She probably puts in 50 to 60 hours a week or more on the job. And yet, if she doesn’t have an active side hustle, she’s probably been thinking about starting one.
You can opt for a 25-year repayment plan, but with some hard work and discipline, even the higher balances can be eliminated by most doctors in less than a decade.
The closer your doctor is to financial independence — and can conceivably be done saving for retirement — the more freedom he has to do whatever it is outside of medicine that feeds his soul.
Starting something completely novel — often from scratch — can give your physician a whole new set of goals to set and pinnacles to reach. That may be exactly what your goal-oriented doctor needs.
Physicians get a late start on retirement savings and often celebrate becoming “worthless,” that is escaping a negative net worth to finally break even, at some point in their thirties.
A side hustle can allow an employed physician to open another type of retirement account, such as a solo 401(k) or SEP IRA, with earnings from the extra income.