Doctor Money Matters

On this episode, my guest is Amy Mecozzi Cho MD, an emergency medicine physician in MN who is passionate about making sure physicians voices are heard, particularly on the issue that is all over the news lately, Surprise (Balance) Billing. This is when the medical group providing the care charges the patient the balance between their fees and the (low) rates the insurance companies will pay. Obviously this is an unfortunate position for patients to be put in and physicians end up taking the financial and perception hits.

As an emergency physician she is required to take care of anyone who comes into the emergency department by law, physician oath and ethics, regardless of ability to pay. However insurance companies do not have to follow the same rules and can refuse to negotiate adequate reimbursement because they know physicians are bound by these laws. It's obviously an uneven playing field. These entities have also had the ear of lawmakers and are pushing solutions to Congress that would negatively impact us. We as physicians are generally too busy to fight this, but if we don't the results will be a disaster for those involved in patient care. I encourage you to contact your congressional representative and senators and make your voice heard on this issue. The current solution in the Senate is the Benchmark solution and would lead us to the race to bottom described by Dr. Cho on the show. The New York (Independent Arbitration) solution is the one that we need to advocate for. It's the only real way to reach fair outcomes. The fact that insurance companies are advocating for the benchmark solution should tell you as physicians how it will be for you.

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Here is an article that goes over the solutions in more detail: https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20190708.627390/full/

More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook.

You can follow me on:

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On this episode, my guests are a group of physicians who are in the Direct Primary Care space.

They each have their own practice. Dr. Jessica Edwards is starting a practice in TX. Dr. Mitch Li is starting one in the Chicago area. Dr. Clodagh Ryan has a 2 year old practice also in Chicago and is a veteran and mentor in this space.

In the era of physician burnout, loss of autonomy, dissatisfaction, etc, it's refreshing to hear about doctors taking charge and executing their vision of patient care.

I previously explored this practice model on an episode with Dr. Josh Umbehr, and that episode inspired Mitch to start his practice.

While there is constant complaining from physicians about where our profession is headed, use these doctors to inspire you to move in a different direction.

If you are a physician who has successfully built your own practice or practice in a different model than most traditional doctors, I would love to interview you on this podcast. Please reach out to me via the channels below.

More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook.

You can follow me on:

twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Please consider joining the Doctor Money Matters Facebook group.

Please share this podcast with your colleagues and join our email list.

Thanks for listening and please leave us positive reviews and continue to share this podcast with your colleagues.

On this episode, my guest is Nick McCullum of SureDividend.com.

We talk about dividend investing as a strategy. Everyone likes the idea of passive income and dividends are about as passive as it gets. Money comes in monthly, quarterly, or whatever frequency the company pays it out. Sure there are risks, but over the long term, dividend paying stocks have had lower volatility than the overall stock market.

In this episode we go over the basic terminology (yield, growth rate, DRIPs, etc.) and pros and cons, and how you can use this strategy. I am not trying to convince you to use this strategy but it is a valid one, if you are looking for income especially in your retirement years. We have all heard stories about retirees who live off their dividend checks because they bought the stocks many years ago and reinvested them. The key with this type of strategy as with others is to try to do it as early in your investment life as possible and continue to contribute throughout. The power of compounding is amazing, but the numbers are minor in the first decade, solid in the second decade, and downright impressive in the third decade. By the fourth decade, they become ridiculous. Let me give you an example of this in action.

If you invested 10k in Pepsi (A solid non tech American company) in Jun 2005 and held till Jun 2015 without any additional investment you would have had around $22.5 k (not accounting for taxes). With a monthly $100 additional contribution, your total would be around $42.4 (nearly double). If you would have put in the same 10k ,10 yrs before in Jun 1995, your total would be $68.3k (Nice, but not jaw dropping). With the additional monthly $100, it would have been $131K. Now instead of 1995, you put it in 1985, this is where it becomes amazing, your total would be over $700k, with the monthly $100, it would have been nearly $1.1M. And if you had the ability to buy in 1975, your 10k would be $2.6M, with the $100/mo additional it would be over $5M by Jun 2015.

I used 2015 as an end point because it is in the approximate middle of this bull market and the ten year period prior included 3 years before the 2008 financial crisis rather than at the beginning when asset prices were low (ie if you used current trailing 10 yr returns). But the reality is over long terms, these trends appear to hold with some variance

I am NOT a financial advisor and neither Nick or I are telling you to use this strategy for your investments. If you are interested in learning more there are many good resources including Nicks newsletter.

If you do pursue this strategy, make sure you do so in a tax efficient manner. I do this by placing my highest dividend paying holdings in my tax deferred accounts (401k, IRA, roth IRA, etc) so they can grow unimpeded.

This is the website to see stock performance with dividend reinvestments.

https://dqydj.com/stock-return-calculator/

You can find out more about Sure Dividend at their website. SureDividend.com

Twitter @SureDividend

Seeking Alpha (Sure Dividend)

More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook.

You can follow me on:

twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Please consider joining the Doctor Money Matters Facebook group.

Please share this podcast with your colleagues and join our email list.

Thanks for listening and please leave us positive reviews and continue to share this podcast with your colleagues.

On this episode, my guest is Dr. Disha of The Frugal Physician blog. We talked about her journey from being in debt to quickly paying off loans as a primary care physician despite a few financial setbacks. Obviously it is easier to payback loans in a dual high income couple but for many of my listeners, there is only one earner or one high income earner in the family, so we talk about how she did this.

Disha is an internal medicine physician who caught the financial independence bug after a couple of typical new grad mistakes. She went from a high end home on an island in the US to downsizing in order to get down her debt levels. She talks about the moment while she was on maternity leave when it dawned on her that she was worrying about finance rather than concentrating on her family, so she finally had to breakdown and use the B word (Budget).

She used the debt snowball approach to line up her debts from smallest to largest in order to get the families finances under control. We talk actual dollar amounts so that you get a better idea of how she was able to reduce housing costs (not just mortgage vs rent, but also maintenance, renovating, etc)

In 12 months of concentrated effort, she was able to knock of $150k off the debt. Impressive.

Then we hit on where she is now and what her plans are once the debt is paid off.

Disha also talked about what perceptions from family members and non physician friends about doctors finances and how she dealt with that.

Finally we talk about her George Costanza moment when she walked into her boss's office and quit her job and then had to go back because she realized she could not afford to do so.

Dr. Disha has a great plan for her finances and will no doubt be successful.

You can find out more about Disha and her blog at The Frugal Physician

More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook.

You can follow me on:

twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Please consider joining the Doctor Money Matters Facebook group.

Please share this podcast with your colleagues and join our email list.

Thanks for listening and please leave us positive reviews and continue to share this podcast with your colleagues.

On this episode, my guest is Rick Ferri, CFA, a well known advocate of index fund investing.

• Passive investing (just using ETFs does not mean passive investing)
• What to do before you do portfolio construction
• • Accumulation of assets (savings rate first and then portfolio optimization)
  • Living below your means
  • Accumulating knowledge
• Portfolio construction
• The stages of investor education (Core4)
• • Darkness
  • enlightenment
  • Complexity
  • Simplicity

We go over some common scenarios about how to invest and Rick gives some principles to think about before deciding what to do.

Finally Rick reminds us physicians, that even though we went to medical school, we are not special when it comes to investing. Its good advice.

You can find out more about Rick at rickferri.com and core-4.com for a list of his principles and publications.

He also started the new Bogleheads on investing podcast, so be sure to check it out and his new book, The education of an Index Investor.

More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook.

You can follow me on:

twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Please consider joining the Doctor Money Matters Facebook group.

Please share this podcast with your colleagues and join our email list.

Thanks for listening and please leave us positive reviews and continue to share this podcast with your colleagues.

This is a special episode of the Doctor Money Matters podcast. I am doing a cohosted joint podcast with Ryan Inman of the Financial Residency podcast. In this episode we interview each other. Ryan is a CFP who runs his own financial planning firm catering to physicians. His wife is a physician as well so he really understands the issues that physician families face.

In this episode we talk about:

• The FIRE Movement for physicians
• Common issues facing early and mid career physicians
• Why the increased corporate takeover of medicine has led to loss of job satisfaction
• Some pitfalls to look out for when dealing with social media financial advice
• You can find Ryan's podcast at www.financialresidency.com. We do talk about similar topics and I encourage you to make this podcast a part of your regular rotation.

More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook.

You can follow me on:

twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Please consider joining the Doctor Money Matters Facebook group.

Please share this podcast with your colleagues and join our email list.

Thanks for listening and please leave us positive reviews and continue to share this podcast with your colleagues.

My guest on this podcast is Sarah Fallaw, PhD author of the new book. The Next Millionaire Next Door. This is a follow up to the blockbuster book that her father wrote, The Millionaire Next Door. Sarah and her father worked on the follow up together, but he passed away prior to the release. That book was a big inspiration for me to get my financial house in order.

Sarah is an industrial psychologist who runs the firm Data Points where she now studies behavioral finance and the ability for people to build wealth.

In the interview we talk about

• Why doctors were/are under accumulators of wealth
• What issues are different now than when the last book came out?
• What are the enduring traits of Millionaires Next Door?
• Do MNDs use financial advisors?
• How has social media impacted frugality?
• What kind of homes/cars are MNDs purchasing?

You can find out more about Sarah and her company at www.datapoints.com

The Next Millionaire Next Door and the original The Millionaire Next Door are available on Amazon or anywhere else you purchase books.

More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook.

You can follow me on:

twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Please consider joining the Doctor Money Matters Facebook group.

Please share this podcast with your colleagues and join our email list.

Thanks for listening and please leave us positive reviews and continue to share this podcast with your colleagues.

This is part 2 of the podcast are Ed Comitz and Stephanie Tsang. Ed is an attorney in AZ who specializes in disability insurance lawsuits. Stephanie is a broker who deals with who deals with disability insurance. Ep 44 is part 1, which you should listen to first if you have not done so yet.

We talk about the basic information needed for physicians regarding disability insurance. We clear up some of the misconceptions.

We discuss individual policies, association policies, and employer policies and which ones are generally better for you the physician. There are definite pros and cons to the insurance types.

• What is double dipping as far as benefits?
• Which companies are most favorable to physicians?
• Why does it matter which state you are from?
• What happens if you want to change policies?
• Is there a cap on amount of insurance you can get?
• What should you know before you file a claim and what happens when you file disability?
• When should you consult a lawyer? (Answer: before you file disability)
• When should you drop your disability insurance?

Stephanie Tsang

NorthStar Resource Group

[email protected]

www.northstarfinancial.com

Ed Comitz

480-219-5436

Disabilitycounsel.net

More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook.

You can follow me on:

twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Please consider joining the Doctor Money Matters Facebook group.

Please share this podcast with your colleagues and join our email list.

Thanks for listening and please leave us positive reviews and continue to share this podcast with your colleagues.

My guests on this podcast are Ed Comitz and Stephanie Tsang. Ed is an attorney in AZ who specializes in disability insurance lawsuits. Stephanie is a broker who deals with who deals with disability insurance.

We talk about the basic information needed for physicians regarding disability insurance. We clear up some of the misconceptions.

We discuss individual policies, association policies, and employer policies and which ones are generally better for you the physician. There are definite pros and cons to the insurance types.

• What is double dipping as far as benefits?
• Which companies are most favorable to physicians?
• Why does it matter which state you are from?
• What happens if you want to change policies?
• Is there a cap on amount of insurance you can get?
• What should you know before you file a claim and what happens when you file disability?
• When should you consult a lawyer? (Answer: before you file disability)
• When should you drop your disability insurance?

Stephanie Tsang

NorthStar Resource Group

[email protected]

www.northstarfinancial.com

Ed Comitz

480-219-5436

Disabilitycounsel.net

More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook.

You can follow me on:

twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Please consider joining the Doctor Money Matters Facebook group.

Please share this podcast with your colleagues and join our email list.

Thanks for listening and please leave us positive reviews and continue to share this podcast with your colleagues.

My guests on this podcast are Drs Nii and Renee Darko who paid back significant educational loans nearing nearly $670k over a 3 year period in order to take back control of their financial futures.

Nii is a trauma surgeon and Rene is a Ob/Gyn and they worked very hard to pay down this debt.

We talk about how they acquired so much debt. What was the moment they realized that this debt was out of control and how they changed their life to pay down this debt. They also talk about their backgrounds in relation to finance and how that impacted their lives. We also talk about the decision to pay down debt vs investing (which is a common question and its a different answer for everyone) and now what their plans are after finishing the debt paydown.

They also have other ventures which they are now able to spend more time on. Nii hosts the popular Docs Outside the Box podcast, and Rene runs a premed advisory service called Premed Strategies and Coaching where she helps advise aspiring medical students. They also run a locums agency called Equal Access Health and a blog called Keeping up with the Darkos.

I hope the Darkos have inspired to you take a look at your finances and also pursue alternative ventures that maybe outside of medicine.

More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook.

You can follow me on:

twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Please consider joining the Doctor Money Matters Facebook group.

Please share this podcast with your colleagues and join our email list.

Thanks for listening and please leave us positive reviews and continue to share this podcast with your colleagues.