Financial Clarity for Doctors

https://feed.podbean.com/finitygroup/feed.xml

Corey Janoff and Rachelle Vanderzanden of Finity Group discuss pertinent financial planning topics affecting doctors and other medical professionals.

Episodes

Monday Nov 13, 2023

Which Health Insurance is Right for You

Monday Nov 13, 2023

For many folks, it’s open enrollment season! In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Rachelle and Corey discuss the ins and outs of health insurance and how to decide which one is the best fit for you.

Health insurance:

Most importantly, make sure you have health insurance!
Some plans have a higher deductible and a lower premium. Other plans have a lower deductible and higher premium.
When it comes down to it, you want to estimate how much you may pay out of pocket for medical expenses over the year and compare that to the cost difference for your insurance premiums over the full year.
- Pick the one that might save you money! We say “might”, because there is some element of unpredictability with your health!
When calculating estimated costs, consider:
- Deductible – How much do you pay out of pocket before some expenses are covered?
- Co-payment – Do you just have a co-payment for office visits and prescriptions or do you have to pay for all of it before you hit your deductible?
- Co-insurance – What percentage of costs are you responsible for paying?
- Out of pocket maximum – Very important to know the MOST you can be on the hook for in a serious medical event.
Other things to consider – Can you put money into a Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Spending Account (FSA) to pay for costs pre-tax? Keep in mind that the FSA is a “use it or lose it” account.

These decisions can save you a few hundred or maybe even a few thousand dollars over the course of a year, but if you have coverage, you are in good shape! Don’t stress about it too much.

For more financial planning tips from Corey and Rachelle, find them on social media!
LinkedIn: @CoreyJanoff and @RachelleVanderzanden; Instagram: @CoreyJanoff and @VanderzandenRachelle; and Twitter: @CoreyJanoffCFP and @RachelleFinance

Discussions in this show should not be construed as specific recommendations or investment advice. Always consult with your investment professional before making important investment decisions. Securities offered through Registered Representatives of Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., a broker-dealer, member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Adviser. Finity Group, LLC and Cambridge are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax or legal advice.

Monday Oct 30, 2023

How Does Stock Have Value?

Monday Oct 30, 2023

In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Rachelle and Corey talk about the hypothetical value of shares of stock. Sometimes financial markets can feel very opaque and mysterious, and that’s for good reason! This is confusing sometimes! But when you buy a share of stock, you are buying something that is backed by tangible goods and services. It’s real, but still very hard to determine its worth.

The value of stock is:

Driven by the goods and services provided by the company behind it.
At any given time, the value is the price that a buyer and a seller can agree is fair.
There are two main ways that a shareholder can earn money from owning stock, which influences how much they may pay for that share:
- Dividends are profits that are distributed by shareholders.
- Stock price appreciation is when the value of the stock itself goes up. You realize gains, when you sell your shares when the price is higher than what you paid. You can also lose money!
Human nature makes things more complicated!
- People get excited about new companies doing new things.
- Personal values can influence whether you think a company’s stock is worth buying or not.
When deciding a fair price for buying and selling stock, larger buyers and sellers have an advantage. Retail investors generally don’t.

It can be very exciting to buy and sell individual shares of stock, but that is partially because it is much riskier than buying shares of an index fund. You can do a lot of math to determine if you’re buying at a fair price, but you have no control over what other people will think is a fair price in the future. More diversified investments are less exciting, but also less risky.

Monday Oct 16, 2023

Gradual Improvements Go Unnoticed

Monday Oct 16, 2023

Do you feel like you are spinning your wheels with your financial plan? In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle talk about how it can be challenging to see improvement in your finances because those improvements can be slow. When trying to view progress, look over a longer period. And remember, that progress can be very challenging when you are still in training.

Change is often gradual:

Your physical health doesn’t improve overnight. Medical advances don’t happen overnight. We shouldn’t expect to become millionaires overnight either.
To see progress:
- Calculate your net worth over time and compare today to two, five, or even ten years in the past. This will look better once you reach that attending phase of your career.
Things that improve your net worth include:
- Building your emergency reserves
- Paying off debt
- Retirement savings/investing

Remember to focus on what you control. Investment returns can have a huge impact on your overall progress year-to-year, but what you are saving (and spending) matters a lot as well.

Monday Oct 02, 2023

Retirement Distribution Strategies

Monday Oct 02, 2023

In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Rachelle and Corey tackle some strategies for using all your hard-earned money in retirement. This is what a lot of us are working toward, and using your money efficiently in retirement means there may be more of it to use and to leave behind.

In this episode learn about:

Where to put money that you need immediately, in the medium-term, and in the long-term.
- Even when you retire, some of your money is still for use decades in the future!
Spending patterns in retirement.
How each of your investment accounts will be taxed in retirement (and when inherited).
- And how to withdraw in ways that are as tax efficient as possible.
Other sources of income in retirement, including social security and home equity.
Potential large end-of-life costs.

Saving as much as possible is the best way to make sure you don’t run out of money later in life, but we can also stretch those dollars as much as possible.

Monday Sep 18, 2023

Traveling Without Breaking the Bank

Monday Sep 18, 2023

Lots of people value experiences like travel in their lives. With clients, this often makes the top three for short-term goals. In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Rachelle and Corey walk through some ways to travel without breaking the bank - so you can do the thing you love right now, but also put some resources aside for your future self.

Travel tips discussed include:

Timing when you go and when you pay!
Bringing the kids only when it makes sense.
Being selective about where you travel.
- Balancing big trips and little trips.
- Is Santorini worth almost twice as much as Crete?
What to do when you get to your location.
Using points and rewards.

Financial planning is all about priorities. If traveling is a priority for you, then do it! But you might as well do it in a smart way.

Monday Sep 04, 2023

Building a Custom Home

Monday Sep 04, 2023

In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle walk through the time consuming (and somewhat rewarding!) process of building a custom home. Corey speaks from personal experience and walks through the entire process.

Tune in to learn about:

All the pros and cons (marital discord and all).
The process – from buying the land to deciding which way you want your windows to open.
The costs – Surprise! Sometimes it may be less expensive to build your dream rather than buy an existing home and try to make it work.
Financing options.
And the time commitment! It takes a long time and can be like another full-time job!

Wednesday Aug 30, 2023

Blog: College Savings: 529 Plans & Recent Changes

Wednesday Aug 30, 2023

In this week's blog, we dive into college savings strategies, as well as some recent changes to the rules around 529 college savings plans.

Our weekly blog posts that can be found at www.theFinityGroup.com/blog, where you can also sign up for our newsletter to have our weekly blog post delivered directly to your inbox.

Monday Aug 21, 2023

Taboo Money Topics

Monday Aug 21, 2023

Why is it that people get so nervous and uncomfortable when discussing money? Many of us were taught as children that it is rude to discuss money, but knowledge is power! In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle discuss a few taboo money topics and why money needs to be a part of our everyday discourse.

In this episode we walk through the following off-limits topics (and a few more!):

Salary – Sometimes this is even specifically prohibited in the workplace, but how else do you know whether you are being paid fairly?
Debt – Discussing this can help you feel less shame (they have loans too!) and can help you come up with some solutions to deal with it.
Gift giving – We have made this a habit and expectation in our culture but refuse to talk about the money and resources that go into it.
Big purchases (house/luxury items) – Sometimes these purchases take a lot out of us, but we pretend it’s all easy and under control. Discussing the reality can help others understand the sacrifices we sometimes make to attain these things.

Social norms change all the time, and this one is worth changing. We need to learn to discuss both the positive and negatives of money and help younger generations understand and learn from our own experiences. We can’t do that without talking about it.

Monday Aug 07, 2023

Our Other Favorite Personal Finance Resources

Monday Aug 07, 2023

If you are looking for more resources to dive into financial planning, this episode is for you! Corey and Rachelle list out a few of their favorite books, blogs, and podcasts. There is a little something for everyone here!

Books:

Some of our favorites include:
- Financial Planning Basic for Doctors by Marshall Weintraub, et al.
  - Advisors at our firm wrote this one!
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
- Behavior Gap and The One Page Financial Plan by Carl Richards
- The Opposite of Spoiled by Ron Lieber

Blogs:

Everyone’s favorite, The White Coat Investor! A little biased against advisors and a little heavy on the advertisements, but still a wealth of information.
Another classic, The Physician on FIRE. For those that want to achieve financial independence as quickly as possible.
If you like numbers and analysis, Of Dollars and Data with Nick Maggiulli is great.
If you like a little of everything, Abnormal Returns aggregates daily finance articles and blogs from around the web.

Podcasts:

Do you really want or need anything other than our pearls of wisdom? Maybe! Different perspectives can be very helpful and cover different topics.
Bonnie Koo at Wealthy Mom MD talks about her own journey through medical training and debt.
Corey’s favorite, Morgan Housel, has a podcast!

Listen to the episode to hear more about these resources and our thoughts on them. With any media, especially resources found online, use your critical thinking skills and verify information before committing it to long-term memory. In the end, a lot of this is behavior-based, and you have to find the resources that work well for you.

Monday Jul 24, 2023

More Federal Student Loan Updates

Monday Jul 24, 2023

They’re coming! Take one final breath of fresh air before your federal student loan payments resume. Finally. In today’s episode, Corey and Rachelle chat about what to expect when payments resume and some of the additional changes to income-based repayment plans.

The final stretch:

If all goes as planned, interest on student loans is resuming in September and payments are resuming in October.
If you haven’t already, log into your student loan servicer’s website to verify your next payment due date and amount.

REPAYE to become SAVE:

If you are currently enrolled in Revised Paye as You Earn (REPAYE) you will now be enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan.
The payment amount will still be 10% of your discretionary income, but discretionary income is determined using 225% of the federal poverty level instead of 150% as it was in the past.
If your income-driven payment does not cover the interest, 100% of that accumulating interest is eliminated.
You will be able to file separately from your spouse and only use your own income with SAVE. With REPAYE, you had to use both incomes.

Other changes this summer:

IRS integration for income verification and family size which will mean automatic income recertification if you enroll.
Redesigned and simplified application through Studentaid.gov.

To hear more about the details of these changes and others, listen to the full episode. To read more about the SAVE plan, read the Federal Student Aid announcement on the program here.