Should You DIY Your Finances or Hire Help? How to Decide

The beginning of the year is often a time when people reflect on many areas of their lives, including their finances. Physicians are no different. What is different is that physicians tend to have financial needs that look different from those of their peers who pursued different career paths. With long training periods, delayed earnings, big student loan balances, and complex career paths, financial decisions are anything but straightforward. If you are a physician debating whether 2026 is the year you decide to work with a financial advisor or financial planner (these terms are often used interchangeably), we’ll highlight a few things to keep in mind as you start having introductory conversations and meeting with potential advisors. We've also designed a Financial Advisor Interview Checklist to help give you concrete questions you can ask and guidance on what to listen for, so that you can find someone who fits what you need now and what you'll need in the future.

We've compiled a list of our team's top personal finance reads and listens Some are personal finance classics, while others challenge conventional ways of thinking about personal finance. We also have a couple of recommendations for the young readers in your life. This post was originally published in December 2024 and has been updated for the new year to include additional recommendations from new team members, along with recently released books from several of the authors featured below.

It's That Time of Year Again: Open Enrollment Season. For Many Physicians, It Can Feel More Stressful than it Should. Medical school taught you how to treat complex conditions, but it didn't prepare you to compare insurance plans, weigh deductibles, or understand the alphabet soup of benefits. We see this all the time with our clients, and you are not alone if you feel overwhelmed. Here are some key things to keep in mind as you prepare for open enrollment, along with a few common pitfalls we see physicians run into.

Trick or treat? When it comes to financial advice, it isn’t always easy to tell. What sounds like genuine guidance may actually be a sales pitch in disguise. With higher incomes and less time to carefully vet every recommendation, physicians are especially vulnerable to sales tactics, which makes it essential to recognize the difference between true advice and a sales pitch.

We start the year with the best intentions. Set goals. Make plans. Maybe even write them down. But by the middle of the year, life tends to take over.

Maxing out your workplace retirement plan might give you a false sense of being on track.

Why a smart investing strategy isn’t just about what’s done well lately If you're like many physicians managing your own investments, you’ve probably heard that diversification is important—but what does that actually mean? And how can you tell if you're truly diversified? Let’s walk through what it means to diversify like a pro—and how data, not emotions, should drive your investment decisions.

It’s no secret that burnout is a major issue in medicine

You make a good salary—but how much are you actually keeping? Let’s talk net worth. For most physicians, the first big financial milestone after training is a major jump in income. After years of scraping by as a resident, suddenly you’re looking at six-figure paychecks. But even with that jump, many new attendings find themselves asking the same question: Why doesn’t it feel like I’m getting ahead?