As a physician, it’s important that you make smart financial decisions—for a number of reasons.
As a doctor, you likely earn an above-average income.
Thus, it’ll be crucial to make decisions that’ll lead to a sound, solid financial future—so that you can look forward to increased success over time.
Some people make the mistake of thinking that earning a substantial income will solve any future financial problems.
But if you’ve been a doctor for any amount of time, you’ve probably learned that once a person increases their income, the natural inclination is to also increase spending at the same speed and frequency.
And if you’re not careful, this can lead to some tricky long-term financial challenges.
So in this blog post, we’re going to share some simple, common sense tactics and strategies that you can use to make smart financial decisions as a practicing physician.
1. Create A Budget
As a busy medical professional, you may get overwhelmed with everything you have to do.
Yes, you probably make great money. But you also have student loans to pay, bills to keep up with, and expenses to manage.
So creating a detailed budget, that really empowers you to keep track of every dollar, is essential.
A budget will help you to keep track of exactly how much of your income will need to flow back out of your checking account to pay bills.
It’ll also help you to figure out exactly what percentage of your income can be used as free spending money.
2. Use A Physician Mortgage To Buy A Home
You can get started early on the path to financial freedom by using a special physician mortgage to buy a home, despite what may look to be a ‘less than desirable’ debt-to-income ratio.
This is smart because it’ll empower you to start building equity in a home right away, instead of requiring you to wait for months (or years) to qualify for a traditional mortgage loan.
Getting a physician mortgage can be a challenge. In fact, LeverageRX talks about this on their blog:
“Finding a physician mortgage depends on your location, medical specialty and career status.”
But honestly, this is one of the best ways to get started on good financial footing as a medical professional.
3. Start Saving For Retirement
It’s never too early to start thinking about retirement.
And as a doctor who’s probably earning an above-average salary, you’re in a unique position to start creating an amazing retirement plan for yourself.
Start by meeting with a financial advisor and making a plan to create a sustainable long-term retirement for yourself and your family.
You might be surprised by how effective this can be when you actually crunch the numbers and get intentional about it.
4. Consider Investing
One of the best things that you can do with your money is to invest it in ways that’ll eventually earn you even more.
This could mean investing in stocks, bonds, real-estate, or even business opportunities of your own.
To begin this process, start looking at what types of investment opportunities interest you the most, and start doing some research.
As a medical professional, you’re positioned to really leverage your money to help you get yourself to an advantaged financial position in life… but it may require you to do a bit of intentional planning and to find the right types of investments to match your skills, interests, and experience.
If all else fails, consider taking a few financial courses (or read a few books about investing) just to help you dip your toes into that world and figure out what’s going on.
A little bit of education (when it comes to the investment space) is really worth its weight in gold.
5. Look Ahead To The Long-Term
The truth of the matter is that smart financial decisions aren’t all made overnight.
It takes time to build financial wealth, and it takes intentionality and a great plan to grow your wealth to the point where you can choose to retire without working anymore if that’s the path you desire for yourself.
But all of this requires some serious forward thinking and planning.
So make sure to get started today, and make a financial plan for how you can set yourself up for success 5, 10, or even 20 years down the road.
Conclusion
There you have it.
5 tips for how physicians can make smarter financial decisions to set themselves up for even more success in the long term.
You’ve got this!
Now make a plan, and make it happen.
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