Money Talk For ER Docs™

There are several financial "rules of thumb." Take not exceeding 28% of your gross pay on your mortgage payment or maintaining 6 months of spending as cash reserves, as examples. And while these may not be adequate for everyone, they can serve as a general guideline and promote action where otherwise action would not have been taken otherwise. In that sense, these guidelines carry positive influen...

The K-1 is an animal. It's the tax form that reports the earnings, losses, dividends and more in pass-through businesses like S Corporations and partnerships. A large portion of ER Docs receives K-1 income – either issuing their own via S Corp, receiving one as a partner in a small or large group, or even as an investor in a limited partnership venture. In any case, the form itself is highly confu...

It's human nature to want to escape a situation that is worsening. House is on fire? It's probably best to get out. Boat is capsizing? The saying "abandon ship" exists for a reason. Given this reoccurring theme, we as humans are "anti-deterioration", if you will. But when it comes to the stock market, is that the right mentality to have? To answer that, it takes an evidence-based look at things th...

Applying for a residency is stressful. There's the matching process, applications, interviews, and looming questions like "Will I get my first choice?", "Will I get at least somewhere in my top 5?", and inevitably, "Will I get a match at all?" With a looming theory that EM is getting more and more competitive, the landscape for MS4s seems tougher than ever. But is that the reality? We'll dig deepe...

With new legislation comes new opportunities… and sometimes hurdles. That's why it's vital we stay diligent in keeping up with the financial-related topics being tossed around in Congress. Sure, some Laws or Acts never end up seeing the light of day. But today's retirement plan-specific proposals have received almost unanimous bi-partisan support positioning them as highly likely to pass later thi...

It's never fun seeing your investment portfolio go down in value. But with uncertainty, volatility, disruption, and shifts presents opportunity. In a previous episode, we referenced five action items to take during a downturn. In this episode, we'll re-evaluate one of those topics: the Roth IRA – probably the most powerful, yet illusive type of retirement account available to ER Docs. We'll get in...

The most alluring investment is one that is guaranteed with a high rate of return. What if I were to tell you an investment option that checkmarks both of those boxes does exist right now? You'd probably be eager to get more information. On today's episode, we'll talk about I Bonds, give some background into them, and even inform you on how to buy them. But are they all what they're cracked up to...

We work with hundreds of ER Docs across the country all with different ages, personalities, beliefs, socio-economic backgrounds and even career paths within EM. It's really a melting pot of people. But despite these differences, we have identified five financial personality types, we feel, encapsulate the majority of our clients.  Our goal for this wasn't to put people in a box or make anyone feel...

We all experience that feeling when you make a purchase and you end up regretting it. It happens. Could be as small as spending more than you usually would on a dinner and you're left feeling unsatisfied. Or it can be more significant, like in the case of purchasing a car and that car not living up to the experience you were hoping for. In either case, there's a sense of regret and that regret is...

We find the average ER Doc pays about 28% in Federal income tax. That's a good chunk of change. But that percentage doesn't consider various other taxes that likely apply: state income tax (~5%), payroll tax (~5%), sales & local tax (~5%), and property tax (~1%). Combined, those add up to somewhere in the ballpark of 44% of an ER Doc's income going toward taxes… and that's before factoring in thin...

An interesting thing about being a parent is that there is variation from person to person on how children are raised. The topic of money, and the way it's viewed, understood, and managed is no exception. For some, parenting on the topic of money may revolve around financial acuity: making sure their child understands checks and balances and the value of a dollar. For others, it may mean pushing i...

We recently did a podcast episode titled, "Should You Be Concerned About A Recession?" where we got into the history of market downturns and what those tell us about what is going on today. The conclusion? Markets reward those who stay disciplined when it's hardest to do so. Basically, inaction is the best course of action. But say staying put isn't for you – are there actions that you can take wh...

There's a particular expenditure that 70% of those 65 or older today will incur and that number is anticipated to only go up in the future. Saying that alone could mean a lot of things: potatoes, a new phone, maybe a walking cane. But the expense I'm referencing is the main culprit for why the elderly, aged 75+, make up the fastest-growing group filing for bankruptcy. To top it off, it's only gett...

Investors have grown accustomed to fairly consistent positive returns over the past decade. Have there been periods of loss? Sure. But overall, the positive trend has been staggering. And it's that recency bias that can make it tough to cope with downturns in the market. Maybe you're hearing the "should I be selling stocks?" internal dialogue a little louder than you remember hearing it in the pas...

Every professional service is different in terms of the customer and service provider interaction. It tends to be true that the more personal the product or service is, meaning the more tailored it is to the customer, by default, the more involved the customer has to be in the process. Take buying the newest PlayStation as an example. The product is what it is and the same one is universally bough...

Envision is the 500-lb gorilla in emergency medicine. What happens to them sends ripples through the EM landscape whether you work for them or not. A question we've received of late is: What happens to tax-deferred money under an EDP, or more commonly referred to today as a DCP or defined contribution plan, if a company, like Envision, goes under? Do the same protections that exist for an IRA or 4...

The fastest-growing renter segment of our population goes to high income earners. That seems counter-intuitive; high income earners are able to overcome the barrier to entry associated with home ownership – e.g.: down payment, loan qualification, and credit – better than low income earners. So if it isn't a choice, what are the factors at play that are leading to this upward trend? And if it is a...

The perfect storm of events led to a significant rise in what we call "meme investing." That's where you throw caution to the wind and take a stab at hitting it big through risky or speculative investments. It started with the pandemic – people bored at home; no sports on TV; Vegas shutdown. Then the headlines of GME and AMC stock "get rich quick" stories led to FOMO. All while, waiting there only...

ER Docs have a unique characteristic of being "hybrid earners," meaning accepting income both as an employee earning a W-2 and as a contractor earning 1099 in the same year. And we find a large percentage do exercise this ability; if not in most years, eventually at some point in their careers. So that begs the question: is there a perfect mixture of 1099 vs. W-2 that yields specific advantages, l...

It's apparent that the happiest people in life have learned how to achieve balance. But achieving balance is one of, if not the most, challenging thing in life because it's embedded in every decision we make: our relationship with work; our relationship with food; spending time with family; and the list goes on. ER Docs have to be masters of balance when it comes to work because if they aren't, th...

Feeling a never-ending sense of unrest with today's current events? There was COVID that shook our world for a couple of years. We caught some semblance of normalcy with the Winter Olympics. But today, we have the Federal Reserve planning to hike rates in an effort to combat the prevailing high inflation we see all around us… and a war, with an uncertain outcome. While it can feel raw and emotiona...

"The road to success comes through hard work, determination, and sacrifice." This is a quote from Dolzinski and it paints a picture that we must give up things in order to achieve a better, larger thing eventually. Delayed gratification, if you will. In many cases, that's true, especially when it comes to financial planning. Saving a little bit extra now instead of spending it means longer compoun...

The Godmother of the Emergency Physician recruiting world – Barb Katz – joins Scott on this special edition of the Money Talk For ER Docs podcast. Barb shares her unique perspective on the job market Pre-COVID and her anticipation for what is to come. She gets into hourly rates and sign-on bonuses, where opportunities seem to be popping up, the pay discrepancies from location to location, and what...

Transition from W-2 to 1099 is a bigger deal than you might first think. So we've set out to create the most ER-specific "how-to" guide we can come up with to help those navigating this change. This is Part 2. We encourage you to re-listen, or listen for the first time, any prior episodes mentioned as they can assist in giving more details in areas we simply can't fit in this mini-series. And as a...

Transitioning from W-2 to 1099 is a bigger deal than you might first think. So we've set out to create the most ER-specific "how-to" guide we can come up with to help those navigating this change. This is Part 1.  We encourage you to re-listen, or listen for the first time, to any prior episodes mentioned, as they can assist in giving more details in areas we simply can't fit in this mini-series....