James Turner is an anesthesiologist and author of Determined: How Burned Out Doctors Can Thrive in a Broken Medical System.
It was at the very beginning of the fourth year of medical school that Kristen and I had our first kid. So, we decided to get life insurance. I didn’t know who to turn to at first, but then I was directed to an insurance agent at a well-known mutual fund company who happened to be my friend’s brother. As I sat down, he asked if I was healthy. To …
An excerpt from Determined: How Burned Out Doctors Can Thrive in a Broken Medical System.
Let’s address the elephant in the room. The word “burnout” has come under fire recently (pun intended). The reason is that burnout, which was first coined by German psychologist Herbert Freudenberger in the 1970s, implies to …
Around 50 percent of physicians are burned out, and many feel trapped in their job. Yet, I have heard it countless times from doctors who were able to cut back to part-time work that when they had more time away from work, they fell back in love with medicine. Moderation in all things seems to be key here, and I’ve experienced some of that lately myself after a really hard …
COVID has taught me many things in and outside of medicine. Most importantly, it has taught me that the medical field is a family. There is nothing that drives a family together like a crisis. For those of us on the front lines, I’m raising a pint of the finest for you! That “front line” not only includes the doctors, nurses, and staff caring for patients sick with COVID. It …
I previously published a post discussing the most recent Medscape burnout survey results for physicians. An interesting point of discussion was that many physicians felt that if they made more money, they would likely be happier. Today, we will discuss the implications of this thought process and if there is evidence to support the claim. Will more money make me happier?
Let’s find out.
Defining the problem
In the aforementioned survey …
You were strong in college
You were strong enough to get through weed-out classes in undergrad. You were strong enough to balance the extra-curricular activities and clinical shadowing expected of you while crushing a 21-hour semester. You were strong enough to say, “no, I have to study” when friends wanted to go out because you had a dream of becoming a doctor someday.
You were strong enough to pay for the applications, …
A friend invited me to dinner to meet his new girlfriend. I’d get to hang out with several other people from work and residency, too. So, I was looking forward to dinner.
We all sat down to eat. About ten minutes into the meal, I felt and looked like I had just gotten out of a swimming pool. I was sweating. A lot. I thought to myself, “Why do these people …
Adrian Peterson (AP) made news lately. And it’s not because he is breaking records. In fact, he is breaking in a completely different way. The news that “broke” is that AP is, well, broke. Despite being one of the most prolific running backs to ever play the game, Adrian Peterson’s money problems are impressive. The story outlines how they feel that AP landed in such a bad spot, …
A book was recommended to me recently by a resident of mine. It is written by Simon Sinek and called Leaders Eat Last. I already knew that I agreed with a lot of what Sinek says because I’ve seen You Tube Videos by Sinek that feel like he has reached inside my head and ripped my ideas directly from my mind.
Today, I don’t want to deliver a …
When it comes to destroying debt, many of us are familiar with the two most common methods to pay down debt. Many choose the debt snowball method where you pay off your smallest debt first while paying the minimum on others. Once that first debt is gone, you roll that payment into the next. Eventually, you gain a ton of momentum as your debt snowball accumulates. This allows …
“Someday Syndrome” is prevalent in many walks of life, but it is particularly bad in medicine. You know what I am talking about. “Someday, when I have graduated medical school …” or perhaps the more common phrase is, “Someday, when I am an attending …” Phrases that start with this sort of expression imply that today is not good enough. And I am here to tell you that if …
Much of the personal finance blogosphere directed at physicians spend time discussing spending money. And for good reason. Physicians have a spending problem. While I am all about educating people about their personal finance shortcomings, it is also important to find balance in life. Some things in life are worth the money because they provide happiness despite not building your wealth. One might even argue that these non-monetary …
In one of the recent physician burnout and depression surveys, doctors were asked to name the causes of their burnout. The typical culprits were listed: lack of autonomy, EMRs, lack of support from administrators, insurance companies, lack of time with patients, and so on. However, when they were asked what would improve their burnout, getting paid more was the number 2 cause. Apparently, I am not the only …
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Whenever I tell people outside of medicine how bad doctors are with money, they are always shocked. Almost universally, they wonder why we don’t save enough money. They understand that – to become a doctor – you must be hardworking, intelligent, and dedicated to the cause. These are the same attributes – when they are applied correctly – that result in financial success. How in the world can …
In the 1960s, Lew Goldberg showed that a physician’s intuition and judgment can be fatally flawed. Interestingly, the same fatal flaw that was exposed by Goldberg is the same fatal flaw that causes some of the biggest financial mistakes that doctors make with money. Why aren’t doctors rich? Psychology has an interesting explanation that everyone should understand.
Tag along as we dive into the mind of physicians …
There are some milestones that need to be appropriately celebrated. For the 80% of physicians who graduated with student loan debt, paying those loans off certainly qualifies as such a moment. Everyone has a different way of tackling their student loans. Today, I want to outline how we paid off $200,000 in student loans in 19 months, and then discuss what our plans are to rid ourselves of the rest …
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An excerpt from The Physician Philosopher’s Guide to Personal Finance: The 20% of Personal Finance Doctors Need to Know to Get 80% of the Results.
At my little girl’s golf practice one day, I got to talking to her coach. I asked him how he decided he wanted to be …
While at a gathering during residency, I found myself talking to an older physician. He graduated from the same residency ten to fifteen years prior. He was a natural leader and a good storyteller. He was also a good teacher because he was about to teach me a lot about delayed gratification.
In the midst of our discussion, I told him that my wife and I intended to move …
It seems like natural human tendency to explain ourselves. When we are late to a meeting, we come up with an excuse in case anyone asks. When our kid starts throwing a temper tantrum at the store, people stare at us expecting an apology. In the same way, when we decide that there are things outside of medicine that are more important to us than the job – an explanation …
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Doctors are notoriously bad with money. Part of this has to do with the fact that the schools that prepare our future doctors are ill equipped to teach them about money. When I was a fourth-year medical student, my school had a financial group come and talk to us about money. Not only was their advice conflicted, but the lawyer who owned the financial group would later end up going to …
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