Sometimes you don’t have to shop. Sometimes you Can do it yourself.
Know Thy Worth & Be Thy Boss.
I’ve been asked many times, by either (prospective) employers, colleagues, business partners, & potential clients, “how do you manage to charge $388/hr for tutoring?” My answer is always, “it’s simple matter of supply and demand.”
My hourly rate is determined by a track record of success and straight forward economics–supply and demand dictates the equilibrium price. I believe that the most precious commodity along the path of pursuing medicine, or life in general, is time: the only irrecoverable resource. So efficiency is my #1 priority when I’m my own boss. I often advise students against tutoring more hours with me beyond the point when I think they are ready. Prospective students simply need to decide between working with another tutor for 6-10 hrs or working with me for 1 hour.
I started tutoring at 10 years old. I tutored for free initially. It was fun for me. I love the moments when the “light bulb goes on” in my peers. I find learning so much more interesting when other people’s welfare in addition to my own depended on how well I learned. I guess that was an early sign that medicine would appeal to me. I relish the challenge and the privilege of someone else’s well-being weighing on my shoulder. It somehow made what I do more meaningful than if I were to just do it solely for myself.
Then in 10th grade, I started charging $10/hr for tutoring AP sciences. I loved it. I was the favorite of teachers & parents, many of whom confided in me all their worries about their kids’s academic performance and future prospects. I felt that not only was I helping the student acing AP tests, but also I was somehow part of their household harmony.
I continued to tutor in college. I worked for tutoring companies at first. Ecstatic at the pay raise, $23/hr, when I saw the newspaper ad. Only to learn that I was to drive to students’ home, in Bay Area traffic, pay for gas and maintenance for my car, foot the occasional car accident bills because I was so tired and distracted trying to find new students’ houses all over Bay area.
It came down to about $5/hr of my time, way worst then when I was my own boss in high school, when it was a solid $10/hr plus I had free rides, free food, and made my own schedule. The worst thing in working for others (tutoring companies) was to learn that my students paid my boss $65/hr while I got $5/hr.
Then I said to myself, “screw this. I’m not going to let some talker business man eat off my back when I’m doing all the hard work.” So I quit all my jobs where I was not my own boss. I put my credentials, experiences, tutoring results, student testimonials, & CV on craigslist. Before long, I was getting tutoring requests left and right at $23/hr, with students coming to where I am (so no driving, no getting lost, no parking tickets, no car accidents). I tutored the hours I wanted; I made the curriculum myself.
Shortly after my craigslist advertisement went up, I could not keep up with the demand of tutoring requests. So I said to myself, instead of working like a dog to fulfill every tutoring request, I’m going to raise my hourly rate, until I can comfortably satisfy the demand & still take care of my other responsibilities and still go out with my friends and have a life.
I continued to tutor because I love teaching and being my own boss. After Mini was born, students came straight to my house, paid me $100/hr, and were so understanding towards my role as a mother that I could put Mini in a front sleeper/carrier and tutor at the same time.
Did I say I love being my own boss?
I continued to tutor throughout medical school and into residency, as I take on more responsibilities in my medical training, & Mini demands more intellectual engagement, I had fewer & fewer hours allotted to tutoring. Yet, I still had lots of demands… more than I could fill.
So I kept increasing my hourly rate, to the peak of $420/hr while still in California. Now, I’m perfectly content with the equilibrium price of $388 for the past 2 years.
This was my journey of discovering & living how wonderful it is to be my own boss. I like getting paid for what I think my time is worth.
How about you? Have you ever felt overworked and underpaid like I did when I made $5/hr working hard?
Would you like to work smart and be your own boss, at least in a side gig (if you main job is a W2 job like me)? What product or service would you render?
Comment below!
p.s. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t make 100k last year tutoring. I just made about 10k… which was just 26 hours of tutoring, averaging one hour every other week tutoring. That’s where I am happy. So if demand goes up at this price, I’d increase my hourly rate. If my time becomes even more limited, I’d increase my rate too 🙂 If you or someone you know wants a rockstar tutor/ standardized test strategist, you can find out more about my service here. Ace that test!
The Monday Muse (5/23/16)
The Monday Muse aims to serve as a weekly booster for our financial fitness, setting the tone of a successful week in all areas of our lives. With so many wonderful writers/bloggers sharing their experiences and insights, I frequently feel like yelling out their articles from the top of my lungs, so everyone could hear and benefit from these priceless lessons.
Each Monday Muse will share several articles I’ve read recently and found inspiring, instructional, & actionable: mostly in personal finances, but could also be pertinent to other areas of our lives. After all, our lives are not as compartmentalized as we thought. If various aspects of our lives are truly that segregated from one other, why would financial stress cause burn-out in physicians?
So here you go, I’m on the top of my little DWM mountain, shouting out to you. Enjoy!
This week’s Monday Muse (5/23/16):
20 Steps to Effective DIY Investing by my new #1 favorite blogger PoF
Annually Renewable Term Insurance by my all time mentor WCI
The Costs of Being a Doctor by Ahmed Yousaf M.D. on NEJM
37 Things That Separate Financially Secure Individuals From The Pack by medschoolfinancials
Net Worth Update (April 2016) by my comrade blogger WCM
Off you go, to great places, doing great things this week!
-DWM & Mini
A Cardiologist’s Daughter Got Herself 200k of College Scholarship.
Dear DWM readers,
As you are (soon to be) high income professionals, many are concerned that your kids may never qualify for financial aid. One of my attending radiologists was advised by his financial manager that to save 600k for each of his 2 kids’ college costs. After sharing the top 10 ways Mini Wise Money would pay for her own college, I’d like to share with you an incredible true story about a brilliant, determined, confident young lady, who knew her worth and refused to take “no” for a”no.”
At the tender age of 18, she dared to negotiate with the director of admissions & the director of financial aid at prestigious liberal art private college in California, as a visiting Arizona high school senior. She also happened to be the daughter of a successful cardiologist and school teacher 🙂
We have no financial relationship.
“How I Made my Dream College Affordable” By Pre-Med College Junior
Although I wasn’t sure exactly where I wanted to go to college, it had always been my dream to get out of my home state. For that dream to come true, I needed a huge amount of financial aid, first of all because my father was only planning on paying in-state tuition, second of all because I couldn’t stomach asking him to cover the ridiculous cost of out-of-state tuition, and lastly because I was not, under any circumstance, going to take out student loans for my undergraduate education. I resolved that if I could get enough scholarship money to attend an out-of-state university for less than the face value in-state tuition of my state school, I would be justified in asking my father to send me there.
I didn’t know much in the way of scholarships, so my first step was going to my high school college counselor. I asked for specific information on how to get large merit scholarships and names of specific ones I could apply to, but she wasn’t much help with that. She did, however, give me a key piece of advice regarding choosing schools to apply to if I really was determined to go out of state. She told me to stay away from big state universities, and focus instead on smaller, private schools. I hadn’t pictured myself at a small liberal arts college, but if it meant that I could get enough money to go out of state, I was willing to make it work. After researching schools and visiting some campuses, I selected a pool of eleven schools to which I applied, including my home state university.
The letters of acceptance that followed informed me of my financial aid award and the estimated net cost tuition and fees. Some schools offered me a substantial sum of merit scholarships, and others significantly less. Those that gave me minimal amount of money, no matter how infatuated I was with the school, were immediately eliminated from consideration. From there, my choices of out of state universities came down to four schools. The net cost of two of the schools was still outside of my range of affordability, but I kept them in consideration hoping that there was a way I could get more aid.
I went to each of the four schools’ preview days to assist in making my final decision. After the first two preview days, I decided that I really wanted to go to school in California, leaving me a choice between two final schools. I wasn’t completely attracted to one university over the other until I visited the second campus, when I decided that that was my dream university. Unfortunately, that school was one of the ones still just outside my affordability range, offering me much less money than the school I liked less, which I would have been able to attend for less than my state university.
Nevertheless, at each preview day, my mother and I attended the session where students and parents have an opportunity to meet with the university’s financial aid department to discuss financing their education. On the preview day of my favorite school, my mom and I were sitting in the waiting area for our appointment when we were approached by the director of financial aid. Although she was merely coming over to be friendly and ask how we were doing, I cut right to the chase and told her that I really wanted to attend the school but that I didn’t receive enough money to be able to. I took it a step further by pointing out that other schools offered me much larger scholarships, and that between my grades, test scores, and extracurriculars, I thought that I deserved more merit money than I had been awarded.
It was very apparent that the director was taken back by my bluntness. She replied that even though I may have had an impressive resume, many good students apply to the school, and left us on the note that she hoped we could figure things out. That said, she came back just a few moments later and told me that I should write a letter to the director of admissions explaining my situation and my reasons for feeling that I deserved more scholarship money. Shortly after, my mother and I were called in for our scheduled appointment with financial aid, which wasn’t much help in the way of obtaining more money. When leaving the financial aid session, the director of financial aid and director of admissions were waiting for us by the exit. The director of financial aid introduced us to the director of admissions, and then they wished us a safe trip home. On the car ride home, I feverishly wrote my letter to the director of admission and sent it off.
I put off deciding between the two schools because one was so much better financially, but I was so much more attached to the other. Then, I received a letter from my preferred university, informing me that I had been awarded another merit scholarship. The additional money altered the net cost for the school so greatly that I could attend for less than the cost of my state university, and the decision was made. I am now attending my dream school, an institution with an estimated tuition and fees of over $60,000, for less than it would cost to go to my state school.
I’m so incredibly proud of this young lady. She also has another amazing journey to share. Just last summer, she overcame a mysterious bout of spinal infection which required spinal decompression surgery. Her case remained a million-dollar-work-up-unsolved-mystery, which only led her to be stronger and more determined in her pursuit of medicine. I can truly say that she’s the Most accomplished person I have ever met at such a young age. And I know that she will be a phenomenal doctor one day.
Mini Wise Money: The Apple of My Eye
A Tribute to the Apple of My Eye
Kiss Ella’s forehead
“Mommy will come pick you up in two months.”
Watch her cry with her arms outstretched for me
A calling
Passion for learning
Resolve to challenge and develop myself into
A DOCTOR
His doctor, her doctor
The doctor of a little girl
Precious and extraordinary in her mother’s eyes
Like Ella
The doctor of a grandmother
Singularly amazing and unconditionally loving to her grandchild
Like Ella
The doctor of a father
Who may have to kiss his little girl good-bye
Forever
I know why I forego tucking Ella in for many nights
I know why I kissed Ella good-bye
I wrote this poem during my first week of medical school, August of 2010. It explains my motivation for pursuing medicine and ideals for serving patients & their families. Mini Wise Money (aka Ella), my then three-year-old daughter, is the most precious person in my life. When she catches the flu, I treat her throughout the night regardless of major exams I have the next day. A couple times I miss class to take her to the doctor. Depending on the pediatrician, Ella may scream and kick to resist medical examination or fully oblige. As I observe various doctoring styles, I commit myself to providing effective and empathetic medical care as a student physician. To best serve the community, I extend my innate drive to nurture Ella to all patient encounters.
At the Student Run Health Clinic, I work with colleagues of various disciplines to improve the health of medically under-served population. Because SRHC is free to the community, I embrace the luxury to spend as much time with each patient as needed. I conduct thorough patient history and physical exam. Under the supervision of Dr. Lopes, a board certified physician, I perform osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) on patients and provide health education.
For instance, I treated an elderly man with recent prostatectomy, which my grandfather had also gone through. It was natural to partner and communicate with him like I would with my grand father. He shared much personal and medically relevant information; I felt very privileged to receive such trust. I performed several OMT techniques, which ameliorated his post-operative pain and swelling. Seeing his frown soften into a smile with OMT reminded me of massaging grandpa’s forehead as a child. While my grandfather lived 400 miles away, I was grateful to treat and connect with a patient like him. He said that visit was the most thorough and empathetic medical care he had ever received. Then, he came to his follow up appointment and brought his wife as a new patient.
Volunteering at SRHC refreshes and grounds me. When my neck and shoulder ache from nine hours of dense clinical science lectures, I think of the little children like Ella and the elderly like my grand father. My desire to improve their health continually expands my appetite for medical skills and knowledge. Community service will always be integral to my personal fulfillment and professional success.
I wrote the above in 2012 when I was applying for a leadership position at the SRHC (Student Run Health Clinic) at Touro University College of Medicine CA. 4 years have flown by, I feel the same about the Apple of my eye & feel the same about choosing medicine to serve others.
- How do you balance motherhood(parenthood) with medicine?
- What are your passions in life? Do you sometimes feel pushed and pulled in many ways?
- What are the most important lessons you’ve learned from the Apple of your eye?