Trevor Smith, MD

If you already have disability insurance, keep reading as well. I have a great tip for you from personal experience that made a difference in the job I selected.

Let’s start with an important rebrand for “disability insurance.” What does it protect? Income! Car insurance is not called crash insurance. House insurance is not called burnt house insurance. And unlike a car or a house, it protects an asset with 10-20 times as much value as a million-dollar house.

 

So, let’s call it what it is: “income protection insurance.” 

It’s always a bit nerdy when I talk about how much I appreciate insurance that protects lifelong income. I often make an argument that it is simply one of the best products that exists, especially for high-income earners with lots of debt. Many of us doctors are in that category and are not even slightly jealous of our friends whose parents paid for school (I’m looking at you not-her-real-name-Mary).

Disability is not the catchiest name for a product, but it is more pronounceable than “ophthalmology” and way easier to spell. This is my specialty, and I can’t believe we still haven’t gone with “eye surgeon,” but I digress.

So, let’s rebrand “disability insurance” for the sake of clarity:

I personally like to think of it as a monthly subscription for a soft landing in a worst-case scenario. Call me a millennial, but it just goes down smoother in my mind as a subscription a la Netflix ... and the four other streaming services that someone gave me a password to – if you’re a 55-year-old GI specialist, I know you’re on the Spotify family plan, too. No judgment from me. 

So, for $15, you get a bunch of movies with Netflix, and, for $150-$300, you cover a lifetime of income. That’s a pretty decent service even without “The Office.” 

Disability insurance often covers at least $15-$20 million dollars over a lifetime of earnings for only 1%-2% of your salary per year.

But I’ll pause here. The numbers are irrelevant if you never get the insurance. 

I have one goal for this article, and it is simply to try to help you break down that procrastination habit we all have. I will have added immense value to at least one family’s life if you go and get a policy this week that saves your family from substantial loss of income. This is why I love insurance.

Doctors sacrifice essential life steps to get through training. But we are not alone in that. 

Tim Kasser, PhD, puts it well when he said: “We live in a machine that is designed to get us to neglect what is important about life.” Here he is talking about relationships, but securing financial protection is loving to those closest to us.

So, what holds us back from taking a seemingly easy step like locking in disability insurance early in training?

Is it the stress of residency? Studying for Step 1? Moving cities and finding a home during a housing crisis? Job change during COVID? Is it because we have already put it off so long that we don’t want to think about it?

Totally fair.

 

For all of us busy doctors, the necessity and obviousness of buying disability insurance, *ehem*, income protection insurance makes you feel like you can get to it when you get to it because you know you will, so ... what’s the rush?

Or, is it our desire to bet on ourselves, and every month that goes by without insurance is one less payment? Roll the dice! Woo!

The reason to not put off the important things in life

I will give you a few reasons of “the why of” how we can all benefit from disability insurance and the reason there is no benefit in waiting to get a policy.

But, most importantly, I want to talk to you about your life and why you are putting off a lot of important things.
 
That diet you’ve been wanting to start? Yep.

That ring you haven’t purchased? Maybe that!

That article you’ve been meaning to write for the GI journal? Yes, especially that.

Remember: Take a deep breath in and exhaaaaale. 

So, why do we put off the important?

First, even though the “why” of purchasing income protection is a bit basic, I do find it helpful to have discrete reasons for accomplishing an important task. 

Why get disability insurance at all?

Let’s look at the value we get out of covering our income. 

Reason No. 1. It softens the landing in the event you have an illness. The stats on disability claims are heavily on the side of illness over accidents or trauma. As you know, many autoimmune conditions show up in the 20’s and 30’s, so those are the things your friends will have first. 

Unfortunately, if you have a medical issue before you have a disability policy, you will either not have coverage for that specific condition or you will not be approved for insurance. Unlike health insurance, the company can afford to pay out policies because it is picky on who it is willing to cover. It tries to select healthy people, so apply when you are most healthy, if possible. 

Reason No. 2. It’s cheap. When you compare with a $2 million policy for life insurance, it might cost $1,000-$2,000 or so per year for a term policy covering about 25 years. With disability insurance, you can cover about 10x as much for the same annual payment. One could easily make a case that if you do not have dependents, disability insurance should be your first stop even before life insurance. You are more likely to be disabled than to die when you’re in your thirties. Act accordingly.

(Please note for obvious reasons they don’t call life insurance “death insurance.” Disability insurance needs that same rebrand – I’m telling you!)

Reason No. 3. Unless you are independently wealthy, it will be nearly impossible to replace your income and live a similar lifestyle. Lock in the benefits of the work you have already accomplished, and lock in the coverage of ALL of your health while you are healthy.

 

Time to take action

As Elvis famously sang: “A little less conversation, a little more action please.”

Alright, so how do we get ourselves to ACT and get a policy to protect our income?

Tip No. 1. As doctors we often shoot for perfection. It’s no surprise, therefore, that we have an illusion that we need to find the “perfect policy.” 

One of my friends is a great financial adviser, and he often tells me about first meetings with clients to create a long-lasting plan. Often, somewhere along the way when discussing risks of stocks going down and up, someone will ask, “Why don’t we pick one that is low risk but tends to go up in value?” Of course, the reality is that if it were that easy ... everyone would do it!

Fortunately, with disability insurance, the policies are fairly straight forward. You can skip the analysis paralysis with disability insurance by talking with an agent who consistently works with physicians. I enjoy talking policies and helping doctors protect their financial health, so I started selling policies shortly after residency because so many of my co-residents were making me nervous putting it off. Some I helped, and some put it off and are unable to get policies after health issues even just 3 years after residency. 

Tip No. 2. Having a policy is better than not having one, and if you’re worried about getting the wrong one, just get two! Seriously, some companies let you split coverage between two and this can even increase the maximum coverage you can get later in life, too. Does it add cost? Surprisingly, it typically does not, and it does not make the agent more money either. In most cases it’s actually more work for them for the same amount of commission. Don’t be afraid to ask about this.

Tip No. 3. This is my hot tip for current policy owners: ask for the full version of your policy, and read the entire policy. I recently asked for my policy because I was doing some international work abroad and wanted to know if I could reside abroad if I made a disability claim. My policy stated that I would need to reside in the United States within 12 months of disability. I likely would do this in the event of disability, but it is quite important to know these aspects. 

While reading the fine print, I found that a minimum number of work-hours per week (35 for my policy) was required to qualify for my physician-specific coverage. This was an important part of my job criteria when looking for a new position and is worth investigating for anyone considering part-time employment.

Tip No. 4. The obvious tip: The fear of failure gets a lot of perfectionists from even starting a task unless they know everything about it.

 

Just start. 

That’s my go-to for overcoming fear of failure. You won’t fail. You just won’t. You will learn!

Pretend you are curious about it and try with any of these actionable steps:

• Google disability insurance. 
• Email me at [email protected]. 
• Read an article on a doctor-based blog.

I personally geeked out on insurance so much in residency that I became an insurance agent. I am an independent broker, so I have no bias toward any particular policies (email me anytime even if just with questions). Personally, I believe in this product and the value of this type of insurance, and I would hate for anyone to not have coverage of their most valuable asset: lifelong income!

The steps of applying for disability insurance

Now you know all the great reasons to get going! What are the next steps?

No matter where you get your policy, you can expect the process to be fairly simple. If it’s not then shoot me an email and I’m happy to help chat and discuss further. 

The general process is:

Step 1. Initial phone call or email: Chat with an agent to discuss your needs and situation. Immediately after, you can sign initial application documents with DocuSign. (20 minutes). 

Step 2. Complete health questionnaire on the phone with the insurance company. (20-40 minutes).

Step 3. Sign the final documents and confirm physician-specific language in their policies. (20 minutes).

The whole application period typically lasts only 2-4 weeks from start to finish and, if you pay up front, you are covered from the moment you send in the check. If you don’t accept the policy, you even get the money back. 

I genuinely enjoy talking with my colleagues from all over the world and learning about their lives and plans, so, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me at [email protected]. Also, feel free to check out my mini-blog at curiousmd.com or listen to me chat with Jon Solitro, CFP, on his FinancialMD.com podcast. Similar to this article, it is fairly informal and covers real life, tough career decisions, and actionable financial planning tips. 

If you made it to the end of this article, you are a perfectionist and should go back and read Tip No. 1. 

Reference

The Context of Things. “We live in a machine that is designed to get us to neglect what’s important about life,” 2021 Aug 24. 

Dr. Smith is an ophthalmologist and consultant with Advanced Eyecare Professionals, Grand Rapids, Mich., and founder of DigitalGlaucoma.com. He is cohost of The FinancialMD Show podcast. He is an insurance producer and assists clients with advising and decision-making related to disability insurance at FinancialMD. 

If you already have disability insurance, keep reading as well. I have a great tip for you from personal experience that made a difference in the job I selected.

Let’s start with an important rebrand for “disability insurance.” What does it protect? Income! Car insurance is not called crash insurance. House insurance is not called burnt house insurance. And unlike a car or a house, it protects an asset with 10-20 times as much value as a million-dollar house.

 

So, let’s call it what it is: “income protection insurance.” 

It’s always a bit nerdy when I talk about how much I appreciate insurance that protects lifelong income. I often make an argument that it is simply one of the best products that exists, especially for high-income earners with lots of debt. Many of us doctors are in that category and are not even slightly jealous of our friends whose parents paid for school (I’m looking at you not-her-real-name-Mary).

Disability is not the catchiest name for a product, but it is more pronounceable than “ophthalmology” and way easier to spell. This is my specialty, and I can’t believe we still haven’t gone with “eye surgeon,” but I digress.

So, let’s rebrand “disability insurance” for the sake of clarity:

I personally like to think of it as a monthly subscription for a soft landing in a worst-case scenario. Call me a millennial, but it just goes down smoother in my mind as a subscription a la Netflix ... and the four other streaming services that someone gave me a password to – if you’re a 55-year-old GI specialist, I know you’re on the Spotify family plan, too. No judgment from me. 

So, for $15, you get a bunch of movies with Netflix, and, for $150-$300, you cover a lifetime of income. That’s a pretty decent service even without “The Office.” 

Disability insurance often covers at least $15-$20 million dollars over a lifetime of earnings for only 1%-2% of your salary per year.

But I’ll pause here. The numbers are irrelevant if you never get the insurance. 

I have one goal for this article, and it is simply to try to help you break down that procrastination habit we all have. I will have added immense value to at least one family’s life if you go and get a policy this week that saves your family from substantial loss of income. This is why I love insurance.

Doctors sacrifice essential life steps to get through training. But we are not alone in that. 

Tim Kasser, PhD, puts it well when he said: “We live in a machine that is designed to get us to neglect what is important about life.” Here he is talking about relationships, but securing financial protection is loving to those closest to us.

So, what holds us back from taking a seemingly easy step like locking in disability insurance early in training?

Is it the stress of residency? Studying for Step 1? Moving cities and finding a home during a housing crisis? Job change during COVID? Is it because we have already put it off so long that we don’t want to think about it?

Totally fair.

 

For all of us busy doctors, the necessity and obviousness of buying disability insurance, *ehem*, income protection insurance makes you feel like you can get to it when you get to it because you know you will, so ... what’s the rush?

Or, is it our desire to bet on ourselves, and every month that goes by without insurance is one less payment? Roll the dice! Woo!

The reason to not put off the important things in life

I will give you a few reasons of “the why of” how we can all benefit from disability insurance and the reason there is no benefit in waiting to get a policy.

But, most importantly, I want to talk to you about your life and why you are putting off a lot of important things.
 
That diet you’ve been wanting to start? Yep.

That ring you haven’t purchased? Maybe that!

That article you’ve been meaning to write for the GI journal? Yes, especially that.

Remember: Take a deep breath in and exhaaaaale. 

So, why do we put off the important?

First, even though the “why” of purchasing income protection is a bit basic, I do find it helpful to have discrete reasons for accomplishing an important task. 

Why get disability insurance at all?

Let’s look at the value we get out of covering our income. 

Reason No. 1. It softens the landing in the event you have an illness. The stats on disability claims are heavily on the side of illness over accidents or trauma. As you know, many autoimmune conditions show up in the 20’s and 30’s, so those are the things your friends will have first. 

Unfortunately, if you have a medical issue before you have a disability policy, you will either not have coverage for that specific condition or you will not be approved for insurance. Unlike health insurance, the company can afford to pay out policies because it is picky on who it is willing to cover. It tries to select healthy people, so apply when you are most healthy, if possible. 

Reason No. 2. It’s cheap. When you compare with a $2 million policy for life insurance, it might cost $1,000-$2,000 or so per year for a term policy covering about 25 years. With disability insurance, you can cover about 10x as much for the same annual payment. One could easily make a case that if you do not have dependents, disability insurance should be your first stop even before life insurance. You are more likely to be disabled than to die when you’re in your thirties. Act accordingly.

(Please note for obvious reasons they don’t call life insurance “death insurance.” Disability insurance needs that same rebrand – I’m telling you!)

Reason No. 3. Unless you are independently wealthy, it will be nearly impossible to replace your income and live a similar lifestyle. Lock in the benefits of the work you have already accomplished, and lock in the coverage of ALL of your health while you are healthy.

 

Time to take action

As Elvis famously sang: “A little less conversation, a little more action please.”

Alright, so how do we get ourselves to ACT and get a policy to protect our income?

Tip No. 1. As doctors we often shoot for perfection. It’s no surprise, therefore, that we have an illusion that we need to find the “perfect policy.” 

One of my friends is a great financial adviser, and he often tells me about first meetings with clients to create a long-lasting plan. Often, somewhere along the way when discussing risks of stocks going down and up, someone will ask, “Why don’t we pick one that is low risk but tends to go up in value?” Of course, the reality is that if it were that easy ... everyone would do it!

Fortunately, with disability insurance, the policies are fairly straight forward. You can skip the analysis paralysis with disability insurance by talking with an agent who consistently works with physicians. I enjoy talking policies and helping doctors protect their financial health, so I started selling policies shortly after residency because so many of my co-residents were making me nervous putting it off. Some I helped, and some put it off and are unable to get policies after health issues even just 3 years after residency. 

Tip No. 2. Having a policy is better than not having one, and if you’re worried about getting the wrong one, just get two! Seriously, some companies let you split coverage between two and this can even increase the maximum coverage you can get later in life, too. Does it add cost? Surprisingly, it typically does not, and it does not make the agent more money either. In most cases it’s actually more work for them for the same amount of commission. Don’t be afraid to ask about this.

Tip No. 3. This is my hot tip for current policy owners: ask for the full version of your policy, and read the entire policy. I recently asked for my policy because I was doing some international work abroad and wanted to know if I could reside abroad if I made a disability claim. My policy stated that I would need to reside in the United States within 12 months of disability. I likely would do this in the event of disability, but it is quite important to know these aspects. 

While reading the fine print, I found that a minimum number of work-hours per week (35 for my policy) was required to qualify for my physician-specific coverage. This was an important part of my job criteria when looking for a new position and is worth investigating for anyone considering part-time employment.

Tip No. 4. The obvious tip: The fear of failure gets a lot of perfectionists from even starting a task unless they know everything about it.

 

Just start. 

That’s my go-to for overcoming fear of failure. You won’t fail. You just won’t. You will learn!

Pretend you are curious about it and try with any of these actionable steps:

• Google disability insurance. 
• Email me at [email protected]. 
• Read an article on a doctor-based blog.

I personally geeked out on insurance so much in residency that I became an insurance agent. I am an independent broker, so I have no bias toward any particular policies (email me anytime even if just with questions). Personally, I believe in this product and the value of this type of insurance, and I would hate for anyone to not have coverage of their most valuable asset: lifelong income!

The steps of applying for disability insurance

Now you know all the great reasons to get going! What are the next steps?

No matter where you get your policy, you can expect the process to be fairly simple. If it’s not then shoot me an email and I’m happy to help chat and discuss further. 

The general process is:

Step 1. Initial phone call or email: Chat with an agent to discuss your needs and situation. Immediately after, you can sign initial application documents with DocuSign. (20 minutes). 

Step 2. Complete health questionnaire on the phone with the insurance company. (20-40 minutes).

Step 3. Sign the final documents and confirm physician-specific language in their policies. (20 minutes).

The whole application period typically lasts only 2-4 weeks from start to finish and, if you pay up front, you are covered from the moment you send in the check. If you don’t accept the policy, you even get the money back. 

I genuinely enjoy talking with my colleagues from all over the world and learning about their lives and plans, so, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me at [email protected]. Also, feel free to check out my mini-blog at curiousmd.com or listen to me chat with Jon Solitro, CFP, on his FinancialMD.com podcast. Similar to this article, it is fairly informal and covers real life, tough career decisions, and actionable financial planning tips. 

If you made it to the end of this article, you are a perfectionist and should go back and read Tip No. 1. 

Reference

The Context of Things. “We live in a machine that is designed to get us to neglect what’s important about life,” 2021 Aug 24. 

Dr. Smith is an ophthalmologist and consultant with Advanced Eyecare Professionals, Grand Rapids, Mich., and founder of DigitalGlaucoma.com. He is cohost of The FinancialMD Show podcast. He is an insurance producer and assists clients with advising and decision-making related to disability insurance at FinancialMD. 

If you already have disability insurance, keep reading as well. I have a great tip for you from personal experience that made a difference in the job I selected.

Let’s start with an important rebrand for “disability insurance.” What does it protect? Income! Car insurance is not called crash insurance. House insurance is not called burnt house insurance. And unlike a car or a house, it protects an asset with 10-20 times as much value as a million-dollar house.

 

So, let’s call it what it is: “income protection insurance.” 

It’s always a bit nerdy when I talk about how much I appreciate insurance that protects lifelong income. I often make an argument that it is simply one of the best products that exists, especially for high-income earners with lots of debt. Many of us doctors are in that category and are not even slightly jealous of our friends whose parents paid for school (I’m looking at you not-her-real-name-Mary).

Disability is not the catchiest name for a product, but it is more pronounceable than “ophthalmology” and way easier to spell. This is my specialty, and I can’t believe we still haven’t gone with “eye surgeon,” but I digress.

So, let’s rebrand “disability insurance” for the sake of clarity:

I personally like to think of it as a monthly subscription for a soft landing in a worst-case scenario. Call me a millennial, but it just goes down smoother in my mind as a subscription a la Netflix ... and the four other streaming services that someone gave me a password to – if you’re a 55-year-old GI specialist, I know you’re on the Spotify family plan, too. No judgment from me. 

So, for $15, you get a bunch of movies with Netflix, and, for $150-$300, you cover a lifetime of income. That’s a pretty decent service even without “The Office.” 

Disability insurance often covers at least $15-$20 million dollars over a lifetime of earnings for only 1%-2% of your salary per year.

But I’ll pause here. The numbers are irrelevant if you never get the insurance. 

I have one goal for this article, and it is simply to try to help you break down that procrastination habit we all have. I will have added immense value to at least one family’s life if you go and get a policy this week that saves your family from substantial loss of income. This is why I love insurance.

Doctors sacrifice essential life steps to get through training. But we are not alone in that. 

Tim Kasser, PhD, puts it well when he said: “We live in a machine that is designed to get us to neglect what is important about life.” Here he is talking about relationships, but securing financial protection is loving to those closest to us.

So, what holds us back from taking a seemingly easy step like locking in disability insurance early in training?

Is it the stress of residency? Studying for Step 1? Moving cities and finding a home during a housing crisis? Job change during COVID? Is it because we have already put it off so long that we don’t want to think about it?

Totally fair.

 

For all of us busy doctors, the necessity and obviousness of buying disability insurance, *ehem*, income protection insurance makes you feel like you can get to it when you get to it because you know you will, so ... what’s the rush?

Or, is it our desire to bet on ourselves, and every month that goes by without insurance is one less payment? Roll the dice! Woo!

The reason to not put off the important things in life

I will give you a few reasons of “the why of” how we can all benefit from disability insurance and the reason there is no benefit in waiting to get a policy.

But, most importantly, I want to talk to you about your life and why you are putting off a lot of important things.
 
That diet you’ve been wanting to start? Yep.

That ring you haven’t purchased? Maybe that!

That article you’ve been meaning to write for the GI journal? Yes, especially that.

Remember: Take a deep breath in and exhaaaaale. 

So, why do we put off the important?

First, even though the “why” of purchasing income protection is a bit basic, I do find it helpful to have discrete reasons for accomplishing an important task. 

Why get disability insurance at all?

Let’s look at the value we get out of covering our income. 

Reason No. 1. It softens the landing in the event you have an illness. The stats on disability claims are heavily on the side of illness over accidents or trauma. As you know, many autoimmune conditions show up in the 20’s and 30’s, so those are the things your friends will have first. 

Unfortunately, if you have a medical issue before you have a disability policy, you will either not have coverage for that specific condition or you will not be approved for insurance. Unlike health insurance, the company can afford to pay out policies because it is picky on who it is willing to cover. It tries to select healthy people, so apply when you are most healthy, if possible. 

Reason No. 2. It’s cheap. When you compare with a $2 million policy for life insurance, it might cost $1,000-$2,000 or so per year for a term policy covering about 25 years. With disability insurance, you can cover about 10x as much for the same annual payment. One could easily make a case that if you do not have dependents, disability insurance should be your first stop even before life insurance. You are more likely to be disabled than to die when you’re in your thirties. Act accordingly.

(Please note for obvious reasons they don’t call life insurance “death insurance.” Disability insurance needs that same rebrand – I’m telling you!)

Reason No. 3. Unless you are independently wealthy, it will be nearly impossible to replace your income and live a similar lifestyle. Lock in the benefits of the work you have already accomplished, and lock in the coverage of ALL of your health while you are healthy.

 

Time to take action

As Elvis famously sang: “A little less conversation, a little more action please.”

Alright, so how do we get ourselves to ACT and get a policy to protect our income?

Tip No. 1. As doctors we often shoot for perfection. It’s no surprise, therefore, that we have an illusion that we need to find the “perfect policy.” 

One of my friends is a great financial adviser, and he often tells me about first meetings with clients to create a long-lasting plan. Often, somewhere along the way when discussing risks of stocks going down and up, someone will ask, “Why don’t we pick one that is low risk but tends to go up in value?” Of course, the reality is that if it were that easy ... everyone would do it!

Fortunately, with disability insurance, the policies are fairly straight forward. You can skip the analysis paralysis with disability insurance by talking with an agent who consistently works with physicians. I enjoy talking policies and helping doctors protect their financial health, so I started selling policies shortly after residency because so many of my co-residents were making me nervous putting it off. Some I helped, and some put it off and are unable to get policies after health issues even just 3 years after residency. 

Tip No. 2. Having a policy is better than not having one, and if you’re worried about getting the wrong one, just get two! Seriously, some companies let you split coverage between two and this can even increase the maximum coverage you can get later in life, too. Does it add cost? Surprisingly, it typically does not, and it does not make the agent more money either. In most cases it’s actually more work for them for the same amount of commission. Don’t be afraid to ask about this.

Tip No. 3. This is my hot tip for current policy owners: ask for the full version of your policy, and read the entire policy. I recently asked for my policy because I was doing some international work abroad and wanted to know if I could reside abroad if I made a disability claim. My policy stated that I would need to reside in the United States within 12 months of disability. I likely would do this in the event of disability, but it is quite important to know these aspects. 

While reading the fine print, I found that a minimum number of work-hours per week (35 for my policy) was required to qualify for my physician-specific coverage. This was an important part of my job criteria when looking for a new position and is worth investigating for anyone considering part-time employment.

Tip No. 4. The obvious tip: The fear of failure gets a lot of perfectionists from even starting a task unless they know everything about it.

 

Just start. 

That’s my go-to for overcoming fear of failure. You won’t fail. You just won’t. You will learn!

Pretend you are curious about it and try with any of these actionable steps:

• Google disability insurance. 
• Email me at [email protected]. 
• Read an article on a doctor-based blog.

I personally geeked out on insurance so much in residency that I became an insurance agent. I am an independent broker, so I have no bias toward any particular policies (email me anytime even if just with questions). Personally, I believe in this product and the value of this type of insurance, and I would hate for anyone to not have coverage of their most valuable asset: lifelong income!

The steps of applying for disability insurance

Now you know all the great reasons to get going! What are the next steps?

No matter where you get your policy, you can expect the process to be fairly simple. If it’s not then shoot me an email and I’m happy to help chat and discuss further. 

The general process is:

Step 1. Initial phone call or email: Chat with an agent to discuss your needs and situation. Immediately after, you can sign initial application documents with DocuSign. (20 minutes). 

Step 2. Complete health questionnaire on the phone with the insurance company. (20-40 minutes).

Step 3. Sign the final documents and confirm physician-specific language in their policies. (20 minutes).

The whole application period typically lasts only 2-4 weeks from start to finish and, if you pay up front, you are covered from the moment you send in the check. If you don’t accept the policy, you even get the money back. 

I genuinely enjoy talking with my colleagues from all over the world and learning about their lives and plans, so, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me at [email protected]. Also, feel free to check out my mini-blog at curiousmd.com or listen to me chat with Jon Solitro, CFP, on his FinancialMD.com podcast. Similar to this article, it is fairly informal and covers real life, tough career decisions, and actionable financial planning tips. 

If you made it to the end of this article, you are a perfectionist and should go back and read Tip No. 1. 

Reference

The Context of Things. “We live in a machine that is designed to get us to neglect what’s important about life,” 2021 Aug 24. 

Dr. Smith is an ophthalmologist and consultant with Advanced Eyecare Professionals, Grand Rapids, Mich., and founder of DigitalGlaucoma.com. He is cohost of The FinancialMD Show podcast. He is an insurance producer and assists clients with advising and decision-making related to disability insurance at FinancialMD.