Host Money Meets Medicine podcast. Author Physician Philosopher’s Guide 2 Personal Finance. Check out our resources 👇
Joined November 2017
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Med school taught me how to manage a patient's potassium. Not my own paycheck.
Starting in January, I'm teaching a free live physician finance lecture series for anyone in training. Spots are limited.
Most attendings I talk to assume their disability coverage is handled because their employer offers it.
Employer (group) long-term disability can be a good base layer. But a few things are worth checking:
1. Portability. It usually ends when you leave the job.
2. The cap. Many plans pay 60% of salary up to a monthly maximum, which can be far below what a physician earns.
3. The definition of disability. Some plans switch from your own specialty to any occupation after a couple of years.
4. Taxes. If your employer pays the premium, the benefit is generally taxable income.
An individual own-occupation policy is yours. It follows you from job to job.
Your ability to practice is the biggest asset you own.
See what an individual policy would cost you. Link in my bio.
Final-year residents and fellows: this is job offer season, and most of you will compare offers on base salary alone.
Base salary is the easiest number to read and often the least important one.
The numbers that change what you actually take home:
1. The wRVU rate and the threshold before production pay starts
2. The signing bonus and relocation clawback if you leave early
3. Call: how much, whether it's paid, and who covers when someone leaves
Two offers with the same base can end up tens of thousands of dollars apart once you add these up.
Get a 10% discount to work with the physician contract review team I recommend. Link in my bio.
I almost failed out of medical school.
True story. So if you’re in the thick of it right now, keep your head up, shoulders back. You’ve got this.
And if you aren’t sure where to get started on your financial journey, comment the link to get a free copy of my personal finance book for physicians is in my bio.
#medschool #doctor #physician #dyslexia
Every stage of training comes with the same advice: wait.
Wait until residency. Wait until you're an attending. Wait until the loans are paid off.
The problem is that compounding doesn't wait with you.
$1,000 a month invested for 30 years at a 7% return grows to about $1.2 million. Start 10 years later and you end up with about $520,000. Same monthly amount. Less than half the result.
You don't need to do everything at once. You just need to start with something.
The 7% return is a hypothetical for illustration, not a promise.
Not sure how to get started on your financial journey? Join the live personal finance curriculum that I'm hosting. Classes start in January. Link in my bio.
Most of the tax mistakes I made as a new attending weren't complicated. They were deadlines I didn't know existed.
Three of the simplest moves on the board all have to happen by December 31:
1. Max your 401(k) or 403(b). The 2026 limit is $24,500, or $32,500 if you're 50 or older.
2. Charitable Giving - consider a Donor Advised Fund
3. Harvest losses in your taxable account to offset gains and up to $3,000 of ordinary income.
None of these require a CPA. But if you have 1099 income, own a practice, or earn over $500K, a proactive tax team is worth talking to before the year ends.
This is general education, not tax advice for your situation. Part of a paid partnership with Gelt.
Here's the tax team I use personally. Link in my bio.
Every doctor deserves the financial freedom to practice medicine on our terms.
Not sure where to get started on your financial journey as a physician-in-training? Join my free, live lecture series. Classes start in January. Spots are limited.
#medstudent #residency #studentloans #physicianfinance #personalfinance
Save your spot. Link in my bio.
I'm not saying residents should be paid like attendings. I'm saying the math deserves to be said out loud.
$66,712 divided by roughly 3,380 hours a year is about $20 an hour, before taxes and before the student loans keep growing in the background.
If you're in training right now: your income will change. Your habits won't unless you decide they will.
What did your hourly rate work out to in residency?
In training? My free live lecture series starts in January. Save your spot with the link in my bio.
Best financial advisors for doctors 🤝
A good fee-only advisor helps you create and manage a comprehensive financial plan: taxes, student loans, insurance, estate planning, and retirement. And they pick up the phone when the market drops.
Not sure how to find the right financial advisor for you as a physician? Head over to to learn how.
#physicianfinance #financialadvisor #CFP #doctormoney #moneymeetsmedicine
Most doctors don't pick a financial advisor. The advisor picks them: at an orientation lunch, a steak dinner, or through a colleague who "really likes their guy."
There are great advisors out there. But you should be the one doing the interviewing.
Ask these four questions before you sign anything, and pay attention to how comfortable they are answering them.
Here's how I'd find a planner who works with physicians. Link in my bio.
If your program has a guaranteed standard issue (GSI) disability policy available, you can get an individual policy without medical underwriting. That matters if you've ever had back pain, anxiety, an injury, or anything else an underwriter could exclude.
The catch: these offers are usually tied to your time in training. Once you graduate, the window typically closes.
Not every program has one, and the terms vary. That's exactly why it's worth checking now instead of in June.
Find out if one is available where you train. Link in my bio.
Most attendings feel protected because HR handed them a benefits packet.
Four places to check:
👉 Lawsuits: malpractice covers your practice, not your car or your home. That is what a personal umbrella policy is for.
👉 Life: group life insurance is usually a small multiple of salary and disappears when you change jobs.
👉 Disability: group plans are commonly capped, taxable when your employer pays the premium, and not portable. Read yours.
👉 Savings: employer retirement plans carry strong creditor protection. A taxable account in your name does not.
Your ability to practice is the biggest asset you own. It’s worth knowing how much of it is actually covered.
Use the link in my bio to get a quote, and we’ll help you figure out how much of your income is actually protected.
#physicianfinance #disabilityinsurance #assetprotection #attendinglife #moneymeetsmedicine
I see this mistake all the time.
A physician picks up moonlighting or locums shifts, gets paid on a 1099, and pays the full tax bill on that money because they think their retirement accounts are already maxed.
Here's the nuance: the employee deferral limit is shared across all your 401(k) plans. But a solo 401(k) lets you add an employer contribution on top, based on your self-employment earnings. That piece is separate.
The details matter, and they depend on your situation. That's why I don't do my own taxes. I work with a proactive tax team.
Get a 10% discount using gelt the tax team I personally use here:
Https://moneymeetsmedicine.c…
When I finished training, I could tell you a patient's ejection fraction to the percent. I could not tell you my own savings rate.
These four numbers aren't complicated. Most new attendings just never write them down.
Save this for your first month as an attending. Which one don't you know yet?
Not sure what your disability policy would actually pay? Start with the link in my bio.
Get a disability insurance quote from a source you can trust here:
Https://moneymeetsmedicine.c…
