This show was initially syndicated partially to Apple Podcasts. We're republishing it in an effort to share the full show.  The last two weeks have been full of market volatility, making many people anxious about their finances. The COVID-19 is putting external pressure on our economy. Traditional economic stimulus tools may not work as they have in the past. The next weeks and months are likely going to be rocky, but that doesn’t mean you should pull your investments out of the markets — that’s a risky gamble that, historically, has not paid off.  ABOUT THE GUEST: Trace Tisler, CFP® is a financial advisor based in Hudson, Ohio, who primarily works with mid-career professionals and clients transitioning into retirement. He founded his firm, Epic Financial, in 2013. Read more: https://fitadvisors.com/episode-34-navigating-the-market-uncertainty-of-covid-19

Money Checkup with Anjali Jariwala

FULL EPISODE | Navigating the Market Uncertainty of COVID-19

The last two weeks have been full of market volatility, making many people anxious about their finances. The COVID-19 is putting external pressure on our economy. Traditional economic stimulus tools may not work as they have in the past. The next weeks and months are likely going to be rocky, but that doesn’t mean you should pull your investments out of the markets — that’s a risky gamble that, historically, has not paid off.  ABOUT THE GUEST: Trace Tisler, CFP® is a financial advisor based in Hudson, Ohio, who primarily works with mid-career professionals and clients transitioning into retirement. He founded his firm, Epic Financial, in 2013. Read more: https://fitadvisors.com/episode-34-navigating-the-market-uncertainty-of-covid-19

Navigating the Market Uncertainty of COVID-19

Puneet Cham joins Money Checkup to talk about the nuts and bolts of making your estate plan: Power of attorney for healthcare, power of attorney for property, guardianship for minor children, revocable trusts, a succession plan for your business, and more. Even if you feel like you won’t need your estate plan for many years, putting one in place will ensure that your family and your asset are protected.   Puneet Cham is a partner at Latimer LeVay Fyock who focuses on holistic estate planning and business succession planning.  Read more on www.fitadvisors.com.  Want a financial planner in your corner?! I'd love to connect. You can reach me at anjali@fitadvisors.com.

Estate and Succession Planning

Kaya Ladejobi is the founder of Earn Into Wealth, a financial planning firm that serves high-earning women and dual-career couples. Kaya holds an MBA in entrepreneurship and is a Certified Financial Planner™. She works virtually with clients in their 30s and 40s as they navigate student debt, weddings and honeymoons, having children and planning for family obligations.  EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS Weddings are often the first big expenses couples assume together. Kaya encourages her clients to understand what’s on the horizon. If couples plan to have kids or purchase a home right away, they may need to spend less money on a wedding to have funds available for a down payment, childcare, or other coming expenses.  Many high-earning professionals carry high levels of student debt. Kaya encourages clients who have six-figure debt to make it a top financial priority.  Talking about finances before marriage and creating a detailed cash flow plan can help couples avoid conflict later.  Kaya estimates that about half of her clients are first- or second-generation Americans who have cultural obligations to their parents or extended family members, so she includes that in their cash flow plans.  For more, check out the show here: https://fitadvisors.com/planning-for-marriage-from-weddings-to-college-funds 

Planning for Marriage, From Weddings to College Funds

David Draghinas is the host of Doctors Unbound, a podcast for and about physicians who are doing extraordinary things inside and outside the medical field. He practices clinical medicine as an anesthesiologist in the Dallas area on top of spending time with his wife and their four children. David is an anesthesiologist in working private practice with Metropolitan Anesthesia Consultants in the Dallas area. He is a graduate of the USC Keck School of Medicine who started his career as a U.S. Navy physician in San Diego. David and his wife have four young children.  Social, website, book links: Follow David on Twitter at @ddraghinas.  Learn more about Doctors Unbound at www.doctorsunbound.com.  EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS As Dr. Dragahinas met more and more physicians, he found that many of them had fascinating stories outside their work in clinical medicine, from founding companies to running for office. He launched Doctors Unbound to share those stories.  More physicians than ever are talking about burnout, which gives physicians more power to adjust their practice or their finances to reduce or eliminate the causes of burnout.  David started in short-term rentals by offering a home they already owned on AirBnB. About nine months in, they felt there was enough demand to purchase another home to market exclusively as a luxury AirBnB. These two homes generate 8 to 10 times as much revenue as standard long-term rentals.  Initially, David planned to develop a long-term rental business, but he found it would be very difficult to cash flow more than $200 per month per unit. Their AirBnBs can cash flow as much as $2,000 per month per unit. But when he purchases a home, David considers its viability both as a short- and a long-term rental in case local regulations change.  David and his wife do due diligence on their guests and share their cell phone numbers with their properties’ neighbors. When guests seem like they might be rowdy or upset neighbors, they leave money on the table rather than jeopardize relationships.  David seeks to practice “work-life harmony” rather than “work-life balance.” He tries to batch his projects by, for example, spending a full day working ahead on Doctors Unbound so he can step away from it for a month.  David and his wife both aim to spend quality one-on-one time with each of their kids at least once per quarter. 

Short-Term Rentals and Life Beyond Medicine with David Draghinas of Doctors Unbound

When it comes to financial planning, the default is to think that you’re just dealing with dollars and cents. In reality, it’s so much more than that. financial planning is about figuring out what you value in life, too. In today’s episode, my guest, Scott Frank, CFA, CFP, of Stone Steps Financial talks about how to connect what you’re doing with your money to what you’re doing with your life. And as financial planners, what we can do to help! Read more about Scott here: https://fitadvisors.com/episode-30-values-based-financial-life-planning

Value-Based Financial Planning with Scott Frank, CFA, CFP

Anjali Jariwala, CPA, CFP® is the founder of FIT Advisors. She works with physicians and business owners to build stable financial futures and use their money in ways that support their values.  “Give yourself a year-end checkup just to make sure that you’re set for not only this year, but set up appropriately for 2020.” KEY RESOURCES REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE For more about P&C insurance, try Money Checkup Episode 20. For more on retirement plans for small business owners, try Episode 13. For more on life insurance, try Episode 16. To learn more about college savings options, read this blog post.  To better understand your small business’s financials, read this. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS As soon as possible, revisit your retirement plan contributions. You can contribute up to $19,500 to a 401(k) in 2020, plus an additional $6,500 if you’re 50 or older.  Revisit your contributions to your HSA and deferred compensation plans. HSA limits for 2020 are $3,550 for individuals and $7,100 for couples, plus an additional $1,000 per person if you’re 55 or older.  Do a detailed review of your cash flow so you know how much you bring in, how much you spend and how much you save. Start by listing all your fixed expenses. Then prioritize your savings for both short-term and long-term goals.  However much income is left is how much you have available for discretionary spending. review your recent credit card and bank statements to see how much you spend in various discretionary categories, including eating out, shopping and entertainment. If you’re spending more than you’d like to, put yourself on a budget in 2020. If you contribute to a 529 or other college savings plan, revisit your contributions at the start of the year. Find out if your state offers a tax deduction to contributing to their college savings plan. In general, I recommend that my clients invest 50% of the cost of college in a 529 and 50% in a taxable investment account.  Check your credit report using annualcreditreport.com or a free credit monitoring service.  Calculate your net worth annually. To do this, list your assets and then subtract your liabilities or debts. If your net worth is growing, is it due to increasing assets, shrinking debt, or both?  Review your debt. A good rule of thumb, generally, is to carry debt worth less than 28% of your pre-tax income. Work with your financial advisor to eliminate your high-cost, non-tax-deductible consumer debt and gradually pay down your other debts.  Review your insurance policies. Is your umbrella coverage sufficient for your net worth? Has your income increased such that you need more life or disability insurance?  Lastly, for individuals: Review your investment portfolio. Revisit your investment allocations to make sure they are consistent with your projected retirement date, and work with your financial advisor to identify tax-efficient investments. Rebalance your investments if necessary.  Business owners: Use the start of the year to clean up your books. See if your accounting practices are providing the data you need to effectively run your business. If you’re in the service sector, break out your revenue and expenses by service to understand how profitable each revenue stream is. If you have employees, try to understand the revenue generated by each person.  Compare your 2019 P&L to those of prior years. How much did your revenue, expenses and profit change? Compare the reality to your projections from last year, and use your experience to set goals for 2020. Work with a financial advisor or CPA to make projections for the next 1, 3, 5 and 10 years.  If you own an S Corp, note that negative equity means you pulled out more than you should have from your business, and you may need to pay tax on your withdrawals.  Review your tax payments from 2019. If you haven’t yet made sufficient payments, put aside money for the bill that will be due April 15, and update your accounting procedures so you make on-time payments throughout 2020.  If you own an S Corp, talk to your CPA about revising your salary for 2020. And if you don’t yet have a retirement plan set up for your business, talk to your financial advisor about whether that’s a realistic goal for 2020. You don’t need to address every single one of these goals in January. Focus on those that feel most pressing to you and your situation, and work with a financial advisor to prioritize those.  STAY IN THE LOOP WITH US! Follow FIT Advisors on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, or sign up for our monthly email newsletter at the bottom of the homepage. Do you like Money Checkup? Please be sure to let me know by rating and reviewing the show! If you loved this episode, try Episode 23: How Business Owners Can Build Balanced Lives.

Financial Tips for the New Year

In this episode, we will look at the benefits of being an independent contractor and some of the tax challenges you might also run into. As an added bonus I’ll take a deep dive into the Qualified Business Income deduction (“QBI”) that came out last year with the new tax changes. We will go over the good, bad and what you can do to optimize the QBI for your taxes this year. Oh look! We've written a companion blog that can be found here: https://fitadvisors.com/tax-and-retirement-planning-for-independent-contractors/ 

Tax Planning for 1099/Independent Contractors [Ep. 4 Rehash]

Bonnie Koo is a board-certified dermatologist and the founder of Wealthy Mom MD. As a financial coach, she empowers women physicians to take control of their finances and plan for the lives they want without stress and anxiety. MORE ON BONNIE! Bonnie Koo, MD is a board-certified dermatologist, as well as a business owner, wife, mother, and stepmother. She works as a physician on a locum tenens basis. With Wealthy Mom MD, Bonnie writes about how women physicians can manage money in addition to addressing childcare, elder care, divorce, and other unique concerns faced by breadwinning women. She offers an eight-week online course, Money for Women Physicians, as well as one-on-one financial coaching. Website: http://wealthymommd.com  EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS Early in her career, Bonnie joined a Facebook group where women physicians talked about money. She was in credit card and student loan debt, but would hear her fellow residents talk about their investments. They recommended The White Coat Investor.  Later, at a friend’s recommendation, she started a blog.  Bonnie met Peter Kim of Passive Income MD (a former Money Checkup guest) at a financial planning conference and he encouraged her to “go big or go home.” In late 2018, she began transforming her blog into a business.  As the business grew and her family life evolved, Bonnie switched from working full-time to locum tenens assignments.  About a year into running her business, Bonnie has not yet taken a salary. Her backup plan is to return to a full-time schedule as a dermatologist, which would require four days of 9-to-5 work per week.  Bonnie works with a life coach and would recommend the experience to anyone feeling burnt out or stuck.  Bonnie recently hired a project manager and a virtual personal assistant so she can delegate some of her business tasks. That helps her free up time to focus on the things that only she can do.  Many women physicians are the breadwinners in their families, and for now, Bonnie is the primary breadwinner in hers. She and her partner try to evaluate their situation regularly to see whether they are both happy. STAY IN THE LOOP WITH US! Follow FIT Advisors on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, or sign up for our monthly email newsletter at the bottom of the homepage. Do you like Money Checkup? Please be sure to let me know by rating and reviewing the show! If you loved this episode, try Episode 24: Understanding Physician Burnout with Nisha Mehta, MD.

Life, Balance, and Becoming Wealthy Mom MD

As the end of the year approaches, make sure you make time to review your finances for 2019 and prepare for 2020. From retirement plan contributions to employee benefits to tax returns, work with your financial advisor and CPA to make sure you’re on track to maximize your tax benefits and save for your future.  After subscribing to the podcast, read more about how to give yourself a year-end financial checkup here.

Give Yourself A Year-End Financial Checkup

Letizia Alto and Kenji Asakura are physicians in Seattle. After a few years of full-time work and a transformative vacation to New Zealand, they decided to begin real estate investing so they could embrace the semi-retired lifestyle. Today, they own several dozen residential and mixed-use properties. They blog and lead real estate investing classes at Semi-Retired MD.  Leti continues to work half-time as a family medicine physician and Kenji moonlights as an internal medicine physician. They live in Seattle.  KEY RESOURCES REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE FB Group for: Physicians and their spouses Dentists and their spouses Lawyers and their spouses High-Income Professionals and their spouses Course page: https://semiretiredmdvip.mykajabi.com/zerotofreedom

Cashflowing Rentals, REPS, and Financial Freedom with Semi-Retired MD

Dr. Nisha Mehta identified the symptoms of burnout fairly early in her life as a radiologist. Instead of pursuing an academic career, she chose to begin writing and speaking about issues surrounding physicians’ demanding lifestyles, including work-life balance, women in medicine, physician finances, healthcare policy and the industry landscape, physician entrepreneurship and more. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS Fewer and fewer physicians say they would recommend a career in medicine to their children because the profession is so demanding.  Dr. Mehta thinks most people in medical careers are beginning to realize the seriousness of burnout, including administrators and policymakers who see how that impacts hospital bottom lines and patient outcomes.  Physicians don’t have to de-prioritize their work to maintain work-life balance. They often just need to be more intentional with their time — including prioritizing family time, wellness and sleep. Physicians often do as much as they can until they’re totally overwhelmed, then try to make a drastic change. Dr. Mehta encourages them to think about career longevity instead. How much do you need to slow down if you’re going to finish this marathon?  It can take physicians a long time to come out of the scarcity mentality of training. At a certain point, if earning more money takes away from your family time or your well-being, it may not be worth it.  Decide how much money you and your family need to live comfortably and to save for your goals, and then use that as a benchmark for deciding whether you need to put in additional hours or take on additional responsibilities. Often physicians need to work less than they think they do.  Know your worth and negotiate for the compensation you deserve. Physicians only make up 8% of healthcare costs. Advocate for your share.  STAY IN THE LOOP WITH US! Follow FIT Advisors on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, or sign up for our monthly email newsletter at the bottom of the homepage. Do you like Money Checkup? Please be sure to let me know by rating and reviewing the show!

Understanding Physician Burnout with Nisha Mehta, MD

Sophia Bera, CFP®, is the founder of Gen Y Planning and a friend of mine. She does an admirable job of balancing her work with her personal life, and this week on Money Checkup, she shares advice on how to structure your business to align with your goals and values. To learn more about Gen Y Planning, visit genyplanning.com. Follow Sophia Bera on Twitter at @SophiaBera.  But first! Be sure to read the companion blog here: https://fitadvisors.com/how-business-owners-can-build-balanced-lives 

How Business Owners Can Build Balanced Lives

Over 20,000 physicians talk about starting a medical practice, and according to this week’s guest, it’s a fallacy to think that physicians aren’t actually doing it anymore. On the contrary, Debra Phairas, president of Practice & Liability Consultants, LLC, has helped over 500 physicians open their own medical practices in her 34 years as a practice management consultant.  With her technical expertise on how you can open your own, you're bound to sooner than later.  Want more? Find the blog on the FIT Advisors website! 

Launching New Medical Practices with Debra Phairas

The U.S. sees six to eight medical malpractice claims per 100 doctors per year says Dr. Jason Shah, cofounder of Flagship Healthcare.  If a judge rules in favor of the patient, the average settlement or judgment is about $400,000 — although that can vary widely based on where the claim is filed and the physician’s specialty.  At the most basic level, physicians need to be insured for the potential of a malpractice suit.  Check out the show with Jason as he walks us through the basics and nuances when pursuing this type of insurance. Jason Shah, M.D. is cofounder of Flagship Healthcare, a medical malpractice insurance firm that was acquired by Alera Group in 2017. His business is now known as the Alera Healthcare Professional Liability Division and insures more than 5,000 physicians nationwide. Learn more about their services here. Contact Jason at jason.shah@aleragroup.com.

The Reality of Malpractice Insurance with Jason Shah, MD

What’s your financial pulse? Join FIT Advisors for a semi-monthly checkup appointment as we discuss the many facets of financial well-being - from foundational money management to the unique personal finance scenarios of physicians and business owners. CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(TM) and CPA Anjali brings you in-depth conversations with field experts that reflect FIT Advisors’ commitment to inclusiveness and fresh voices in the world of finance. Together, Anjali and her guests cover all the areas your money touches - taxes, real estate, long-term savings, entrepreneurship, and much more. Get to know Anjali and the hands-on approach she takes to improving your financial health.

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Money Checkup with Anjali Jariwala

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