Physician Finance

Physicians writing on KevinMD about their own money and the business of practice: student loans and forgiveness, disability and life insurance, index funds and retirement accounts, whether to hire an advisor, financial independence and retiring early, side income and real estate, contracts and negotiation, selling a practice to private equity, and leaving insurance for direct primary care. Three maintained records draw on this archive: Physician personal finance: what physicians say about their own money, in their own words, Private equity and corporate medicine: what physicians say, in their own words, and Direct primary care: what physicians say, in their own words.

How this physician parent teaches his kids about money

Rogue Dad, MD

Physician Finance

August 1, 2018

Let’s be honest — what I don’t know about parenting is astounding. I’m a pediatrician and have three kids, and it’s amazing what I still don’t know.

Every so often I hear a parenting idea (or come up with one) that seems perfect. Easy to implement and imparts both clear short and long-term lessons.

Implementing new-age parenting techniques makes me feel good, even if in reality I spend most of my parenting …

Side hustles are the best kind of asset protection

James Turner, MD

Physician Finance

August 1, 2018

My oldest girl and I love watching birds. We usually watch the birds right outside our backdoor while they eat from our bird feeder. As we were watching one day, it amazed me how comfortable the birds were jumping from post to post on the feeder or from branch to branch on the trees. Often times at a distance taller than the bird itself. Why would they take this risk and …

Is double health insurance coverage better?

Nicholas Fogelson, MD

Physician Finance

July 30, 2018

You have just gotten a job offer that includes health insurance. You’re lucky enough that your spouse has great family insurance already, but hey that health insurance is going to cover the cracks in the deductible and co-insurance, so you feel great about that double coverage as you sign your contract.

Well, you just got scammed. That is, double coverage is a scam, and you would have been far better off …

Is going to medical school a wise financial decision?

Wall Street Physician, MD

Physician Finance

July 30, 2018

It is no secret that medical school is getting very expensive. Over the past 20 years, the cost of medical school has greatly outpaced the rate of inflation, and medical school debt is rapidly rising.

The average medical student now graduates with over $192,000 in student loans, but with the cost of attendance for the most expensive private medical schools approaching $100,000, there are some physicians who are finishing residency with $300,000 or …

Every doctor should have a plan B. Here’s why.

DocG, MD

Physician Finance

July 26, 2018

I’ve written previously that financial independence is plan B. Plan A, of course, is life. Your work and time are precious, and life is too short to be wading through a morass of unhappiness only to get to some endpoint or goal. While I definitely believe in front-loading the sacrifice, the cost should not have to be misery. Physicians, in particular, tend to look at their …

After you die, what will your legacy be?

James Turner, MD

Physician Finance

July 24, 2018

As part of my job as an anesthesiologist, I get called to truly horrific airway events. Sometimes they are down in the emergency department after a bad car accident, drowning, or burn. Others are in ICU’s. Sometimes they are even in hallways or bathrooms where people have stopped breathing or collapsed from cardiac arrest. It’s part of the job.

Recently, I was called to an airway in an ICU in what …

A physician’s group disability nightmare

Christopher Yerington, MD

Physician Finance

July 23, 2018

My last operative day was October 15, 2009. My last attempt at getting to understand my group disability policy was on May 10, 2018. I’m a disabled anesthesiologist who lost his career when my left median nerve stopped functioning properly. I had two disability policies, a private and a group. My dealings with these two companies have been day and night.

My group insurance carrier hammered my dignity for years. In …

What type of returns should you expect from the stock market in the future?

Wall Street Physician, MD

Physician Finance

July 23, 2018

No one can predict the future, but when making projections for things like retirement planning, what investment return should you expect?

What do we mean by “investment return?”

Before we get into the numbers, we need to go through a few definitions.

Nominal returns vs. real returns

These are just fancy words for before-inflation and after-inflation returns. Real returns (after-inflation) returns are equal to the nominal returns (before-inflation) minus the inflation rate. Real returns …

The case against physician side hustles is weak

DocG, MD

Physician Finance

July 19, 2018

As many of you know, I am a big fan of side hustles. I see them as a financial independence superpower that not only leads to increased revenue and diversification, but also joy and passion. I am not, however, unaware of the fact that many feel they are a waste of time. The case against side hustles is real. There are many reasons why an individual may decide …

Learn from the prior generation that left little for their own retirement

James Turner, MD

Physician Finance

July 18, 2018

One of my best friends recently sent me an article from the Wall Street Journal discussing the generation that is about to enter into retirement. The article highlighted how this generation will have an unacceptably high proportion of people who are unable to retire. Following a generation that had guaranteed pensions, this left them with the reassurance that they would someday have one, too. Left ill-prepared for retirement, this …

A medical student’s side hustles

Passive Income, MD

Physician Finance

July 16, 2018

I got together this past weekend with a few of my medical school classmates and ahhh, the memories. Being in the trenches together, just like in residency, tends to create a bond that remains throughout time. We picked up right where we left off and talked about the good ol’ times, how life used to be, and how it is so different now, especially because we now all had families.

That …

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A medical student’s side hustles

It’s time for academic attendings to teach personal finance

James Turner, MD

Physician Finance

July 13, 2018

A recent post by the White Coat Investor got me pretty fired up. Dr. Dahle spoke about three of the main financial enemies that face physicians. The third one that he mentioned had something to do with medical culture. The gist of it was that talking money in academic medical centers is considered taboo. While I think WCI is right, it really made me angry. As an academic …

Crisis has its benefits

DocG, MD

Physician Finance

July 12, 2018

I have neck pain. It’s been going on for years. Usually, I get sore stiff muscles once a week and a headache. This is the consequence of having a big bobblehead on a pencil thin, weak neck. In the throes of pain, I have thought many a time about doing the right thing, and going to see a physical therapist. But then I get a heating pad, take a Tylenol, …

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Crisis has its benefits

These are the 3 financial enemies of physicians

James M. Dahle, MD

Physician Finance

July 6, 2018

Physicians are notorious for being bad with money. Today we’re going to assign some blame for that phenomenon. Physician finances have three enemies, and we’re going to expose them today.

1. Financial professionals

Enemy number one consists of many members of the financial industry. These “helpers” are often part of the problem. One of the biggest problems is commissioned salesmen masquerading as financial advisors. Although some of the these “advisors” …

Job security in medicine is a myth

Passive Income, MD

Physician Finance

July 5, 2018

Imagine, if you will, that you’re an anesthesiologist. You’ve been part of a successful practice for over 10 years. You can walk down your neighborhood street and run into mothers whose epidurals you’ve helped place. You’ve established a home, a community, and your children are in a great school system.

One uneventful day, say Wednesday, you get an email from the hospital administrators announcing that there’s going to be a meeting …

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Job security in medicine is a myth

Attending time: That’s just a myth

Time for Money, MD

Physician Finance

July 1, 2018

One of the great myths amongst residents is that once they become attendings, they’ll have so much more free time. I’ll never work this much again, they think. This is the most time-intensive phase of life, and everything after residency is easy in comparison.

Unfortunately, they are usually wrong.

Statistically, working about the same number of hours in residency and as an attending is the norm. In one study, attendings work 59.2 …

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Attending time: That’s just a myth

A physician on timeshares: Who are they right for?

Cory Fawcett, MD

Physician Finance

June 29, 2018

Timeshares, for those who might not know, are a way to own the right to use a vacation resort. It comes in two forms, owning points or owning a specific room in a complex for a specific week. It’s like a partial ownership of a condo at a resort. These units can be traded for other timeshares all over the world. If you own a week, it can be traded …

Financial independence requires sacrifice

DocG, MD

Physician Finance

June 28, 2018

It is easy to look at someone’s net worth and ooh and ahh. The response from my monthly income reports is fairly telling. People see the numbers and wonder how I accumulated so much. They peruse the Rockstar Finance’s Net Worth Tracker and daydream. To capture these dreams, there are countless blog posts about how to become a millionaire. If you just follow these three simple steps! The headlines are alluring and the answers are …

Your greatest financial asset? Your spouse.

Cory Fawcett, MD

Physician Finance

June 22, 2018

Often a stay at home mom, like we have in our house, is not thought of as a contributor to wealth. Too often, only the person who “really” works and brings home an income is considered to be generating wealth. This is a case of incorrect thinking.

The non-working spouse is a very big factor in attaining wealth. In the book, The Millionaire Next Door, the spouse is considered one …

A hospice doctor gives investing advice

DocG, MD

Physician Finance

June 21, 2018

I used to have a patient who was an undertaker. We had many conversations about philosophy and practicality, and it didn’t take long to realize the profound insights one must learn when engaged in such a unique business. As I was often fond of saying, when the undertaker speaks, you should really listen. This belief that our experiences can lead to new and different perspectives has pushed me to analyze not …

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A hospice doctor gives investing advice