The FinancialMD Show

FinancialMD

Welcome to the Financial MD Show. This is the only podcast designed specifically for residents and young physicians to help you become educated on financial planning for physicians and avoid many of the common financial mistakes doctors make.

  1. 10/25/2025

    Ep 033 - Special Edition - On Mission in the Dominican Republic

    Summary: A Mission Trip [0:00:17] What Are Audition Rotations [0:01:11] Why Pick Orthopedics [0:02:21] Lindsay’s Journey With Mission of Hope [0:04:53] A Typical Day On The Mission Field [0:05:52] Holistic Mission: Practical Help And Spiritual Hope [0:07:58] Lessons From The Journey [0:09:02] Words For Those Who Want To Serve [0:10:25] Parting Thoughts [0:12:39]     Welcome to the Financial MD Show. This is the only podcast designed specifically for residents and young physicians to help you become educated on financial planning for physicians and avoid many of the common financial mistakes doctors make. Your hosts, Jon and Trevor, explore a different topic with each episode. Jon Solitro is a financial planner and certified financial education instructor. He’s been working with young physicians for the better part of the decade and lectures to graduate medical programs around the country. Dr. Trevor Smith is a board-certified ophthalmologist with a full-time practice and he has learned the ins and outs firsthand what it takes to make smart financial decisions as a young physician. And now here’s your hosts, Jon and Trevor.     Jon Solitro:  All right, welcome to the Financial MD Show. We've got a special edition today. We are on location in the Dominican Republic. Essentially, we're in a rainforest. Can we get any --there's palm trees over there, right? So we can kind of see that, along with other more rainforest-y trees.   A Mission Trip [0:00:17]   This is a mission trip. We spent the week talking to people in town -- Dominicans -- learning Spanish, doing this with our church, and it's been an incredible experience. But while I was here, I saw that there was also a medical missions trip going on. You guys all know how passionate we are about giving back, so we got the opportunity to talk to one of them. We've got a fourth-year medical student here. Lindsay, would you introduce yourself?   Lindsay:  Yeah. Hi, I'm Lindsay. I am a fourth-year medical student. I'll be applying for orthopedic surgery this fall for residency starting next July. I go to William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, but I was born and raised in Indianapolis.     Jon:  Awesome, okay. The first question everybody wants to know is how’s the process going. So your match will happen this coming March, yeah?   Lindsay:  Yes, absolutely.   Jon:  Okay. And what does the process look like for your particular specialty? You said there are some tryouts you have to do?   What Are Audition Rotations [0:01:11]   Lindsay:  Yeah, absolutely. Tryouts is a great word for it. We call them audition rotations. So starting August 4th, about every 2 to 3 weeks, I'll go to a different hospital that has an orthopedic surgery residency program at it and spend some time with their faculty, rotating through their program, gives us a chance to get to know the program and programs a chance to get to know us.   Jon:  Yeah.   Lindsay:  Then we'll apply to our programs in September and then find out October/November-ish if we get an interview at the programs we applied to. Then interview October, November, December; and then around February, submit our rank list, so the programs that we want to hopefully go to or hopefully got an interview at. And then in March, find out if we matched in general at all to our specialty of choice, and then at the end of match week, find out what program we matched to.   Jon:  Oh, yes, match day.   Lindsay:  Yeah.   Jon:  Have you gotten a glimpse of how your med school does match days? Is there a big event?   Lindsay:  Yeah, they do a huge event. They have balloons and cakes and all kinds of things, which is always kind of funny because it's so stressful for us as students, but then our families are there and the faculty is there to be supportive and hopefully celebrate so.   Jon:  That's right.   Lindsay:  Yeah.   Jon:  Okay, cool. So why ortho?   Why Pick Orthopedics [0:02:21]   Lindsay:  Yeah, absolutely, great question. I grew up in Indianapolis. I worked kind of for an orthopedic research foundation starting when I was 14, actually, so my first couple of years of high school when the firm that I was or the hospital I was working with was transitioning from paper charts to EMR. So my first job with this research foundation was scanning paper plain film -- well, not paper -- but plain film x-rays into the EMR.   Jon:  Okay, yeah.   Lindsay:  And got to continue to work with that foundation actually for the next few years on and off, and fell in love with ortho and the difference it can make in people's lives. I kind of have a fix-it mentality. I think you kind of have to have a fix-it mentality to do ortho. You’ve got to like your power tools, and more than that, you’ve got to be the one to see a need that a person has and want to fix it the right way, the right time, the first time. And ortho is one of those unique opportunities we get in medicine to really make a huge difference in patients' lives in a really short amount of time.   Jon:  Yup.   Lindsay:  Love getting to serve patients hopefully in the future in that way and I think it'll be great.   Jon:  That's cool. Well, I'm excited for you. We've lectured to a lot of ortho residency programs.   Lindsay:  Okay, that’s awesome.   Jon:  We've got attending clients that are orthos and there's… One of the exciting things about it, too, is it's one of those specialties that you can obviously subspecialize.   Lindsay:  Yes.   Jon:  Have you thought about that at all or is that you'll figure that out in the next five or six years?   Lindsay:  I have. So the main goal is to match first but I did most of my research in total joint so love total joint but grew up a huge Colts fan in Indianapolis… huge Pacers fan in Indianapolis, so.   Jon:  Yeah.   Lindsay:  Also love the sports thing, but more recently, I got to work with a foot and ankle surgeon for two weeks and loved kind of the fine dissections that foot and ankle give you and a lot of the outpatient procedures you can do in foot and ankle, so really loved that.   Jon:  Very cool. Okay, awesome. Okay, so talk to me a little bit more about this week. We started on Sunday, and did you get here Saturday as well?   Lindsay:  Yes. Well, we got here late Saturday, but actually it was like 5 a.m. on Sunday morning so Saturday into Sunday we got here.   Jon:  Took the red eye, okay.   Lindsay:  Yeah, definitely.   Jon:  And she and I have both kind of been in it out and doing our stuff. She's been doing the clinic that she'll talk about here in a second but it's just been incredible serving the Dominican people and seeing what God's doing on this island which apparently is called Hispaniola.   Lindsay:  Yeah, okay.   Jon:  Which is Haiti and Dominican Republic.   Lindsay:  Yeah, there you go.   Jon:  And we'll have some links and things below with the organization called Mission of Hope. But tell me, Lindsay, how did you get involved with this? What does your school do with this? Why? What's… how did that all start?   Lindsay’s Journey With Mission of Hope [0:04:53]   Lindsay:  Absolutely. So our school has an opportunity for students that have just finished their first year of med school to come down with some faculty from our school and basically serve in the community doing mobile medical clinics for four days during the week. I did that in between my first and second year of med school and then got asked now about to start my fourth year to come back and serve a little bit, kind of in the pseudo-function as a resident, getting to oversee students but then also getting to report back to our faculty. So, it's been great experience for me personally to kind of get to function as a little bit like a resident this week. But more than anything, just to get to encourage our students who are just now finishing their first year of med school to get out in the community to serve patients here in the Dominican that have such a great need for medical services that they might not otherwise have access to. So, getting to encourage those students has been super great.   Jon:  Got you. So talk me through… so day-to-day, what did your days look like this week?   A Typical Day On The Mission Field [0:05:52]   Lindsay:  Yeah. So got up super early, got on the bus with our mobile pharmacy, got set, went into town, got set up in local churches, and then normally by the time we would get there, we would have patients waiting to come and see our students that were paired in teams of two.   Jon:  Okay.   Lindsay:  They would come in, meet with the students. The students would conduct a patient interview, a review of systems, thorough physical exam, make an assessment and plan for what they think this patient might benefit from. Then they would present that patient to me and I would kind of give them some direction on what might, you know, medication-wise or treatment-wise might best suit those patients. And then I would get to chat with our attendings and they give the final sign-off and then get patients out hopefully with medications that can meet their physical needs but also with encouragement and prayer for their spiritual needs.   Jon:  Awesome, okay. And how many were you seeing in a day typically?   Lindsay:  Yeah. So this year was actually really great. Two years ago when I came as an almost-second year student, we saw about 100 patients a day. We had a much smaller team. This year now as an almost-fourth year student, we saw, gosh, 350 patients a day over the set of two teams that we brought down with us, which was great. So, so awesome. So we had to have been near a thousand patients for the whole week.   Jon:  Okay. Wow, yeah.   Lindsay:  Yeah.   Jon:  So that's th

    15 min

  2. 08/14/2025

    Ep 032 - We Are Back!

    Summary: What’s New At Financial MD [0:01:18] Finance Watch: Market Volatility, Tariff Buzz And Budget Cuts [0:03:34] Is It Time To Get Out Of The Market? [0:05:16] Have A Plan. Work The Plan. Or Fix The Plan [0:08:11] Action Steps To Stay On Track [0:09:14]     Welcome to the Financial MD Show. This is the only podcast designed specifically for residents and young physicians to help you become educated on financial planning for physicians and avoid many of the common financial mistakes doctors make. Your hosts, Jon and Trevor, explore a different topic with each episode. Jon Solitro is a financial planner and certified financial education instructor. He’s been working with young physicians for the better part of the decade and lectures to graduate medical programs around the country. Dr. Trevor Smith is a board-certified ophthalmologist with a full-time practice and he has learned the ins and outs first-hand what it takes to make smart financial decisions as a young physician. And now here’s your hosts, Jon and Trevor.     But essentially the United States stock market. And so how does that affect your finances? What can you do about that? Well, what can you do about it? Nothing. How can you take advantage of it?   And we're back. Welcome back to the Financial MD Show. We took a year off, but we're back now. It's after tax day, April 2025. And this is a good day to come back because tax day is over. And while you love listening to this show, we've got all sorts of great stuff. You get free resources. You'll learn things. By day, we are actually a financial planning firm for doctors. And so that means, oddly enough, even though we don't do tax returns, at the beginning of the year, January to April can be very busy. And there's things down to the wire, like funding Roth IRA’s and backdoor Roth IRA’s and correcting things and getting stuff to people for taxes and all that stuff; talking through forms and 1099’s and 5498’s and 8606 -- all the things that I learned the hard way in the past several years of what these forms mean. That means that that's a very busy time. But it works out well because our last show was about a year ago, and today I'm just going to fill you in on what's been going on with Financial MD, the team you know and love, that brings young doctors good financial info.   What’s New At Financial MD [0:01:18]   So here's the deal: what's been going on at Financial MD? Well, of course, this is Jon. I'm still here. Super stoked. We're still filling in residents on how to make smart financial decisions. We're getting to hospitals, doing lectures, getting to med schools, doing all that stuff. In fact, that's actually ramped up a little bit this year. So what's been going on internally?   Well, our team looks a little bit different. Those of you who know Tanya, she had moved on last spring onto some other things with her family, and so we had to start looking for someone to replace her. So we moved up someone internally. That's Alex, and she's doing a fantastic job. She's actually been with us six, seven years, probably, give or take. So, if you talk to her, if you know her, say, “Hey, congrats! Happy anniversary,” whatnot. And then we brought on Lilly to the team. Lilly does a lot of our projects, a lot of reaching out to clients. Pretty much anything to keep things running smoothly and efficiently and everything. And so we're excited. Say hi to Lilly. And then in June, we brought on Blake, who is our first associate that actually helps me do what we do with financial planning and doing lectures and working with the residents. So he is very quickly getting up to speed. He's very good at working with doctors now; knows the world of making smart financial decisions and budgeting and debt and your safety net and insurance and all that stuff. So, be sure to reach out to him. He can be reached at bkane at financialmd.com. That's B-K-A-N-E -- say hi. Or just shoot us something in the Facebook groups or on anything else.   But those are a lot of the big things that have been happening and why it's been super busy around here and I'm finally realizing we've got to start putting shows out again. And so here we are. So, rather than just give you some boring updates about what's going on with us, but I want to because it's exciting and good news for you, because it means we have a lot of great things in the pike. Like we've talked about the Financial MD residency, which is an online course that is still happening -- almost done. A book in the works in the future. More and more Didactic Minute videos -- those are still coming out -- so check those out on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. And we are doing more and more lectures, graduating resident dinners; a lot of great things are happening, and so it's just an exciting time to be at Financial MD.   Finance Watch: Market Volatility, Tariff Buzz And Budget Cuts [0:03:34]   What's new in the world of finances? Well, depending on when you're catching this, if this is an encore rerun, the economy is doing interesting things. We've had some market volatility almost entirely due to some political shaken up. So, we've got DOGE stripping out some budget in some areas. We've got other tariff things going on. A lot of it's due to tariffs and what that's going to mean for our economy, which we can't talk about that but there's plenty of shows that do that. So I'm just going to skip that because you have so many resources to just see what people are talking about with tariffs from articles and podcasts and things like that. I don't really want to duplicate that. You don't need more of that. What you need to know is what applies to you as a resident, what applies to young physicians, and how do we make our finances still healthy in the meantime.   So we'll dive a little bit into that today, but there's been a lot that's happening. We got a new president -- new “old” president -- since our last show came out. And, meanwhile, things are still plugging along. There seems to be a doctor shortage -- what? Obviously, that's been going on a long time. It's more of a Medicare issue. So we've been hearing a lot of that from our clients as well. But the market's gone up and down. At one point, I don't know where it's at today, but when I looked at it in March, as we were kind of pulling our head up from getting ready for taxes and doing all that stuff, market had dipped about somewhere between 9 and 10 percent from its high. And you could call that a correction. Technically, a correction is 10 percent below market high, which, again, market high is always one of those things that that's the high. Is that normal? Is that what it's supposed to be? I don't think so. I think we can all assume that when the stock market -- by that, I'm going to refer to the S&P 500 for our terms. Most of you guys will know what that means. If you don't, ChatGPT it -- but essentially, the United States stock market.   Is It Time To Get Out Of The Market? [0:05:16]   And so, how does that affect your finances? What can you do about that? Well, what can you do about it? Nothing. How can you take advantage of it? We get this question from old and young physicians alike: what do I do when the market has volatility like this? Is it time to get out of the market for a little bit? And I seriously get this question. And I seriously understand. And I know I do this every day. And so it's easier for me to look at and say, “Well, duh, obviously,” whatever I think long term. But I know how tempting it is to give into the hype, read the news, get out of the market and say, “I'll get back in when it gets better.” But you have to ask yourself this question, “What is better?” How do you know you're going to get into the market at the right time? Do not let your emotions make your investment decisions because that is what's happening. If we look at the stats, 1 in every 5 years is a down market. So if this is a down market year, which the year is obviously not over, it wasn't last year. Last year was an upmarket; market went up. Your investments probably went up. Could this be a down market this year? Sure. Are we due? Sure. That's 1 in 5 years. What you have to look at that and I don't care where you're at in your investing career, whether you're a med student or resident or whether you're already a retired physician listening to this, which, kudos to you, for listening to a podcast. But when you see a down market, if you are properly diversified, whether we've set up your portfolio or somebody else, you need to look at that as things are on sale. And if the market is already down and you asked this question, it's already too late to get out. You better stay in for the ride, because if you get out now, you fall off and you're dead. Meaning, you've locked in your losses.   If you say, “Well, I'm going to move all my investments to cash,” you can do that, but I can guarantee you with nearly 100 percent certainty, you will not get back in at the right time. You just don't. To do it, you'd have to predict the future. You might get lucky, but to get lucky every time? Certainly not. And here's what the stats say. If you're a get-out-when-it's-down-and-get-back-in-when-it-starts-going-up type of investor, you will lose. Now will you gain some long term? Probably. You'll have some, but you will not be as far ahead had you just stuck it out, rode the market, and understood. I don't know how things will be okay; I just know that they will be okay. Because if we look at history, these things happen. Every time we say it's different -- this time is different, this time is different, this time is different -- this time it's not different. And if somebody says this time is different, they don't know. They're telling you the sky is falling.   But listen, that happened in 2008 with the recession. It came back. That happened in 2022 when bonds and stock

    12 min

  3. 07/17/2025

    Ep031 - Financial Insights Into Medicareavwdn

    Summary: David's False Start [0:01:09] What Is Medicare? [0:04:35] "We Have Been Paying Into The Medicare System" [0:06:27] Is Medicare Mandatory For Everyone? [0:09:41] Medicare Advantage Plan – What Exactly Is This? [0:11:48] Original Medicare Vs Supplement Plan [0:14:49] HSAs And Medicare [0:19:10] How Can David Help You With Your Medicare [0:20:12] Connect With David [0:22:51]     Welcome to the Financial MD Show. This is the only podcast designed specifically for residents and young physicians to help you become educated on financial planning for physicians and avoid many of the common financial mistakes doctors make. Your hosts, Jon and Trevor, explore a different topic with each episode. Jon Solitro is a financial planner and certified financial education instructor. He’s been working with young physicians for the better part of the decade and lectures to graduate medical programs around the country. Dr. Trevor Smith is a board-certified ophthalmologist with a full-time practice and he has learned the ins and outs first-hand what it takes to make smart financial decisions as a young physician. And now here’s your hosts, Jon and Trevor.     Jon Solitro:  Well, welcome everybody to today's episode. We're super excited because we are going to touch on some topics that will impact everybody. This is definitely one of those things that do, at some point, impact everybody and there are some things that you need to know, and that may be down the road or maybe right now. But at some point, this is something to stick in your back pocket when it comes to your financial planning. I'm your co-host today, Jon Solitro, and with me, my co-host today is David Deaton – the man, the myth, the legend. How are you doing, David? David Deaton:  Hey Jon; doing great, man. Doing great. Looking forward to doing this podcast more in the future, and you're absolutely right. Medicare fits into people's financial plans one way or another and I'm happy to be here to talk about it. Jon:  Super! Good. I'm excited because this is again one of those topics that I bet changes all the time and yet everybody needs to know and stay on top of those changes. And can you start just by telling us about yourself, what got you into this, how long have you been doing this, where are you located – any of that kind of stuff? David's False Start [0:01:09] David:  Yeah, sure. So I started Mid Michigan Medicare back in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. Actually, I had been insurance-licensed back in 2015 and kind of had a false start into it. I had a full service Farm Bureau agency and it kind of chewed me up and spit me out. So, went home and got a J-O-B and had kept my insurance license up. When the pandemic came, the J-O-B that I had went away. During that time, like a lot of people, I had a chance to reevaluate my life and I had, thankfully, kept my insurance license up to date. A friend of mine had been encouraging me to get back into insurance and do Medicare, which is actually right before I had that Farm Bureau agency where I started. Medicare fits me. Everything that I've done in my life thus far in like work has been service-oriented. I was in Ministry for 20 years vocationally before this and it was always Ministry and something else but, you know, I believe that work has to say something about who you are. Jon:  Okay. David:  And, you know, I've always been like dedicated to serving people. So, you know, looking at the Medicare space, what I saw was a lot of people who were being misguided. You know, T.V. commercials; you know, Jimmy Walker and Joe Namath, and every – you know; all those people. They're kind of, you know, a little bit of bait and switch tactics and this demographic is vulnerable. And so, you know, looking at all that, seeing an opportunity to serve and do something that fits who I am in my character, I took all of that stimulus money and all of the unemployment money that I had and tax return money and everything and bouncing off of the experience that I had before in insurance gave myself some runway to get this thing off the ground. And thank God, it worked. Jon:  Yeah, okay. So, we're pushing four years now. David:  Yes. Jon:  Doing that – fantastic. And what do you like about what you're doing? David:  Oh boy… I'm an eclectic person and it scratches my itches, you know. Some days, I am still a pastor. Some days, I'm a marketer. Some days, I'm a business person. Some days, I'm a traveler. But what I love is when I get to sit down with somebody, you know, usually their stress level is up to here because they've been inundated. People get information fatigue, you know, and there really is a lot of information out there. In Medicare, I mean, you can't shake a stick and not hit some information about Medicare. Jon:  Yeah. David:  But what I found that people need as much as they need information is they need somebody to talk to. Somebody who knows what they're talking to that they can, you know. They've got my phone number. All my clients do. So, everybody knows how to get a hold of me. So my favorite thing is watching some of that stress that was up here just melt away. Jon:  Okay. So we may have young doctors listening to this podcast. We may have seniors that are already retired listening to this. Give us a – for anybody like who has no idea, tell me about Medicare like I'm eight. David:  Okay. Jon:  What's Medicare? What Is Medicare? [0:04:35] David:  Yeah. So, Medicare is a federal health insurance program designed for retirees but also people who, if you are under the age 65, you can get Medicare if you've got certain disabilities. If you've been on SSDI for 24 months or, you know, kidney disease, you know. some special circumstances but mainly is for people who are turning 65. Jon:  Okay. David:  We've been paying into the Medicare system our whole lives, and so Medicare provides at least a chassis for our health insurance at age 65. It covers hospital and medical services. It doesn't cover everything. There are quite a bit of exposures but, you know, at its core, basically, it's 80-20 insurance. So you pay 20%; Uncle Sam steps in and pays 80 for most medical services. If you go to the hospital, it's, you know, a co-pay of around $1600; maybe a little bit more than 1600 but that number fluctuates every year. Jon:  Okay, and has it always been 65? David:  Yup, age 65. Jon:  Do they ever talk about changing that, pushing that back like they do Social Security? David:  There's rumors… There's rumors about expanding Medicare for sure and, you know, they've talked about lowering it to 60. You know, they talked about lowering it to 62. They've talked about Medicare for all. We'll cross that bridge when we get there, but the landscape and how things look right now is it looks like, you know, Medicare is going to be like it is for the foreseeable future. Jon:  You mentioned something that we've all paid into it; what does that mean? So somebody's like what do I have to do with Medicare? How am I paying into Medicare? "We Have Been Paying Into The Medicare System" [0:06:27] David: If you look at your paycheck, there will be an area on there that says Medicare. Whether you're self-employed or employed by somebody, we're paying into that system. Now what we get for that when we turn 65 or whenever we get on Medicare is we get our Part A insurance at no cost and part A is our hospital coverage. Jon:  Okay. David:  So it comes at no monthly premium is what I mean by no cost. Part B does have a premium associated with it and that number changes every year, but this year it's $174.70 a month. Jon:  Oh, so everybody, no matter what. David:  That's the base. There are some people like if you're earning more, you get what's called IRMAA, which is the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount. Jon:  Oh, that's nice. David:  Yeah. If you earn more, Uncle Sam thinks you should pay more. Jon:  Sure, it sounds… I hear him say that a lot. David:  Right. Jon: And so Medicare, is this something somebody can just… so really before 65, if they're not disabled. It doesn't necessarily… there's nothing they have to do other than, you know, pay into it which is automatically done if they're an employee. If you're self-employed, again, that's part of something that your CPA is going to tell you, hey, there's so much you need to pay in every quarter… whatever. David:  Right. Jon:  Do you know by chance how much people are paying? Is it a straight percentage? Does that change with income as they're working? David:  I don't know the answer to that. Jon:  It changes a lot. David:  Yeah, yeah, that's definitely a question for your CPA. Jon:  Yeah. Yeah, I don't even know. I know there's FICAS... what? 7.65% for the employee, another 7.65 or about 15.3% if you're self-employed, and I think that's basically Social Security and Medicare all wrapped up in there. So, how much that breaks down I couldn't even tell you but just thought I'd throw you a zinger. So then 65 comes, do people get like notices, hey, you're 65, you can have Medicare but you don't have to... it's like offered if people already have insurance like how do those details work? And I talked to, you know, even my young physicians that we work with and to think about as they're thinking about retirement because I'll sit with a 35-year-old and we'll plan for retirement or make a goal and I say, okay. And I've learned over the years, now I can't just say, "What's your retirement goal?" And they… I don't know. I don't know. What age you want to retire? I don't know. How much income do you need to retire? I don't know. Okay, I get that. So, and a lot of them will say, tomorrow, like, okay. But seriously, but one of the big things that I do say is they'll say, "Okay, well, I know right now, you know, my house will be paid off and student loans will be paid off." That's a big o

    28 min

  4. 07/03/2025

    Ep 030 - Estate Planning for Physicians

    Summary: Matt's Law School And MBA-Finance Journey [0:02:21] Embracing Estate Planning: The Turning Point [0:05:37] The Financial MD's Four-Step Roadmap [0:08:54] What Is Estate Planning? [0:10:52] Key Questions To Kickstart Your Estate Planning [0:13:22] Will Vs Trust: Definition of Terms [0:16:32] "You're In Control While You're Alive And Well" [0:20:29] Understanding Trusts: Common Setup And Structure Models [0:25:40] Common Objections Against Setting Up A Will Or Trust [0:30:04] Estate Planning Essentials: Quick Tips [0:33:30] Matt's Book Is Called "Keeping Control"; And Other Resources [0:40:09]     Welcome to the Financial MD Show. This is the only podcast designed specifically for residents and young physicians to help you become educated on financial planning for physicians and avoid many of the common financial mistakes doctors make. Your hosts, Jon and Trevor, explore a different topic with each episode. Jon Solitro is a financial planner and certified financial education instructor. He’s been working with young physicians for the better part of the decade and lectures to graduate medical programs around the country. Dr. Trevor Smith is a board-certified ophthalmologist with a full-time practice and he has learned the ins and outs first-hand what it takes to make smart financial decisions as a young physician. And now here’s your hosts, Jon and Trevor.     Jon Solitro:  All right. Well, welcome, everybody to today's episode. We're super excited to be focusing today on estate planning. And for me, this is probably the thing that we recommend the most as financial planner, that gets done the least. And we're always looking for good attorneys to collaborate with, because at the end of the day, whatever we do, it's a legal document. Even if that legal document is just an IRA contract with beneficiaries or life insurance, all the way up to trusts and some complex estate planning, there is legal work that goes into it and things to know that can change by state. But I'd say, 85, 90% of things we talk about for sure are going to pretty much be comparable to any state with a few nuances here and there. So, as always, we'll preface this, this is not personal financial advice, this is not legal advice, this is for informational educational purposes only. But I'm thrilled to have a longtime friend, great colleague and guest with us today, Matt Ferri from Ferri Law, our local estate planning expert. Welcome, Matt. Matt Ferri:  Thank you so much, Jon. I'm happy to be here, happy to be on the show and be able to provide any information that people like to hear about. Jon: Yeah, awesome. I'm psyched too. We're going to chat and we'll keep it pretty light here and I've got a few questions and then we'll take it wherever we see the conversation going. I think you and I have both worked with young physicians enough to have some idea of the pretty common things they want to talk about, the frequently asked questions, the pitfalls that we see here and there, but I'm excited to dive into this. My hope is that our listeners today are going to be able to pick a few things that they're going to take action on, get some questions answered, maybe clear up some confusion, but let's begin with just introducing yourself, Matt. Tell us your story. What got you into this, what you love about this, what you hate about it – any of that stuff. Matt's Law School And MBA-Finance Journey [0:02:21] Matt: Well, that's fantastic. So yeah, again, thank you, Jon. So I have been an attorney since 2008, beginning of 2008, and worked for a small firm. Back when I got my law degree, I also got an MBA, and so my background, even in undergrad was in finance. So I've always liked the business, personal finance side of the law since the beginning. It was one of those cool things to learn about and grow. And there's a lot of attorneys that like to litigate and like to do that and be in the courtroom and stand up in front of judges and juries. And that's something that I quickly learned was not my style, what I like to do. I like working and collaborating with people and families, business owners, that kind of thing, where we really can just sit down in the room, share stories, talk about family, talk about friends, talk about our pets. That's definitely things that we always enjoy. I know like you and I already chat about. And so, really we've started there. And really since 2010, I really focused my practice on estate planning and the nuances there so we really, in our firm, do not practice anything else really than estate planning, some small business planning and elder law. So, you know, it's kind of a big thing in our world, much like in the medical world where you pick a specialty, you know. You don't go to… you go to a certain doctor for a certain thing, and the same thing is mostly true for attorneys as well. So, I've definitely developed and grown, like I said, been doing this for a long time now. Thankfully, I'm not too old yet, but old enough now to have learned a few things. Jon: So, help us out with your education – the MBA. Where did that come into play? What was your motivation there? And that was before law school I assume? Matt: Actually, it was concurrent. University of Detroit has a dual degree program and since I had a finance undergrad, they were able to use credits for starting out my first year of MBA school and then the Law and MBA electives crossed each other and so we didn't have to… I just had to get some extra credits. I think I had 24 extra credits. There were some long summers in there. I'm not going to lie. Jon: Yeah… oh my gosh. Matt: And some long semesters. Jon: Yeah… wow. That depends. Matt: So I went to law school during the day and went to MBA school at night. So there were some long grueling times in the… The MBA is, you know, just like I said, a traditional MBA, no specialty or focus. And that came into play was I was going through law school and, you know, just discussing what do I do, how do I do it. It's another degree that kind of blends together with what I do now as a practicing attorney, right? We deal with the small businesses, the families, the finances. That's, you know, just more of that. Jon: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And so at what point was it that you really felt like estate planning was the way to go? Was it during law school? Was it your experiences after your first firm? Embracing Estate Planning: The Turning Point [0:05:37] Matt: I think I had that thought in law school. And again, we have a Wills and Trusts class and that kind of stuff. That was actually one of my best classes as it turned out. But, you know, just as luck may have it, I suppose. And I think in law school, I kind of had that idea. Again, it was the way to use sort of the financial aspect with the legal side. You know, the first jobs, obviously, in the law clerking jobs were getting experience finding a place to work. We're talking back in 2006, 2007, and then into 2008. So that's what… the world was an interesting place, right, as everybody thinks about time and places to how you enter the workforce and start doing things. That was an interesting time for us for sure. So, it's an interesting way and the law firm I worked for was a small firm and it handled a lot more of the commercial, real estate civil litigation world, and that was, you know, at the end of 2008, if people recall, started to think about there's a little bit of a meltdown there for the real estate world. So that made my world interesting. Jon: A lot of unique experiences that probably a lot of attorneys don't have from practicing real estate law at that time. Matt: Absolutely. So I've been down the road of construction lien litigation. Jon: So, and then what brought you to having your own firm? Matt: Well, you know, essentially, it was at the end of 2008 there, as firms have it. That firm shrunk. There was really no space for me at that point. He was trying to survive. So the newest, lowest person on the totem pole – out you go. And so I was able to luckily find another firm that I had known and I did some extra contract work and was able to just get started and, you know, decided now's the time, be in control of your own self and schedule and go from there. Jon: Before you got too deep into that next one. Matt: Yup. Jon: Okay. Matt: It's always an interesting story, an interesting climb. You know, you have different things, different stresses, different levels of focus. Jon: Yeah. Okay. So how old is your firm now? Matt: So, as I said, we are 16 years in, so we've been around now for hopefully over the hump and keep going. Jon: Yeah, I would imagine. And so tell us about the makeup of your firm as it stands today. Matt: Currently, I have another attorney that works in my office, so she's been working with us for over six years now and that's been obviously a huge help and benefit to all our clients. And obviously, we always talk about succession planning no matter how old you are. Something happens to me, there's a person ready that can take over and run with it. Jon: Excellent. Matt: We have another client coordinator as well that helps sort of manage all the other day-to-day stuff. Jon: Yeah. Matt: And so that's it for right now. We're eyeing a few different things that will continue to expand and grow here in the near future. The Financial MD's Four-Step Roadmap [0:08:54] Jon: Okay, yeah, that was great. Sounds like a nice lean operation that you got somebody strong in the client coordination side and then another attorney. It's great. So, a lot of our conversation with our physicians is around some specific areas. You know, with the residents and fellows, we start at the very beginning – and we'll put this upon the screen here – but we have this Four-Step Roadmap. And first we talk about cash flow. Any kind of financial plan has to be based on what's coming in and what's goin

    44 min

  5. 07/03/2025

    Ep 029 - Financial Insights from Last Year and Winning Strategies for 2024

    Summary: Looking Back Since The Launching of Financial MD in 2020 [0:01:23] There Were More Graduating Resident Dinners Last Year! [0:06:45] It's Coming! The Financial MD Residency Online Course [0:08:15] Personal Finance In A Nutshell: 2023 Recap [0:10:50] Set Up Your First Short-Term Goal [0:13:30] Instill Discipline To Reach Your Goal – Reverse Budgeting Tips [0:17:40]     Welcome to the Financial MD Show. This is the only podcast designed specifically for residents and young physicians to help you become educated on financial planning for physicians and avoid many of the common financial mistakes doctors make. Your hosts, Jon and Trevor, explore a different topic with each episode. Jon Solitro is a financial planner and certified financial education instructor. He’s been working with young physicians for the better part of the decade and lectures to graduate medical programs around the country. Dr. Trevor Smith is a board-certified ophthalmologist with a full-time practice and he has learned the ins and outs first-hand what it takes to make smart financial decisions as a young physician. And now here’s your hosts, Jon and Trevor.     Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to the Financial MD Show. We are so excited to be coming to you for the first episode of 2024 and a lot's happened. So we're going to bring you up to speed on what's going on at Financial MD – what's going on with Jon, what's going on with Dr. Smith, and what do we see for the future in a lot of ways. So this is going to be a big reflective show but also a big predicting of the future and I'll tell you more about that in just a minute. But first, we're going to start off with bringing you an update into what is happening at Financial MD. With Financial MD which you know as the Number One Trusted Source for Resident Financial Education for young physician financial planning, we are your resource for all things education, and remember, that stuff can be found wherever you're watching this – be it YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, the website, podcast – anything like that. Whether you're watching or listening to this, find our other stuff and make sure it's coming to you on a regular basis. But you know that already.   Looking Back Since The Launching of Financial MD in 2020 [0:01:23]   So we've been doing a lot more of that this year, 2023. As we look back today, what's been happening at Financial MD is we've been stepping it up. COVID changed a lot of things. It was really the launch of Financial MD in 2020 – March 17th to be precise – right about when the pandemic and lockdowns and such started, so real good timing on my part. But it's been an exciting few years. 2021, we started to build; 2022, really nailing down our processes and starting to get back into the swing of getting education. Now if you remember, I've been doing the lectures for the residency programs for about – oh boy, this is our 10th year now – with other companies in the past and when I launched Financial MD, this podcast was really a big driving factor of that because back in our world of financial planning, there's a lot of compliance restrictions. So the broker-dealers and the big, you know, investment firms and all that, they don't want you to do any kind of marketing or grow your business at all and so that's an issue when I'm really big on education. I like to talk and podcasting was going to be a big piece of that and so. Now that we've been able to launch the podcast, we've been able to do the videos, the Didactic Minutes, which you can see on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube shorts, we've been able to get the word out quite a bit more, get a lot of education out there, as many financial tips and how-tos as we can squeeze in a two-minute video. So, be sure to check that out, but that's been super fun. I've been doing that at different locations starting in 2020 so I was excited to do that and we've been doing more. Those are coming out every week. These episodes for the podcast are every two weeks. We've really been nailing down and, in some ways, we kind of had to do some trial and error, figure out our schedule. So myself with the family of four – and if you're watching the video, I'll throw up a family photo here – the kids are 8, 10, 12, and 18. Yeah, my daughter's 18, starting at community college. So to speak, a little to that, we had told her, or maybe planned internally, between Ashley and I that we would cover two years of community college and two years for university. So in our case, let's say, MSU. I didn't really tell her that because even that was kind of a big leap. This is something that we had really just started thinking about in the last four or five years. She was already, you know, 13, 14 at that point. She was thinking she was going to go to some university. As she got to the end of her senior year, she finally decided on Lansing Community College, which is great, because that's something we can pay for out of pocket. We don't have our 529 built up yet so we're kind of figuring that out as we go and she's figuring out how to be a grown-up. She's figuring out paying bills, having a car, going to class when nobody really cares if you go to class, and what it takes to actually succeed in college. And so those are fun and fun kind of navigating the field of how do you be a parent while not really being a parent anymore and how do I be a dad to a young adult and, honestly, it's been going okay. We have talks. We hang out. She's around more. I think all of the lessons that we've been trying to teach her and the character-building conversations have been taking root – at least, I think so. So time will tell. But she's figuring out and getting jobs and doing those things, so she's doing great and we're proud of her. And then Joey is 12, Sam is 10, Daniel's 8… that's a lot of them. They've been enjoying football which I was never really into but they're getting into it so they decided to watch University of Michigan football this year which turned out really well. We went to the Rose Bowl which maybe I'll dive into a little bit later but that was amazing. Then they've been getting into Lions football and my brother-in-law took Joey to his first Lions football game which also turned out pretty well. We made it to the conference finals, I think it was; division, conference…I don't know. But they've been doing great. We watched the last Lions game of the year. It was a playoff game, Conference Finals, the game that would determine who goes to the Super Bowl and the Lions lost which is what we expected. But my boys cried, so I did not expect that to happen. So we kind of had to navigate that but that's okay; that's part of growing up. And everything else is going well here in Michigan.   So, life is good here personally. Dr. Trevor Smith, which he'll update you on some more, probably spoke a little too in the last episode if you caught that, but he has finally started his own clinic and it's keeping him very busy and so he's figuring out the ends and outs of a clinic and office space and expenses and building a practice and, you know, with Ophthalmology, it's definitely a lot of going out to beat the streets and meet other clinicians and get your own patients. So it's been interesting to help him out with that and watch him on that. So stay tuned, you'll get some more on that. If you're ever thinking about opening your own practice or getting into business for yourself or have any piece of running the practice or running the clinic, you'll want to be sure to check that out.   There Were More Graduating Resident Dinners Last Year! [0:06:45]   A couple of other things to look forward to in the future, I will allude to so I'm not going to jump the gun yet. But last year at Financial MD, we had more dinners than we've had in a couple of years. So if you don't know, in the areas that we're serving in physically, we have graduating resident dinners where we go to a decent restaurant – not a super nice one – but really nice. The food is good and it's a decent place. The ones where we've been really active have been in the Detroit area. So we eat in Royal Oak. There's about 15 or 20 graduating residents from the area and we bring in a physician mortgage specialist. We bring in a CPA. Sometimes we'll have an employment contract attorney, and we'll just talk, and it takes a lot of the attendees from our resident lecture programs will come to this to get some very specific information about transitioning into practice, get their questions answered. I love doing those because I get to talk for a while and people supposedly listen to me but maybe it's the free food. We buy them dinner just get to know them. So, those I really enjoy. We've been doing more of those. Well, actually, we're scheduled to do probably 10 to 15 this year. And the residency lectures are ramping up this year as well. So I'm excited about what's going on. We did a few more last year; we're going to do a lot more this year. We're going to get on a regular schedule with the Didactic Minute videos with the podcast episodes.   It's Coming! The Financial MD Residency Online Course [0:08:15]   And one of the more exciting announcements – this has been two or three years in the making – is the Financial MD Residency, an online course brought to you by myself and a practicing psychiatrist who will remain unnamed currently. I'll probably have him on the show here pretty soon. We've been talking about this for a little while. I met him in residency to one of the residency programs I was giving lectures to and after he went into practice in Alaska, we kind of reconnected and started talking about our common passion for financial education for residents and we decided, you know, I don't think there's a good online course for this. So how hard could it be to make one? Turns out, it's pretty hard. So, that should be launching in the n

    22 min

  6. 01/08/2024

    Ep 028 - Setting Up For Success - Essential Checklist for the New Attending

    Summary: Transitioning Into Practice: Focus On The W.I.N. Principle [0:01:23] Stephen Covey’s Four Quadrant: Important, Not Important, Urgent, Not Urgent [0:02:32] From Taxable To Tax-Free: The Art Of Roth Conversion [0:04:58] Plan For The Unexpected: Disability Insurance [0:07:32] Healthy Financial Habits: Budgeting And Managing Surplus [0:09:02] Financial MD's Resident Roadmap: Securing Your Future [0:10:44] We Want To Hear From You! Share Your Two Cents With Us [0:12:22]     Welcome to the Financial MD Show. This is the only podcast designed specifically for residents and young physicians to help you become educated on financial planning for physicians and avoid many of the common financial mistakes doctors make. Your hosts, Jon and Trevor, explore a different topic with each episode. Jon Solitro is a financial planner and certified financial education instructor. He’s been working with young physicians for the better part of the decade and lectures to graduate medical programs around the country. Dr. Trevor Smith is a board-certified ophthalmologist with a full-time practice and he has learned the ins and outs first-hand what it takes to make smart financial decisions as a young physician. And now here’s your hosts, Jon and Trevor.     Hey everybody and welcome to today's episode of the Financial MD Show. I, as always, am your host, Jon Solitro, CFP. Today is going to be a solo show but I'm excited because Trevor's not going to interrupt me all the time – I'm kidding. We do a great job chatting together. Dr. Trevor Smith is very busy with opening his practice and if you want to know more about that, listen to our last episode. That will be the best place to get a quick synopsis and rundown of what Dr. Smith is up to and what it takes to open your own practice. At least so far as we know, he's right in the thick of it; not quite launched yet – building, putting stuff together, getting financing – all that stuff; so that part is… that was a really great show to do.   But today, top of mind for us right now in the finance world and in the doctor world, if I'm talking to you and you are a younger physician just new into your career, you might be wrapping up your training right now. As we record the show, it's October. You may be a couple of months just into your first attending position and I wanted to put out a show to those of you that are the podcast subscribers, and maybe, this is something that you can share with your fellow residents or new attendings to talk about what are some of the things that you should be doing.   Transitioning Into Practice: Focus On The W.I.N. Principle [0:01:23]   If you had to boil it down to just a few things that you should be doing when you first transition into practice, what are those things? Because you can be bombarded with so many different possibilities and options that it is crucial that you weed that out and focus on the most major on the major. You do the important things first. Because if you look at Stephen Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, there's a lot of great stuff in there. I do suggest that. We'll post a link in the show notes, but when you see that one of the chapters is going to be about focusing your time. You're going to see a lot thrown at you. You got to make benefits decisions. You got to figure out your money's going and buying a house and budget and all these kind of things. One of the things that Covey talks about in the book is "beginning with the end in mind," so that helps you to focus on what things are important now. I talked to my boys about the W.I.N. principle – W.I.N. (What's Important Next) – because they're not great at focusing on what they should be doing right now, when it's getting ready for school in the morning or getting ready for bed at night – all those things is, hey, buddy, what's important next? Oh, okay. And sometimes that helps and sometimes it doesn't.   Stephen Covey’s Four Quadrant: Important, Not Important, Urgent, Not Urgent [0:02:32]   But one of the other things that Covey talks about is he puts together this quadrant and I'll put this on the video screen for those of you that you feel like you need to do or could do or anything you possibly do in a day can fit into one of four quadrants, and up at the top, there's two sections. Think of it like a spreadsheet. There's What's Important and What's Not Important, and along the left side, there is the Urgent and Not Urgent. And so every task has some sort of aspect of both of those characteristics. So something may be important, but not urgent. Okay, so maybe you got to do at some point, not right now. Something may be not important but urgent, and that should give you a clue that maybe it's not something that I really should be spending my time on. If I get a notification on my phone that somebody just commented on my Facebook post, is that urgent? Yeah, I kind of feel like it is. Is it important? No. So, if I'm supposed to be doing something right now, if I'm supposed to be talking with the client, if I'm supposed to be helping, if I'm supposed to be prepping for a lecture I'm going to do, what's important right then? Is it getting that badge notification off my phone – probably not. So everything you do can fit in one of those four quadrants and the first step is knowing what is coming up and what quadrant that should fit in.   And so when I break down for you today a few things  it's going to be focusing on those important things. I'm going to help you cut out the not important things necessarily and maybe even the things that are important but not urgent. So we're going to focus on the Important and Urgent right now.   One of the things and tips that I give – and again, this is not personal financial advice; everybody's situation may be different – but one of the things that we often talk about is trying to minimize taxes; not just now, but for the rest of your life. A CPA, a tax preparer, an enrolled agent (EA) – you might see this different places; what they are doing is helping you to look back at last year and prep taxes for last year and figure out taxes for how do we report what you did pay or what you need to pay in taxes, and what a tax planner or financial planner is going to do – and maybe a good CPA is going to do this as well – is look ahead and make recommendations – here's what you can do to minimize your taxes in the future. And there are decisions that you're going to make when it comes to your benefits, when it comes to your income, when it comes to insurance – all these kinds of things. Investments – what can I do right now to minimize my tax burden later. It may even hurt a little bit right now, but long-term, this is going to be what's best for me.   From Taxable To Tax-Free: The Art Of Roth Conversion [0:04:58]   One of those things is going to be a Roth conversion. Now why do you say Roth conversion? Well, number one, you have to have money to convert. Most residents I come across have a 401(k) or a 403(b) that they put a little bit of money into… maybe 2 to 5,000 dollars that, over the course of their residency, they set some aside. A lot of hospitals will auto enroll you, so you'll get 1% at least going in every year which, you know, when you're making 50,000 a year, that's 500 bucks a year. You'll have at least 2, maybe 3 or 4000 in there over the course of 3 or 4 years.   So what should you do with that money? Now, that doesn't seem like it'll be a lot now but if we talk about the point of compound interest which we've talked about before and we can go into depth in that into another conversation, compound interest says that that 3 or 4,000 dollars could be 20,000, 30, 40, 50,000 someday with the right kind of compound interest and the right rate of return. So, that being the case right now because it's in your 401(k) or 403(b), you went through residency, you're now transitioned into practice. Okay, let's say, it's October right now of your first fall in practice and you've got this old 401(k) or 403(b_ sitting at your old residency program – your old hospital – it's never been taxed. They took it out of your paycheck pre-tax. It's going to grow. It's not going to be taxed. But then when it will be taxed is when you go to retire and if you're good and you had a good financial planner, you're still going to be in a high income bracket after you retired because of how much you've saved and invested and planned. That's great, but then you go to pull that money out, you're going to have to pay taxes on it then and you're going to hate it. So how do we fix that now without it hurting too much?   This is where we come up with the Roth conversion. You can take that 401(k) or that 403(b), roll it over into an IRA, but make sure it goes into a Roth IRA. Now the downside is, yeah, you've got to pay taxes on it now, but this year with a half-year resident or fellow salary and a half-year an attending salary, you're going to make less this year than you'll ever make again in your entire life. So when would be the right time to make that kind of taxable transfer? There's no penalties, no cost, other than just the taxes you're then going to have to pay on your tax returns. But now, that money is in a tax-free investment in a Roth and it will stay that way for the rest of your life – that plus the growth it's going to get. So, I think that's an important one and I would say that's an urgent one because that has to be done before the end of this year.   So, that's number one. That's kind of one quick tip that I'd say, hey, if I had a checklist of things to pass to a new attending to say get this done before the end of the year, that's one of those things.   Plan For The Unexpected: Disability Insurance [0:07:32]   The other thing that I would look at is making sure that your Disability Insurance is up to your new income. That's on

    15 min

  7. 01/05/2024

    Ep 027 - From Vision To Reality, Launching A Solo Private Practice

    Summary: Update On Trevor's Newest Business Endeavor [0:00:52] Embarking On A Journey: A Solo Private Practice [0:04:22] Protect Your Practice: Invest In Disability Insurance [0:06:26] Leading With Ownership: More Responsibility, More Satisfaction, More Rewards [0:10:44] The Trigger: Taking The Leap Into Solo Private Practice [0:13:16] The Perfect Timing For Your Business: Meeting Organic Needs [0:19:56] To Own Or Not To Own: The Practice Dilemma [0:24:00] Private Equity Knocking? Standing Strong In Independence [0:27:13] Best Of Both Worlds: The W-2/1099 Combo [0:29:39] The Latest Buzz In The Cryptocurrency Universe [0:35:33] Don't Let Go Of Your Value; It's Your Voice And Power [0:36:51]     Welcome to the Financial MD Show. This is the only podcast designed specifically for residents and young physicians to help you become educated on financial planning for physicians and avoid many of the common financial mistakes doctors make. Your hosts, Jon and Trevor, explore a different topic with each episode. Jon Solitro is a financial planner and certified financial education instructor. He’s been working with young physicians for the better part of the decade and lectures to graduate medical programs around the country. Dr. Trevor Smith is a board-certified ophthalmologist with a full-time practice and he has learned the ins and outs first-hand what it takes to make smart financial decisions as a young physician. And now here’s your hosts, Jon and Trevor.     Jon: Well, welcome again to the Financial MD Show. We are so honored to have back in the co-host seat, Dr. Trevor Smith, after some time getting busy doing some things. Trevor had a ton of stuff going on and we continued to try to get some content out, but always left his co-host seat open here. So, Trevor, super glad to have you back and sitting in and chatting and making this – I mean, you're the reason that people listen to the Financial MD Show, so our listenership has been dropping drastically and we're so glad to have you back.   Trevor: That's hilarious. Appreciate, appreciate that ego boost.   Jon: Yup, yup. So, what's going on man? How you've been? What have you been up to for the last – I don't know – this year? Let's say that.   Update On Trevor's Newest Business Endeavor [0:00:52]   Trevor: Oh man, yeah. So, I'm sitting here in my office. I'm over in Wyoming, Michigan, just opening up a practice. So that has been the primary busy item of the year. Yeah, I was just looking back on my calendar of when things have happened or like even just like when bills were paid for, you know, different projects I've been working on and I couldn't believe some of the things that felt like last year were like three months ago.   Jon: Okay, wow.   Trevor: It's one of those where I'm like, wow. I didn't know I was… I knew I was busy, but I didn't know – I was like mentally squeezing so much in. So, yeah, I'm here over Wyoming, Michigan. It's just south of Grand Rapids. It's kind of more like Granville, Wyoming, Byron Center. We're all kind of in the same area, just south of Grand Rapids. So, yeah, I decided to launch my own practice, been looking into that for years – two, three years – and finally decided to pull the trigger. So I was evaluating the practice where I still operate. I still do surgery over in Ionia, Michigan with another practice, and so, I'm still doing that and that's supporting me, starting the practice at the same time, so it's nice. I get to talk about it. I don't have to secretly, you know, be like opening a practice.   Jon: That's great.   Trevor: Even throughout the whole process, I was really transparent with my boss, Dr. Mike Flohr, a great guy. I've been in the Ophthalmology world practicing. He's a solo guy for like 40 years so he gets it, so that was nice.   Jon: Yeah.   Trevor: Lots of hurdles of like how do I handle this situation, how do I evaluate this, so that was one of the big ones. I was like, you know. I just… the stress of this, I figured, you know, it' be better to do it without trying to make it a secret at the same time.   Jon: Yeah.   Trevor: Because people do do that and it's understandable, but I'm outside of the territory and it's been kind of weird like, dare I say, I feel like there's kind of like a God component to things. I don't tend to use that too loosely, but I couldn't have made this scenario. It hasn't been simple, but it's been better than I could have made it. The fact that I get to keep operating while…   Jon: Yeah, really, that's probably not that common, right?   Trevor: No. So I'm like doing two days a week out there. They kind of needed me less because they wanted to hire in an optometrist so they kind of wanted me to be doing more part-time and I wanted to be doing part-time so it's just like win-win and then the timing worked out incredibly well so it was kind of right when I was wanting to launch, they were wanting me to just focus on surgery, so they could control their overhead costs.   Jon: Yeah.   Trevor: So it's more of an "eat what I kill" scenario now.   Jon: Yeah.   Trevor: I've never been in that position before. That's kind of fun which is inherently what I'm doing in my practice here, right?   Jon: Yeah, right.   Trevor: It's kind of like a little pre- like a little taste of when I have a lot of patient flow here, what I can picture. It's just kind of the motivations, I guess, will be very similar. It's like I got to see patients. I got to do surgery to pay the bills and I have to produce for them for them to pay their bills and to pay me. So, it's cool – that's the major update. What else is new? I think I've learned a lot more about what everything costs in my industry and it's expensive.   Jon: Yeah, yeah.   Embarking On A Journey: A Solo Private Practice [0:04:22]   Trevor: So, I chose to work with a group. It's called Independent Practice Partners and I don't mind giving them a nice shameless plug. They just do ophthalmology currently.   Jon: Okay.   Trevor: So, it's a group of roughly four or five ophthalmologists that have started their own solo practices years ago like 20… I think 2012 to 2018… somewhere in that range most of them started, and they figured out a system for helping other people start their solo ophthalmology. They're philosophically in favor of more solo doctors being around and I am as well. That's one of my motivations. So, they've done… they've helped open, I think, 17 – no. I think now they're up to – I think I was the 20th or the 21st solo ophthalmologist they've helped start and that experience gave me a lot of confidence to pursue this despite knowing, you know, it's going to take time, it's going to be expensive – all that kind of stuff. Owning my own business was a big – my own practice specifically was a big goal for me – and wanting to do that in a way where I knew I would succeed seemed like a smart move.   Jon: Yeah.   Trevor: So I went with, yeah, having like kind of some consultants on board, but it meant something that they weren't just like consultants can be kind of a dirty word, you know, in some ways like the people that definitely collect fees and don't always provide value. They definitely collect fees, right?   Jon: Yup.   Trevor: So, you don't want just an extra expense; you want a lot of value added if you're going to work with somebody, you know. So, that's been nice. They provide a lot of value, a lot of experience, and just peace of mind. That's part of what you pay for, for those things.   Jon: Yeah, for sure, like insurance, right? Like it's almost… that startup insurance sort of – not a guarantee – but if I want to up my chances, how do I spend some money to up my chances of success and not making some of those big mistakes, so that's huge.   Trevor: Yeah. So I paid off my student loans earlier this year. I think we did a pod after that.   Jon: Yeah.   Protect Your Practice: Invest In Disability Insurance [0:06:26]   Trevor: That was key; I felt like I wanted to just get rid of. I wanted to like lower my risk and my downside however I could. I mean, I'm willing to like go bankrupt and lose everything I have at this point in my life.   Jon: Yeah.   Trevor: Practice.   Jon: There's no better time to start a business then, yeah.   Trevor: Right, yeah. Like so you have to think like what scenarios would that be. I mean, one would be like you just pick a terrible location or you can't operate like you have a physical issue. That's where I have disability insurance to cover that side of it, you know.   Jon: Yeah.   Trevor: If you don't ensure your equipment and some of it breaks, that's another downside.   Jon: Yeah.   Trevor: And then just not having enough runway; so not being well-funded, not having the finances to get through a six-month period of barely seeing anybody. Cover that by working for the other practice.   Jon: Yeah.   Trevor: That's an extra – I didn't think I was going to have that, honestly. I thought I was just going to have to move on. So having that gives me like a huge level up in terms of financial safety and then I got a great banking situation. My loan is at a competitive rate. Bank of America has an amazing program for doctors starting up practices.   Jon: You know, they do, and there is – I've talked to a guy from Bank of America. One of my clients bought his family practice and used Bank of America and so I got to chat with that guy a little bit and it is, yeah, seems a little bit unique for medical practices.   Trevor: It's unique. Yeah, I went to Chase for a head-to-head and I bank with Chase. I actually… I really like Chase and I've got a – there's a local guy here in West Michigan who just does a fantastic job. I just talked to him recently. I was like why do you do such a good job like you literally answer

    45 min

  8. 01/01/2024

    Ep 026 - Tax Tips for Young Docs From A CPA

    Summary: What Does Cory Do? [0:02:08] The Moment Cory Decided To Become An Accountant [0:04:04] Critical Key Components: Psychology of Money and Behavioral Finance [0:06:13] Tip: Take Advantage Of That Lower Interest Rate – Invest! [0:10:59] All The Things You Need To Know About Being A CPA [0:11:42] The Start Of The Financial MD "Dinners" [0:14:52] Most Often Asked Question: What Is The Best Tax Deduction? [0:19:04] You Can Do A 401(k) And An IRA At The Same Time [0:24:36] Find Yourself The Right Financial Advisor [0:32:54] Cory’s Piece Of Advice To Residents [0:35:50] Do What You Do Best And Delegate The Rest [0:37:56]     Welcome to the Financial MD Show. This is the only podcast designed specifically for residents and young physicians to help you become educated on financial planning for physicians and avoid many of the common financial mistakes doctors make. Your hosts, Jon and Trevor, explore a different topic with each episode. Jon Solitro is a financial planner and certified financial education instructor. He’s been working with young physicians for the better part of the decade and lectures to graduate medical programs around the country. Dr. Trevor Smith is a board-certified ophthalmologist with a full-time practice and he has learned the ins and outs first-hand what it takes to make smart financial decisions as a young physician. And now here’s your hosts, Jon and Trevor.     Jon: Welcome everybody to today's episode of the Financial MD Show. We're so excited to be back. Dr. Trevor Smith is off, starting his own practice, and I'm sure he'll jump back on and fill us in there. But, today, we've got a special guest/co-host. My good buddy, Cory Lee, a well-established CPA tax expert in the area, is joining us today and I'm super excited. We've got a long history going back that I'm sure we'll dig into a little bit and do some nostalgia recall but, Cory, it's so good to have you today.   Cory: Yeah, I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me.   Jon: Yeah, so, guys, I'll tell you a little bit about Cory from my perspective. I think Cory, you and I, were introduced by – I can't believe I'm remembering this now – I bet it was 2015 or 16 and I think – I remember who it is, for confidentiality's sake, but it was an ER physician and his wife. He was just getting out of residency, pretty sure, and Cory was a friendly guy that was really great at helping this couple and we met through just in the financial planning world. At least, at Financial MD, we try to get to know our clients' other professionals and establish a good working relationship to try to coordinate the whole comprehensive picture. And so, along that way, I met Cory and I was just two or three years in the profession and learning a lot and Cory and I have done a ton of stuff together in the last six, seven years. Cory has been probably the CPA to whom I've sent the majority of my clients by far, and even before then, Cory was working a lot with physicians and probably now a little bit more – thanks to us – over the last six, seven years. But, as you guys know, there's a unique financial situation that young physicians are in and residents and those just starting out and attending that you want to work with somebody that you know and you like and you trust and they know your situation. So that's where Cory comes in here and we'll talk about some of the things we've done together and what Cory's been up to. But, yeah, Cory, tell us about where you came from and what brought you to what you're doing today.   What Does Cory Do? [0:02:08]   Cory: It's like you said, I work a lot with physicians; probably, 70 percent of my businesses is with physicians. I do a lot of tax planning, tax consulting; you know, set up practice-type help; exit strategy planning type of help. I also do business valuation; you know, people who are looking to merge for sell or buy a practice – I help with that. I've just really been CPA for, you know, about 25 years now and just have really enjoyed just helping people out. And to touch on your point, I think we have a good collaboration because we have similar philosophies in that we want to do…we want to help the client…and sometimes that's referring them to other professionals, you know. You have to know your limitations. You have to know what you can do and where you need to be able to refer to somebody else who can help that person out as well.   Jon: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, cool. So, Cory, where did you grow up and go to school and how did you learn how to do what you're doing today?   Cory: So, the short answer is I grew up all over the place. My dad worked as a computer programmer so we moved around a lot as a kid but I ended up, you know, functionally growing up in Troy, Michigan. I went to high school there. I went to college at Michigan State, you know; got my Bachelor's in Accounting there, and then went to Walsh; got a Master's in Finance and MBA there, and just started working in the Metro Detroit area. I've been working here as a CPA ever since.   Jon: And an MBA…okay.   Cory: Yeah.   Jon: See, I didn't know that. It's good. I'm learning stuff about you, too.   Cory: I've got the MBA and the Masters in Finance just to diversify the accounting background just to help people out.   Jon: So two Masters.   Cory: Two Masters.   Jon: Brilliant.   Cory: And then I've got my CPA as well as my CVA just to make sure that I could help business owners, you know, make decisions and just got to be a resource for the clients that I was working with.   Jon: So CVA is certified valuation…?   Cory: Analyst…right.   Jon: Analyst…okay, interesting. Very good. So, at what point does someone like you know they want to be an accountant?   The Moment Cory Decided To Become An Accountant [0:04:04]   Cory: You know, it was high school; in freshman year high school, they did a career counseling, you know, the personality profile testing like career choice kind of testing and the two top ones for me were mortician or accountant.   Jon: Excellent!   Cory: Those were like the two top career choices, and I’m like, oh no, not too fond of dead people, so I'll try this accounting thing. And there was an Intro to Accounting class that I took sophomore year; got 104 percent the first semester; 106 percent this semester; got every question – every test – right, plus all the extra credit that, you know, anytime the teacher asked me a question in class, I knew the answer. It was just…it was just something that I knew. It's something that clicked. I could read it. I could read it once and just know it, you know. So I took more accounting classes sophomore, or you know, junior and senior year and said, hey, I really like this; let's…you know. Michigan State had a really good accounting school so I went there and did really well there so I just got into public accounting and haven't looked back.   Jon: Yeah.   Cory: I just really enjoyed it, you know. It's just one of those things where, you know, when you struggle with science and you struggle with all these different topics and something just clicks and you'd be really good at it, you stick to it.   Jon: Yeah.   Cory: Yeah.   Jon: That's beautiful. So few people are like that where it's like, huh, I like it; I'm really good at it; this makes sense.   Cory: Yeah, I just kind of found what I was good at early on and just have stuck with it and just still enjoy it and, you know what? I get to work with numbers which I prefer – you know, numbers over words – and I get to help people, so those are two things that I really enjoy doing.   Jon: Yeah, very cool, and I think the unique thing that I'll brag about you a little bit on is that you are not the typical accountant in the sense of you have people skills and you know how to talk well and…   Cory: Those have taken some development…yeah. I've definitely done some Toastmasters. I've done some other things to bring myself out of my shell.   Jon: Okay, nice.   Cory: I'm an introvert by nature, of course; you know, to being typical of accounting. You know, there's an accounting stereotype for a reason, but I try and break that mold. I definitely tried and be out of my shell and, you know, talk to people. Because, you know, if you have the information but you're not sharing it, what good is the information?   Critical Key Components: Psychology of Money and Behavioral Finance [0:06:13]   Jon: Yeah, totally, and that's…yeah, if you have the information, right, but it's not getting to people or you can't communicate it well or whatever the case might be, that's so critical. I mean in our field, when I took the CFP a year and a half ago, they had just started introducing the topic of psychology of money and behavioral finance and all that stuff but that's such a critical key component especially because so many good financial planners are good at numbers and data and planning and figuring out but just not that great at the people side of things.   Cory: You have to know the psychology of people to understand what they like, what they don't like, what their risk tolerance is. I mean, there's a lot of different factors to kind of take into consideration.   Jon: Yeah, and what they're saying…I've got a client that is an older client. We've been working for many, many years and she's very frustrated because she didn't get the kind of growth this year that she wanted to in her accounts. And I said, well, because we had you fairly conservative. Last year, you were really upset because you had lost so much in these stock investments that you had, so we switched everything to a little more conservative while still, you know, getting some growth. She had 12 percent in the last nine months, she got, but she wasn't happy because the S&P had done whatever. I was like, well, I didn't think you wanted to be i

    43 min
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Welcome to the Financial MD Show. This is the only podcast designed specifically for residents and young physicians to help you become educated on financial planning for physicians and avoid many of the common financial mistakes doctors make.

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  • Creator
    FinancialMD
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2025
  • Episodes
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