For those of you in the Eastern Time Zone being pummeled by Hurricane Irene as I am, here's a little bit of educational leisure reading from the NY Times about the mistakes physicians make in their financial lives.
I noticed over the course of my residency, that many of my colleagues sank themselves in credit card debt. As the article mentions, ours is a profession of delayed gratification. Once we finally start making even a little bit of money as residents, it's tempting to go out and indulge a bit after a tough day at work. Unfortunately, in addition to massive amounts of student loan debt, many also end up with massive credit card debt and little savings. We basically mortgage our future income. I think this hit is doubly hard on those who have children during residency. From what I've seen, many live paycheck to paycheck, relying on credit cards to make up the difference.
It's not hard to see that this is a bad idea, especially in today's economy and litigious environment.
Some ideas: make a budget, read up on financial issues, put some money away in a Roth IRA during residency. My residency program had a yearly retreat and brought in a financial planner to talk to us about all those practical things that we otherwise don't have time to think about during our training. If your program has a didactic series, lobby for a session on financial planning.
We should approach the financial aspect of our lives in the same way we approach medicine--careful study and planning for the best possible outcome with the least amount of damage.
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