Hi everyone!
Long time follower/lurker and first time poster. I am a little apprehensive about posting because I know colleagues of mine also read this site, so trying to maintain some anonymity but also providing enough info for advice. Since WCI graciously decided to create this new subforum for beginners, I decided to take a jump and see if anyone has any input to my situation! Thank you for reading!
Just stating in advance, our net worth is higher than most typical people in our situation because both my spouse and I worked a couple years prior to medical school (and started putting money in Roth IRA and 401k then) and also worked as a hospitalist right after residency before pursuing fellowship. My spouse had no student loans and I had low-six figures worth of debt when I graduated medical school, but paid it off prior to starting fellowship. We were also given an inheritance that has helped us. But the main reason is because I discovered WCI during medical school and applied many of his principles early on and have been living like residents!
Stage of Life: Fellowship in a specialty within internal medicine
Social Situation: Both working, one young child at home (dual-physician but both in fellowship)
Annual Income: $100-150k+ depending on how much my spouse and I moonlight
State of residence: OH
Insurance Policies: Life insurance 30 year term 2M each
Adequate auto and home insurance
Debts: None except credit cards that we pay in full monthly.
Assets:
Home: ~ $350-400k
Question:
1) I actually don't have questions in regards to investments because I basically buy all index funds and just set it and forget it.
2) Main question is in regards to career path - many people who post on this forum seem to work in private practice, but we don't seem to hear often from academic physicians. I think our financial situation overall is pretty good overall, as long as we continue to live below our means and sock away as much money into retirement as we can - barring from any major catastrophe in our lives. *knock on wood*
I am thinking about pursuing an academic career and am about to apply for a T32 and later on, if things go well, plan to continue to apply for institutional grants or K grants, etc in the future. As people have stated in another threat, doing research is very tough and hard to get tenure. I actually don't want to be 100% research and would still like to do some clinical work, but I am just curious if there are any people out there who have gone through this and can give some honest feedback. (Although it seems to me that most people complain about being in academics, although the people at my institution seem pretty happy!)
I feel like I should try it out and see how it goes. Worst case scenario, I can go into private practice if all else fails? Fortunately, my spouse should have a decent income once he becomes an attending, so even though my salary will decrease, we should still do ok overall financially.
3) Any tax implications when being on a training grant? Since you are no longer considered an employee of the hospital, you are paid via a stipend and you get no retirement benefits from what I was told. Should I just start a taxable account to contribute what I would have contributed in my 401(a), 467 and 403b?
Long time follower/lurker and first time poster. I am a little apprehensive about posting because I know colleagues of mine also read this site, so trying to maintain some anonymity but also providing enough info for advice. Since WCI graciously decided to create this new subforum for beginners, I decided to take a jump and see if anyone has any input to my situation! Thank you for reading!
Just stating in advance, our net worth is higher than most typical people in our situation because both my spouse and I worked a couple years prior to medical school (and started putting money in Roth IRA and 401k then) and also worked as a hospitalist right after residency before pursuing fellowship. My spouse had no student loans and I had low-six figures worth of debt when I graduated medical school, but paid it off prior to starting fellowship. We were also given an inheritance that has helped us. But the main reason is because I discovered WCI during medical school and applied many of his principles early on and have been living like residents!
Stage of Life: Fellowship in a specialty within internal medicine
Social Situation: Both working, one young child at home (dual-physician but both in fellowship)
Annual Income: $100-150k+ depending on how much my spouse and I moonlight
State of residence: OH
Insurance Policies: Life insurance 30 year term 2M each
Adequate auto and home insurance
Debts: None except credit cards that we pay in full monthly.
Assets:
Home: ~ $350-400k
- His 401(a): 60k
- Her 401(a): 85k
- Her 401(k): 60k
- His 403(b): 40k
- Her 403(b): 35k
- Her 457: 65k
- His 457: 20k
- His Roth IRA: 50k
- Her Roth IRA: 85k
Question:
1) I actually don't have questions in regards to investments because I basically buy all index funds and just set it and forget it.
2) Main question is in regards to career path - many people who post on this forum seem to work in private practice, but we don't seem to hear often from academic physicians. I think our financial situation overall is pretty good overall, as long as we continue to live below our means and sock away as much money into retirement as we can - barring from any major catastrophe in our lives. *knock on wood*
I am thinking about pursuing an academic career and am about to apply for a T32 and later on, if things go well, plan to continue to apply for institutional grants or K grants, etc in the future. As people have stated in another threat, doing research is very tough and hard to get tenure. I actually don't want to be 100% research and would still like to do some clinical work, but I am just curious if there are any people out there who have gone through this and can give some honest feedback. (Although it seems to me that most people complain about being in academics, although the people at my institution seem pretty happy!)
I feel like I should try it out and see how it goes. Worst case scenario, I can go into private practice if all else fails? Fortunately, my spouse should have a decent income once he becomes an attending, so even though my salary will decrease, we should still do ok overall financially.
3) Any tax implications when being on a training grant? Since you are no longer considered an employee of the hospital, you are paid via a stipend and you get no retirement benefits from what I was told. Should I just start a taxable account to contribute what I would have contributed in my 401(a), 467 and 403b?
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