Getting into a good school probably matters more for your future earnings than the family you grew up in. That’s the encouraging part. However, parental income is still correlated with child earnings even among students at the same institution type.
AI will now be a tool to rationalize delivering worse products and services at the same price points. Necessarily, in order to justify certain valuations, AI/LLMs must take margin from both B2C and B2B businesses.
Don’t Miss: Mid-Year Financial Checkup for Physicians
AI investment is boosting the economy and making the U.S. more reliant on a boom that could eventually peter out. New data Thursday showed profits of domestic companies captured 12.2% of U.S. gross domestic income in the first quarter, which is the highest since the early 1950s.
Nearly eighteen years removed from the Global Financial Crisis, many Americans have little memory of what a severe recession feels like. A growing number of investors have never experienced a prolonged bear market. Many have never watched a portfolio fall by 50%, seen liquidity evaporate, or witnessed businesses fighting simply to survive.
Oil prices have landed back to near pre-war prices as the US and Iran projected progress in peace talks, and more tankers passed through the Strait of Hormuz than at any time since the conflict began. But US retail gas prices have stayed north of $3.90.
Apple raised prices on its MacBooks and iPads on Thursday, and the stock had its worst day in more than a year. Shares closed down more than 6%, the sharpest drop since April 2025.
Households have dealt with a lot of hurdles in the 2020s, economically speaking. All told housing prices are now roughly 30% higher than they were coming into this decade. That’s already higher than the price increase for the entire 2010s decade of around 19%.
Read: A Physician’s Guide to a Financially Healthy Marriage
Gen Z began investing at an average age of 19, according to Charles Schwab’s 2024 Modern Wealth Survey, a full 16 years earlier than the baby boomers, who waited until 35. By most measures, they are the most market-fluent generation America has ever produced. They also score lowest on financial literacy.
An emergency fund is not a math problem. It is the price of being able to stop thinking about money. And you set that price, not the rule. The economists knew this before the planners did.
A growing number of people are going against FIRE: extending breaks from work that can last several months or even a year. While that can be rejuvenating, advisors say clients should carefully consider the tradeoffs of so-called micro retirements.
Upcoming Event
Your portfolio has four accounts. How many asset classes does it actually hold?
Most physicians I talk to answer “several.” The real answer, for the vast majority, is one. Public equities in different wrappers. A 401(k) in a target date fund, a Roth in VTSAX, a taxable brokerage in total market index funds. Three logins. One bet.
KKR tracks how different investor classes allocate capital. The average American investor holds 95% of their wealth in stocks, bonds, and cash. Ultra-high-net-worth families? They hold 46% in alternatives. Physicians earn in the top 2% of household income and invest like the bottom 95%.
Why?
Here’s a question worth sitting with: if the Shiller P/E is sitting at 36 against a historical average of 17, and your real after-tax equity return at physician tax rates lands closer to 4 or 5% than the 10% everyone quotes, how long does it actually take you to retire? Are you looking at 7 years to double your money, or 18?
What happens if we’re heading into another lost decade? The last one ran 13 years with essentially zero S&P price appreciation. Do you know what wealthy families do differently? Can you explain what a cost segregation study does to your tax bill, or why a 1031 exchange matters more than a Roth conversion at your income level?
And if you’ve considered syndications or passive real estate, do you know how to vet a sponsor? The 2022 to 2024 wreckage cost physicians six and seven figures because they skipped that step.
In a few days I’m sitting down with the folks over at Semi-Retired MD — Leti and Kenji Asakura, dual-physician hospitalists who reached financial independence in three years through real estate. We’re breaking down why most physicians are overexposed to the stock market, what the ultra-wealthy actually own, and how to run proper due diligence before you write a check.
Seats are free. The information isn’t available in your hospital break room.
