Medical school was a busy time for doctors. However, medical school did an awesome job training us to be a minimalist and to be frugal. So, what happened to doctors? And why are doctors not good savers? Why do a minority of physicians live below their means? Why does over 50% of physicians have less than $1 million in savings? To me, it seems like we forgot about our training.

 

I saw this on SDN forum,  it brought up memories and I think its a good introduction to our topic. 

 

What are your thoughts about the possibility of living a minimal / zen type lifestyle as a med student, resident and practicing physician, particularly in an academic environment? I’m specifically interested about combining this with a subspecialty or specialty like cardiology, ophthalmology, some surgical subspecialty – not psych / primary care working part time. When I say minimal, I mean things like not having kids / having only one kid, not running on the endless academic treadmill of research/practice/teach, not being on a bazillion committees, not buying the newest apple whatever just because you have the money, having a modest middle class house in a place without a crazy HOA, having only one car, etc.

 

 

I’ll say go for it, tiger!! Learn from SheepInABox (that’s the poster’s name) and live the zen life.

 

So how bad is the physician debt problem? 

To better understand the reason I am creating awareness on this matter, let get some data.

 

There was a study conducted by Medscape in 2018 that exposed physicians financial irresponsibilities to the world.

 

The Physician Wealth and Debt Report 2018 conducted a survey of about 3 months duration (November 2017 to February 2018).

 

They managed to get responses from over 20,000 physicians regarding their money habits. 29 specialties were represented in the study. 

 

The most important categories included how physicians manage, spend and invest their hard earned money.

 

 

Important results from the Medscape 2018 report.

1. 58% of physicians have a net worth of less than $1 million. 39% of which were under $500,000. Although years of practice varies, it still hints at an underlying problem. 

 

 

 

2. Even at age 65, one-fourth of physicians still have less than $1 million in savings. Here is Medscape data. 

 

Source – Medscape

 

3. 43% of urologist and family medicine, for example, are still paying off their medical school loans. We pulmonologist are doing well here, only 14%. 

 

Source – Medscape 

 

4. About 10% of physicians are still paying off debt after 50 years of age. 2% were about to carry the loans to their grave at age >65

 

Source – Medscape 

 

5. When they asked about physicians’ spending habit, this is the worst of all in my opinion, only about 45% lived below their means

 

Source – Medscape

 

Half of the physicians surveyed said they typically use up most of their income with a little left over.

 

 

Here are ways medical school trained us to save money and be a minimalist that we have forgotten.

 

1. You can live on 2 briefcases for 4 years

I don’t know about you and where you went to medical school, but that was exactly what I did. I went to medical school in the Netherland Anthiles, it is one of the Carribean islands.

 

To pick up from Toronto, Canada and start living on the island, I had some choices to make on what to bring along with me.

 

Thanks to the airline rules of 2 pieces of luggage per passenger, I was stuck with two briefcases. The limit was also 50 lbs each. So even with the hand luggage, the maximum you can carry with you is essentially about 125 lbs.

 

Interestingly, it seemed like we all adapted quickly to that lifestyle. I probably had about 10 good shirts in total and just recycled them throughout.

 

The fun part of this is that everyone was so focused on their studies that we did not have time to judge other people based on their appearance.

 

As long as you managed to shower and put on something. Perhaps I was naive and assumed wrong. 

 

After the two years on the island, I transitioned to the USA for my clinical after I managed to pass the step 1 exam (otherwise known as the “make or break it exam” for doctors).

 

I did clinicals in multiple states including Kansas City Missouri, Miami Florida, Baltimore Maryland.

 

Many of these rotations were short. For example, my Miami pediatrics rotation was 6 weeks long. So I had to live with a couple, in one of their small rooms on a twin size bed.

 

 

2. You can sleep in a twin size bed for 8 years

Throughout medical school, I had roommates and lived on twin beds for the most part. You might start thinking to yourself, why is this different from college?

 

It is different because I had already completed 4 years of college, and my other friends that chose to work right after were already sleeping in at least a nice queen size bed.

 

So for 4 full years, we lived exactly like we were in college. But it did not phase us. We were focused on the task ahead. To finish medical school and match into residency.

 

Why can’t we focus on financial independence now, and ignore the noise?

 

I mean, you have earned that queen or king sized bed and that’s cool. But why can’t we sacrifice just a bit longer to set ourselves on a solid financial path?

 

3. You can survive without a car for 8 years

I will be the first one to say, life was not easy without a car. However, throughout medical school training on the island, clinical in multiple states, and the first year of residency, I never had a car.

 

I will be honest, if someone gave me a car at that time, I won’t say no. But it just goes to show us how we started assigning importance to things as we grow older.

 

The way I was able to make this work was, I made sure I lived literally inside the hospital or beside the hospital at all time. 

 

This strategy works even now. Why live an hour away from your job and waste gas money and time.

 

Your experience might be different if you had gone to a US medical school or you were rich.

 

But I was what they call in my language (Yoruba) – “the one who rose up from a sinking mud”. Which means, it is a tough feat for you to get your footing in a mud, akin to a poor financial state.

 

 

4. You can use one laptop for 8 years or longer

I used to have a laptop that was the talk of the town. My brother nicknamed it “the dinosaur”. Why? Because it has outlasted every single computer in our house.

 

I used the same laptop through college, medical school and some part of residency until finally, I got the blue screen of death. I was able to fix the software, but soon the laptop started falling apart. Thanks, Lenovo.

 

Why is this story relevant? Our threshold to throw things away has decreased in general as a nation. Why else would someone with Samsung s7 feel the need to change to an s8? It is even worse with iPhones. 

 

I also had my phone S3 till attending hood until it started to freeze and became so slow that Mrsbreatheeasy had to get me a new phone.

 

Even, then, we managed to finance it and we are paying for it through my workplace offering of 100 dollars a month phone reimbursement.

 

The secret to this is to take care of your electronics and everything you own as if you would never be able to get another one.

 

This was easy based on my upbringing. We really cannot afford a replacement. 

 

Perhaps, it’s my upbringing and growing up in Nigeria that has preconditioned me that way.

 

When you get that one toy or shoe every Christmas, you know you are not getting another one till next Christmas. So you guard it with your life.

We tend to appreciate things more, even if it was small.

 

Call it the scarcity mindset if you like, one thing I know is that it has transformed me into a prodigious accumulator of wealth.

 

What happened to us? Many believe it was pent up gratification. I believe, based on our training, we should be beyond this.

What do you think?

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