Tag: youtube

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Be Careful Of Some Of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Advice. It May Not Apply To Radiologists!

financial advice

Over the past six months or so, I started to listen to Dave Ramsey. He is a no-nonsense straight shooter who gives excellent financial advice to folks who call into his show. Moreover, he has an infectious laugh and is very witty. If the topic of finance interests you, once you start listening, it will become addicting! Nevertheless, we as radiologists must be careful when we take some of his advice at face value. Some of his advice does not apply well to late-blooming indebted radiologists who make a very high income. So, what parts of his advice should we think twice about? Here are several recommendations that probably will not apply to you.

Save Only 15 Percent Of Your Income

As radiologists, we are late bloomers. We enter the workforce much later than non-physicians. And we start working a bit after our general medicine colleagues. Therefore, the time value of money does not work in our favor. This rule makes a lot of sense for most people who start working somewhere in their twenties and continue working through retirement. But, for us, we cannot capture the benefits of compounding interest. Therefore, we need to save far more than 15 percent. Fortunately, most of us can do so, given that our salaries are far from the average worker in the United States.

Buy No More House Than 25 Percent Of Take Home Pay With A Fifteen-Year Fixed Mortgage

On this point, we partially disagree. Dave Ramsey is not steadfast with this rule but recommends this protocol to his callers. Spending less on the house allows us the freedom to save for other events like college for kids or retirement savings. Nevertheless, many of us have rapidly rising incomes right after residency. And just because you are making a particular salary directly after you finish does not mean you will stay at that number much longer. Many of you will become partners and shareholders in practices and may have buy-ins that will temporarily decrease your salary. And, you may live in an expensive part of the country. With the expectations for increasing wages, you should be able to buy a bit more house based on a than 25 percent based on a reasonable expectation of making more money in the future. So, consider your future earnings when you buy a house so you don’t have to move twice!

Use Managed Stock Mutual Funds With A Great Track Record Instead Of Low-Cost Index Funds

Generally, most index funds beat managed funds over the long term as an investment vehicle. Dave Ramsey tends to say that his managed funds tend to outperform. But, for most, the outperformance is usually limited in scope and doesn’t last for long-term managed mutual fund holds. Furthermore, the fees in an actively managed fund tend to be a bit higher. So, consider opting for the lower-cost index mutual fund if possible!

Dave Ramsey Financial Advice Doesn’t Talk About Real Estate Syndications As An Option

Since we are high-income professionals, many of us don’t have the time or inclination to buy and take care of houses for investment. Additionally, buying stocks in taxable accounts can cause radiologists to pay significant capital gains and dividend taxes (as high as 33 percent or more if you include both federal and state taxes!). One excellent option he does not discuss is using private syndications and real estate funds as an investment tool for increasing wealth and cash flows and decreasing the tax burdens you might face with other types of investments. These investments can be low maintenance and strategies for building wealth for the high-income professional!

Dave Ramsey And Financial Advice

Dave Ramsey does a great job of spreading great information to the average financial media consumer. But no one is perfect, and personal finance is personal. Therefore, one talking head that generally gives excellent personal finance advice may not apply to your particular situation as a radiologist. So, although this show is entertaining and often relevant, do your due diligence when considering your options!

 

 

 

 

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A Review Of Med School Insiders Insights Into Radiology

med school insiders

If you are like me, I am an avid youtube fan. Since it is in my wheelhouse, one of the topics I occasionally search for is radiology (in addition to astronomy, Ukraine, and guitar lessons!). And as I was surfing the YouTube world on these topics. I hit upon a series of videos with the hypnotic voice of Dr. Jubbal from Med School Insiders, a business that caters to students who want to enter the field of medicine. Many of these videos claimed to review Radiology as a field, including salaries, types of residents, the culture, and more. But does that mesmerizing voice have it all right? Or, is much of what Dr. Jubbal says about radiology a farce? Here is a review of the world of Dr. Jabal, and Med School Insiders impression of the field of radiology and whether he gets it all right.

Salaries- In The Middle Of The Pack?

The videos emphasizing radiology talk about salaries and consistently talk about radiology as somewhere in the middle of the pack. That phrase can be very misleading. As someone within the field, knowing where we stand in the salary ranking, I know that salary is highly dependent on where you work, whether you are in private practice or academics, and a slew of other factors. Based on my own experiences with these factors, radiology has been more consistently toward the top of the salary distribution on average than most other specialties. But, of course, it is possible to find a lower-paying radiology job.

Med School Insiders Talk About Artificial Intelligence

This factor is where Dr. Jubbal gets it wrong. He uses artificial intelligence as a risk for new students entering radiology. Artificial intelligence has consistently been underwhelming for most radiologists out there as a way to replace radiologists. The best CAD detectors for mammo and lung nodules have consistently underperformed expectations. The biggest problem with artificial intelligence is that there are always new data sets that the researchers have not inputted into their algorithms. And, any independent reads by a computer will not be able to take these myriad factors into account for a very long time. I don’t see any chance of it taking over a radiologist’s job for more than fifty years from now.

Even if artificial intelligence becomes more successful, radiologist numbers  are still way too low relative to the amount of work out there. Artificial intelligence may even boost efficiency to get more done in less time, enabling radiologists to do more with less and increase earnings. (That would be a good thing) Artificial intelligence, therefore, is not much of a risk at all to the profession. Sorry, Jabal!

ROAD/Flexibility

Dr. Jabal constantly adds radiology as part of the lifestyle specialties. Sure, we have one of the most flexible specialties regarding work location, shiftwork, and type of work. However, many of us have become insanely busy because we are replacing a lack of physician staffing elsewhere, i.e., emergency medicine, family medicine, etc. For this reason, patients will often get pan-scans without being seen by clinicians first. So, many of us have become very busy trying to keep up with the demand. So, I’m not sure we belong on the ROAD list anymore!

More Introverted Specialty

On this subject, I would have to agree on a bit. Although I know lots of radiologists who are very outgoing and personable, many radiologists would prefer to work alone as well. In other specialties, this introversion does not fly as well when you have to see tens of patients daily—seeing patients could become exhausting for an introvert. Radiology is a way to avoid the constant bombardment of patient contact. (Of course, it does not have to be that way!)

Competitiveness

Here is another area where I would have to agree with Dr. Jabal. Although the trends have become more competitive lately since COVID, we are certainly not as competitive as dermatology or orthopedics. We place somewhere in the middle of the pack, maybe a bit more toward the upper end of the mid-tier lately. Dr. Jabal seems to emphasize a similar level of competitiveness, somewhere toward the middle of the middle, That ranks close enough to the mark.

Doctor Jubbal, Med School Insiders, And Radiology

So, yes, Dr. Jubbal does toot his own horn as he had formerly trained as a plastic surgeon and subtly suggests that plastic surgery is the epitome of being a physician. If you can get past that, he does get some impressions of radiology right, especially the appeal to introverts and the general competitiveness of radiology. On the other hand, he misses the mark a bit for others, such as salaries, artificial intelligence, and the ROAD concept for radiology. But, overall, he does not do so badly. His youtube segments are enjoyable to listen to and can help residency applicants in general. My advice, though, is never to use one source for anything. And try to find mentors in the residency space within your specialty of interest. The best advice will come from physicians within the area of training where you want to apply!