What to Do (and Not Do) When You Receive a Windfall

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.

On January 15, 2025, the Department of Education (DoED) released some important updates about the SAVE plan and Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans With all the changes happening, it can be a lot to keep track of, so we’ve broken down the key updates for you: 1. Extended Forbearance Period One of the biggest changes is the extended forbearance period. If you’re on the SAVE plan or another affected IDR plan, you’ll stay in an interest-free forbearance until servicers can roll out accurate billing systems, which won't be until September 2025 at the earliest. This means: Your first payments won’t be due until December 2025. You don’t need to make any payments during this time, and interest won’t accrue. However, keep in mind that this period won’t count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) or IDR forgiveness. 2. Recertification Dates Pushed Back For SAVE borrowers, the recertification deadlines have been pushed back too. Your anniversary recertification date will now be no earlier than February 1, 2026, and then there will be rolling deadlines after that. To make sure you don’t miss any recertification deadlines you may want to sign up for auto-recertification so you stay enrolled in your plan without having to worry about missing a deadline.

Want to prioritize your personal finances in 2025? Here are 6 things you can do right now. Personal finance New Year’s resolutions can feel overwhelming, especially when you set big, lofty goals. Here are 6 simple things you can do —some in just 5 minutes — that can help you start the year off with some easy financial wins!

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.

If you are just starting your career as a physician, your ability earn an income is your most valuable asset It is the foundation upon which your financial security and future plans are built. While you may believe that the chances of a catastrophic event occurring are low, the reality is that life is unpredictable. By insuring your income through long-term disability and life insurance policies, you can safeguard yourself and your loved ones against worst-case scenarios.

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.

We get this question from clients all the time It’s not always a direct question – sometimes we just pick up on the issue through comments made during meetings. But the topic comes up enough that we recognize there are some misconceptions about how our tax system actually works (and spoiler alert: you should always take the raise).