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Climbing the Right Ladder

June 2, 2024

As a former academic, I mentored many students and residents who wanted to get into an adult cardiology fellowship. Guiding someone through one of the most competitive application processes was never easy, but seeing a mentee eventually live their dream of being a cardiologist was one of the most gratifying aspects of my job. 

But one of the most important things I did as a mentor was to lead one of my mentees AWAY from adult cardiology. My mentee was a medical student who hit the ground running and quickly distinguished himself as a star – smart, empathic, motivated, hardworking, competitive, and eager to impress. He quickly found himself enamored with the cardiovascular system and sought me out, because he knew he wanted to be a cardiologist. I gladly agreed to be his mentor and help guide him through the process so he could achieve his goals.

We focused on achieving the first critical milestone – getting into a great internal medicine residency program. He was doing wonderfully, but the more he accomplished, the more anxious he was becoming. On his internal medicine rotation, he felt drained, stressed, and burned out. After a few mentoring sessions, it became clear why – he was a pediatrician at heart. He felt alive during his pediatrics rotation but was so focused on the singular goal of getting into a strong internal medicine residency program that he ignored that feeling. He was focusing so hard on climbing the ladder as quickly as he could, that he didn’t realize he was climbing the wrong one.

Achieving financial independence (FI) – having enough financial assets such that work becomes optional – is a very similar ladder. We all know to win the money game, we want to make as much as we can, invest as much as we can, and pay off debt as much as we can. And so we financially knowledgeable doctors will do what it takes to hit that milestone. This could include working extra shifts, taking extra call, cutting out expenses, starting a side gig, or anything that improves our net worth and moves us closer to FI. 

The beautify of FI is that there are many ways to achieve it.

But it can be dangerously easy for a financially knowledgeable doctor to forget that achieving FI is not the Mission itself. The Mission is what FI can help make possible – to be a doctor with the power to live the life of your dreams. Achieving FI is a wonderful strategy to help make that a reality – but if on your path to FI, you find yourself moving farther from the person you want to be (for example, those extra shifts putting a strain on your marriage or your health), you might want to pause and reconsider whether you are climbing the right financial ladder.

The beautify of FI is that there are many ways to achieve it, and how you embark on that journey should reflect the person you want to become. Three steps for making sure you are climbing the right financial ladder:

  1. Define your mission – Take time to clarify what you value the most in life, and what is more important to you than anything else. A journaling session, a conversation with a loved one/significant other/close friend, a hike in the woods, or an insightful conversation with a coach can all help you better clarify the life you want to live, and the person you want to become.
  2. Work backwards – Once you can visualize that idealized life, figure out how much it will take to finance that life with plenty left over! Add a time dimension to this – when do you want to be living that fully idealized and comfortably financed life? How much will you need to have accumulated in 10 years to be on track? 5 years? 1 year? The next 6 months? The next month?
  3. Climb forward – You now know where you’re going and what it will take at each point in time. Make it happen with smart financial decisions that will get you to those 1 month/6/month/1 year milestones, and do it long enough to become second nature. But stay as close to your values as you can so you never lose track of why you’re doing what you do every day.

Today, my former student is thriving in his pediatrics residency with the goal of becoming a pediatric cardiologist, and he has found much better mentors who will get him there. May he always have the wisdom to stay true to his values and achieve the life and career of his dreams.

What do you think? Leave a comment below or share with a friend/loved one who would benefit from reading this. If DocEmpowered can help you on your journey to financial wellness, email us at coaching@docempowered.com.