Finance

8 scary financial mistakes physicians make with their money

Finance
January 14, 2022

Are you a physician who is having financial difficulties? Doctors are at unusually high risk of making scary financial blunders in their personal lives because they are high-income professionals.

Despite having a higher-than-average income, physicians can nevertheless develop unhealthy financial habits that will cost them in the long run. Physicians can easily fall into any financial pitfalls.

Fortunately, with a bit of foresight, it is easy to avoid doing …

Read more…

Skin-in-the-game doesn’t have to be scary

Finance
January 6, 2022

When I entered the field of medicine, the goal was clear; to make patients “better.” Through my hospital-based training and practice as an internal medicine physician, I developed a strong interest in illness prevention — how can we keep patients from coming here in the first place? The answer became crystal clear. What wasn’t clear was how to focus on preventative care in the current structure of the U.S. health …

Read more…

How not to be a broke doctor (5 ways)

Finance
December 21, 2021

Your income doesn’t matter. What you do for a living doesn’t matter. If you want to keep from being broke, none of these things matter except for this: When you’re dealing with money, you’ve got to understand how to do simple math.

I hear stories about people that don’t understand what broke means. It could be the person that recent graduates from dental school with $400K in debt that buys the $80K BMW for instant …

Read more…

12 year-end tax planning tips for physicians

Finance
December 14, 2021

As another autumn pulls the pages off the 2021 calendar, it’s already time to start planning for the end of the year. The days get shorter but often busier as the weather cools down. This can be a vital time when preparing for taxes, and it’s good to know what the best savings strategies are for you to implement now, which will put you in a good spot for your …

Read more…

Backdoor Roth conversions may be going away: What this means for physicians

Finance
December 12, 2021

Even though their incomes often exceed the phaseout threshold for funding Roth IRAs, physicians have been utilizing loopholes in the tax code to fund Roth IRAs for the past decade or more. Converting IRA funds to Roth IRA funds allows a taxpayer to change a tax-deferred IRA to a tax-free Roth IRA. In doing so, the taxpayer must pay taxes on the balance of the account that is …

Read more…

My 5 residency money goals

Finance
November 4, 2021

As resident physicians, many of us are overworked, underpaid, and trying our best to make it through. While this time has its ups and downs, we can’t lose sight of the bigger picture. One of the best things we can do during residency is laying the foundation for the life and career we desire. This means doing a few things during our time in training to set ourselves up well …

Read more…

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness waiver and its impact on physicians

Finance
October 28, 2021

The U.S. Department of Education recently announced some major changes to the rules and qualifications around the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. Now, for a limited period of time, borrowers may receive credit for past payments made on loans that would otherwise not qualify for PSLF.

The good news is that public service loan forgiveness is now available to more people. The bad news is that there will be more …

Read more…

4 money mistakes everyone makes

Finance
October 24, 2021

Over the last 32 years, I have been following the literature concerning money, investing, and debt. In the last few years, I started writing about the topic as well as sharing my knowledge with other physicians through one-on-one financial coaching. Through the years, I have seen many people make the same mistakes when projecting financial goals, and they make them year after year.

When all of the answers are at our …

Read more…

Don’t pay off your student loans early

Finance
September 23, 2021

In 2010, a landmark study from Princeton was published “proving” that money just doesn’t buy happiness. Study participants were asked to compare their emotional well-being from yesterday to today, and it appeared that making more than $75,000 a year didn’t lead to concurrent increases in well-being. Since then, Americans have been flooded with the psychological opium of mindfulness, yoga, and leaning out, urging contentment instead with the …

Read more…

Is passive income a lie?

Finance
September 22, 2021

As a child, I remember watching superstar athletes like Wayne Gretzky glide so effortlessly on the ice and dreaming about how easy life would be to be blessed with innate talent. “Talent would make my life so easy,” so I thought. I had no clue how much work had to be invested to make talent look seamless. A little later in life, I remember hearing the quip coined by Thomas …

Read more…

SLAT: An important estate planning strategy for physicians to lower President Biden’s estate tax

Finance
August 30, 2021

For married physicians looking into estate planning strategies, one thing to keep in mind is how to make best use of spousal benefits in reducing taxes or providing for a surviving spouse or other beneficiaries. For wealthy physicians, a spousal lifetime access trust, or SLAT, may provide a viable vehicle for avoiding estate taxes for both spouses and protecting assets from creditors while at the same time providing distributions that …

Read more…

ADVERTISEMENT

Alternative cryptocurrencies: 5 tips for physicians

Finance
August 28, 2021

You were finally starting to understand Bitcoin when talk about alternative cryptocurrencies or “altcoins” started springing up everywhere. Elon Musk is tweeting about Dogecoin. Mark Cuban is talking about Ethereum. The Motley Fool is posting about Chainlink.

What are altcoins, and should you be investing in them?

I cannot speak to whether investing in altcoins is appropriate for you. Altcoins are a highly volatile and risky asset class that offers the potential …

Read more…

How medical training teaches doctors to be financially unhealthy

Finance
August 28, 2021

I recently unearthed all my pay stubs from residency, including the first one — all $89.14 of it.

When I received that check, I had just moved across the country after a grueling internship in Philadelphia, which left me physically and emotionally exhausted.

I was staying in a motel, which I paid for with a credit card because I used my last paycheck from internship to pay for moving across the country. …

Read more…

Should physicians invest in cryptocurrency?

Finance
August 23, 2021

In 2009, I came across the white paper written by Satoshi Nakamoto describing a digital currency based on a peer-to-peer network, completely independent of central banks, autonomous, decentralized, digital, and would give access to finance and banking to the masses.

This “magical internet money,” as it was described at the time, would come to be known as Bitcoin.

The reason that this paper was so revolutionary was that it was prescient of …

Read more…

ADVERTISEMENT

4 reasons you need a credit card in medical school

Finance
August 18, 2021

My son is a fourth-year medical student, and we have had some great discussions about credit cards recently, including their benefits. I believe this information would be helpful for all medical students to consider.

As a student my son once preferred to use a debit card or cash to keep his expenses controlled. This financially conservative approach is what he was taught during his young adult days in our home. Avoidance …

Read more…

How doctors think about financial independence is dead wrong

Finance
July 7, 2021

A rough career transition in 2019 followed by the pandemic highlighted how I was still financially tethered to my job — after 10 years of practicing as a subspecialty trained radiologist, saving, maxing out my retirement accounts, and investing in the stock market and in real estate. Looking around, I saw other physicians in a similar predicament. After years dedicated to rigorous training, we were still trapped by “golden handcuffs.” …

Read more…

5 financial truths every resident needs to know

Finance
July 3, 2021

July 1st is here, which means it’s the start of a new residency year. For interns, things can be nerve-wracking and scary. You may wonder if you remember enough information from medical school and hope you arrive at the right place at the right time this week. For the senior residents like me, we are elated to be almost done with training, but we are also starting to focus on …

Read more…

ADVERTISEMENT

Doctors beware: There’s a $400,000 target on your back

Finance
June 16, 2021

President Joe Biden recently signaled that a multi-trillion-dollar spending plan for our country should be paid for by the rich corporations and wealthy individual Americans who make over $400,000. Doctors fit the latter category and should tune in.

Beyond the government, the unique qualities of doctors make us a target for many who want to access our high income and our business revenue. Our passivity to these poachers places us at …

Read more…

16
pages