Dollars & Sense - Financial Planning for EM Residents

Author: Joel M. Schofer, MD MBA RDMS FAAEM
2014 Secretary-Treasurer, AAEM
2013-2014 President, Virginia AAEM
Commander, U.S. Navy Medical Corps
Originally Published: Common Sense July/August 2014

Dr. Schofer offers some excellent advice below, and his ongoing series on basic personal finance for emergency physicians is shaping up to be one of the best things Common Sense has published under my editorship. I hope all our residents and new attendings read it carefully.

Although I have done more things right than wrong, I have made a few painful financial mistakes in my 55 years. One of the two worst mistakes I made was buying "variable universal" life insurance rather than term insurance — one of the topics Dr. Schofer mentions below. The other was trading in an overseas wine futures market. That ended badly...

There is one other thing I feel compelled to mention. While most families ought to have 3-6 months of income saved for emergencies, as Dr. Schofer says, I believe emergency physicians should have 6-12 months of income saved in a fairly liquid, easily accessible form. Every single emergency physician is virtually guaranteed to lose at least one job unexpectedly, and most of us will lose more than one. Be prepared.

— Common Sense Editor