The following is a reader take by Docblogger.
The notion of a wealthy doctor is ingrained in our society. If you ask one hundred random people who the wealthy people are, most would name doctors and lawyers. Mothers still dream of their child becoming a doctor or at least marrying one.
Doctors, especially the younger ones, would probably disagree. And not because of what their outstanding student loan balance is, or all those years of delayed gratification spent doing residencies and fellowships.
It’s because when we are finally done with all the training and become attending physicians with a better salary, we do not feel any richer than when we were residents or fellows. And most of us ARE not any richer.
There are several reasons for that. Physicians as a group do not have any basic financial education. We spend years acquiring medical knowledge and have no idea about budgeting, investing and saving. Nobody ever taught us how to handle our own personal finances, let alone business matters.
We think investing is too complex and defer our personal financial matters to “professionals”. It is known in the financial industry that doctors make the worst investors.
For a doctor, the idea of not acting in the best interests of the patient is unthinkable. The financial industry is far from such a noble notion. Do we have a slightest idea about the true reasons why our financial advisers recommend a particular mutual fund or annuity? How sure can you be that your interest is the only interest considered by those you entrust with your money?
We live in the age of conspicuous consumerism. The powerful message that society gives us is to spend. Spend conspicuously. Don’t just buy a car, buy an expensive car. You’re a doctor, after all. High income equals wealth or so we are made to think. All those years of delayed gratification mentioned above don’t help either, you WANT to live that conspicuous life everybody tells you to live.
How long can you sustain yourself if your paycheck stops coming, say, next week? How far are you, in financial terms, independent from your current source of income? Your job? How much are you truly paying for your lifestyle in interest on your mortgage, car loan, and credit cards? How “expensive” is your 401(k) in terms of all the fees they charge you for the privilege of having YOUR money under THEIR control? What do we know about the basics of investing for the long-term and the most cost-effective way to do it?
These are the questions we need to have an answer to. They are not as hard to find as it might seem. Remember, the only people truly and genuinely interested in our financial independence are physicians themselves.
Docblogger is a physician who blogs at Doctor’s Wallet.
