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 …
5 reasons why physicians are prized financial targets
There are many blog posts, books, and podcasts out in the world celebrating “passive” income. I’ve even got a partner blog in the WCI Network completely dedicated to passive income. It’s time somebody stood up for the other side — active or earned income. Is it really all that bad to have earned income? Of course not. Let me explain why.
#1 It’s called opportunity
Thomas Edison famously said, “Opportunity is …
A physician’s defense of active income
This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com.
How satisfied are you in your current health care position? According to the Conference Board, a global, independent business membership and research organization, only 51 percent of employees report overall satisfaction with their current job. In the survey, conducted earlier this year, respondents reported that the job factors …
What to know before moving for a health care job
My heart broke a little this week.
When you want to grow a muscle, you have to damage it first. You have to lift something heavy and overextend it. It’s sore for a few days — and then it grows stronger.
That is what happened to my heart.
My oldest son started high school. I got up early to exercise and was running back to the house to have a quick cup of …
A physician mother and how her heart shattered
We’ve all heard about credit card points and miles by now—put enough of your expenses on plastic and you’ll be flying first class airlines all the time, right? We are actually fortunate in American (sorry for those of you residing in, let’s say Japan, who still are stuck in a mostly cash-based society) to be able to have incredible amount of credit card options to squeeze out every penny.
While the …
How physicians can play the credit card reward game
Life is full of potential worries. Personal, professional, and other stresses can make us anxious and reduce our happiness and quality-of-life.
A major source of anxiety in our lives can be financial. A recent survey found that 85% of Americans are at least “sometimes” stressed about money and 30% of Americans state they are “constantly” stressed about it.
In order for physicians to reduce their financial anxiety, they first have to …
7 sources of financial anxiety for physicians
It must have been about a decade ago. It was another snowy day like today. I awoke at the break of dawn, and rushed out the door to the hospital that was several miles away. Leaving so early in the morning, the expressways hadn’t even been plowed yet. I did this often. Jumped into the car during inclement weather. While most were waiting out the storm, I was cruising to …
Retirement from medicine is more healthy than the way this physician used to live
How often do we face a physical or mental feat that we’ve always wanted to do, but never seemed to be able to complete successfully? I had a physical feat that I wanted to do my entire life, and this year, at age 56, I finally succeeded. I can still picture my junior high gym class. Lots of other people could do it. Why couldn’t I? They didn’t seem to …
8 tips to help you conquer your toughest obstacle
This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com.
What makes any particular job a “bad” one? Maybe the pay is too low. Perhaps the hours don’t work with your other commitments. It could be the commute is too long, or the opportunity for advancement is too little. A job might be bad because it has a poor …
6 ways to ensure you’re not accepting a terrible health care job
I use social media. Specifically, I use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. In the beginning, I did so for utilitarian purposes. As a columnist and aspiring writer of books, these were (and indeed are) useful marketing tools.
I have, in the past, carried around a note-pad to jot down ideas. I was never without my note-pad. I always wanted a small legal-pad with a blue or black gel-ink pen. It was my …
How social media leads to a loss of creativity
The general consensus among physicians who have a solid grasp on their finances is that they are realistic about their earnings and expenses. Ins and outs. Just like in nephrology, except a net positive in your finances is considered a win. One would expect that doctors ought to be generally conservative in their expenditures, since medicine is a generally conservative profession. But life is unpredictable, and that’s why there are …
Doctors vs. executives: the spending power of $1.5 million
As a medical student, you are thrilled to start your residency and to put your four years of studying and clinical rotations to the test. Now the time has come to begin earning a paycheck. This is the beginning of the financial stages of physicians.
As an attending who has transitioned into practice, you may be stressed and wondering if you are on track to meet your financial goals. You are …
4 financial stages of physicians
Q.
Have you ever thought about doing a post on oversaving? I realize most docs probably have the opposite problem, but I bet there is a subset of the FIRE crowd that this may apply to. Does this ever come up in all the interactions you have?
A.
It was no surprise to see this question come in as a direct message on the WCI Forum, rather than an email …
Is it possible for physicians to oversave? And what can you do about it?
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Disability can be a devastating outcome to a doctor’s career and self-image. Think about it: You busted your butt to learn how to do a Whipple procedure, end up getting into a skiing accident that ends your career right there. No worries, because you purchased the appropriate coverage of own-occupation disability insurance, right?
Having disability insurance certainly provides a protective cushion, especially you are the sole breadwinner. This is a no-brainer, …
Disability can be a devastating outcome to a doctor’s career. Here’s how handle it.
This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com.
After spending a decade in college and medical school, followed by internships and residency, seeking additional guidance at the beginning of your career may seem excessive. You’ve already taken direction from dozens of leaders; isn’t it time to cut your own path?
Yes and no. You’ll make plenty of your …
Why mentors are so important in medicine
As Christmas approaches, I have begun seeing ads for things our family “must” have this Christmas. Overspending in December is a common problem I often find when I do a financial makeover for doctors. There is a huge push to buy things during the Christmas season, whether they can afford it or not. Those who choose to overspend, end up with a big headache when their January’s Visa bill arrives.
Overspending …
What a physician would tell his younger self about the use of debt
It is widely recommended in the financial world that you prioritize your retirement savings over college savings for your children. I agree with this advice. Yet, I run into people all the time who are not following it. Perhaps it is because college often arrives a decade or more earlier than retirement so it seems natural to save for college first and then turn your attention toward …
7 reasons why you should prioritize retirement savings over college savings
It’s been a little over two years since I started this journey of blogging about passive income, and I’ve learned so much along the way. The term “passive income” has come to mean something very different to me over these years.
I used to think that passive income was simply earning money in a way that isn’t proportional to the time you put in. And while this is …
How physicians can get started with passive income
To my wife,
Let’s just start at the beginning.
When we first met, you thought I was arrogant and prideful. For two and a half years we would rarely talk while we walked past each other in our small college town. At the time, we never could have imagined that one day we would get married. In a twist of irony, two weeks before we started dating you still didn’t know as …
A physician’s letter to his wife
Retirement, or half retirement in my case, is a major life change. Transitioning from the accumulation phase, to the maintenance stage, and eventually to the deaccumulation phase can be daunting. These transitions are accompanied by a series of losses. We all understand the loss of income. But there are many other changes we don’t often talk about. There is loss of social interaction. Loss of purpose. And …
The loss a physician feels after partial retirement
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