Sell, Sell, Sell! Investing for Healthcare Providers

by Ivan Edwards, D.O.
SDN Contributor

“Never buy a plane or horses just out of residency!” said my soft-spoken attending, staring at me intently. “I did, and I learned my lesson well.”

Indeed, he did. He was newly married, had no money in his account . . . and salivated when his first sizzling $13,000 monthly paycheck was deposited. A year later, he had a $1 million home with land and horses, a Jag, and a Cessna. He was living life in the fast lane! Needless to say, the cost of managing his horses ate into his finances, the Cessna broke, and he and his family were left financially devastated. They had minimal savings, high consumer debt, and no money invested in anything.

Sadly, these experiences are common. Read more »

Easy Mac & Ramen Noodles: A Guide to Money Management

by Andrew Doan, MD, PhD
SDN Contributor

Students spend years learning chemistry, organic chemistry, physiology, and the health sciences to achieve their goals of becoming a doctor, nurse, pharmacist, or health care professional. After all of the didactics during college, medical school, or professional school, one of the most important skills students are not taught is money management skills.

Many students have trouble distinguishing between wants and needs, and without basic skills to manage money, students can find themselves deep in debt. With higher income potential, people without adequate knowledge of money management can get into significant financial problems even after obtaining their high-paying job. Read more »

Credit Cards & College: A Recipe for Success

by Barbara Swichtenberg
SDN Staff Writer

Credit cards are a part of most students daily lives but they can be as much a curse as a blessing. Properly managing your credit cards is essential to a healthy financial future.

Building your credit history

It is good to have at least one national card (Visa, MasterCard, Discover) on hand to help you build a positive credit history and to provide security in emergencies. When you decide to apply for a card, compare annual fees, interest rates, and introductory offers. And to keep yourself out of debt, try to do the following:

Read more »

Choosing a Lender for Loan Consolidation

by Barbara Swichtenberg
SDN Staff Writer

There are many lenders competing to meet your federal student loan needs, all with different terms and benefits. Which one is right for you? There are a few things you should know to help you choose.

Choosing a Lender for your Stafford and PLUS Loans

You have filled out your FAFSA and received your award letter — now it’s time to pick a lender. If your school is a Direct school you can only get your loans from Uncle Sam. This takes away the burden of choosing a lender but Direct loans do not offer much in the way of repayment incentives after you graduate. Read more »

Buy or Rent: Choosing a Living Arrangement That Makes Sense

Choosing a Living Arrangement That Makes Fiscal Sense(We’re republishing some of our articles that were released prior to our format change. This article was originally published December 2006.)

There’s a lot to consider besides location when it comes to your living accommodations. For instance, is it better to buy a home (if you can afford it) and rent out rooms to other students, or rent a place yourself (maybe with roommates, maybe without)? Well, both circumstances have their pros and cons, and both are worth considering before you make the leap from your current living situation into the great unknown.

Owning up to Ownership

The benefits of homeownership are many. Not only do you have a place that’s truly yours, but you can also paint the walls, decorate however you like, and even, depending on where you buy, landscape however you please. First-time home buyers can even invest as little as 3 percent (or less) of the home’s sales price to get in the door. Read more »

Borrow Less, Save More

Save More - Borrow Less(We’re republishing some of our articles from early 2007, before we modified our content format. This article was originally published Jan 7.)

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the cost of private medical schools has risen 165 percent and the cost of public medical schools has gone up 312 percent over the last 20 years.

Unless you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, chances are you’re going to have to take out a loan or loans to get through medical school. And you’re not alone–according to the AAMC, the average educational debt of graduates of the class of 2006 (including pre-med borrowing) was $130,500, with 86.6 percent of graduating medical students carry outstanding loans, and 33 percent of students with educational debt reporting principle in excess of $150,000 and a significant minority reporting debt as high as $350,000. Read more »

Medical Specialty Outlook: What does the future hold?

Specialty RoadsignGiven the current and expected physician shortage in the United States, any newly minted doctor will have no problems finding a job. “Doctors coming out of school are no different than a Heisman Trophy winners,” said Kurt Mosley, VP of business development at Merritt, Hawkins & Associates, a nationwide physician recruitment and staffing firm. “They are wooed and wooed. There’s no such thing as an unemployed physician.”

That’s the good news. And even better news is that, depending on what specialty you choose, you can expect a plethora of job offers and highly lucrative deals that include six-digit salaries, bonuses and vacation packages.

So which medical specialties are “hot?” In the past couple of years cardiologists have been most in demand, commanding annual salaries ranging roughly from $230,000 to $520,000. Other high-income specialties include ophthalmology, anesthesiology, dermatology, and plastic surgery. Read more »

Making Loan Repayment Painless

The worst thing about graduating is the reality of paying back student loans. If, as experts recommend, you were able to keep your debt down to about 10 percent of your expected starting salary, congratulations. Either way, you still have to pay it back, no matter how big or small your student loan debt may be.

There’s no question student owe a lot. The average debt (including pre-med borrowing) for the class of 2006 totals approximately 130,500, and 40.2 percent of 2006 graduates have non-educational debt averaging $16,689, this according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

But there are ways to pay debt down, and even pay it quickly. Read more »

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