When you browse finance-related websites, it doesn’t take long for you to see ads that claim that they can help you make money, fast.
“I’VE BEEN ABLE TO WIN ON 90% OF MY TRADES WITH THIS PROVEN STRATEGY.” – TYPICAL AD #1
“LET ME SHOW YOU HOW TO EARN 25% RETURNS, GUARANTEED.” – TYPICAL AD #2
“SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER AND I’LL SHARE WITH YOU THREE STOCKS THAT ARE READY TO EXPLODE.” …
Why published trading strategies rarely work
I pulled into my driveway at 1 in the morning after spending eight consecutive hours in the library. I shut the engine off and allowed the music to continue. And I didn’t move.
And then I started to cry. Initially, I resisted the tears, then conceded to the overpowering emotions so desperate to escape. And for ten minutes, I sat in my dark car in the cold at 1 in the morning …
Medical students: It is OK to not feel OK
The specter of the psych ward looms large in popular culture: video games, horror movies, novels — the concept of a locked inpatient psychiatric ward is shorthand for a variety of terrors. This perception is driven by a complex cocktail of factors. Psych ward patients have struggled with historical and current abuses, which are compounded by misunderstanding and ignorance around mental illness.
During third year, I spent a six-week rotation in …
Lessons from the psychiatric ward
Eight weeks after I delivered my third child, I was diagnosed with a four-centimeter lung mass. Yes, you heard that right. For those in medicine, this is terrifying to hear as the first thing that comes to mind is lung cancer. Lung cancer is notoriously hard to treat, typically fatal with a short life expectancy after diagnosis and extremely unfair to a lifelong nonsmoker who has spent 12 years in …
Retiring early from medicine: Is it ethical?
Personal finance isn’t complicated. In fact, if you do just six things right, you will become financially successful. Let’s keep it simple and get started.
1. Earn a decent income. If you don’t make any money, you will never get ahead financially. Forget about winning the lottery, getting an inheritance, or expecting the government to subsidize your lifestyle. The only way to build wealth is to work.
Jobs with a decent income include computer …
Part of a series.
A pill to end aging.
Is there or could there be such a pill? Some researchers think so.
Many believe that rather than attack the causes and treatment of chronic illnesses one by one, it would be better to understand the biology of aging and from that learn how to slow the process and hence prevent or delay the onset of various …
Take a pill and stop aging. Really?
I walked in the other day, and my colleagues were shooting the breeze. They were both staring at the computer and were online looking at watches. Seemed harmless enough. So I sat down and asked them how much the watch cost?
They said $7,000! I almost spit out my coffee. $7K! Seven grand! That’s an expensive watch. That’s how much my 2011 Nissan Altima is worth.
“That much for a watch?” I asked. …
How much will an expensive watch really cost you in the future?
Ben diverts his eyes and wipes away tears, his typical stoicism and iron-willed suppression of emotion giving way to a sea of churning thoughts, feelings and memories. While visiting as his hospice social worker, we’d been talking about his impending death, walking it through in our minds from the time the funeral home arrived until he’s planted in the ground. We’d talked about death before, and he’d always been cool …
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 25-year-old man is evaluated in follow-up after HIV testing. He states he has sex with other men and usually uses condoms. He had a negative HIV test result 1 year ago. He feels well today but reports having a flulike illness last week with mild fever, headache, myalgias, and fatigue; these symptoms have resolved. …
MKSAP: 25-year-old man is evaluated in follow-up after HIV testing
In the emergency room, the stress is palpable. The hairs on your neck rise up as you enter the resuscitation bay where the next unconscious patient has just arrived. You can almost feel death as it circulates through the air, like a vulture in the sky. The air tastes sterile, and you hear the crash cart and ultrasound being rolled over to the patient’s bed.
The patient was fine 20 minutes …
An apology from a telemedicine physician
It is the year 2018, and patients don’t always receive good care and doctors questions their career choice. How have we arrived at this tragic state of affairs? The answer is that our for-profit health care system is the principal cause — not only of poor patient care but physician burnout. Only a single-payer system, which is anchored in the idea that good health care is an inalienable right and …
An argument in favor of single-payer health care
The United States is facing a looming physician shortage, and some groups see this as an opportunity to promote an agenda of replacing physicians with nurses.
The nurse-as-doctor concept appeared in the Institute of Medicine Future of Nursing 2011 report, which called for a radical change to the nursing structure in the United States, including a goal of …
Independent practice: Both nurse practitioners and physicians should be outraged
Pchum Ben is a national religious festival in Cambodia. It’s a time when families pay their respects to their dearly departed — those relatives that walked the earth before us, those who lived, laughed, cried and prayed in an era when we were not necessarily present.
The ceremony involves the offering of food from the living to the dead, as the ghosts of bygone relatives temporarily waken from their perceived existence …
The operating room is a sanctuary
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The current state of health care in America, in my opinion, has been negatively impacted by Big Pharma, health insurance corporations, health care corporations and a plethora of governmental mandates. All have placed an immense burden upon our practicing physicians who spend much of their day doing paperwork and inputting into computers rather than face time with their patients. Some find it necessary to leave the profession. Please give us …
Do you see me or your computer screen?
Congress has passed the new tax bill. This was certainly not tax reform as has been discussed, but simply a rearrangement of how they calculate our taxes. This new plan lowers tax rates but eliminates many of the items that were previously deductible. Sort of like rearranging the deck chairs of the Titanic as it slowly sinks. Real tax reform might have made things so much simpler that the IRS …
What the new tax plan means for physicians
I entered medical school with an intense desire to take care of others. A naturally — sometimes overbearingly — caring person with a penchant for science, becoming a physician was my dream since middle school.
My naiveté was quickly slapped by reality when I realized people enter medicine for many other reasons: prestige, job stability, income or a genius fascination of science that sometimes overlooks the suffering human. This crushed my …
Doctors: It is never too late to step up and fulfill the true potential of your voice
I remember medical school and residency vividly. How could anyone forget such a sacrifice, such a vital investment in a top-notch education? Hours upon hours of hard work while practical knowledge amassed exponentially every single week. As a lifelong learner committed to excellence, I loved being surrounded by equally dedicated, intelligent high achievers. My classmates in med school and residency were at the top of their class, and we helped …
It is time for physicians to take back medicine
Even though we have probably 20 years of work remaining as physicians, like a lot of you, I like to think about how we will spend our retirement years. After all, in twenty years we will still only be in our early fifties, hopefully with no dependents and a lot of financial security. Of course, my wife and I are interested in traveling, spending time with grandchildren (hopefully), gardening and …
Do physicians make the best politicians?
I just got off the phone with Paul, a highly-sought-after plastic surgeon in New York.
“I don’t want to be a doctor anymore,” Paul says. “What else can I do? I have lots of restaurant experience. I’ve worked in 15 restaurants during my life. It’s not easy, but I could do it. I did research on chains and franchises, and I chose Chick-fil-A. …
Plastic surgeon quits and couldn’t get a job at Chick-fil-A
The New York Times reported that drug companies, insurers and pharmacies may “team up” to create effective monopolies. Company executives argue that this would be better for patients and would improve care and outcomes — however, nothing could be further than the truth. These conglomerates would further limit access and drive up costs.
Many patients and physicians have found frustration when attempting to prescribe a particular medication …
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