Is This the Year to Hire a Financial Advisor? What Physicians Should Consider

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.

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

When it comes to personal finances, physicians are in a pretty unique situation You’ve spent years – sometimes more than a decade – training for your career, often racking up significant student debt along the way. Meanwhile, you’ve been living on a resident’s salary, working long hours, and putting your financial goals on hold.

Real estate investing is often portrayed as the ultimate path to financial freedom for physicians An easy way to escape long hours, create passive income, and build wealth. The reality is far more complicated. While real estate can be a great investment, there is plenty of misinformation and half truths floating around that make it seem easier, safer, and more lucrative than it actually is. Too many doctors jump in without fully understanding what they’re getting into, only to realize it’s not quite what they expected.

How much do you really know about these retirement plans? Questions about these plans come up all the time. Here's what you need to know about maximizing your contributions.

Physician mortgage loans tend to get positioned as a no-lose product that you’d be crazy to pass on All the benefits of traditional mortgages but without the big down payment and at no extra cost. Add in the special provisions designed specifically for doctors and you’ve got the Swiss army knife of mortgage loans. Sound too good to be true? Maybe. Physician loans aren’t always bad. In fact, in many cases the product works well. But they also come with some baggage that you’ve probably not thought about. Here is our list of five of the biggest supposed benefits of the physician mortgage loan that are actually major downsides. 1) Easy Physician Mortgage Loan Approval With Physician home loans, you can qualify for the home you love even before starting residency. They’re designed to make it so easy to buy - maybe too easy. Think about buying a car. Everyone knows that car dealers sell the monthly payment. Why? Because they want the decision to be as easy as possible for you to make. It’s much easier, psychologically, to make a decision to buy a car for $299/mo than it is to make a decision to buy a car for $35,000.

So you’re pre-qualified for the million or even multi-million dollar home, but should you buy it? It can be tempting, and you might be able to afford it, but how do you really know? And how do you determine what the home purchase will do to your long term financial picture.

The world of financial services is far from transparent. Fortunately, it’s slowly improving as financial planning becomes more of a profession. But we still have a long way to go. Today, there are three main types of Advisors: Fee-only Fee-based Commission based

Money is great, but preventing burnout and setting yourself up for long term success is what matters most Congratulations to those physicians who are transitioning from residency into practice! We know it's been a long road. If you are reading this, you are probably already starting to picture what this next chapter is going to look like for you. Here are things to consider when choosing your first job after residency.