6 $ Tips I Would Tell Dear Younger Me

I love the song Dear younger me by Mercy Me.

“Dear younger me

I cannot decide
Do I give some speech about how to get the most out of your life
Or do I go deep
And try to change
The choices that you’ll make cuz they’re choices that made me
Even though I love this crazy life
Sometimes I wish it was a smoother ride
Dear younger me, dear younger me.”

This morning when driving to work, this song came on the radio. I decided to write a letter to the dear younger me on some $ tips I wished I had known.

·        Sleep.

I slept no more than 4 hours/night since I was 17, for 15 years. It worked well in college when I was double majoring and had 7 odd jobs, worked well when I was single mother with 2 job in medical school. But I should have gotten help sooner and started sleeping more.

I recently increased my sleep by 50% from 4 to 6 hours and have become a much better person because of it.

·        Roth IRA when you got your first paycheck at 15.

I’ve been working since I was 10, but got my first pay check at 15. If I had been maxing out my Roth IRA since 15, I would have already been financially independent by now 🙂

This is why I’m maxing out my daughter Mini Wise Money’s Roth IRA this year, knowing that she will have more than 300k by the time she retires with just 1 time contribution of 5.5k in 2016. The power of time!

·        Cheap education.

_____ is like sewer; you get out what you put in. I did not need a 400k medical education when I could have rock the boards and matched where I want anyways spending ¼ of the money by attending an out of California medical school. I didn’t know better and applied to too few medical schools (California schools + 1 Ivy League med school.)

·        Eat well.

We are what we eat. Don’t skimp on food!

·        It’s OK to not be #1.

I was #1 in my medical school for 3 semesters. The fear of falling was worse than anything else. I could have smelled the roses so much more and enjoyed more time with my kid if I learned earlier that being #1 really means nothing.

·        Set yourself free: geographically.

In my opinion, California is a “sh**hole” compared to the beautiful Tucson, AZ where I live now. But I didn’t know any better, I was a fresh off boat with all my extended Chinese family in California, no one in the rest of the country. I should have known that each person’s paradise could be a different geographic location. I regret greatly the premium I paid to live in the crowded, congested, polluted cities in California where living was so stressful that little time was spent with the family I was close by.

Explore the country, be open to where you study, train and practice. I found my dream city Tucson, 14 years after I immigrated to the US. If I had been more open, I would have happened upon this great place sooner and saved 300k in medical education!

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Money Chased Me the Second I Stopped Chasing

I was great at chasing. Anything I chased, I got. Go-getter as they called it.

I picked my best friend(s),

I picked my career in medicine,

I picked specialty and residency programs (as they also picked me),

I picked and got what I wanted in life.

Remember the saying, “Be careful what you wish for.” That’s the story of my life.

I want something, I chase it, I get it, and then frequently I proceed to regret it.

I am total workaholic and sleepaphobic, I’d work like a dog on top of medical school and residency if there’s endless lucrative demand for my time. That’s why I decrease the demand for my time by increasing my tutoring/consulting price to right about $400/hour. Supply and demand. Even by putting high premium on my time, I still had it wrong. 
While it is quite easy to decrease the demand on my time by raising the price, it is not so easy to quit working for money all together. After all, that’s what I was taught. Go to school, get good grades, get a solid/secure job, pay bills, and save money.

Reading my hero Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad Poor Dad started a paradigm shift in my mind and my life. I learned that the path I’ve chosen professionally is a path of life-long learning at the extreme opportunity costs of becoming filthy rich. I have no doubt I would have already reached financial independence today, at age 32 if I dedicated the same amount of time, energy, and discipline to money rather than medicine.

So I stopped working for money.

I work to learn and to serve instead. That’s why I have not dropped out of residency or medicine all together. I am no longer trading my time in for money. I’m not waiting for future to enjoy the not-so-large-post-tax attending paycheck. I love and embrace today because I’m using my most precious assets, my time and my mind for more knowledge and for service to others.
As my focus switches from making money to pay bills and take care of family to finding ways to serve those around me better, either with medicine as a radiology resident or with money knowledge as a blogger and speaker, money started chasing after me.

I’ve made more money this year than I would have imagined from all the creative outlets I’ve developed from shear interest in others’ well-being, passion share to share, and my innate desire to reach out and collaborate. I didn’t make millions; I just made more than I’d ever thought, especially I didn’t give thought to how much I would make for what I did.

I work to serve and to learn.

As I continue to focus my limited energy and time (the most I can squeeze out is now 17 hours/day as I know sleep 6 hours/night and do half to 1 hour yoga/day) on service and knowledge. I feel at rest with a sense of conviction that my family and I are well taken care of with my simple passive investment principles. Doors of opportunities continue to open to me, and money just poor in without me trying.

 If you like this article, you might enjoy other DWM articles on Personal Finance, Investing, Retirement, Practice Management, & Lifestyle.

All articles by DWM are for informational purposes only and not intended as a substitute for professional advice. Please consult a professional accountant, financial adviser or lawyer, before making financial decisions.

Top 5 Ways Yoga Helps Make Me a Millionaire

After a decade of hardly exercising, I decided to take care of my health at last. I started a 30 day yoga challenge, doing home yoga practice with YouTube instructor the same time I started recording “30 Day Mindful Financial Practice with Dr. Wise Money.”
Beyond the 30 days, I continue to practice yoga for 30-90 minutes daily and have benefited tremendously from my practice, which is full of challenges, flaws, and the excitement of trying new things and making progress.
While I was on my yoga mat this morning, I realized that Yoga has taught me many things about life, and about personal finances. Here I share the top 5.

1.     Self-love.
As I care of myself, I am learning to love myself. Something honestly, I did not how to do very well. The yoga instructor said that curiosity is a form of self-love. Staying curious is great way to make progress in life’s all dimensions, definitely in personal finances as well.
The more I love myself, the more I can love others, and the less I love “things” particularly inanimate objects without souls. I feel no desire to buy anything and am perfectly content with all the already comfort I already have.

2.     Mindfulness.
Without mindfulness, yoga practice can be dangerous. There are plenty of opportunities to twist a joint or fall flat on my face on the mat. While medical training has conditioned us to perpetually live in the future, ridden with anxiety and fear for the unknown. Only living in the present provides peace and practicing yoga has taught me to be in the present.
Planning for my future, such as balancing saving (at a rate sufficient to allow me to retire by 2023) and spending today, requires presence of mind. I am here now; I hereby release the fear of financial insecurity from my childhood; I hereby also let go of the fear of the unknown in the future. I embrace all that I am blessed with today with gratitude.

3.     Adventure.
Fortune favors the brave. While many are scared of using credit cards to help them build wealth. I combine the spirit of adventure with mindfulness, and have been able to accelerate the growth of my net worth using exactly credit cards.
Borrowing money from the big banks at zero to negative interest rate has allowed me to save 60k of interest on medical school student loans, max out my retirement savings, stretch my limited PGY dollars, and have a flexible and sizable rainy day fund.

4.     Resilience.
Mom always says there are always more solutions than problems. That’s exactly what doing daily yoga has confirmed for me. There was a time when I worked 7 odd jobs in college to help pay down my parents 30% interest rate credit card debt.
Guess what, that’s how I learn the ins and outs of credit cards, and now have turned the table around to use these cards to help build my dream and achieve financial independence much sooner than I would have without the assistance of credit cards!

5.     Benevolence to all.
Namaste means “the light in me bows to the light in you.” What a beautiful way to interact and perceive another being. When I respect and have good will towards all those around me, it is hard to Not succeed at all that I put my heart to.
When I freely share the painful lessons I learned from my struggles and mistakes, those who are open and benefit from my sharing, send back such positive energy, which fuels me to do more, serve more, and greater success comes as a side product.

In short, Yoga has taught me to care myself and others, with mindfulness, adventure and resilience. I will become a millionaire much sooner than I anticipated. Will keep you posted!
Join me today in loving and caring for yourself and those around you. Start here and now, “30 Day Mindful Financial Practice with Dr. Wise Money”!

 

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3 Things Society Doesn’t Know About Doctors

A Chinese folktale goes like this,

 

A magnificent Buddha statute sits at the mountain top where worshipers climb 100’s of 1000’s steps of stairs to arrive at his foot and to kneel down in prayers.

One day, the slab of stones from the winding stair cried out to the Buddha, “We are made from the same stone carved from this very mountain. Why is it that every day thousands of people step on me to kneel at your feet in prayers?”

The Buddha, serenely, with one tear down his cheek, “Do you know how many slashes and burns, how much hurt I endure to be who I am today?”

 

To some degree, the story of the Buddha and the stairs parallel those of US doctors and the rest of the society. Do you wish to be the Buddha or the stairs?

 

Many days of my life, I’ve wished that I have chosen to be the stairs. In fact, I’d happy to serve a purpose in our society, even if it means that it’s not perceived as prestigious as being a physician. A function, a service is all I want to provide my fellow human beings.

 

Yet I was dreamy, I chose medicine as my primary way to serve my neighbors, near and far, anyone who’s brought to the hospital where I work. I did not know how hard a(n aspiring) doctor’s life is. How much it demands of me and of my loved ones.

 

  • What we have gone through to complete medical school is nothing short of epic. For one thing, how does one focus on learning, studying so much material (2 weeks in medical school covers 1 year of undergraduate upper division science class), while enduring the financial stress of borrowing 100k a year @ 7% interest rate while in school?

 

  • For many, just getting into medical school exhausts all resources and energy they have… then they are expected to perform like super human the day med school starts.

 

  • The residency match was yet another bizarrely inefficient and antiquated torture for the aspiring physicians and their loved ones. I was on the road, away from my 5 year old for 6 months, traveling from one city to another across the country, speed dating residency programs, spending 1 day/1 night at each program. The whole job search for a residency spot that pays 50k/year cost 20k of traveling expenses, not to mention the damage done by forcing our partners to be single parents, and our kids to have absentee parents. The only explanation offered to our little ones was, “daddy/mommy is gone because he/she is trying to find a job.”

 

The worst part of this all is that, our society does not see the burns and slashes of medical training, all they see is the magnificent Buddha sitting at the mountain top, worshiped and prayed to.

 

Next time someone remarks that doctors have it easy, please take a few minutes and share your journey with them. If you don’t have time to so, share an article or two about physician suicide with these people who think that doctors should be from the public service loan forgiveness program because they make too much money.

 

We, doctors or not, are in fact made of the same material.

 

While doctors don’t expect to receive charity or pity from what we endure, we could certainly use some understanding and support from those around us by raising awareness regarding what it really takes to pursue and practice medicine.

 

While the majority of press attention doctors get are the few bad apples who defame our profession, we could make a change, by starting a grassroots movement. Share with our patients and the society at large what we are truly about. We need to shed light on and reform antiquated physician training/schooling styles and protocols. We need to remove the causes of physician suicides. Shedding light on rather than covering up the problem is the first step to finding solutions.

 

Please join me in Physician Support Initiative (P.S.I.) 

P.S.I.  aims to raise awareness, empower, and support doctors & their community in maximizing their individual and collective wellness in all of life’s dimensions, encompassing personal, professional, psycho-social, and financial health.

Personal Finance, Investing, Retirement, Lifestyle More articles like this on Physician’s Money Digest.

Money, Medicine, Motherhood, & the Presence of Mind: Moving up in Life

As I was on my mat today at a Yoga class, getting my as* kicked. I realized that I’ve progressed through four learning stages of my life… although at times still oscillating between the last 2 most challenging discipline to study and practice: Motherhood & the Presence of Mind.

While some many want to you to believe money matters are complicated, the study of finance is never ever even 1/1000th of the complexity, depth and breath of medicine.  Medicine has never been that challenging compared to motherhood for me. Then lastly, the presence of mind has been the greatest challenge of all. So the progression of greater complexity and challenge from learning and practicing the study of money, medicine, motherhood, and to the eventual presence of mind is a personal journey that I’d like to share with you today.

Money

Any 2nd grader who’s mastered subtraction and addition can manage money. It’s the attitude and actual practice of money knowledge that’s challenging. A blessing in disguise was my parents’ financial insolvency and my extreme fear of debt developed as a child when Taiwanese Mafia creditors bang on our door, demanding pay back.

I’ve never made a lot of money in my life, the most was 60k in 2015 from PGY2 W2 income + a little side income from tutoring. Yet I’ve managed the little I had and became completely debt free, with a sizable retirement and college savings for Mini Wise Money today (8/17/2016.)

I knew how to manage money before I knew how to practice the other 3 M’s.

Medicine

Medicine was my passion, 2nd to only motherhood. Medicine was much harder than money, much easier than motherhood to master. I worked 2 jobs in medical school as a single mother and managed the top of my class.

Medicine fascinates and captivates me. I gobbled up as much knowledge as I could and practice my doctor skills whenever I could, so that I could be a good doctor, someone deserving of being entrusted with another’s life.

Motherhood

Although I became a mother before I started medical school, I didn’t start learning about what it truly means to be a mother until recently. A tad late, you may say, as Mini Wise Money is turning 9 years old soon.

I struggle a lot with mommy’s guilt. I left Mini home with my partner during interview-audition-rotation season as an OMS4. I was absent for nearly 6 months physically. Not to count the innumerable days when I was absent mentally from shear exhaustion of sleep deprivation (I slept 4 hours/night for 15 years until recently).

It’s not whining when female physicians talk about the challenges of balancing motherhood with medicine, not to even mention marriage and me time. Any of these components take the lion’s share, the rest will suffer. Unfortunately, medicine takes the lion’s share in most cases.

While I’ve mastered money matters and developed a sound footing in medicine, I’m still a total rookie in motherhood. I do notice however, learning to become a better mother definitely make me better at medicine too.

Presence of Mind

This is the real challenge, how do I be present, here, now. Writing an article and not think about Mini, listening to Mini’s excited jokes and not thinking about studying more neuro-radiology chapters, doing questions in radiology board bank and not wishing I’m taking Mini out to Fantastics, and doing yoga on the mat while thinking about the next money article I’m writing.

It’s not easy to stop chasing my own tail and start living in the moment.

I find yoga helpful for increasing my awareness, mindfulness, and intention. The one hour I’m nearly 90% present is when I’m on the yoga mat in a yoga class listening to the instructor and willing my body into creating more space and decompress.

I hope you find your presence of mind too because it naturally makes you better in the other M’s: Money, medicine, and parenthood!

If you see a colleague stuck in one of the stages, lend a helping hand. Invite him or her on a hike, to a yoga class, or something else, in hopes of bringing their attention to the happiness and potential of this very moment.

 If you like this article, you might enjoy other DWM articles on Personal Finance, Investing, Retirement, Practice Management, & Lifestyle.

All articles by DWM are for informational purposes only and not intended as a substitute for professional advice. Please consult a professional accountant, financial adviser or lawyer, before making financial decisions.