This episode is brought to you by Doc2Doc Lending (https://www.doc2doclending.com/), a novel lending platform created for doctors, by doctors, with the aim of facilitating fast access to personal loans at rates that make sense. 

"For the vast majority of us doctors, a career in medicine will also mean spending a significant portion of our adult lives carrying multiple forms of debt.  Understanding student loans (the average medical school graduate in 2019 had $201,490 in student loans while the average dental school graduate had $292,159), credit card debt, home mortgages, car loans, and practice loans, becomes a worthy exercise given the potential impact – both positive and negative – these products can have on our personal and professional lives as we consume them.

We’d like to propose a methodology to understand and assess loan options, using a doctor-specific perspective, to better appreciate when the pros outweigh the cons or vice versa. This methodology is based on our experience in speaking with applicants through the Doc2Doc Lending platform (the platform facilitates personal loans exclusively to physicians and dentists, and as part of the application process offers each applicant a call with a doctor-member of our Doc2Doc team to speak through the product, application process, and the applicant’s goals) and it is by no means meant to be financial advice.  Through these conversations, we have observed many similar themes that arise from applicant to applicant which has formed the basis for this construct.

In our experience, there are three common areas that will generally be the determining factors as to whether a loan may make sense:

• the immediate and future impact on cash flow
• the total cost of the money borrowed over the entire term of the loan
• the degree of flexibility built into the terms of the product

As doctors, debt is a real and important part of our personal and professional lives.  We hope this framework may serve as a starting point for better understanding when a loan is the right decision for you."

Kenton Allen and Zwade Marshall are anesthesiologists. They are cofounders, Doc2Doc Lending (https://www.doc2doclending.com/), a novel lending platform created for doctors, by doctors, with the aim of facilitating fast access to personal loans at rates that make sense.  Doc2Doc Lending was founded on the belief that doctors are a unique group that are more responsible in repaying debt obligations than the general population.  Doc2Doc Lending employs a proprietary underwriting algorithm that considers doctor-specific metrics to enable interest rates that are often more favorable than those found at traditional banks.  Drs. Allen and Marshall are neither licensed financial nor investment advisors; they are not accountants or attorneys.  Any opinions expressed above are solely their own. Learn more at www.doc2doclending.com.