I’ve decided to become more serious about my debt payoff and increase the amount of money I’m saving. The quickest and easiest way to do this is to pick up extra shifts. My company pays well, but the highest pay per hour in my area comes in the form of using Locum Tenens contracts. In order to accelerate my debt payoff and savings rate, I’ve decided to sign up for these jobs during my time off.… Read the rest
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I am happy to have a guest post for today’s article, written by Jamie K. Fleischner with Set for Life Insurance. Planning your financial future should include risk management. Part of risk mitigation is obtaining the right amount and the right kind of insurance. Spending money to help mitigate a one time financial loss that could lead to bankruptcy is on the surface a wise choice.… Read the rest
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This weekend I met with a good friend of mine who decided to take a weekend vacation to Austin. It was a good time to catch up on how life has been going since we last had seen each other several years ago. We reminisced about the good times we had in medical school. Since he is also a new attending the discussion arose as to how life naturally changed with an increase in pay.… 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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By the end of residency I would be willing to bet that many graduates had at least one financial planner give a talk to their class. My residency was no exception with multiple groups who billed themselves at wealth builders came to visit out campus to get people to sign up for their service. Some of them were good, but most others had complicated fee structures and aggressively pushed poor investment choices such as whole life insurance.… Read the rest
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This week is my week off. I am one of the fortunate physicians that has a job that allows me to work 7 days in a row then have 7 days to do whatever I want without being on call. Usually the first few days when I am not working I tend to catch up on sleep since the 80-100 hours I put in during the week can be quite draining.… Read the rest
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I finally received my first paycheck and it feels sooooooo good to finally have an income again. Everyone with the group went though the same payment delay and it seemed that they were all excited for me that I’m finally received my first paycheck. When the coworkers reminisced about their time waiting for their first paycheck, we started to talk about retirement and our contributions.… Read the rest
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Physicians often face a dilemma upon graduation, to pay off loans, save, or spend the money on upgrading their lifestyle. As noted in another post, the average debt of graduating residents is nearing $200,000. With all of this debt on a new graduates shoulders and a life awaiting them outside of residency, its not uncommon to ask the question, would it be better to save or pay off debt?… Read the rest
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This past weekend I spent some time creating online calculators for different financial situations. I’ve been using the loan payoff date calculator on other websites for a year now and wanted a quick way to calculate different situations on my website. Below you will find various calculators ranging from how long till you pay off your loan, to how much money will have potentially have saved for retirement.… Read the rest
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No matter how much money someone makes its always important to have a budget (MC Hammer blew $33 Million dollars and subsequently filed for bankruptcy). The time to develop a budget is not when you feel that you “need” one upon graduating residency, but its when you start managing your own money as a young adult. Knowing where each dollar is made and where each dollar is spent will give you the knowledge to live within your means and avoid financial hardship.… Read the rest
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