Choosing A Financial Adviser

A lot of people believe that all medical professionals such as  doctors, GP’s, dentists and surgeons are extremely wealthy and successful in a financial sense. Unfortunately, this is a myth for a lot of cases.

If you are a medical professional, you dedicate your entire life to helping people become or stay healthy, but during this process you often ignore your own financial health. You start working and there will be a time when you accumulate wealth later in your life but repaying student loans eats up almost all of it which makes you miss out on the benefits of compounding.

It can also seem to be quite challenging for you to manage your finances as after years and years worth practice in a particular field, you become an expert and you will have very little time for focusing on anything else.

During the entire student life, there will be no point in time where you learn about managing your money or how to run a medical practice successfully. A situation like this often leads to costly financial mistakes, many of which could have been avoided if you knew the right things or had the right advice.

Some of the most common mistakes that medical professionals make are –

• Having too much debt – It is very common for medical professionals to carry a very substantial amount of debt, most of which is usually related to the house. It is very helpful to know that if you cannot repay your home mortgage in around 10 years, it is official that you have borrowed too much and you are putting your financial future at stake. Are you in a position like this?
  
  
• No proper plan – People say that it is never too early to create wealth, but at the same time, it is not advisable to waste any time when it comes to this as, if you are working towards an expensive education system like a medical course,  you have already begun from a disadvantaged negative financial position. Without having a proper plan, you may end up making temporary decisions which might be strongly tax driven or just based on the investment Returns. However this leads to costly mistakes and investment losses which puts you further behind in this race.

On the other hand, if you are managing your own financial affairs,  it’s worth considering if you have the required time and skills to do it in the right manner. Have you ever considered engaging a specialist adviser?

• Not having control on the Cash flow – Professionals who have a high income have a false sense of security due to that. It is very natural to increase the quality of your lifestyle with the increase in your income. But it becomes dangerous if you do not have a full control over the cash flow that is, the inflow and outflow of the cash from your account.

If you own a private clinic or your practice privately, you may never really understand what you own or owe in terms of financial words as the taxes and other obligations will be a moving target for you. Then, you also have private school fees, holidays and an extravagant lifestyle. Saving for your retirement life often becomes an afterthought which is why many doctors need to keep working well into the sixties to make up for that money.

As a result of committing these mistakes, several medical professionals have a lot of financial stress and they suffer in Silence and this is also compounded by the frustration of them paying high amount of tax.

There are two very simple solutions for the above stated problems-

1. Educate yourself

It is very crucial for you to acquire a minimal amount of financial knowledge which will assist you to make smarter money matter decisions. In fact, a good financial adviser will walk you through the entire process but there are other options as well. You can try to obtain knowledge from online learning platforms and gain personal finance and business course knowledge that have been accredited by various colleges and Universities.

2. Seek advice and plan

Being a doctor, your time is so precious and valuable that you cannot spend it on other non core activities. it is wise to outsource the management of finances to a trusted adviser as this will ensure expertise of work and focus on your career at the same time. 

Doing it yourself involves many risks and through this process, it is certain that you will miss out on opportunities and strategies that you are not familiar with. Most important of them all, having an adviser will ensure your accountability which will lead you in the right direction with positive action and outcomes.