Welcome Residents! - Miss Bonnie MD

I hope you enjoyed the money lecture.

First, I’d love for you to subscribe to Miss Bonnie MD – never miss a blog post and get exclusive content right to your inbox! You’ll also get a link to download the talk!

Pillar #1: Live Below Your Means

If you have a spending problem (it’s rarely an income problem … ) then you’ll need to start tracking where the money is going.

My favorite budgeting program is YNAB (vs. Mint).

If you’re looking for frugal life hacks and tips check out my awesome friends at The Frugal Physician and BC Krygowski.

Pillar #2: Save & Invest Wisely

You probably have (boatloads) of student loans. If you’re not pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness, then you’ll want to refinance them once you finish residency.

Student Loan Refinancing Resources
If you’re looking for professional advice on what to do with your student loans, I recommend Travis Hornsby of Student Loan Planner.

Learning about money seems difficult. It is nowhere near as hard as what you’ve had to learn to become a physician.

You can start with reading books, blogs or listening to podcasts.

If you’d like to learn as efficiently as possible, I recommend the White Coat Investor’s “Fire Your Financial Advisor” course. There are periodic sales for this. $499 is a lot of money but consider that most Financial Advisors charges thousands of dollars per year.

Beginner’s Guide to DIY Investing

If you’re thinking, “This sounds like a lot of work” and you’d prefer to hire professional help – no problem!

My current recommended list of fee-only Financial Advisors are here. And whoever you choose, make sure you’re informed:

Pillar #3: Protect Yourself

Insure against financial catastrophes until you’re financially independent.

Life Insurance: Insure Against Death

The vast majority of physicians only need term life insurance. If someone is trying to sell you whole life insurance, run!
Read here to learn the nuts & bolts of term life insurance or if you prefer audio, check out this podcast with Stephanie Pearson!

Disability Insurance: Insure against disability

Your ability to make a physician income is one of your greatest assets! A partial (more common) or total disability can wipe that out.
Read all about disability insurance here or listen to this podcast.
Don’t buy the AAD Disability Insurance (or whichever insurance your specialty society is trying to sell you).

My list of recommended insurance brokers are here.

Insure against Liability

You need malpractice insurance. Always try to get occurrence based vs. claims based. Otherwise you’ll have to purchase tail insurance when you change jobs.
You need auto, home (or renter’s) insurance + umbrella insurance.

Prenuptial Agreement: Insure against divorce

Choose your spouse wisely. Not doing so can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars if not more.

Marriage is a legal contract. Make sure you understand what you’re signing up for.

Everyone should sign a prenuptial agreement prior to marriage. If you don’t, you actually have one anyway! It’s just that it is the state’s one size fits all prenup that penalizes you.

10 Things You Need To Know About Prenups
Listen to Carrie & I discuss all about prenups

Estate Planning

Will your family know what to do if you pass?

Anyone with dependents (spouse, children) needs a Will.
Consider a password management program like LastPass to manage your family’s passwords
Consider creating a legacy binder (here is a great templated one) so that your loved aren’t scrambling to take care of your affairs.

Pillar #4: Give Back

Giving is personal. But if you’re someone who always wanted to give but haven’t, I challenge you to start giving. Start small.

People say, “When I’m rich, I’ll give, they’re lying. If you won’t give a dime out of a dollar, there’s no way you’re gonna give a 100 million out of a billion, you’re lying to yourself. But if you can do it today, the biggest thing that giving does, is it teaches your brain there’s more than enough.

-Tim Robbins