One thing about being in the field of personal finance is nobody will know everything. And the same is true for the field of emergency medicine. Yet, we do our best to acquire as much information as possible and pass that knowledge along.

On today’s episode, we’ll go over certain misnomers or confusions we often see when it comes to personal finance and leverage our 15+ years of knowledge to address them so you can be that much more prepared and equipped when it comes to your own finances.

Taxes are cumbersome and oftentimes painful (for most people). There are no two ways about it. But through proper planning throughout the year, plus a simple working knowledge of how the deadlines work, that combination really makes this responsibility manageable.

On today’s episode, we’ll reference IRS statistics on extensions for high-earning taxpayers and discuss how we feel every taxpayer should approach filing their returns.

ER docs tend to think of their income in shifts. We tend to think of it more from an after-tax perspective. In other words, we’re interested in how much ER docs get to keep, after taxes. So strategizing around that bottom line instead of simply working shifts can make a big difference not only on the perception of working, but also for wealth building.

On today’s episode, we’ll provide a simple breakdown and comparison between the two income types and the take-home they both receive off the same gross salary.

Mortgage rates are high relative to very recent history. Despite this, it’s inevitable that we may have to participate in those higher rates if we move, upsize, downsize, or acquire a first-time home. In any of these cases, there’s an unconventional and little know strategy for reducing your mortgage payment over the life of the mortgage term. 

On today’s episode, we’ll discuss a cash flow improvement strategy that works well in today’s high interest rate and high stock market price environment.

Paying tax is a good thing because it means you’ve made money. But when it’s unplanned or unaccounted for (or worse – already spent!) that’s when major problems can arise. With the stock market roaring since October 2023, depending on what you’re invested in, your assets have likely bloated. In the event you need to sell out of these positions for any reason – car, house, change investments – there is a very good chance you will be incurring capital gains tax.

On today’s episode, we’ll go over four specific ways to help offset, or even eliminate completely, probably the most shocking tax liability source: capital gains.

Just as electric vehicles are relatively new, so is the tax code that was designed for them. Like anything in its infancy, there will inevitably be confusion, loopholes, and many updates to come.

On today’s episode, we’ll get into how ER docs in the market for an EV can still take advantage of free rebates even if tax policy has attempted to disqualify them based on income limitations.

The Internal Revenue Code is like an onion – there are so many layers to peel back. Within each of these layers are deductions and credits, each with their own set of rules. As a high-earning ER doc, you should be aware of areas where you can take advantage, and for completeness and simplicity, areas where you can’t.

On today’s episode, we’ll construct and discuss the longest list of deductions and credits available to ER docs that we can realistically come up with to hopefully aid in your tax filings this year and tax filings moving forward.

Recency bias: a cognitive bias that favors recent events over historic ones; a memory bias. I mention this because a composition of the 500 largest companies in the US, also known as the S&P 500, has recently hit all-time highs. While of course that’s a good thing, recency bias is running rampant, making it difficult to remember times when the S&P 500 has severely lagged behind other markets. And when this causes investors to abandon the science of investing and instead opt to own just a single asset class, problems can arise.

On today’s episode, we’ll discuss how periods of return, especially recent ones, can paint a very different picture than what has unfolded over longer time frames and how the infatuation with the best performers can taint the way we look at our own portfolios.

Taxes aren’t as much of a “season” as we tend to think. The reality is, taxes are all around us; they’re a daily occurrence. Thus, condensing an entire year down to a single week or month is a fool’s errand.

On today’s episode, we’ll talk about tax season from a different perspective. A perspective that hopefully creates a mental shift and ultimately improves the way you think about and prepare your returns moving forward.

ER docs tend to lead financially complex lives. With different income sources, different income types, and possibly earnings in multiple states, this provides a major hurdle when it comes to optimization. But not all hope is lost; the added complexity can often lead to opportunity, like in the case of additional contribution limits with multiple non-related retirement accounts.

On today’s episode, we’ll discuss the rules for multiple retirement accounts with separate employers and talk about how to remedy an accidental over-contribution, and even get into a scenario where an intentional over-contribution could make sense.