Author: Sunrise Transcription

Adrian Peterson (AP) made news lately. And it’s not because he is breaking records. In fact, he is breaking in a completely different way. The news that “broke” is that AP is, well, broke. Despite being one of the most prolific running backs to ever play the game, Adrian Peterson’s money problems are impressive. The story outlines how they feel that AP landed in such a bad spot, and I think there is a lot that high-income earning medical professionals can learn from his bad financial situation.

Don’t for a second think that these same things can’t happen to you. In fact, I’d argue that many of the mistakes AP has made are common among doctors, too.

2. A high income will not save you

Peterson made close to $100 million during his NFL running back career.

While a high-income can allow you to make some financial mistakes, it doesn’t give you a pass on math. If you spend more than you make – which is common in our country – it will eventually catch up with you.

While we don’t earn $100 million during our careers, we do earn multiple millions. Yet, we see all the time that it doesn’t matter how much money doctors make. Many of us end up in dire financial straits, too. Remember that over 50% of doctors cannot retire at age 65 and maintain their current lifestyle.

3. Living in debt

Another key thing to take away from AP’s situation is what got him there. He borrowed money in order to pay off other debts. The problem with conducting life this way is that the debt will eventually have to be paid.

Around 10-20% of physicians have recurring credit card debt. Of course, 80% of physicians also graduate medical school with an average student loan burden around $200,000. Many doctors also have finances car loans.

At some point, this debt will come calling. When we inflate our lifestyles to the extent that we cannot make serious headway on our debt, we must realize that it will come for us eventually.

Instead of taking a passive route towards dealing with debt, we need to make a plan.

Look at all of your debt and choose whether you’ll pursue a debt snowball or debt avalanche method to paying it all off. Choose to pursue public service loan forgiveness (PSLF) or refinance your student loans. If you don’t know which to choose, consider getting a student loan consult from an expert.

In fact, I encourage you to write down very specific goals. How much will you pay each month? When will it be paid off? Write it down, and then go be the same dedicated and determined person that got you into medical school in the first place.

4. Get your financial education

A strong financial education would have prevented many of Peterson’s mistakes. Fighting against behavioral finance is challenging. Even for those of us who read and write about it.

If you don’t read solid financial books and continue to educate yourself, you will be 100% on the advice of others. I’ll refer you to point 1 above to see why that can be problematic.

Instead, educate yourself enough to become financially literate. That way, you can fight fair with the financial industry. And you’ll also be able to build a financial plan that works for you.

5. Give from a position of strength

I am not sure if this applies to AP’s situation, but many athletes spend too much money out of generosity.

Making it to professional sports is not a solo journey. There are people who took you to practices and games, bought the equipment, and others who coached you. There are also friends who stuck by their sides through thick and thin. When they finally make it to the big show, there are a lot of people who want a slice of the pie.

These days, professional athletes commonly buy the house for mom and cars or Rolexes for their friends. All of this spending catches up quickly. Even when you earn millions of dollars. When careers are cut short or they get called on their debt, many athletes end up as broke as when they got there.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with giving to other people. That’s not my point. In fact, I encourage people to give to causes that they back while they build wealth.

My point is that you need to take care of yourself, too. Make sure that you have paved a path to early financial independence, and that you’ve dealt with your debt.

Then, once all of your debt is gone, it will free up even more cash flow so that you can benefit others. If you start out giving away 10% of your take-home pay, maybe you can go up by 1 or 2% each year after you pay off your debt. Pretty quickly, you’ll be helping others more than you can imagine. And you’ll be doing it without the same risk of falling into financial ruin.

Give to others along the way, but remember to take care of your financial needs first. Then, give from a position of strength.

Take home

Remember, there is no amount of wealth that protects you from financial ruin if you don’t learn this stuff. Without a solid financial education, you are sure to make grave financial mistakes.

There is a better way, which is to get your financial education so that you can make a plan for your debt, know what good advice looks like, and achieve your financial goals.

James Turner, also known as “The Physician Philosopher,” is an anesthesiologist who blogs at his self-titled site, The Physician Philosopher. He is the author of The Physician Philosopher’s Guide to Personal Finance: The 20% of Personal Finance Doctors Need to Know to Get 80% of the Results.

Yes, it really is time to revoke the health care mandates issued by bureaucrats who are not in the profession of actual healing.

Daniel F. Craviotto Jr. writes in the Wall Street Journal, “In my 23 years as a practicing physician, I’ve learned that the only thing that matters is the doctor-patient relationship.”

Craviotto, Jr. is a doctor who embodies the fight of direct care. How we interact and treat our patients truly is the practice of medicine. There’s a problem with the rising cost of health care. (For starters, Oregon spent over $1,000 per subscriber on just a website to sign up for coverage that might not even provide a doctor.)

And there’s a larger problem when the individual physician in the trenches doesn’t have a voice in the debate. Bureaucrats are telling doctors what they can and can’t do.

And that needs to stop.

As a group, the nearly 880,000 licensed physicians in the U.S. are, for the most part, well-intentioned. Does anyone endure the gauntlet that is a residency program — 10+ years of training — to do anything except their best work?

Yes, the demands on physicians are great, and many of our families pay a huge price for our unwavering commitment. But shouldn’t our nation take great shame in knowing fee-for-service docs tack on 2+ hours of transcription every working day just to get paid, maybe, for the work they’ve already done?

How can bureaucracy, split between so many non-practitioners, own up to the cleavage of time that it brings upon the very people working to keep our nation healthy?

When do we say damn the mandates and requirements from bureaucrats who are not in the healing profession?

How do we stand up and say we aren’t going to take it any more?

For starters, we say yes to direct care.

We say, stop, every time a doctor joins the movement, every time a doctor pledges to make that transition (and makes a plan to help their patients through it).

We say it every time a patient says, “Give me affordable primary care.”

We say, stop, when we cut the red tape: Offer affordable services for cash, make insurance something that’s only used in real emergencies, and render EMR regulation and meaningful use incentives null and void.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services do say that fee-for-service docs have to use an EMR or they’ll be penalized with lower reimbursements in the future. Some meaningful use criteria from Medicare tell physicians what they need to include in the electronic health record or they won’t be subsidized the cost of converting to the electronic system and we will be penalized with lower reimbursements.

Meanwhile, keep in mind: EMR vendors are raking in the dough and saving us nothing.

Meanwhile, across the country, fee-for-service doctors waste precious time filling in unnecessary electronic record fields just to satisfy a regulatory measure.

Is that the best use of time for a highly-trained individual?

Physicians are tired — tired of the mandates, tired of outside interference, tired of anything that unnecessarily interferes with the way they practice medicine.

And as we know, physicians top the list of professions with the highest suicide rates.

Yes, we’re irrational humans. But we’re doctors, too. So let’s be scientific — saying that EMR machines are literally making doctors kill themselves is a stretch. But, if we have the data that says, “We work in a profession where suicide is common, and we promulgate activities that are totally meaningless, i.e. hours of transcription that could be spent with loved ones,” how is this ethical?

No other profession would put up with this kind of scrutiny and coercion from outside forces.

The legal profession wouldn’t.

Labor unions wouldn’t.

So why should we?

Josh Umbehr is founder, Atlas.md.