Financial Clarity for Doctors

Academic/Hospital Medicine vs. Private Practice

In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle weigh the pros and cons of different types of employers.  It’s job search time, and while money isn’t everything, it is important to understand the financial benefits of each job to make an informed decision.

Financial Considerations When Deciding on a Job:

• First – Pay! Not just the dollar amount.
  • Is it salary or production-based?
    • If production-based, get some estimates of what new physicians have earned.
  • Are there bonuses and how likely are you to get these bonuses?
  • What are the hours? Call?  You may not be getting paid more if you’re working twice as much!
• You can assign these a dollar value as well!
  • Retirement benefits can be huge!
    • Matching, flat employer contributions, pension benefits.
  • • How much will you pay for medical insurance?
    • How much life and long-term disability insurance do they offer?
    • Will you need to purchase tail insurance if/when you leave?
  • Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and other loan repayment programs.
    • Does your prospective employer qualify for PSLF or other programs?
    • How much could you potentially have forgiven?
      • The larger your loan balance, the more attractive loan forgiveness is.

 

Look beyond the obvious when making employment decisions, and don’t sell yourself short!

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.

What Causes Banks to Fail?

Today on Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle unpack some of the details behind the fall of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).  Is the whole banking industry in trouble, and should we be worried?

Banking is reliant on trust:

• Depositors need to trust that the money they place in the bank will be there when they need it or the whole system collapses.
• If banks give customers reasons to be afraid, then people may withdraw their money.
  • Lots of SVB depositors tried to withdraw money within a short period of time, and the bank could not easily liquidate investments (some of which had lost money) and distribute all those bank account balances at the same time.
  • Federal government stepped in to make the depositors whole again.
• Federal protections in place to help facilitate trust in the banking industry.
  • Look for FDIC insurance coverage at your bank, which protects most balances up to $250,000.
  • In the case of SVB, the government helped make depositors whole above the FDIC limits.

 

Simple steps like double-checking FDIC limits and coverage at your bank, can help ensure that your deposits are safe.

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 

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.

Blog: PSLF One-Time Payment Adjustment

In this week's blog, we remind everyone of the upcoming one-time adjustment for student loans to receive PSLF credits for payments that were previously ineligible to count towards PLSF.  Make sure you have all of your ducks in a row by end of 2023 to be eligible to receive the credits!!! 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.

Home Buying: Pre-Owned v. New v. Custom

Today on Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle discuss different ways of purchasing a home.  With housing inventory still being low in many places, it can be helpful to explore all your options.

Types of Homes to Consider:

• Homes for sale by another owner (pre-owned homes).
  • Can include single family homes, but also condominiums or townhomes.
  • This is the fastest way to get into a home generally, but the home is what it is.
  • Can potentially negotiate on price and other items.
• New construction homes that have already been built or are in the process of being built.
  • This will be a brand new home, and you may even get to pick some of the finishes if the build is not complete.
  • Much less negotiation with a new home.
• Custom homes
  • This can be more expensive, slower, and more challenging to finance, but will be the closest to exactly what you want.

 

You may be limited a bit by your timeframe, but if you have the time, it is well worth it to explore all options available to you.

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 

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.

Blog: 10 Tax Deductions for Doctors

In this week's blog, we through 10 tax deductions for doctors for ways to potentially save money on taxes.  

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.

Where to Put Your Cash Savings

In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle tackle some of the best places to put extra cash savings.  Having “too much cash” is a good problem to have, but we want to be as efficient as possible with anything you don’t need for your day-to-day expenses.

Topics discussed include:

• Good reasons to have cash reserves and not-so-good reasons
  • Emergency reserves and short-term spending needs? Both good reasons to have cash on hand!
• High-interest savings accounts
  • Very liquid and quite a few yielding a decent amount of interest at this time
• Certificates of deposit
  • Potentially a higher yield than a savings account but less liquidity
• I Bonds and other treasury bonds and bills
  • Lots of different amounts of times to be invested
• Structured investments including market-linked C.D.s and issuer-protected or buffered notes
  • More complicated, but can potentially participate in some stock market performance with less risks

 

Ideally, we are not keeping too much money on cash (we may be better off investing some of those dollars), but for the dollars that we do need to keep fairly safe and/or liquid, let’s try to at least earn a little interest!

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 

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.

What’s Better: Roth or Pre-Tax?

In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle discuss the benefits of pre-tax and Roth retirement accounts.  We love savings, but it’s important to understand when and how you pay taxes.  You will have to pay taxes on your retirement savings, it’s just a matter of when.

Pre-Tax Retirement Savings:

• Tax deduction now.
• Can grow without paying taxes along the way.
• Pay ordinary income taxes on withdrawals.
• Can contribute through work retirement plans up to a maximum.
• Generally, not accessible before age 59.5 without penalty taxes.
• Best in your peak income earning years if you are in a high tax bracket.

 

Roth Retirement Savings:

• No tax deduction now.
• Can grow without paying taxes along the way.
• Withdrawals in retirement are tax free.
• Can contribute through Roth IRA (potentially “backdoor” Roth) and many employers offer a Roth deferral option. These plans have a maximum as well.
• The growth in the account is generally not accessible until Age 59.5 without penalty taxes.
• Pay taxes now at a known rate, instead of later at an unknown rate.
• Best when you are in a lower tax bracket than you expect to be in the future or in retirement.

One last note – keep in mind that taxes change over time.  We can make decisions now based on current tax rates, but we don’t know what tax rates will be later in our careers or in retirement.  Ideally, we have retirement savings that is diversified across tax treatments, so that we can adapt to changing tax environments in retirement.

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 

 

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.

Blog: How Much Income Do I Need to Protect?

In this week's blog, we talk about own-occupation disability insurance for physicians and how to estimate how much coverage you should get.  

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.

Spend it All

In this episode, Corey and Rachelle take a little inspiration from Bill Perkins and his book ­Die with Zero.  It’s an interesting concept (but scary to most people).  Ultimately, the idea is to use the resources you have while you can enjoy them.

In this episode, they will chat about:

• Thinking of every dollar you leave behind as hours you worked.
• Strategically planning WHEN to use your money and other resources including time.
  • When you are young and healthy, you are better able to enjoy things.
• Planning to gift money earlier rather than at the end of your life.
  • Kids may benefit more from resources earlier on when they don’t have a lot of their own resources.
  • Charitable organizations can always use support sooner than later as well.
• Ways to protect yourself in the case of a long lifespan.
  • Creating income streams.
  • Using insurances to mitigate some of the larger risks like high-cost end of life care.

It is still important to develop healthy savings and spending habits, but it’s also important to use and enjoy the resources you have.

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 

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.

Blog: 6 Benefits of Being a Locum Tenens Physician

In this week's blog, we walk through benefits of working locums as a doctor.  

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.