I have been tracking my expenses for years with excel files and PDF’s. The benefit of this is it gives me an ability to look back and see where I was able to save, and where I had large expenses. Both medical school and residency were filled with opportunity to spend large sums of money. In this post, I take a look back at some of the largest expenses during medical school and residency.… Read the rest
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Newly graduated physicians may find themselves dealing with a foreign process, billing. The amount of training for billing while in residency varies widely. Some programs have only brief discussions while other programs have residents do some of the billing. I was lucky in that my residency program had us rotate through 4 different hospital systems. In two out of the four, the residents were responsibility for entering in the diagnosis and bill for level of service.… Read the rest
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The IRS offers a service where almost any individual making less than $64,000 a year can file their taxes for free. Sounds too good to be true, well the catch is that you have to be comfortable with some basic math. In past years, I have taken advantage of the service and it worked quite well. Filing taxes may seem daunting and expensive, but rest assure – the thought of filing is worse than the actual process.… Read the rest
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As a new attending, I don’t believe I can go a week or two without some older physician telling me how much harder things were when they trained. This seems to come up as a natural progression when someone notices that I’m new and asked where I trained. Soon after I reply comes the comments about how their training was somehow more difficult.… Read the rest
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Its that time of year again where resident physicians are matching to fellowship and medical students are winding down their interviews to create their rank list. I remember this part of my medical career quite well. I was very excited for the upcoming change for more responsibility and actually become a doctor, but at the same time terrified that I might not match.… Read the rest
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This guide was written for residents or fellows who are near graduation and want a guide as to how to find the first job. I initially wrote this at the request of internal medicine residents who were wondering about the process of applying to their first attending job either as a hospitalist or primary care physician. The method of how to look for a job still applies to other specialties.… Read the rest
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A good financial adviser or blog would almost never make a blanket that applies to everyone and the same goes for this blog and the reason for this post. My last post touched on 10 reasons why residents should not buy a house during residency. For many residents, buying a house for residency is a poor financial decision. However, for some resident physicians buying a house may actually make sense.… Read the rest
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This past week I met up with some friends of mine who graduated residency at the same time that I did. Some of us rented while others bought a condo or a single family house during residency. We decided to discuss which choice is most likely the best one for new residents. As you could imagine the argument became one of varying passionate opinions.… Read the rest
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The budget and life of a resident physician often leave little room for wants and free time. My budget before I started moonlighting and other means of income was only $200 of discretionary income which is a frightening low cushion. I was able to make some extra money in residency by using some of the methods as below. Of course not all of these methods may be an option for you, however, if so they are good ways to increase disposable income.… Read the rest
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