Episode 211: 3 Things No One Tells You About Sabbaticals

Welcome to yet another episode of MoneyfitMD as I unveil the hidden realities of sabbaticals. 

In this episode, I  shared My experience and invaluable insights from my family's 10-month sabbatical across 19 countries.

Benefits of a sabbatical:

• Increased longevity in medicine and passion for the field
• Improved personal relationships and connection with family
• Opportunity for personal growth and development
• Time to explore new interests and hobbies

In this episode you will learn:

• Why you need a sabbatical even if you're feeling good about your work.
• Why your relationship with money will be magnified during a sabbatical.
• Why your identity might be questioned when you take a sabbatical

You don't want to miss this episode as it provides a realistic and informative perspective on sabbaticals so that you can approach them with awareness, planning, and an open mind.

Ready to explore the transformative power of sabbaticals?
 Download the free Sabbatical Guide at Moneyfitmd.com/Sabbatical and embark on a journey to financial freedom and personal growth. Share the link with your fellow physicians and join the movement to normalize taking pauses for a healthier and more fulfilling life.


If you are a Hardworking, Busy Woman physician who wants to get good at money without wasting more time sifting through the internet. This is for you.  https://www.moneyfitmd.com/guide

If you are a woman physician feeling stuck because of debt, you want The Debt Freedom Blueprint.
This short mini-course will take you from debt hyper-focused to taking a sigh of relief because you finally have a plan & you know how to execute it.
Get it here https://www.moneyfitmd.com/dwa

Finally, you can now be part of  a money in-person gathering created with you in mind
Do you want the freedom to live life on your terms without being limited by your finances or golden handcuffs?  Register now https://www.moneyfitmd.com/wyc

Ready to liberate yourself and become the CEO of your money & life? Join the only community exclusively for women physicians. Apply here https://www.moneyfitmd.com/assessments/2147991133

What kind of Investor are you? Take this quiz to find out www.moneyfitmd.com/quiz


if you haven't already, snag my video guide on creating your Seven Figure Life at www.moneyfitmd.com/tmd


Ready to liberate yourself and become the CEO of your money & life? Join the only community exclusively for womena physicians. The doors are open https://www.moneyfitmd.com/msb

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Transcript

0:02

Hi Doc, I'm Doctor Latifat.

0:04

I'm the host of the Moneyfit MD podcast.

0:08

This is where we help badass women physicians.

0:10

Just like you learn simple and effective tools to build wealth from the inside out.

0:17

That way we can create wealth and a bigger impact without all the burnout.

0:22

Enjoy the Hello guys.

0:31

Welcome to another episode with Doctor Latifah.

0:34

I'm so glad that you listened to this episode before I start, I want to give a quick shout-out to the doctor who inspired this episode.

0:42

So she's one of the women physicians inside of our free Facebook group, the Financial Liberation Movement.

0:48

This is a free Facebook group where women physicians who want to create a life of freedom are gathered.

0:54

And so she asked the question and said, what not?

0:58

Can you do an episode on what not to do when you start your first big paycheck?

1:03

Meaning that, you know, she was someone that's graduating from training and as you all know, nobody teach knows what to do.

1:09

So this episode was inspired by her.

1:12

So shout out to her, Doctor Patricia if you guys, any episodes or any questions that you want me to answer.

1:19

You can let me know by sending me an email at Money feet MD at gmail dot com or you can also just come into our free Facebook group.

1:28

If you're a woman physician, and my goal is to help provide information that's going to be life-changing for you.

1:34

So big shout out to her, what that means is today's episode is going to be talking about the things that I believe that someone that is starting to attend or early in their career needs to take note of.

1:49

So if you already started your attending job and you're like, OK, maybe it's too late.

1:55

No, it's not too late.

1:56

I want you to listen to this episode and pretend like you're starting from scratch and this episode isn't only gonna apply to people that are going from training to attending ship, but it's also going to apply if you're having increased in your check.

2:10

So for example, you're expecting a bonus, you're expecting a change in your pay scale.

2:16

Maybe you're seeing more customers or your business is booming more this year.

2:20

These are the things that I'm gonna suggest that you do.

2:23

And honestly, I go back in memory to when I finished fellowship.

2:28

I did not know anything about money.

2:30

I did not know what a freaking ball one.

2:32

It was like I had zero knowledge, right?

2:34

And I remember the question that people were asking me, then nobody was asking what I was gonna invest in.

2:40

Nobody was gonna, was asking me what my plans were the questions people are asking, well, what part are you gonna buy?

2:47

What car are you gonna buy?

2:49

What house are you gonna buy?

2:50

Literally, they're like trying to dig me into the liability hole, which is where a lot of people are in culture.

2:57

And that's why so many of us are living paycheck to paycheck and we're not living the free life that we could be living.

3:02

So I am so glad that I learned the things that I now know.

3:07

And so when she asked this episode, you asked for this episode, it really did take me back.

3:12

And so I'm gonna share what I did and what I wish that I had done.

3:16

And I really, really do hope that this episode helps you.

3:19

And by the way, if you learn anything from this episode, then I would love if you can share with other women physicians because something that I found to be true is that no one is teaching us this information that is, that really applies to us like no one is teaching us how to not overwork, how to decrease burn out using money as a tool in that.

3:41

In fact, you know, I'm recording this in what month are we in, in January of 2024.

3:47

And I just did a webinar recently where I was talking to women physicians about the one thing that literally prevents women physicians from having the money that they can have the money and rich life that they can have.

3:59

And I broke it down there, this one primary thing and then I broke it down into the four steps or four things that anybody, regardless of where they are in their finances.

4:09

It's like a systematic approach that they can follow to find the problem and solve the problem so that wherever they are, whether they're like zero, going to their first six figures or negative multiple six figures, like I was going to zero or maybe even going from their, you know, high six figures to their first seven figures or whatever.

4:28

Like the system is a system like the actual steps may change.

4:33

But the system is the system.

4:34

And what I found is that this knowledge and this information is so needed that if we are not doing a good job of spreading the information, I will, I'll just go and be stuck as a system as a culture and as remaining physicians.

4:48

So anyways, I wanna break this down for you and I think I have 55 or six points that I wanted to get across for you.

4:55

And so, and I will explain the reason why I'm suggesting the different things.

5:00

So the number one thing is this, if you are going from whether earning a training salary to increasing your salaries in attending or you're going through a pay scale, increase the number one thing I would tell you to do honestly is nothing.

5:17

Don't do anything, like, don't do anything, don't change anything right away.

5:22

And the reason why is because one thing that we don't think about is a lot of times we think about money, but we don't think about us, the holders of the money, the managers of the money, the conductor of the money.

5:35

And every single time you're going from one level to a different level, it's going to require a different version of yourself.

5:44

The way that I think about it is go back to being, thinking about training, right?

5:48

You were a first year resident and then a second year resident, a third year resident in up to seventh year, depending on what your specialty or sub specialty was.

5:57

If you look at each level, it was a different version of you.

6:01

It was, it required a different identity and intern as you're from a second year resident within from a third year resident, right?

6:07

And so when it comes to money, the same is true like we are the way that we handle money in one season at one scale, it's gonna be different with how we handle it.

6:20

What we move into the next scale and what I find is that people are in such a hurry to do something different that they end up using the same mindset.

6:29

That was a five figure mindset and trying to use that to be able to command their 76 figures, multiple six figures or even seven figure that they now may be earning as an attendant.

6:39

So the first thing that I would say is don't do anything.

6:42

And the reason why I'm saying don't do anything is that it gives you the space, the lack of urgency, the lack of desperation to expand into your new identity as someone that can handle the kind of money that has not come to your wall.

6:56

So don't do anything in terms of spending because you really cannot.

7:00

I mean, the truth is you really cannot trust this old version of you to be able to handle a new amount of money.

7:08

So don't do anything.

7:10

That's literally what I would recommend.

7:12

The next thing number two is because I'm a huge believer in living life and balance and enjoying like enjoying life.

7:20

And so the number two thing that I would say is decide for yourself a reasonable amount of money that you could spend doing something that fills your soul, right?

7:31

And that it doesn't have to be like anything like flamboyant.

7:34

It doesn't have to be anything crazy.

7:35

I'm not saying like spend six figures on a vacation or even five figures on a vacation, but like take yourself out to a dinner, take yourself and your family or your close girlfriends out to dinner and just go celebrate the fact that you did this.

7:54

You graduate at fellowship, you graduate at residency like you, you did the work, you did the work you acquired the wisdom that put you in a position to be able to earn this higher income that you're not earning, right?

8:09

So finding a small way to indulge and enjoy this is I believe important in terms of like smelling the roses on our journey of this marathon.

8:20

Again, be very careful about how much because what I see people do is now they're gonna go YOLO and let me tell you, it is really easy to spend a lot of money.

8:30

You will be surprised like when you're a resident or fellow, you were spending like maybe 6 ft or five figures, excuse me.

8:36

And now you're like, oh my goodness, all of us attending money.

8:40

And before you know it, you spend to fit in to the size of that income that you're earning, which is going to be a slipper slope, especially if you're spending that money on liabilities, which is what most people do because nobody's taught us about money.

8:55

Nobody's taught us about assets.

8:57

Are you, are you following me again?

8:59

If you listen to this episode and you're like, yes, this is making sense.

9:02

Share it with other fellows, share it with other residents, share it with other attendant, especially early attendance or even if you're seasoned.

9:10

But you're getting to a place where you have an escalation in your income.

9:13

Maybe you become a partner.

9:14

Like these are the things that no one is teaching and we need to know.

9:18

So go enjoy but don't enjoy in a way.

9:21

That's like crazy.

9:23

Right.

9:23

That could potentially make you go.

9:26

Oh my goodness.

9:26

Now this is a new line, but let's do this every day and before you know it, now you're like back to feeling like you're a resident and living paycheck to paycheck.

9:35

By the way, if you are listening to this episode, you may want to go listen.

9:41

So the episode where I talked about the two types of living paycheck to paycheck because that is gonna be really, really important in terms of understanding what I'm talking about here.

9:50

Because not all paycheck to paycheck living is created equal, right?

9:53

Not all of it is created equal.

9:55

So there are two kinds, I'm not gonna go into details here.

9:57

But if you go to a couple of episodes before you can find it on youtube, you can find it on the podcast, you will be able to get the information that you need when it comes to that.

10:06

Ok.

10:07

Number three, I cannot, you know, refer to this a little bit but don't escalate your lifestyle in the next six months.

10:16

Don't, and this is gonna sound counterintuitive, intrusive or whatever intuitive and I can't speak words right now, counterintuitive, but like, don't escalate your lifestyle.

10:28

Like don't go out and buy a primary home anytime soon.

10:33

And the reason why I say that is most people, I forget the percentage, but a significant percentage of people actually change their jobs within the first year or so of their practice.

10:44

So if you're changing your job, like 12 months, 18 months, like you're signing on a new job, you don't even know whether you're gonna love them or not.

10:52

You don't know whether they're gonna love you or not.

10:54

You don't know whether like, whatever, whatever, whatever everybody comes up, like, looking their best on interview day.

11:01

But now you need to go there and make sure that the people that you're working with are people that you want to work with in the, you know, foreseeable future because maybe you're in California and now you work for 12 months and you decide that you miss your family, you hate it, but now you're stuck because you bought the doctor house that everybody and their mama told you to buy and now you're in a hole, you're stressed out.

11:23

You're like now you have to move to another state and you have no choice but to rent out this property you bought at a high price and now you have to rent it out below market.

11:33

It's not cash flowing and now you're already taking baggage into the next job that you're going to be looking for.

11:39

So if there's any advice I'm gonna tell, it's like, don't rush to buy anything major, don't buy any doctor house, don't buy a fancy car.

11:47

Like literally give yourself the gift of acclimatizing to having the new income that you're gonna have, right?

11:54

It's like taking a little kid and taking them to a candy shop, especially a little kid.

11:59

Never was never eating candy before.

12:01

Like, if you keep them there for two hours, that's believe it, they're gonna have diarrhea, stomach pain and vomiting because they're like getting all the candy on their face.

12:11

Right?

12:11

So the key is this like let give yourself the gift of acclimatizing, right?

12:17

Without needing to follow the societal pressure to buy something that you have no business buying.

12:26

Because honestly, for the most part, your primary ho your primary home is likely a liability.

12:32

So if you start digging yourself into holes already, you're literally are already taking the power away from yourself in terms of creating your own power of choice in how you practice medicine in future.

12:44

So you are literally hurting your future self, potentially, if you're rushing too much to do the things that people have conditioned us to think that it's what doctors doing.

12:53

There's a reason why so many physicians are broke, right?

12:57

If you want to live differently, you have to be willing to do differently, right?

13:02

That's what it's gonna take.

13:03

And then the number four thing is during this time, especially the first six months, read books, read books that increase the wealth of your life, read books, listen to podcasts.

13:15

Like if you listen to this right now, it means you're already on your way.

13:18

Like listen to podcasts, that's enriches your brain that gives you the tools to be able to change your mindset, change the way you think about money, change.

13:26

Your psychology, learn how to make money, learn how to see value in the things that you give, learn that you're not stuck.

13:33

Like, so that you can be a physician that is starting their career with power.

13:38

Right.

13:38

That's a physician with choice.

13:39

We call her the financially liberated physician around here.

13:43

Right.

13:44

And I wrote a book, a best selling book on Amazon.

13:46

If you listen to this and you haven't bought that book yet, go check it out.

13:50

It's called Done with Broke the Woman Physicians Guide to more money and less also, like if you read that book from cover to cover and do exactly what it tells you to do, I promise you, your relationship with money will change.

14:04

Like if you read the reviews of the people that I've read it, like, literally, it's changed their finances, but it's not gonna do that if you don't buy it, if it's not gonna do that, if you don't read it, it's not.

14:16

And honestly, as much as I love you and I wish I could do everything with you and for you, I wish I could.

14:22

But I know that if I do, you're not gonna get better, you're not gonna get stronger.

14:26

So I don't want to do that because I want you to get better.

14:29

I want you to get stronger.

14:31

So that's a book done with Brooke, the woman physicians guide to more money and less.

14:35

So, so that's one that I 100% would recommend that you get.

14:38

And if you do it, you can buy it too and read it too.

14:41

And in fact, one of the first reviews that we had was from non physician or from a male dude.

14:47

Right?

14:48

So there literally is no excuse for each, not take your relationship with money at the price of like a couple of cups of coffee.

14:56

Literally, so go to Amazon, go buy, go change your own life.

15:00

Don't do what it tells you to do.

15:02

And that's what's up.

15:03

OK.

15:04

The other book that I would also recommend is just buy a simple book that can be helpful when it comes to invest in, right?

15:12

So you may have heard about Bogle Heads.

15:13

Bogle Heads.

15:15

It's a they have great resources.

15:18

There is actually I put together a money guide for women physicians that will be perfect for the early career physician.

15:26

In fact, I'm calling it a money guide.

15:28

So good.

15:28

I could try for it, but I'm not and you can access it.

15:31

I'll have my team lead the put the link in here.

15:34

It's Money F md.com/guide, you can access it and it's a fast read.

15:41

You can literally read it in like a week.

15:42

My goal is this my goal is that you would listen to this podcast, get the Money Guide, get the books, read them, execute them and start to make strides in your finances.

15:53

That's my goal for you.

15:55

And if that's what you want for your life as well, then great, we're on the same page.

15:59

So read books, get educated.

16:01

Those are the things that I would recommend.

16:03

And when you're ready come join us instead of the money school, That's our inner circle where women physicians, building wealth are.

16:10

They are literally transforming their own lives curating the lives that they want and living and practicing medicine on their terms.

16:17

OK?

16:18

The next thing that I'm gonna recommend, especially if you have debt is compile your debt together and just have a good idea of what you have what you owe and what it would look like to pay it back, especially if you don't plan on applying for a loan forgiveness program.

16:36

If you're of course planning on applying for a loan forgiveness program, that is completely different.

16:41

But if you're not applying for a loan forgiveness program, then it's important for you to figure out what your plan is gonna be in terms of like paying off the debt.

16:49

I mean, I've already shared with you guys here when I, I did not even know how much I owed.

16:54

I was like, who's Auntie Sally?

16:55

She keeps writing me letters.

16:58

I'm being honest with y'all like I would defer I would forbear I would do whatever the crap got it out of my face.

17:05

So, if you like the T pa, I'm confused about this whole debt stuff.

17:09

You are in good company.

17:10

Right.

17:11

Of course, I've improved.

17:12

Of course, that has changed.

17:14

I've tr from the way that I think about money and that's what I do here is helping my physicians do the same.

17:19

But putting that debt together and really asking yourself like, what is going on here?

17:24

Where is this money going?

17:25

What do I owe?

17:26

When do I want to pay it off?

17:27

At what rate do I want to pay it off?

17:29

I mean, I don't want you to be obsessed with debt.

17:31

I don't want you to be so focused with debt that you don't do.

17:34

The next thing that I'm gonna talk about, which is investing.

17:37

And in fact, what I'm gonna say is this, if you're someone that has debt, if you're a woman physician, if you have debt and you're like, I wanna learn how to handle the debt better.

17:46

I wanna learn how to pay it up, but I don't want to pay it off in a hustling way.

17:50

I wanna pay it off in like a wealthy way where I'm learning to also leverage and learn how the wealthy use debt.

17:56

Then definitely check out a mini course that I have.

18:00

This is something that I launched last year and the women physicians that took it had great, great, great feedback and it's something that you can access, start playing like right now and within, I mean, itself based, it's like Netflix and the tools that you would get there will help you be empowered when it comes to understanding your debt, paying off your debt and knowing how you can also leverage debt to also build wealth.

18:26

So go check it out.

18:27

It's money F md.com/dw A, I'm gonna have my team at the link here.

18:32

So you don't have to go looking around for it.

18:34

And I think it's like I wanna say 299.

18:36

So yeah, so really, really accessible with something that a fellow can, can pay for very, very easily, something that an early career physician can also pay for as well.

18:45

Because what it does, it equips you, it helps you decrease wasted money on high interest debt because now you have a plan including the worksheets that you can use in order to be able to create a, a plan for yourself.

18:57

But then it's also going to help you start to listen to how I'm coaching some of the women physicians that you will hear the experience in there.

19:04

But how I wanted to go from being debt obsessed to now it's changing to be more like investment out focus because ultimately, if all you do is pay off debt, you're just gonna be down to zero.

19:15

But if you buy assets and invest, that's really how you grow your wealth and then the last part that I'm gonna say is start learning what your opportunities are when it comes to investment.

19:28

So if you're working for a company, maybe you are employed and that's a new thing that you're gonna be doing, you want to know what opportunities exist that like, do you have access to 401k?

19:39

Do you have access to 403 B 457?

19:42

Whether it's a governmental versus Nongovernmental?

19:44

Is there any matching?

19:46

Right?

19:46

If there's matching you 100% want to take a take advantage of that, right?

19:51

Because if you're, if there is a, a bill to get matched and you're not, you literally are leaving money on the table.

19:57

It's like someone saying, I'm gonna pay you $100.

19:59

I'm like, no, honey, don't pay me 100 bucks.

20:01

I'll take $80.

20:02

Don't worry about the 20 bucks.

20:04

Like when you're not taking the match that's available for you literally are leaving part of your paycheck on the table.

20:10

Like literally, that's what you're doing, right?

20:12

And I know you don't want that.

20:13

So those are some of the things that I would say is a great place for you to start, right?

20:19

Because again, if I did this, if I knew all of this, I would have been way ahead of where I am right now.

20:25

And I will tell you that as someone that speaks to a lot of women physicians, this knowledge that I'm just sharing here.

20:31

It's not only for people that are transitioning from attending to, from fellowship or training to attending.

20:37

It's for anyone that really feels like they want to get a hang over their finances again.

20:42

I want to make sure that you get the resources that I shared.

20:45

The Money guide.

20:46

It's a free money guide that you can access and read through.

20:49

It's an easy read.

20:49

I could literally charge for it.

20:51

I'm not charging for it, but it will help you start to think differently about practical ways to handle your finances.

20:58

And then there is also the debt mini course that is like 299 you can access that as well.

21:03

Money feed md.com/dw A.

21:07

You can literally access like between both of those things.

21:11

You will be way ahead of the curve to be honest with you.

21:13

And of course, I shared the books, I shared the book ahead.

21:16

Absolutely simple.

21:18

Effective go read it.

21:19

It will literally help you change the way that you think about finances.

21:23

And I mentioned my book as well, which is done with Broke the woman positions, guide to more money and less.

21:29

H so those are the places that if you want to start then that's where I would start.

21:33

If you do this six months from now, your finances would be unrecognizable.

21:37

Like literally if you do this, the benefit is going to compound for you so much that while so many physicians are burned out in medicine, being stuck to paycheck, to paycheck living, being conditioned to be stuck with our income and the source of our income, you would be like on a, on a like you would just be like chilling having choices.

21:59

And on a more serious note, if you want to change health care, if you wanna make a dent, when it comes to physician burnout, if you wanna change the natural course of what the prepa and pandemic, whatever we are per pandemic, post panem, whatever you wanna call it, effect on fatigue and burnout is we are gonna have to have these conversations about money.

22:23

So I hope this has been helpful for you.

22:25

Thank you very much for asking me for this episode.

22:29

I hope it's added value to your life.

22:31

Don't forget to share this episode, share with your core and share with your co fellows, share with your attendance, your tenants.

22:39

I don't know much about money either.

22:41

Shared with them, right?

22:42

You and I together is what it's gonna take to be able to get the knowledge that is needed to all the spaces that is needed.

22:49

So I love you.

22:51

I appreciate you so much.

22:52

Thank you for choosing to be here with me and I will talk to you in the next episode.

22:57

All right.

22:57

Goodbye.