Month: February 2017

How big of a hat do you wear?

Posted on by SmartMoneyMD

You’ve probably heard the quip about having a big hat but no cattle. Some people might phrase it as “all talk and no show”. If you’re going to flaunt any definable measure of success, you should have some success to back it up. I’d say this principle is a corollary to stealth wealth, which is defined by having your outward appearance underrepresent your level of success in life.

You might also like: Stealth wealth revisited: it applies to doctors too!

I like talking about big hats and cattle, partly because my colleagues who have never lived anywhere outside of the Northeast corridor may have never viewed life in terms of cattle ranching. Big hats are unfortunately prevalent in the medical world.  And it doesn’t matter what type of cattle either—financial or egotistical cattle, it’s all there.

[showads ad=responsive]

Big hats and financial cattle

I saw lots of big hats even in college. These hats came mostly in the form of spring break vacations. Some of these vacations came as road trips, others as trips to Cancun. I didn’t think much of it, since most college students had no full-time jobs. Everything was bankrolled by the family or student loans. It really didn’t matter much to me because, well, it was college. People did a lot of impractical things in college.

If you haven’t gone cow tipping before, you should!

There were big hats in medical school too. Most medical students also had no full-time income, but others may have had careers prior to enrolling into medical school.  I wasn’t too sure whether any of those big hats I saw in medical school were justified, but I had no business judging any actions other than my own.  These big hats also came in the form of lavish vacations abroad, long weekend excursions to Europe, weekly take-out meals, and home/car purchases too. I came to believe that most of these big hats were backed by lots of cattle. Inherited cattle. Borrowed cattle. Probably not any self-raised cattle.

The hats have gotten bigger after training. McMansions. Fast cars. One of my coresidents leased a mid-range BMW during fellowship, and moved on to an upper range BMW soon afterward.  Most professionals are intelligent people. I would assume that doctors who spend their careers working on brains and hearts to be some of the most intelligent people out there. I would assume that most of these people are aware that it is not wise to wear big hats without a sizable herd of financial cattle to back you up.

The problem is that we are all human.  We have our desires. I think that it’s an admirable skill to be able to mold your needs to a level significantly lower than your financial earning potential, but it is not easy for many people. Suppose that you are an interventional cardiologist. You fix heart attacks on Friday nights and holidays.  That is an impressive feat. Why shouldn’t you be able have radiant heat in the floors of your home?

 

Hat size should correlate with cattle size. 

There is no reason to deprive yourself of what makes you happy.  You just have to be smart about it. If radiant heat makes you happy, go for it.  Just make sure that you can balance it with some moderation elsewhere. Otherwise, you might end up like the surgeon I saw on the news who couldn’t pay his rent and got evicted. I have no idea how that could happen, but there is a lesson to be learned in moderation.

As I have gotten wiser financially, I wonder if my classmates have too.  I’m sure that the borrowed cattle will run out eventually.  When they do, I hope that they will be prepared. I did check in on a distant acquaintance from medical school recently—she was one of the people who vacationed lavishly during school. She purchased a nice $1+ million apartment and works as a geriatrician! Okay, there isn’t much of a lesson to be learned there, but I guess that some people are fortunate to probably have inherited a nice herd of cattle.

 

Moral of the story? It is okay to wear big hats as long as you keep a healthy and sizable herd of cattle!

 

(Photo courtesy of Flickr)

Do you want to get the latest Smart Money MD posts in you inbox?
Get the FREE Smart Money MD Financial Cheatsheet for signing up!

How to save money while living in New York City

Posted on by SmartMoneyMD

Most of my readers do not live in high cost of living (HCOL) cities. The financially savvy crowd typically has already done their homework and know all about geographical arbitrage. A doctor in the Bay Area might not even be able to swing a two-bedroom apartment for less than $3000 a month (more like $4500). Guess where all of your salary is going towards if you life there? For $3000 a month, you can get a McMansion in Indianapolis, with a one-acre lot to boot.

[showads ad=responsive]

Unfortunately, not all of us have that much freedom. Many doctors are going to be “stuck” living in a HCOL city due to family ties, specialization, or hubris. Hey, Northern California is nice.  You won’t find strawberries better anywhere else in the world.  Who cares if there are droughts, mudslides, and earthquakes? ?

Likewise, there are many doctors in the New York area.  This place is crazy expensive.  I remember hearing some statistic that almost a quarter of all doctors in the United States have journeyed through New York City or are living in one of the boroughs. I suppose that it is a reasonable number due to the dense population and high number of hospitals in the region. For this reason, many of you readers might end up living in the NYC area at some point during your career. Here are some tips to keep more of your paycheck in your bank account while living in the Big Apple:

Rent  

By far, the biggest expense for most people in NYC is the cost of rent or owning. There is almost no real way to cut costs since the real estate market is insane. If you choose to live in the city, getting a roommate may be the most economical choice. You can probably save about 30% on rent with splitting a two-bedroom unit instead of living in a studio or one-bedroom apartment. The cost of rent correlates with vicinity to subway lines and neighborhoods. You have to weigh in safety to cost, as there is obviously crime in the city. One consideration is to live near a college campus where you might be able to get a cheaper rent targeted for students. Rent stabilized units are also an option, although many of these may be in less desirable neighborhoods.  Get on your hospital bulletin boards to look for roommate options and rental opportunities. Sometimes there are professionals who own their apartments but wish to rent them out while they are living in another city training or on a sabbatical.

I assume that most of my readers aren’t in the market to purchase a house/condo/co-op in New York City. If you are flush with money, go on ahead and buy. ? Expect to pay premium HOAs for doormen and building amenities.

Food

There is no Aldi grocery store in NYC, but there are plenty of ethnic neighborhoods with more budgetary grocery items. I wouldn’t necessarily consider these ethnic markets to have a healthier selection of food, but vegetables, fruits, and meats tend to be cheaper in Hispanic markets and markets in Chinatown. The grungier the neighborhood, the cheaper the products.  There are Chinatowns in Manhattan, Flushing, and Brooklyn. Take your pick.  Budgetary Indian groceries can be had in Jackson Heights in Queens.

This Cara Cara orange at $2.99/lb better taste awesome!

If street markets or ethnic groceries aren’t your type, you can still find some deals at expensive grocery stores like Fairway and Whole Foods.  These are the markets where you pay $12 for a dragonfruit, or $24.99/lb for salmon that you can get free from rivers in Alaska (Looking at you, LiveFreeMD!).  Produce at these groceries establishes aren’t allowed to have blemishes. And unfortunately when fruits are stacked together in piles, some of them will be bruised. Every day Fairway will have blemished fruit prepackaged in clear bags for about $1.50 or $2 apiece. Sure, you might only get two apples, a pear, and two oranges, but this haul would have otherwise cost $10!

Restaurants are a dime a dozen in the Big Apple. If you live there, you will find your favorite cheap eats.  Ask Yelp, or your friend who has written thousands of Yelp reviews. We live in a foodie world.  The only tip that I have that I rarely see mentioned is dim sum. Yep. Dim sum is tapas in Chinese form. It is typically eaten as a brunch. Each dish is typically >$4 a piece. If you have dim sum with friends, you will likely rack up a hefty bill. If you are in the market for decent dim sum at the minimal price in NYC, go to Ken’s Asian Taste.  Go there, and report back here on your findings.  You will not be disappointed.

Furniture and consumables

For furniture, Craigslist is your friend. It is not easy moving stuff onto or off of Manhattan island.  New York is also a city with many transient residents.  Use that to your advantage. You can even hire movers on Craigslist.

You might also like: How much of your lifestyle contains used items?

If used items aren’t your cup of tea, then you can seek your wares elsewhere.  There is an IKEA in Brooklyn, and one in New Jersey.  That’s right, right across the river is more normal civilization.  You can find Targets, Walmarts, and grocery stores with normal prices.   Even if you rent a car for the day (or Zipcar/Uber), you can save quite a bit if you are buying bulk.

Hospital

No matter how much you hate going to the hospital for work, it can be your friend.  Take advantage of your hospital perks, like discounted or free meals.  Procell batteries (first person to comment on this, wins a prize!), alcohol swabs, and the break room are your friends.  Use that hospital gym membership, cellphone discounts, and price breaks that your labor affords.

New Yorkers, what other money saving suggestions do you have?

How much of your lifestyle contains used items?

Posted on by SmartMoneyMD

We all know that we can save a bit of money by buying used items. The prospects of preowned material wealth is good for the environment and is good for your wallet. However, it’s not for everyone. Up until I finished college, I wasn’t truly aware that you could actually buy anything used other than informally through your friends. Call me a lucky kid, but my parents never bought me anything used. Then again, America is the land of incredible wealth and cheap items. A new top at Walmart, whether you believe in foreign labor, was less than $10. Why would anyone ever spring for second-hand clothing for $5 if you could have a new one for marginally more?

[showads ad=responsive]

As I’ve gotten more savvy with money, it’s slowly dawned on me that second-hand doesn’t necessarily connote being “cheap”. Buying used is actually cool.

Used car = financially smart.

Aside from your home, the vehicle we drive is considered a big ticket item. Sure, if you’re like Mr. Money Mustache and bike everywhere for transportation, you might not ever need a car. But a car is pretty much necessary for most people who commute to work.

Cars can be expensive. The sticker price of a 2017 AMG SL63 (Surgeon Moe’s weekend car), is close to $150,000! However, a four-year old 2013 AMG SL63 can be had for about $65,000!

 

You might also like: How to burn through a $1 million salary

 

That’s right. After 4 years, this monstrosity is worth less than half its original value! Most cars lose significant value after 4 years regardless of mileage and wear. You can save quite a bit of money by buying a used car, even if you buy a certified preowned vehicle from the dealer.

Conversely if you sell your new car after 4 years, you will have lost quite a bit of money.

Used furniture, can it be a good idea? 

I first purchased used furniture when I was a medical student. Most of it was second hand IKEA furniture. Some of it was actually stylish. Boy, was that furniture cheap. I remember buying a desk for $20 that would have retailed for $150. Were there mites and bedbugs? Not that I could recall. After I graduated, I sold that desk for $20 (I probably could have sold it for more, but you gotta pass along the good karma).

I have since moved on from second-hand furniture, but have wondered whether it is a venue that I should reconsider in the form of estate sales. I once had a coworker who stated that she bought a $10,000 dining set for “only” $1000. Sounds like she got a great deal, if the dining set is worth that much to her. I haven’t actually seen her dining table, but I sometimes wonder if one would derive as much happiness in buying a “new” dining table at a furniture store for $1000. Who knows.

Miscellaneous items in the used market

There are various items that I’ve seen in the used markets that are simply expensive when purchased new. Sporting equipment like golf clubs, hockey gear, ski gear, and scuba gear are some of the items that come to mind. These are items that I actually don’t feel cheap by buying used. Scuba gear is EXPENSIVE. Most of the time this gear is hardly used. More importantly, you might not use it frequently either. I have a coworker who owns her own snowboard, but only hits the slopes once or twice a year. Someone eventually buying her snowboarding gear would get a great deal on equipment that is rarely used.

Who wants to buy a used watch pitcher? J/k, but not really…

Used clothing = bad idea? 

This is a topic that I have mixed feelings about. Justin at Rootofgood purchases used clothing for the family, which is a practical idea for kids who will outgrow their clothing within a few years anyway. Our markets are filled with used clothing. The last time I made a Goodwill drop-off, I was shocked to see department store-sized aisles of used clothing for sale. Some of the used clothing was practically free (<$2), which some of it was overpriced ($19.99 for a Banana Republic top).

I’d imagine that you can get huge savings on used clothing, but is it worth your time to sift through the mix to find something that suits you while saving a few dollars? Would you ever buy used shoes? What about socks? What should one’s threshold even be?

Should an early retiree doctor with $5 million in the bank buy a used shirt for $5 or just spring $15 for a new one?

What is your threshold for buying used items?

The only strategy you’ll need to save money when you’re too busy to price shop

Posted on by SmartMoneyMD

There was recently a poll on Whitecoatinvestor’s forum on number of hours that we work, and I was embarrassed to see that I was actually on the upper end of the spectrum. I will make it a goal in 2017 to figure out a way to cut back hours, although it might also come with a pay cut.

That being said, my limited hours of free time certainly are reflected in my shopping patterns. I’ve got better things to do than to drive around finding the cheapest prices on items and foods that I need. Price shopping also takes mental power and an affinity to knowing what the going prices for items are. Some people have that knack. Some people don’t. Those who are intense price shoppers are the ones that pester their doctors to find the cheapest pharmacy for them as well. I could be one of those people, but I really don’t have the energy at the end of the week.

 

[showads ad=responsive]

 

What do I do? I just shop at Costco and Sam’s Club. That’s right. Wholesale clubs. Some people hate them. The bulk. The crowds. I hate them too, but the stuff is [relatively] cheap with a slight premium twist.

You don’t want to get in the way of these guys wanting to get into the store!

The cost of wholesale clubs.

Membership isn’t free. Many people may not necessarily recuperate the cost of membership either. I’ve seen debates on the validity of purported cost savings at Costco and Sam’s Club.  You buy two pounds of lettuce but a pound and a half rots.  You don’t need 25 lbs of flour but you buy it because it’s “cheap”.  However, if you spend a decent amount on bulk items, you could come out ahead and get a higher quality of product.

A standard membership at Costco is $55 a year. An executive membership is $110 a year, and you get a 2% rebate on all of your purchases. In order to make up the difference between the two tiers, you’d have to spend an extra $2,750 a year at Costco. That is not a small number. However, you also receive a second membership card. This allows other family member to use the same membership. I have an executive membership, and I share my card with a relative who doesn’t live nearby. I doubt that Costco actually cares, since it gives them another means to capture another customer. If you are in the market for a mortgage, you’ll come out ahead from getting better rates over the life of the loan.

The perks of wholesale club membership. 

You don’t necessarily have to buy a ton of stuff to benefit from a wholesale club—you just have to have a general idea how much things cost in general to maximize your savings. For instance, Walmart/Target typically has a 2-pack of Colgate Total (8oz) toothpaste for $5. Costco had a 5-pack for $5! You’re not always going to save this big all of the time, but these little savings add up. Moreover, toothpaste is relatively shelf stable so you won’t have to worry about waste (you have to fill up you McMansion anyway!).

Gas. I violate one of the principle tenets of saving money: living close to your workplace. It just isn’t going to happen for me until I move somewhere else or hang up my hat completely.  I spend a lot on gas. My strategy is simply to save some money when I fill up. Fortunately Costco has great savings at the pump. In general, prices are at least 10c/gal cheaper than anywhere else in my vicinity, so I save approximately $1.40 (oooh, big money) simply by filling up at Costco. With the Costco credit card, you automatically get another 4% back at the pump. If you have the Chase Freedom card, you can save 5% on gas purchases this quarter. I probably fill up once a week, so with the Chase Freedom card at Costco I “save” a little less than $3 on gas when I fill up 14 gallons at $2/gal. Will I get rich on this? No way. But it’s the best that I can do if I have to drive.

Penny pinchers beware.

If you are a price Nazi or a coupon clipper, membership clubs aren’t going to be for you. If you’ve had the luxury to shop midday and midweek, you can find really great deals on food items. I once found a 12oz bag of Gevalia coffee for $1.50 at a local (expensive) grocery store! If you are fortunate enough to have access to an Aldi grocery store (I do not), you can save quite a bit on groceries. That being said, most produce items at wholesale clubs aren’t going to be great deals, although the quality might be higher.

 

You might also like: Stealth wealth revisited: this applies to doctors too!

 

Most busy people are going to consolidate their shopping trips. This might mean going to a wholesale club that’s 20 miles away every three weeks and stocking up on bulk items.  You might even overpay (or pay a competitive price) on some items, but it can save you multiple trips elsewhere. In fact, the more items that your household needs in general the more you will likely benefit from joining a wholesale club.

How much of your monthly budget do you spend at wholesale clubs?

How to burn through a $1 million salary

Posted on by SmartMoneyMD

There is something about tragedies and victories that we all love to witness. The guy who was blessed with the silver spoon but squanders his way into poverty.  Or the waitress who finds her way to become a real estate mogul. Today we’re going to look into the financials of Joe, a surgeon I know who has experienced both the financial successes of being a high-earner and the dangers that come with a huge bankroll. While I don’t have exact numbers in this scenario, the overarching principles still apply.

Ahem. To keep Joe’s anonymity, let’s call him…Moe.

Moe, a vascular surgeon, had a relatively lengthy training path. He wanted to enter academics, and had matched at one of those 7-year general surgery residencies. Afterward, he spent an extra two years in fellowship before striking out in the real world. That’s already a crazy long time to train. Fortunately he saw the light and did not take an academic job.  I recall that his first job was with a hospital that lowballed his worth with a salary around $275,000 a year. That’s pretty insulting for a job that expects you to work a minimum of 70 hours a week and answer the phone during ungodly hours. Vascular surgeons fix dissecting aortic aneurysms, clean out carotids, and place dialysis shunts. These are serious plumbing jobs.

[showads ad=responsive]

Gals (or guys) who work serious jobs need to have a nice place to live. So Moe bought a $750,000 home. He also leased two nice cars, and the wife and kids also had nice clothes. Thus far, an estimate of his big ticket recurring expenses included:

Fine details left out, but you get the point.

Moe had a monthly take-home salary of around $13,000. After the expenses above, he had roughly $3,500 left for everything else including gas, clothing, discretionary spendings…etc. Overall, not a bad salary, but he make quick work of his hard-earned cash. There was not much left over for savings.

After two years of indentured servitude at the hospital, Moe found a private practice job across the country and relocated his family there. Here’s an outside snapshot of some of his big-ticket expenses after 4 years when he made partnership.

This is how to kick your expenses into overdrive!

This is but a crude estimate of how one can blow through a huge bankroll. Note that there was no account for vehicle upkeep, clothing, routine home maintenance (lawn), malpractice, disability, and life insurances, or personal goods and toys for the kids. Given that the kids were in school, babysitting expenses are relatively modest, and mostly for evening hours.  Moe, by virtue of living in a very high cost of living area, is expected to have a take-home income of about $550,000 on a $1 million salary.

How sustainable are $400,000+ expenditures?

In this scenario, I’d expect Moe to still have about $100,000 of disposable income annually. It’s not horrible for most families, but it looks bad with a $1 million pretax income to start with. He is basically spending 80% of his post-tax income. Despite having a millionaire salary, Moe isn’t much of a millionaire with these expenditures. Interestingly, if he is able to maintain his line of work throughout a standard 30-year career, he’ll still make do.

The problem is that life happens. What if he can no longer work those 70+ hours a week? It may not necessarily be disability that prevents him from working.

Epilogue

Last I checked in with Moe, he did curb some of his lavish lifestyle habits. Gone were the ultra-elaborate vacations (replaced with still-luxurious vacations). He actually purchased a Honda Accord for his daily commutes to cut down on maintenance costs and gas for the AMG.  He was still paying off his first house, which is still on the rental market. The kids had even more (read: expensive) activities like tennis, baseball, and hockey.

Moe’s medical practice has been doing even better than before.  He still works about 70 hours a week, but he is now average about $3 million of pretax earnings a year! Talk about hard work and a bit of luck!

The moral of the story? Not everyone will be as fortunate and diligent as Moe. Don’t hedge your life savings on a strong offense. And by the way, some people do get lucky.

Are doctors outside of the United States able to retire early?

Posted on by SmartMoneyMD

The more I travel and see the world, the more I realize that we are incredibly fortunate to live in the United States. Clean water, bountiful produce, cheap land, and awesome plumbing are just some of the perks that we benefit from in this part of the world.

Imagine paying $2 apiece for these guys in Japan! Sweetness not guaranteed!

Most professionals in America have a pretty good life too. Sure, our vacation time pales in comparison to the French, but our earning potential is not bad.  As our online financial community has shown, you can really build up a nice chunk of change relatively quickly in life if you play your cards right.  Even doctors, who spend at least a decade of our lives training, can build up a nice retirement fund and enjoy the option of retiring “early” (looking at you, PoF and WCI!).

However, the common bond between all of these achievements is that essentially all of our online financial blog gurus have worked in the United States (except for Millennial Revolution). Is America that great? Is it possible for doctors elsewhere to replicate this financial wizardry?

 

[showads ad=responsive]

 

Could a doctor in Sweden, enjoy 50+ weeks of maternity leave, work for a decade, and still build up adequate savings to meet the 4% rule to enjoy a comparable lifestyle as a U.S. doctor? Or does “socialist” medicine condemn doctors to a life of mediocre earnings and retirement under a governmental pension system?

Let’s walk through the considerations of this thought experiment:

Incubation time to become a real doctor.

If the goal is to earn and save as much as you can, you’d want to spend your time making money. Unfortunately, the 6-figure income that comes from being a doctor has to be bought with time. While some people try to shave off a few years of training through accelerated BA/MD programs, most doctors I know are at least 30 years old before starting their first real jobs. Some of us who took on medicine as a second career are even older when we finish.

In France, whose medical training is considered to be one of the most rigorous in Europe, doctors train for nine to twelve years. Starting at year 7, doctors start getting a stipend, sort of how residency works in the U.S. The difference is that this training starts right after high school.  This means that doctors in France can be fully trained by age 26 for a generalist position! They can actually start generating an income by age 23!

From talking to my international colleagues, it takes about the same amount of time to become a doctor no matter what country you train in. However, most countries start medical training right after high school. This means that you can start earning and saving at a younger age, perhaps by four years. At $100,000 a year, you could have made an extra $400,000 by skipping “college” through training in another country.

Medical education isn’t free in America either. Most doctors in the U.S. finish up with at least $200,000 in loans. Most medical training programs elsewhere, are much cheaper. Medical school in France is essentially free (thanks to a 45% tax rate for high income earners).

All in, doctors in the U.S. could be at a $600,000 disadvantage compared to doctors elsewhere by the time they finish training. You could buy a nice Lamborghini for that price. ?

Earning potential of doctors.

We have a general idea of how much U.S. doctors earn. Our work isn’t easy, but you can earn pretty good money. I work about 55 hours a week and am pretty exhausted after every day. I’d say that the 55 hours I put in is as tiring as 120 hours of writing software!  I’ve gotten the impression that many doctors in Europe might not work as many hours as those in the U.S., and doctors in Asia put in insane hours.  How do physician salaries in other countries compare?

Doctors in which of these countries have to deal with stupid insurance companies?

We have to realize that statistics are only numbers. The reported specialist salary of $230,000 for the U.S. looks more in line with university and academic positions.  One of my friends from Holland moved to the U.S. explicitly for career opportunities and higher wages.   One of my acquaintances from Australia also told me one of the orthopedic surgeons in his medical plaza makes $1,000,000 a year.

If any of the data is to be trusted, I would still conclude that doctor salaries in the U.S. should be among the highest in the world, but any of the countries we’ve listed on the chart should also be conducive to high incomes for doctors.

How do the financials look being a doctor in the Netherlands?

Suppose that you are Dutch and wanted to become an emergency medicine doctor. Let’s look through the education/career process:

Education/Training

You finish high school at age 16, and enter your medical training. This consists of 6 years of medical school (3 years undergrad and 3 years Msc). I’d estimate that the cost of education would be relatively low for the first three years (perhaps 2 000 euros a year), and then ballooning up to 20 000 euros for the last three years.

At age 24, you enter internship and EM residency (totaling 4 years), and finish at age 28. During residency, you earn approximately 40 000 euros as a stipend. Afterward, you get a great job and earn 150,000 euros annually as an attending.

This doesn’t look too much different than being an emergency room physician in the U.S., only that ER physicians might have the opportunity to earn much more in the U.S. long term.

Would I rather be a doctor in the United States?

 Let’s face it, Americans still have it good despite having to go to college before becoming a doctor. Sure, I’m biased, but America is cheap. Cheap housing. Cheap food. Cheap cost of living. Big homes. Big cars. I haven’t seen the cost of gas go over $3 a gallon in Minneapolis for years, but the average gas price in Amsterdam is around $6.50/gallon! I doubt that you’d find $0.99 Aldi strawberries in Nijmegen either. I’m sure that toilet paper is more expensive anywhere in Europe and the toilets don’t work as well either.

I might be missing something as an uncultured American. However, with such great savings opportunities, couldn’t I just travel elsewhere to enjoy the cultures that I’m missing out on?

Would you consider working your entire medical career outside of the United States?

Welcome Physician on Fire readers!

Posted on by SmartMoneyMD
PoF probably doesn’t use this stuff for anesthesia.

I wanted to thank my current readers and welcome newcomers to the Smart Money MD website from Physician on Fire! We’ve got a great mix of content for physicians and those who want to be more financially-inclined. If you haven’t signed up for our mailing list, please do so on the sidebar. You’ll get a FREE pocket-sized PDF financial handout like those your gunning classmates made in medical school!

Just to give the new readers an overview, I am a practicing eye surgeon who was not always financially conscientious.  I understood the basics of frugality, but I figured that most physicians had enough financial offense to withstand any sort of high spend rate. Not true, but we do fortunately have enough earning power to live very comfortably without having to sacrifice our lifestyles. This is where Smart Money MD comes in. Concise information from my mistakes so you don’t have to make them.

We try to keep the content coming at the usual schedules for dialysis patients (Yes, readers will have to deal with the bad puns). This means either Monday, Wednesday, and Friday posts, or Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday series for the non-medical folks. ?

Here are a couple of must-reads to get you guys started:

Are you turning away millions of dollars as an academic physician?

Stealth Wealth Revisited – This applies to doctors too!

Is a degree from a prestigious medical school advantageous for doctors?

You don’t have to be a doctor to be rich.

How Mustachian can a doctor be?

And here are a few non-medically related but financially frugal articles on DIY work to boot:

The Ultimate Buyer’s Guide to Consumer Car Batteries

How to fund a backdoor Roth IRA

The Basics of Home Mortgage and how not to get scammed.

That’s it for now! Comment in the posts, and interact with your fellow financially-interested peers!

[showads ad=responsive]

(Photo courtesy of Flickr)