First Blog Post – Better Late Than Never

We all have those blog drafts that never made it to a blog post. I put in the work to write it but never had the courage to post it. So here it is. The post finds its home in the random section.

Consider this the longer version of the about page

I am a husband and father, a physician by trade, but forever a lifelong learner. My origins are of Nigeria but migrated to various parts of the world, from Canada to the Netherland Antilles, until finally settling down in the USA. I am good with change and always excited to take on a new challenge. Evidence by my moves and now starting this blog.

I enjoy storytelling and writing. After taking an expressive writing course in college, I was hooked. More importantly, blogging is a platform to reach more people than doing it one by one. If done well, it is quite effective. That is how I learn many things from savings, investment, budgeting to earning more. There is essentially a blog for anything and everything nowadays.

The $300k Student Loan Destruction

After medical school, my student loan debt was in excess of $200,000. With interest over time, it settled around $300,000. The matter was compounded when I met Mrs. Breathe Easy Finance as she had some student loan she acquired from a nursing degree too.

We had our work cut out for us. We lived as a minimalist, in 2 bedroom apartment shared with a roommate. In Summit New Jersey, that is the only way to bring the rent cost down to $700 in a good area of town. In residency, I was unable to moonlight and thus unable to pay much of the loan.

During my fellowship, our program allows what was termed “extra resident coverage”. This allowed me to earn extra income as we transitioned to one income family at that time. It was not easy as pulmonary critical care fellowship itself was very demanding, together with wife and kids, but I buckled down and got it done. We started paying off the student loan debt from fellowship. Every dollar went to the loan after the basics.

By the end of fellowship, the loan was about $150,000 remaining. We dumped the stipend, sign-on bonus and almost every dollar we had into the loans. My job also paid about $36,000 of the loan. Within 6 months after fellowship training, about 5 months into my real job, we were debt-free.

I started the blog a few months after fellowship training to help other young professionals like me to get out of debt. Check out our get out of debt series for awesome and equally insane debt slaying stories from guests. 

More background

Growing up in Nigeria, there was the common belief that there is one thing you cannot trust anyone else with, and you guessed it – your money.

This cannot be truer. Based on my background, living with frugality was the overarching principle as basic resources were limited. So, what you had, you guarded it carefully.

The culture was different, in the sense that, you had to save to buy. There was no credit card or 36 months payment plan.

The concept of a mortgage wasn’t mainstream or perhaps nonexistent. We saved and built houses, therefore owning a house was a great achievement. In Nigeria, an expensive vehicle was a luxury only known to the rich. However, in the west, when I see people with large homes and expensive vehicles, I asked the question, are those people living above their means? Thank you, Thomas J Stanly (Author of the millionaire next door).

Check out the awesome review describing the 7 lessons I learned from The book – Millionaire next door. 

Having lived in several countries, there is a stark difference in how cultures perceive and handle money. I heard –“ Just put it on the credit card,” for the first time when I migrated to Canada. It seems as if people lived on credit.

I was also introduced to the world of subscription services. It was like a plague, every time I tried to eliminate one, another one popped up. When I tried to free myself from cable, I found myself in the bondage of Netflix and Sling. Although overall cheaper, I gave up cable for two subscriptions. These were some of my initial assessments of poor financial habits of the western world.

Despite these differences, I was impressed by other aspects of the financial system. One of them is the retirement accounts.

The awesomeness of retirement accounts

I was introduced to retirement accounts. The availability of this is widespread, although as I have alluded to in the other post, not everyone takes advantage of it. While there is a government pension in Nigeria, you will be wise not to depend on this. The retirement account, on the other hand, gives you more control. It is your money and you can withdraw anytime as long as you are above the required age. If you have not noticed, I like control over my finance.

Blog idea

The concept of building wealth did not solidify in my mind until when I finished medical school and was fortunate enough to come across the white coat investor. I slowly digested the materials on the site, and I quickly found myself reading books, blogs and various websites on finances, and watching YouTube videos.

As I became more knowledgeable, I started telling people about the basics of personal finance and encouraged my friends to improve their knowledge too. In residency and fellowship, often time my colleagues do not know what 401k really is.

Try asking what the difference between 401k and 403b is. Backdoor Roth IRA gets me a suspicious look like I was trying to do something illegal. Backdoor what?

My first strategy was to start helping my friends and colleagues open accounts, direct them to the right blogs, borrowed them my books. Multiple phone calls and text messages ensued about what to do about a certain financial dilemma.

Common questions

Should I open a Roth IRA as a resident or register for the 401k?

Should I pay my 6% interest student loan or contribute to my 401k?

What do you think about Robo-advisors – wealthfront and betterment?

How do I open an investment account?

Soon I realized that I need a better platform. The idea for a blog for the baby and toddler financial concept is born.

Why did I choose Dr. Breathe Easy Finance?

Dr breathe easy finance came about in series. I have always love “breathe easy” because I am a pulmonologist. Then came Dr breathe easy naturally as a doctor. A friend and colleague suggested that I add something that shows what I stand for in my name. Wallah! Drbreatheeasyfinance was born. Although I did a debate for a long time whether to get rid of one of the “e” in breathe easy, I finally kept it.

My Goal

My goal is to offer the perspective I have gained based on my background and experience from reading and doing so far. I also ventured where some do not venture- like cryptocurrencies- Yes I did! Perhaps I will write a blog about what I learned from it at some time. I even attempted to day trade crypto. It did not end well. 

Education

While not as relevant to the blog as much, I feel it might help if you know where I am coming from. I have my undergraduate degree in mathematics and biology in Toronto. I am a pulmonary and critical care doctor. My practice location is in a small town of 90,000 people in the southern part USA. My background in mathematics helps with understanding the number of crunches associated with financial concepts. As you can see, I do not have a degree in finance nor have a doctorate in financial planning. I do my best to read up on a concept that is exciting and useful- sometimes I only achieve one of the two feats or none, but hey! I try. The blog is presented with my own personal opinion and twists about it.

Who Should Subscribe To This Blog?

Whoever wants to learn the basics of personal finance. If you are tired of making excuses and want to move forward financially. We are also part of the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) movement. Our goal is for everyone to achieve financial independence and have more choices in life, including early retirement.

This is not for the advanced people as this is a documentation of my learning journey in a way. So if you are a guru, sure come by and give us your input and educate us. We are happy to learn from you.

Some cornerstone post to start with :

How to build your financial planning pyramid

12 Toddler steps to financial freedom 

How to budget your money to live the life you want – with budget template and free E-Book

Adebayo

 | Website

I am a pulmonary and critical care doctor by day and personal finance blogger/debt slaying ninja by night.

After paying off close to $300,000 in student loan debt in less than 6 months into my real job, I started on a mission to help others achieve the same. There is no magic to this than to strap up and get it done. Some of the ways we achieved this include side hustle, budgeting, great negotiation skills, and geographical arbitrage.

When I was growing up, common knowledge in Nigeria is that there is one thing you cannot trust anyone else with, and you guessed it – your money.

Being frugal came easily to me based on my background. However, the concept of building wealth did not solidify in my mind until when I finished medical school. I wish I knew what I know now when I was 14. Still, I don’t know enough and I am constantly learning to improve my knowledge.

My goal is to reduce financial illiteracy among young professionals. I am catering to the beginners – babies and toddlers in financial literacy.