The decisions you make in the first three years of your practice will dominate the financial trajectory of your life for decades to come. We’ve written a book about early-career financial decisions called Pay Yourself First: A Financial Guide for Doctors Entering Practice. Here are some of the best moves you can make when starting out.

A Simple Plan

If you save 20 percent or more of your compensation from the beginning of your career, direct those savings to the investment or debt pay down opportunities with the highest risk-adjusted after-tax returns, keep doing those things through a thirty- to forty-year career, and avoid making any big mistakes, you’ll achieve financial independence.
In a sense, that plan is simple. But it isn’t easy.

Thank you for the work you’re doing. We’ve heard stories from primary care physicians about how much harder it’s become to deliver care, with patients afraid to come into the office, proper examinations difficult, telehealth compensated but phone calls often unpaid, and all of this compounded by doctors’ worries about their own health and that of their loved ones.

Thank you.

The typical physician with a career in family medicine earns an income in the top 3% of all working Americans, yet these doctors often doubt their ability to build walkaway wealth. This is especially true for younger practitioners with large student loan debts. Can family medicine physicians become financially independent, and if so, how? The keys to financial security are getting your mind right and implementing best-practice strategies. Having worked with physicians since 1979, we’ve identified five elements of success: