Prosperity Principles for Physicians

Prosperity is on everyone’s minds these days. I just spent $60 to fill up my gas tank! Physicians from of all ages seem to be struggling financially. At one time, our high salaries made us somewhat immune to the viscidities of the economy. After all, people will always have babies and unfortunately become sick. However, the rising costs of liability insurance (Dade County Florida Ob/Gyns pay over $200,000 a year), decreased reimbursements, and increase of practice overhead have many physicians swimming against the tide. In fact, physicians’ net income adjusted for inflation decreased by 7%. The picture is gloomy for new medical student graduates as well. The AMA notes:

The average graduating medical student debt has been rising faster than the consumer price index (CPI) for the past 20 years, and tuition at public and private schools has been growing faster than the CPI over these same 20 years. If left uncontrolled, these exorbitant amounts of debt may cause shifts in specialty choice, increase burnout and decrease the numbers of minorities in medicine. The average medical graduate from the class of 2007 owed $138, 517 and 75.5% of graduates have debt of at least $100,000. Of graduating medical students 87.6% carry outstanding loan. If left uncontrolled, these exorbitant amount of debt may cause shifts in specialty choice, increase burnout, and decrease the numbers of minorities in medicine.

The problem with debt is that it promotes unsafe behaviors in practicing physicians and residents. Practicing physicians may overwork and residents may moonlight to pay off debt. Increasing fatigue leads to increased medical error. Furthermore, increased can lead to depression and cynicism.

Additionally, once we finish training, everyone, from your Mother to the real estate salesman, assumes you are flush with cash. All those years of delayed gratification tell us that it’s now time to splurge. So we buy, buy, buy. We finally get the 5,000 square foot brick Georgian in the suburbs, and the new Mercedes, and the Rolex we’ve been wanting. I have to admit, I fell into this trap. It has taken me almost all of my adult years to unlea
poor financial habits and begin to understand prosperity.

Now, I don’t claim to be Suzie Orman by a long shot, but I believe the five most important prosperity principles are the following: understand your beliefs about money and correct them if they are untrue, live below your means, pay off school loans as soon as possible, stay away from credit card debt, and get to enoughness.

1. Money Beliefs

Our beliefs about money come from the family we grew up in. What did your mother or father believe about money? What they believe is probably what you believe. I grew up with an attitude that money was scarce, you had to work hard for it, and that there was never going to be enough. I remember my mother always saying, “We don’t have a money tree in the backyard.” You can imagine the problems I have had with money stem from these beliefs. One positive way to look at money is the acronym MONEYn M- MY n ON- OWNn E- ENERGYn Y- YEILD

Money is simply energy that you circulate. If money is energy, like matter that can be neither created nor destroyed, then there is always enough. This doesn’t mean that you spend indiscriminately, but it does mean that you recognize money as a tool, like the electricity that keeps your lights on. Furthermore, although one should save money, you shouldn’t hoard it. After all, you can’t take it with you. You use money to provide for your needs, and once this is done you also support other’s needs i.e. charity, as well.

2. Live Below Your Means

I admit it. Most of my life I have lived above my means. Well, actually, I didn’t know what my means were. I didn’t do a detailed analysis to see what I could or could not afford. I just spent. However, if you approach your money this way you will often overspend and come up short. When you are first starting out in life, school loans, and expenses related to family consume most of your income. As you get older, college expenses, and retirement become issues. However, if you start planning for these things from day one, keep a budget, and decide what you need versus what you want, you will be way ahead of the game.

3. Pay Off School Loans As Soon As Possible

I learned a huge lesson from one of my coaching clients. She paid off her medical school loans in three years! Yes, she was very frugal but being frugal was a minor sacrifice compared to the immense freedom she feels now. She has decided to pursue a nonclinical career and has absolutely no debt. She is free to do what ever she wants. Now, it may not be possible for you to do as she did and pay off your loans in three years. But, it might be possible to do it in five. Doubling up on payments and eliminating the burden of medical school debt, will make you free both emotionally and physically. You may have to forgo that trip to Egypt initially, but wouldn’t you feel better about going to Egypt when you can do so without worrying about your bills?

4. Stay Clear of Credit Card Debt

Credit card companies start soliciting clients as soon as you graduate from high school! It is so easy for young people and physicians to get caught in the credit card trap. Credit cards should not be used because you don’t have the money. This is the way most people use them. You can use them to establish credit by paying your bill as soon as or before it is due. If you only pay a portion of the balance, you will end up paying more than the item was worth. Credit cards are handy when you are going on a trip or ordering items from the internet. But once again never use them because you don’t have the money. Chances are when the bill becomes due, you still won’t have the money. I have learned that if I can’t pay cash for something (besides a house or car), I don’t need it.

5. Getting to Enoughness

Most of what we buy is not what we need. We try to make ourselves feel better by buying things instead of examining why we feel depressed or sad. In the end, the things we buy never satisfy, and we are off to the mall to buy more. What if when we were feeling sad, disillusioned, angry, or even happy, we examined the emotion and asked where is this coming from? What if we began to understand that another pair of shoes or a bigger house will not cure our malaise? Once our needs of food, shelter, clothing, and transportation are taken care of ask “what is that I want?” What makes me happy? Usually, the things that make us happy don’t cost a lot of money. For example, I am in seventh heaven reading a book while relaxing in bed. No trip to the mall to buy another pair of shoes can transport me to foreign lands or the feeling of while reading discovering a great truth. And although it might be nice to one day drive a Porshe Carrera, I am perfectly happy driving my used, eight year old Mercedes that is completely paid for and runs just fine. Define what enoughness is for you and then live accordingly. You’ll be happier and feel more prosperous. That is not just surviving but truly living.

These principles may seem like common sense, but in times like these we often don’t use our common sense. Practice these principles and if you would like to delve deeper into prosperity as a spiritual matter I recommend the book Prosperity, by Charles Fillmore.