Q. International stocks are doing really well, so I’m thinking about investing more money into them. What do you think?
A. I grew up playing ice hockey and continued to play in high school, college, and even now. Coaches often gave us the same advice that hockey legend Wayne Gretzky’s dad gave to him: “Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
Ice hockey is …
Don’t chase stock performance. Do this instead.
In 2017, the flagship multispecialty practice of Oregon Medical Group, moved into its new digs — a 46,000 square foot redesigned medical office building. Practice leaders and the 30-odd clinicians in six different specialties were committed to a coordinated patient experience. They wanted to ensure that patients could move smoothly between sequential visits with different care providers — on the same day. To this end, the group invested in a …
The many benefits of self-rooming patients
It’s amazing how frequently I cross paths with doctors who have never taken the time to actually assess where they stand financially. They tend to fall into a few categories; they never thought of it, they don’t want to know, or they feel they just don‘t have the time.
When I work one-on-one with doctors on a financial makeover to get them on track to accomplish their goals, get out of …
Physician debt: If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it
I’m coming off a string of talks about physician finances and physician empowerment, and despite knowing that physicians are stereotypically financially naive, every once in a while I’ll hear a question that really makes me pause and drives home the need for a better financial education. The latest came up when I was discussing negotiation techniques, and somebody interrupted me to ask, “When you’re earning a six figure …
Financial freedom goes a long way towards addressing physician burnout
The story is almost universal. A guy (or gal) suffers through a horrendous day of work and scours the internet searching for an escape hatch. The magical mix of search words “early” and “retirement” likely leads to Mr. Money Mustache, or Get Rich Slowly, or some other fantastic resource. Hours later, after being fully submerged in the financial independence blogosphere, he resurfaces with haired mussed and rabid eyes. …
This is the key to financial independence
When we first met and got married, my husband Josh wanted to be a math teacher. Since I was also pursuing a career in teaching, I thought this was a great idea. I envisioned both of us teaching together in the same school district for forty years, becoming local superstars! We would know all the kids in town and spend our summer vacations traveling to exotic locations around the globe. …
Doctors wear white coats. But what do their spouses wear?
Medical practices with risk-adjusted contracts must sharpen their diagnosis coding. Practices that are part of accountable care organizations (ACOs) or that have risk-adjusted contracts with commercial payers have an economic incentive to accurately report the disease burden of their patients. In fee-for-service medicine, physicians are paid based on the fee schedule associated with a CPT code, and any modifier attached to that code. The diagnosis code establishes the medical necessity …
How to do risk-adjusted diagnosis coding the right way
When you go to your physician’s office, or the laboratory for blood work or radiology for X-ray’s, do you feel like you’re an imposition? Like you’re an inconvenience to the clinician or health care staff — as if you being there is interrupting the personal conversation they are holding with others in their workplace?
You are not alone.
Although many who enter the health care field do so out of a desire …
We need to put the care back in health care
Remember when you were a kid out grocery shopping with your parents when suddenly, smack dab in the bread aisle, you spot your 5th-grade teacher Mrs. Smith? It is almost an out-of-body experience when your eyes lock, and you realize for the first time that your teacher is an actual person that exists outside of your classroom. The same thing applies to your white-coat-wearing, stethoscope-toting, bedside-manner-lacking (wait … I hope …
Physicians aren’t robots in a white coat
We are now nine years into the current bull market, and the S&P 500 has risen over 300% from its March 2009 low.
Unfortunately, there are some investors that have been left behind. They sold their stock in 2007-2008 and never got fully back into the stock market. For example, a reader on the Bogleheads forum recently posted this question:
“I have had about $450k sitting in cash for too …
So you missed the bull market. What can you do now?
Long-term readers know that in late 2014, 8 years out of residency, my wife and I decided to loosen the purse strings a bit. We had lived like a resident for four years, then purchased our dream home six months after we moved to our “big boy” job. But even then it was only a minor increase in our lifestyle. By 2014, I had been a partner in my …
10 financial lessons from buying a wakeboat
Identifying signs of burnout in yourself, or someone else, is the first step to tackling a solution — as with anything, awareness is key. If we don’t see it, we don’t know how to approach the problem. Even if we know burnout exists, now what? How can we begin to manage something this big given its multifactorial contributors?
I wanted to spend some time on the solution aspect of burnout, as …
3 ways to fight physician burnout
One of the biggest complaints I hear when I discuss becoming debt free is the dread of living on a shoestring. We did enough of that in medical school, and we don’t want to do it again. Let me make something perfectly clear right up front, you absolutely do not need to scrimp and sacrifice to get out of debt and live debt free, but if you choose to, it …
How to become debt free without sacrificing anything
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We shop a lot.
Now I didn’t say we buy a lot. But we spend countless hours on the weekend walking through malls and shopping centers. I’m not sure exactly why. It may be that there is enjoyment in the visualizing without actually having. Or, more likely, as a family of four with two growing children, we have many items on our purchase list to check off.
Inevitably, repeatedly, our kid’s eyes …
How this doctor teaches his kids about money
There are lots of things we get right about medical training, but one thing that I’ve always found to be lacking is discussion of the logistics of life in medicine: how to shape your career around the life that you want, instead of vice versa. Through my writing and speaking, I often have people reach out to me for advice in this regard. I love providing my input, but also …
Physicians: Shape your career around the life that you want
There has been a nauseating amount of discussion about physician burnout lately. An equal number of remedies, from mindfulness to exercise, to inpatient psychiatric treatment for doctors experiencing unmanageable stress and burnout. And then I read this report of a survey from the world-famous Cleveland Clinic, which describes 35 percent of nearly 1100 physicians employed the Cleveland Clinic have signs of overt burnout. More importantly, those physicians who cared more about their …
Political leaders are oblivious to the true causes of physician burnout
We all can use advice from time to time. Sometimes that advice is about personal finances, Investing, or borrowing. When choosing this person, stay away from financial advisors who have a conflict of interest. The advisor who makes money on your investment decisions is like the pharmaceutical rep who is telling you all about his new medication and why it is better than what you already use. The advice might …
Physicians: How to find a financial advisor
It’s been a great start for my new speakers bureau, Physician Speaking by KevinMD. We are a group of practicing physicians who can tell a story, command the stage, and inspire your audience.
This Spring 2018, we’re highlighting the following events:
Physician speakers are ready to highlight your conference: Spring 2018 update
It’s a miracle that I’m not a financial moron. No one taught me about finances. I never took a course in college. In fact, a few years ago before I found the FIRE community, I was pretty clueless. Well, not exactly. I made reasonable financial decisions. Heck, even good decisions. I didn’t, however, have the vocabulary or knowledge behind what I was doing. So was I lucky? Did I merely …
This physician is financially savvy. This is who he has to thank.
We all understand the concept of net income or net pay. If you’re an employee, it’s what you see deposited into your bank account after federal and state taxes, Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, etc. are all withheld. If you’re self-employed, it’s what you’re left with after you set aside the funds for many of those same taxes plus paid off your business expenses.
In real estate, the term is referred …
Physicians: Focus on net time, rather than net income
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