Physician Issues Archives - Physician on FIRE

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PIMD’s Med School Side Hustles

Personally, side hustles were the furthest thing from my mind as a medical student. I may have sold a little bone marrow for stem cell research, but I just don’t think I had the drive or the time to do much else. About the closest thing I had to a side hustle (besides the bone marrow aspirations) was buying a couple kegs and some mardi gras beads and setting out an empty fish bowl to collect donations to recoup some of the cost. At the end of one of those parties, the contents of the bowl, along with my collection […]

The Doctor Loan: My Experiences Buying and Building with Physician Mortgage Loans

I was finally a doctor. A real doctor! The year was 2002 and I had just graduated from medical school. After a one-year internship living in resident housing in La Crosse, WI, a small city famous for having the most bars per capita of anywhere in the U.S., I would be heading to The University of Florida to spend the remaining three years of my anesthesia residency as a Gator Sedator. Gainesville, a college town and something of a party town in its own right, had no shortage of student housing. But I wasn’t a student anymore, I was a […]

What Happened to Doctors and Golf?

Holmsvollur Golf Course

A common stereotype of the anesthesiologist (which both Passive Income MD and I happen to be) is that we like to end our days early to hit the golf course before the rest of the physicians finish clinic and crowd the links. I’m being truthful when I say that I’ve never canceled a case in order to make a tee time. I did, however, make a 1 p.m. tee time on the day I took my USMLE Step 3 test as an intern, a test that was scheduled to last until 5 p.m. I made the tee time; I’m a […]

I Quit Obstetrics at age 43: the “DABDA” Stages of a Major Practice Change

Angry Newborn

A few months ago, a physician who had discovered this website reached out to me with a flattering e-mail, letting me know that she was making some major changes in her career trajectory, and that what she had read here helped confirm her decision to take a step back from a demanding work schedule. This was not an easy decision for her. I don’t think anyone, including me, chooses to give up valuable skills that were not easy to come by without some serious contemplation and reflection. This OB/Gyn grappled with her decision to drop the OB part, and she […]

Fight Burnout with Both Saving and Spending

fight burnout

Career burnout is becoming increasingly common and is a hot topic lately, particularly for physicians and other healthcare workers. The causes are many. Increased demands. Decreased reimbursement and recognition. Longer hours and lower benefits. The feeling that you’re just another wheel in the cog. In medicine, it’s the ever-thickening red tape. Clumsy electronic health records (EHRs). Prior authorizations. In-baskets that fill up with dozens or hundreds of messages any time you’re away for more than a few days. The corporatization of medicine. While numerous strategies are being employed by both employers and employees to fight burnout, I don’t hear many […]

One World Surgery: My Week in Honduras on a Medical Mission

NPH_Honduras_Nerve_Block

For the last fifteen years or so, I’ve thought I ought to participate in a medical mission. “Someday, I’ll do that,” I figured. In recent years, as I’ve contemplated taking an extended sabbatical that could become permanent, I realized I could be running out of time to take my skills to a part of the world where they’re more sorely needed. I started researching options and reaching out to organizations, looking for an opportunity that would both allow me to offer my services as an anesthesiologist and allow my family to accompany me and volunteer in some other capacity. After […]

A Dirty Needle Helped This Physician Get His Finances in Order

syringe needle

Often, it takes a big, scary moment to make us realize we need to be better prepared for an uncertain future. Dr. Peter Kim, a.k.a. Passive Income MD, had one of those moments one morning at the end of a long all-night shift. Ideally, you have your affairs in order before it becomes necessary. We see reminders of our mortality all the time in our jobs. Most of us have coped with illness and death in of parents or grandparents. Every time we wield a needle or a knife, we are taking a small risk. That risk is magnified if […]

Obstacles Doctors Face in Pursuing a Side Hustle

The side hustle. While it’s nothing new — paper routes and bartending have been around for ages — side hustles are getting a lot of attention in the new “gig economy.” You’re looking at my side hustle. A medical student shared his various side hustles not long ago, and my WCI Network partners each have successful side hustles of their own. While you may not think side hustles are for physicians, more and more of us are looking to do something different. Some side hustles can become main hustles, and that will soon be the case for me. Today’s post […]

Who Cares? Why Write About It?

why write about it

My friend John wrote an article detailing his spending for one random week in his life. This daily ledger wasn’t his idea, but rather that of a national media outlet that likes to portray the typical spending patterns from people of many different walks of life. Many people were interested to see how John spends his money. Why? Well, the headline for his article, written by the people who write headlines for national media outlets, states that he retired in his early fifties with a net worth of $3 Million. Those headline writers know how to grab people’s attention! Expecting […]

Locum Tenens Co-op: Survey Response Report

Last month, I introduced a concept that could be revolutionary for physicians doing locums if it gets off the ground. A number of you responded, taking the survey and leaving thoughtful comments. Thank you for those. Today, I’ve got the team back to report the survey results and to respond to a number of the comments. Read on to see the positive responses to the concept of a member-owned physician locum tenens co-op, and how the co-op could address the concerns of the survey takers. There will also be an opportunity to share a survey designed for hospitals and groups […]

Buying a $3 Million Umbrella Insurance Policy for $170 Per Year

Not long ago, a somewhat wealthy friend of mine realized he had done a knockout job earning money and hanging onto it, but he hadn’t taken the best precautions to protect his hard-earned assets. That didn’t matter much until suddenly, it did. He was sued for millions and spent several agonizing years with a substantial portion of his assets potentially at risk. A judgment against him could have wiped out much of what he had earned over the prior decade. All because he generously volunteered his time on the now-defunct hospital’s Board. I’m talking about “my friend” because it would […]

A Physician-Owned Locum Tenens Co-op?

NPH_Honduras_Nerve_Block

Today, I’ve got an interesting proposal from a group of physicians and entrepreneurs with whom I’ve spoken regarding their idea for a completely new take on the locum tenens agency. >My experience with locum tenens (temporary work) began the Monday after I finished residency. I practiced exclusively as a locums doc for nearly two years, trying jobs before buying, and was offered a job in just about every place I worked. Once I settled into a “permanent” job, I still did some locums on the side to keep different skills fresh and learn from different practice settings. I used locums […]

Side Gigs for Pre-med and Medical Students

Med_School_Side_Gigs

Bryan Miles of Bryan’s Black Bag reached out to me and asked if he could share a guest post detailing some of the side gigs and hustles he’s had in his six years as a pre-medical and medical student. I read his post and said, “absolutely!” With some outside the box thinking, Bryan has been making choices to minimize his debt and maximize his future net worth long before many of us started thinking about such terms. Normally, I would discourage most pre-meds and medical students from doing anything but focusing on their studies and their patients, but Bryan doesn’t […]

The Art of the Side Hustle: Complementing Your Career with Entrepreneurship

Crushing Barley

Today’s post is all about the “side hustle.” I prefer the term “side gig” as it sounds a little more laid back, but to be honest, many of us are hustling to do the work involved in both our primary and secondary jobs. Whatever you want to call it, people from all walks of life are pursuing their own entrepreneurial spirit with a little work on the side, and physicians are no exception. I never imagined I’d be among them, but here I am working part-time at two different jobs. I figured I’d wait until this physician career was over […]

Six Financial Considerations for Mid-Career Professionals

Today’s Saturday Selection from The White Coat Investor focuses on people like me. Or more accurately, physicians about my age, but the messages apply broadly to mid-career professionals from any career path. Mid-career may come sooner in non-medical professions, but the considerations remain the same. The typical mid-career professional is probably in his or her forties or early fifties. She might have a decade or more under her belt and a decade or more to go. While there isn’t anything out of the ordinary about the finances of these docs, the advice aimed at the newbies and the near-retirees don’t […]

Are You as Pressed for Time as You Think?

Big Ben Clock

You’re busy. I’m busy. We’re all busy. The days fly by, the weeks become months, and it seems like just yesterday your 9-year old was in a high chair. Have you ever taken the time to examine where your time actually goes? I can’t say that I have, but I can tell you that a lot of my “free time” is spent making this site the best I think it can be. There’s also the job, exercising, family outings, movies, traveling, Angry Birds, lawn mowing, snow shoveling, beer brewing… I’m never short on things to do, but I do feel […]

Five Ways to Leave Clinical Medicine

Odyssey WCI

Paul Simon gave us 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. Dr. Jim Dahle gives us 5 Ways to Leave Clinical Medicine in today’s Saturday Selection. As always, this post was originally published on The White Coat Investor. Just slip out the back, Jack. Make a new plan, Stan. Don’t need to be coy, Roy, just listen to me. Hop on the bus, Gus. Don’t need to discuss much. Just drop off the key, Lee, and get yourself free. Five Ways to Leave Clinical Medicine I am frequently asked by physicians who have grown tired of their job for a list of […]

WCICon18: A Review of The White Coat Investor Financial Literacy and Physician Wellness Conference

WCICon18

When I first visited Dr. Jim Dahle out in Salt Lake City, he told me about his plans for a WCI conference. A long weekend in a ski resort town with some big names in the personal finance world as presenters. Sounded awesome! And it could be my coming out (of the shadows) party, he said. What better way to reveal yourself than on a stage in front of a few hundred of your new closest friends? “Sounds pretty… ummm… awesome”, I said, with a little hesitation. But you don’t say “no” when The White Coat Investor hands you such an […]

Make Medicine a Hobby & Enjoy a Long, Happy Career

anesthesia machine

Our Saturday Selection today comes courtesy of Passive Income MD who argues we can have more sustainable careers if we can reach financial independence and treat medicine more like a hobby than a job. Given the stressors and time pressures that come with my job, I’m not sure I could ever make it a hobby, but if there’s a way, I will try. In the meantime, I’ve got a fun hobby than also provides some income (the website in front of you), so I’ll continue to develop this hobby. This post originally appeared on Passive Income MD. Make Medicine […]

When Your Physician Career Doesn’t Go as Planned (Because It Won’t)

Physician_Career

Today’s guest post is a reflection from an early-career physician anesthesiologist whose career has been pretty typical. You may think his career has been rather atypical until you realize that a story like this is closer to the norm than the exception. I’ve read that between one half and two thirds of physicians leave their first “permanent” position in the first few years after residency. I didn’t realize it at the time that I penned it, but when I came up with the headline, I was clearly channeling another Doctor who goes by the name of Suess. From Oh, the […]

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