During this pandemic many physicians have seen their income dramatically lowered. What can you do when you are faced with a severe pay cut? We have a guest on this show who is dealing with that right now, having lost 50% of his income. I walk him through what can be done in this situation. Getting on a budget and cutting out any discretionary spending is the place to start. Putting your private loans on forbearance may be necessary. Stop investing. You really need the cash at this point especially if you don't have an emergency fund. The less you spend the longer you can go. Start looking around for other work. Whether you realize it or not, you're in a negotiation right now with your employer. They are trying to decide how little can they pay you and not have you leave but also without them going out of business. Now is the time to be the team player so you are the last guy cut and the first guy hired back. If this is you situation, we get into more details in this episode. so give it a listen and hopefully it will help. We also answer listener questions about investing in real estate during the pandemic, mortgage forbearance, backdoor Roth IRAs, tax loss harvesting, and more. This episode is all about the questions you and your colleagues need answered right now.
Contract Diagnostics is a long-term advertiser with us here at WCI. I love this company as they’ve helped hundreds of WCI get a ‘fair shake’ when it comes to reviewing and understanding their employment contracts – its all they do there. All contracts are reviewed by an in-house attorney and presented in a simplified way back to you. Using simple online signup, custom documentation, compensation data, as well as weekend and evening hours they make it easy for you. All packages are flat priced so you know what you will pay upfront – residents and fellows can even make interest free payments over time. So look them up – contractdiagnostics.com or 888-574-5526.
My risk for an above policy limit malpractice judgment is one in 20,000. A listener asked me how I came up with that number as he is in a different specialty and wanted to figure out what his risk is. In this episode I share where to find the numbers to figure out your risk for being sued above the policy limits. But the truth is the vast majority of above policy limit judgments are reduced on appeal to policy limits. If you are worried about an above policy limit judgment realize that it is possible but the chances are pretty low. If this is something you worry about, listening to this episode will help calm that fear. If this isn't something that worries you, we also cover other listener questions in this episode. I address whether to investor or pay off debt during this bear market, shopping for disability insurance, what to do with a 457 from an old employer, starting a side gig, variable withdrawal rates, HSAs, and my experience owning single stocks. If you have questions you want answered on the podcast you can record them at https://www.speakpipe.com/
This podcast is sponsored by Bob Bhayani at drdisabilityquotes.com. They are an independent provider of disability insurance planning solutions to the medical community in every state and a long-time white coat investor sponsor. They specialize in working with residents and fellows early in their careers to set up sound financial and insurance strategies. He is very responsive to me and to readers having any sort of an issue, so it is no surprise that I get great feedback about him from our readers and listeners. If you need to review your disability insurance coverage to make sure it meets your needs or if you just haven’t gotten around to getting this critical insurance in place, contact Bob at drdisabilityquotes.com
You are going to face many bear markets in your investing career. Having an action plan to survive a bear market is critical. I go over an important list of things to do in a bear market and things to not do in a bear market in this episode. Things like don't sell at the lows, stay the course, following your investing plan, and have a cash reserve on hand. You want to be a long term stock market investor. You don't need this money next month, next year, or even in the next decade. Don't act like you do. All bear markets come to an end and stocks recover eventually. In some respects, this one is a little bit different from other bear markets in that it involves a pandemic. I have a little bit of advice for you specific to this bear market as well in this episode. Your mortality may be a little higher, your income a little lower, and you have more time on your hands. I address what to do for all of those things as well. I think this show will be helpful to you right now. Soon we will be out of this. Maybe it is next month, maybe it is three years from now. I don't know, but this too shall pass.
You’ve built a career on providing quality patient care where it’s needed most, and locum tenens can connect you with opportunities to help the nation’s hospitals through this crisis. Not sure where to start? Locumstory.com is the place where you can get real, unbiased answers. From basic questions like, “What is locum tenens?” to more complex questions about pay ranges, taxes, various specialties, and how locum tenens works for PAs and NPs. Go to locumstory.com and get the answers.
Tax loss harvesting is an important topic, especially right now. If you have been hemorrhaging money in the markets, like most of us have, you may want to do some tax loss harvesting.
This a great way in which you can get Uncle Sam to share the pain of your losses in a taxable or a non-qualified or brokerage accounts. Why is tax loss harvesting useful? You can take up to $3,000 per year in capital losses and offset your ordinary income with that loss. So it lowers your tax bill. Any other losses are placed against your capital gains so you can use them in any limit, not just $3,000 a year, but hundreds of thousands of dollars a year if you want, toward any capital gains taxes you owe. If you don't use all of the losses in one year, you get to carry them forward and you can carry them forward for years and years. Thanks to the recent bear market I now have hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax losses. In this episode I talk about what I can do with those loses. In a lot of ways you are just deferring taxes when you do tax loss harvesting. But there are times when that is really helpful and we get into that in this episode. I also answer a listener question about tax loss harvesting ETFs vs. mutual funds. If you have a taxable account, this will be a useful episode for you to listen to. Even if you don't I answer other listener questions about growth stock mutual funds, Roth conversions, PSLF, backdoor Roth IRAs, investing in bonds vs stocks, charitable contributions, your asset allocation in a bear market, glide paths, and bond tents.
This episode is sponsored by Bob Bhayani at drdisabilityquotes.com. Bob is a truly independent provider of disability insurance planning solutions to the medical community nationwide and a longtime WCI sponsor. He specializes in working with residents and fellows early in their careers to set up sound financial and insurance strategies. He has been extraordinarily responsive to me anytime any reader has any sort of an issue, so it was no surprise to get this feedback about him recently from a reader.
"Bob was generous enough to come speak to us in our residency last week. Bob was knowledgeable, straightforward, and answered all of our questions. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him to anyone and his place on your recommended page is well deserved."
If you need to review your disability insurance coverage to make sure it meets your needs or if you just haven't gotten around to getting this critical insurance in place, contact Bob Bhayani at drdisabilityquotes.com today by email, at info@drdisabilityquotes.com, or by calling (973) 771-9100.
With medical school classes now having slightly more women than men, more physicians are or will be juggling the challenge of being a professional and a mother. Figuring out the work-life balance can be difficult. Fortunately women physicians have some great role models to look to. One of those is Dr. Barbara Hamilton, also known as Tired Superheroine https://tiredsuperheroine.com/
This podcast is sponsored by ERE Healthcare Real Estate Advisors. http://ereadv.com/white-coat-