Content library
All 27 modules, arranged along the physician career journey from pre-med to attending. Every module includes your next steps, a check-your-understanding quiz, planning questions, and cited sources.
Premed
The true cost of applying, whether the math of medicine works, and the credit score you'll borrow on.
The real cost of getting into medical school
The application bill starts before acceptance. Build one budget for the MCAT and applications—and another for the debt attached to each school.
Is medicine worth the money?
The right question is not “Do doctors earn a lot?” It is whether your likely debt, training path, and career fit justify the years and risk ahead.
Your credit score before you borrow
Lenders score you before you ever apply for a loan. Know your number, know your reports, and protect both before medical school borrowing begins.
Med Student
Budget on a trainee income, learn how money grows, and manage the loans you're already carrying — interest doesn't wait for graduation.
Budget on a trainee income
A budget is a plan for every dollar before the month spends it for you. Build one that fits trainee income, then guard it with an emergency fund.
Investing basics: growth, risk, and time
Compounding rewards the early starter. Learn what you own, what it costs, and why time is the greatest edge a young physician has.
Debt vs. investing starts with the loan rate
Before choosing between extra debt payments and investing, identify the fixed loan rate and the federal rules attached to that loan.
The student-loan deduction still exists
You may deduct qualifying student-loan interest without itemizing—but filing status, MAGI, and employer-paid interest can change the result.
Resident
Workplace plans, disability protection, loan-forgiveness strategy, and the tax basics nobody taught you.
Know your workplace-plan ceiling
One hospital may offer several retirement plans. Learn which employee limits overlap—and when a 457(b) gives you a separate lane.
Disability insurance: protect the paycheck
Your future earnings are your largest asset. An own-occupation disability policy bought in training protects them at the lowest lifetime cost.
PSLF and income-driven repayment after the 2026 overhaul
Public Service Loan Forgiveness still exists — and the repayment menu around it was rebuilt in 2026. Know which plan counts, which deadlines apply to you, and what to file every year.
Marginal rates are a staircase
Tax brackets apply in layers. Use taxable income and filing status to see how each slice is taxed—not one rate for every dollar.
Your 1099 rate is not your take-home
Moonlighting pay can arrive without withholding. Map self-employment tax and your W-2 wages before treating the deposit as take-home pay.
Moonlighting and supplemental income
Moonlighting can accelerate your plan—but the quoted rate is not take-home pay. Check classification, taxes, permission, and malpractice first.
Ask whether your employer has a §127 plan
Your employer may be able to pay education costs or your own student loans tax-free through a written §127 plan.
Fellow
The in-between years: moonlighting income, backdoor Roths, and the contract details that shape attending life.
Fellowship finances: managing the in-between years
Fellowship is neither residency nor attending life. Plan the extra training years around real cash flow, benefits, debt strategy, and career value.
Use the IRA rules, not guesswork
Traditional and Roth IRAs share one contribution limit. Your earned income, filing status, and MAGI determine which route fits.
Backdoor Roth: legal, but not automatic
A backdoor Roth is a contribution-and-conversion sequence. The pro-rata rule and Form 8606 determine whether it stays clean.
First, prove the plan is HSA-eligible
An HSA begins with eligibility—not just a high deductible. Confirm the plan, coverage tier, and every contribution before funding it.
Attending contracts and compensation
A higher headline salary can hide a weaker formula, more call, unpaid tail, or a costly exit. Read the whole contract as one compensation package.
Attending
Beat lifestyle creep, insure what matters, negotiate your contract, and build real wealth.
Your first attending paycheck: beat lifestyle creep
Your first attending paycheck is a one-time chance to set the baseline. Automate the future before a bigger lifestyle becomes the default.
Pay off student loans or invest?
The choice is not debt or investing in the abstract. It is forgiveness eligibility, employer benefits, after-tax loan cost, risk, and your need for cash-flow freedom.
Life insurance when people depend on your income
Buy life insurance when others depend on your paycheck — not before, and not as an investment. Term coverage, sized to the need, is the right default for most young physicians.
Asset protection and estate planning for physicians
Asset protection starts with coverage and coordination. Estate planning starts with who can act—and who receives what—if you cannot.
Separate enacted law from proposals
Financial headlines mix laws with proposals. Confirm what was enacted before changing a retirement, loan, or tax decision.
Employed vs. owning your practice
Practice ownership is not simply a bigger paycheck. It is a trade: more control and upside in exchange for capital, operating responsibility, and less predictable early cash flow.
Starting your own practice
A practice opens safely when the legal structure, startup budget, working capital, staffing, location, equipment, and technology all support the same operating model.
Getting paid in private practice
Private-practice revenue is a workflow, not an event. Contracting, credentialing, documentation, coding, claims, denials, patient balances, and cash reconciliation all have to connect.
Attending contracts and compensation
A higher headline salary can hide a weaker formula, more call, unpaid tail, or a costly exit. Read the whole contract as one compensation package.