Financial Clarity for Doctors

Student Loan Forgiveness Update

In today’s episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle discuss the Biden administration’s recently announced student loan plan.  The biggest question on everyone’s minds is do I qualify for any loan forgiveness?  Chances are you may not qualify as an attending, but as a trainee, it’s very likely you do.

Some highlights of the new plan:

• Extended forbearance through 12/31/2022
  • They say this is the last time! Get ready to make those payments.
• $10,000 of loan forgiveness for single filers making less than $125,000 or households earning less than $250,000
• You can potentially receive double the award if you received a Pell Grant for some of your college costs
• Changes to payment calculations for some borrowers/loans
• To keep up-to-date on federal student loan announcements, you can subscribe to updates from the Department of Education

Also, for listeners working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, keep in mind that the temporary limited waiver for PSLF is ending October 31^st.  This was an opportunity to potentially have more loans forgiven or more payments counted.  If you have not looked into this yet, read more here:  PSLF Limited Waiver

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 

First Black Doctor at Her Hospital

Being the First Black Doctor at a Hospital

In today’s episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle are joined by their colleague, Antwon Weary and Sonya Williams, MD.  Sonya and Antwon both share their experiences of being a couple of the few black individuals in their work lives.  Antwon joined Finity Group as the first (and only) black advisor at the firm.  Sonya was the first black doctor ever at her hospital in rural Indiana.  Women and people of color are underrepresented in the financial services industry and in hospitals in rural America as well (surprise!).

Some of the topics they tackle include:

• Dealing with imposter syndrome
• How race and/or gender can affect you financially
• The value of mentors and colleagues
• How to recharge your batteries and stay connected to your roots

Often in business, we try to separate social and financial issues, but they are inherently connected.  It will take a multi-faceted approach to remedy the economic impacts of systemic racism and sexism, but one aspect of that is talking about it.  We want to hear your stories!  Reach out to us anytime.

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 

Finance Tips for Residents

Get your pen and paper ready!  In today’s episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle run through various tips for those of you getting by on a trainee’s salary (or maybe even student loans).  You may not be able to make huge strides toward your financial goals before you get that big bump in salary, but you can absolutely put yourself in a good position to hit the ground running when you do.

In this episode, you’ll find tips on:

• Managing your month-to-month budget
• Figuring out what to do with student loans
• When to look into disability and life insurance
• Renting vs buying on a resident salary
• How much to save and where

Bottom line, live within your means!  And then manage your debt and save as well as you can.

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 

The R Word

In the previous episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle talked about stock performance year-to-date.  Today they unpack one potential part of that decline – the fear of a “recession”.  The dreaded “R” word.  In reality, the stock market and the economy are connected but not the same.  A recession is a measure of the growth (or lack thereof) in the economy, while the stock market is related to how much we as investors think a share of a company may be worth.

As pundits, corporate leaders, and individual investors start to fear a recession, the stock market can go down in anticipation of a potential decrease in business revenue.  But what is a recession really?  And what might that look like today?

In this episode Corey and Rachelle discuss:

• How a recession is defined and measured
• How individuals can be affected by a recession
• Which things are worth worrying about and which are not
• How to offset some risks associated with a recession for yourself and your family

In the end, we care about how the economy is faring, but the impact on individuals is sometimes very small.  Medical professionals are often more insulated from some of the bigger risks of a recession including job losses.  Try to keep things in perspective and focus on the things you can control.

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 

 

Investment Return Expectations

Stock market got you down?  In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle chat about how expectations of stock market performance stack up against the reality we deal with from year to year.  How we deal with our expectations can have an impact on how we react to volatility, and therefore how our investments perform long term.

In this episode we’ll chat about:

• The average return is not the expected return each year
• How widely can returns actually range?
• How to anchor your expectations in the reality of a volatile market
• Diversifying across various types of companies

When it comes down to it, a lot of financial planning (including investing) is behavioral.  Generally, we have a stronger emotional reaction to negative outcomes than we do to positive outcomes.  The bad seems twice as bad as the good seems good.  For long-term investors, consistency is important, so we have to be very careful to keep all of this in perspective.

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 

Rising Housing Costs

In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle address one of the questions clients frequently ask them.  How much can we afford to spend on housing?  Whether you are renting or buying, housing costs have increased dramatically and that’s a big part of the overall inflation numbers.  If you locked in a mortgage at a low rate a couple of years ago, you may be sitting pretty, but for those that are renting or looking for a new place – everything is expensive!  Rents increased 10-15% in 2021 and housing prices increased by about 15% from May of 2021 to May of 2022.  When you pile rising mortgage interest rates on top of that, monthly payments have increased substantially.

In this episode we’ll chat about:

• Guidelines for how much of your income should be spent on housing
• Exceptions to the rule
• Separating wants vs needs
• The impact of housing costs on other parts of your financial plan
• How rising interest rates on new (and variable rate) mortgages translate to higher payments

And the best piece of advice we can give – buy the least amount of house to make you happy.  Housing will likely be your biggest expense, so if you can limit that, you will have much more money to put toward other goals.

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 

Tax Treatment of Investments

Thanks for listening to Financial Clarity for Doctors everyone!  Everyone loves to talk about the important of diversifying their investments, but in this episode Rachelle and Corey dive into a different way to think about diversification.  Yes, it’s important to make sure we’re not putting all our eggs in one basket (let’s not go all in on one company folks!), but let’s take a minute to think about the different kinds of baskets we can use. 

Taxes are confusing!  In this episode we’ll chat about: 

• Tax advantages associated with various types of retirement accounts. 
• Roth vs pre-tax savings options. 

• Capital gains taxes. 
• How and when you will be taxed on your investments.  With almost every investment account, you must pay taxes at some point. 
• Retirement distribution strategies. 
• The magical unicorn that is a Health Savings Account. 

Bottom line, it is very, VERY, important to understand the tax implications of different investment strategies.  But also to understand that tax law is constantly evolving.  If you can diversify your savings with accounts that are taxed in different ways, you have some flexibility to adapt to changing tax law when you are taking distributions.  This can dramatically affect how much tax you pay and how much income you have 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  

Malpractice Insurance w. Jennifer Wiggins

Thanks for listening to Financial Clarity for Doctors everyone!  In today’s episode your favorite podcast hosts Rachelle Vanderzanden and Corey Janoff speak with Jennifer Wiggins of Aegis Malpractice solutions about all things malpractice insurance.  Don’t miss this one if you work with or own a private practice, you’re looking at new contracts, doing some moonlighting, or thinking about what it might look like to open your own practice someday.  Ideally, every doctor knows the basics of this very important topic.

The many mysteries we go over with Jennifer include:

• The difference between claims made and occurrence-based malpractice policies
• What the heck is tail coverage?
• What do doctors get sued for?
• Shopping how-tos
• Ways to minimize your risks (hint: bedside manner isn’t just about getting people to like you)

As with any insurance, malpractice is another example of paying for protection that you hope you will never need to use.  No one wants to get disabled, but we need disability insurance just in case.  Obviously, we hope a lawsuit never comes up, but one in three doctors are sued out some point in their careers.  That is A LOT.  And if you are in a surgical specialty, you will almost certainly face a lawsuit at some point in your career.

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 

Make More Money

Welcome back and thank you for listening to another episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors!  In this episode, Corey and Rachelle chat about one way you can improve your financial situation.  In general, you can either decrease your spending (difficult) or increase your income (maybe less difficult).  Let’s focus on increasing that income!

Ways to make more money include:

• Negotiating – When you take on that first attending job, but also throughout your career
• Working extra shifts and boosting RVUs
• Side hustles like MedLegal work, reviewing insurance claims, writing/speaking, and locums
• Making the change to a higher paying job

As always, Rachelle and Corey bring it back to money values in the end.  You should always be asking yourself if you are aligning the way you spend and make money with the things that really matter to you.  If you are earning more, put that extra toward your big goals.  And making more money to achieve your financial goals can absolutely make sense, but for some folks, the priority may be more time and flexibility which may mean reducing that spending.

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 

Doctor Mortgage Loans w/ Casey McLaughlin

Doctor Mortgages w/Casey McLaughlin

Welcome back and thank you for listening to another episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors!  In this episode, we chat with Casey McLaughlin of US Bank about all things related to Physician Home Loans aka “Doctor Mortgages”.

Including:

• Are they really any better than conventional loans?
• Do I pay a higher interest rate? Really important right now!
• How to shop for the best mortgage.
• Can you use doctor loans to buy a rental property or vacation home?
• And how to prepare yourself (and your credit!) for buying that first home.

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