields, PhD | Conditions
    • Why interoperability is key to achieving the quintuple aim in health care

      Steven Lane, MD | Tech

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Leave a Comment

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...