Editorial library
Substantive articles on PSLF, contracts, retirement, and the financial decisions that compound across a physician’s career. Written by physicians who have made these decisions and watched others make expensive mistakes.
140
Articles published
64
Interactive modules · 587 lessons, residency to retirement
307
Board-style questions, every choice explained
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Featured
Every attending is over the 2026 Roth IRA income limit, and the backdoor Roth is the lawful workaround. The steps take 20 minutes. The pro-rata rule is where physicians get burned — here is how to get it right.
Browse by topic
Student loan strategy for physicians — PSLF mechanics, IDR and RAP choices, refinancing trade-offs, and the failure modes that cost six figures.
Physician contracts and compensation — reading the terms that matter, wRVU models, negotiation with benchmarks, and the clauses that cost real money.
Retirement accounts and taxes for physicians — filling the right accounts in the right order, backdoor Roths, and keeping more of a high income.
The big personal decisions at physician income — home buying, insurance, investing, and family finances, worked through with real numbers, not rules of thumb.
The guides
Modules teach it step by step. Articles go deep on one topic. The question bank makes it stick.
The Paycheck Series · 8 min · foundational
Your Paycheck Decoded
You earned one number. Your bank account saw another. Here is where the rest went — and what you can do about it.
The Paycheck Series · 11 min · foundational
Tax Brackets for Physicians
You are not taxed at your bracket. You are taxed up to your bracket. This distinction is worth thousands of dollars.
The Loan Playbook · 19 min · foundational
Student Loan Repayment: The Complete Playbook
The interest math, the income-driven plans, PSLF, and the refinancing decision you can never take back — the whole strategy in one place.
Contract Mastery · 30 min · foundational
Reading Your Contract
The clauses that matter most — and what to ask about each one.
Contract Mastery · 30 min · intermediate
wRVU Compensation Explained
Your hospital runs these numbers before your offer. Here is how to run them yourself.
Wealth Building · 14 min · intermediate
The Backdoor Roth IRA
Congress closed the front door. Physicians use the back door. Completely legal. Worth $7,500 of tax-free growth per year — forever.
Wealth Building · 32 min · foundational
Disability Insurance for Physicians
Your ability to practice medicine is your most valuable asset. Most physicians are underinsured.
Wealth Building · 12 min · foundational
Compounding on a Physician Timeline
You started 10 years behind. The math of closing that gap — and why compound interest still works in your favor.
Wealth Building · 9 min · foundational
Net Worth: Understanding Your Number
Most physicians in their thirties have a negative net worth. This is normal. Not knowing it — and not tracking it — is the problem.
The Paycheck Series · 11 min · intermediate
Moonlighting and 1099 Income
1099 income is taxed differently than W-2. Most residents who moonlight get surprised by a tax bill. Here is why — and what to do about it.
The Paycheck Series · 12 min · foundational
Your First Attending Paycheck
The 12 months around your residency-to-attending transition contain more financial decisions than the rest of your career combined. Here is what to do, in order.
Money Foundations · 8 min · foundational
Where Cash Should Live
The spread between the best and worst place to hold cash is roughly $2,400 a year on $60,000.
Money Foundations · 10 min · foundational
Stocks, Bonds, and the Funds That Hold Them
ETFs, mutual funds, index funds, expense ratios — the four-word vocabulary lesson medical school skipped, and the fee math that pays for a house.
Money Foundations · 7 min · foundational
Inflation: The Silent Pay Cut
Three percent a year sounds harmless. Over a physician career it cuts every unprotected dollar roughly in half — twice.
Money Foundations · 8 min · foundational
Credit Card Interest, Decoded
A 22 percent APR compounds daily, the grace period vanishes the moment you carry a balance, and the minimum payment is engineered to last decades. Here is the machine.
Money Foundations · 8 min · intermediate
The HSA: A Stealth Retirement Account
The only account in the tax code where money is never taxed — going in, growing, or coming out. Used as a debit card it does one job; invested, it does three.
Money Foundations · 9 min · foundational
Your First $10,000: The Capstone
You know the vocabulary. Now run the decision: one pile of real money, five places it could go, and the order that beats every other order.
Wealth Building · 9 min · intermediate
The Physician Mortgage — and When Not to Use It
0% down, no PMI, closes on a signed contract before your first paycheck. A genuinely good tool — pointed at the most expensive mistake of the first attending year.
Wealth Building · 8 min · foundational
Term Life and the Umbrella
If people depend on your income, the employer policy is a fraction of what they need — and the lawsuit policy costs less than your streaming subscriptions.
Wealth Building · 8 min · foundational
Estate Basics: The Five Documents
Not for the wealthy-someday you — for the parent you are now. Five documents, one of which isn’t a document at all, and the state’s plan if you skip them.
The Paycheck Series · 31 min · intermediate
The 90-Day Attending Transition Plan
Your income triples on schedule; what survives the first 90 days does not
Wealth Building · 12 min · foundational
Your Retirement Account Map
Four account types, two limits, one fill order
Contract Mastery · 30 min · intermediate
Contract Red Flags, Ranked
The five clauses that quietly cost six figures
Wealth Building · 9 min · foundational
Lifestyle Inflation: The Deliberate Version
Decide the split before the first attending paycheck decides it for you
The Paycheck Series · 13 min · intermediate
Legitimate Tax Reduction for Employed Physicians
The short, boring menu that actually works at W-2 $300,000 — and the schemes that do not
Wealth Building · 10 min · foundational
How Much House at Your Income
The bank's ceiling is not your budget
Wealth Building · 12 min · intermediate
Hiring (or Firing) a Financial Advisor
The right advisor is worth the fee; the default one costs six figures
The Loan Playbook · 14 min · intermediate
IDR Plans: Choosing Your Payment Formula
RAP versus IBR with 2026 numbers — after SAVE's court-ordered end
The Loan Playbook · 10 min · foundational
Running PSLF Like a Protocol
The quarterly 15-minute check that protects six-figure forgiveness
Money Foundations · 9 min · foundational
The Emergency Fund, Sized for a Physician
Why 'three to six months' is two decisions, not one
Money Foundations · 10 min · foundational
Budgeting on a Resident Salary
Fixed costs first, priorities automated, the rest is yours
Wealth Building · 11 min · foundational
Your Freedom Number
Work-optional is a dollar figure, not a birthday
Wealth Building · 12 min · intermediate
Starting at 45: The Late-Starter Protocol
The 15-year recovery plan for physicians who saved little before mid-career
Wealth Building · 12 min · intermediate
Asset Allocation: The Only Decision That Scales
Your stock/bond split — not your fund picks — decides how your portfolio behaves
Wealth Building · 14 min · advanced
The Drawdown Order
Accumulation had a fill order. Spending has one too — and running it backwards costs six figures.
Wealth Building · 12 min · intermediate
Roth vs Traditional: The Bracket Arbitrage
One comparison decides it — marginal rate now versus marginal rate later — and a physician career flips that comparison at least three times.
Wealth Building · 12 min · intermediate
Social Security and Medicare, Timed
The 8% raise, the bend points, and the six-month Medicare trap
Wealth Building · 12 min · intermediate
The Taxable Account, Done Properly
Tax drag, asset location, and the powers your 401(k) will never have
Money Foundations · 10 min · foundational
The Med School Money Map
How the loans you sign at 23 shape the next fifteen years — rates, fees, caps, and an accrual clock that never pauses
The Loan Playbook · 10 min · foundational
Match Day to First Payment: Loan Triage
Grace ends in November; your plan election should not wait that long
Wealth Building · 12 min · advanced
The 457(b): The Second $24,500
A doubled deferral space most academic physicians never open — and the one word that decides whether you should
Wealth Building · 13 min · advanced
The Mega Backdoor Roth
Up to $47,500 of additional Roth space may already exist in your plan document
The Loan Playbook · 12 min · intermediate
PSLF Employment: What Actually Qualifies
The entity on your W-2 decides your forgiveness, not the hospital on your badge
The Loan Playbook · 12 min · intermediate
Refinancing: The Decision You Can't Take Back
One signature permanently exits the federal system. Here is what that exit costs, and the narrow profile of physician for whom it is worth paying.
Contract Mastery · 30 min · intermediate
Negotiating the First Contract
'Standard contract' is an opening position, not a fact
Wealth Building · 11 min · foundational
The Three-Fund Physician Portfolio
Total US stock, total international, total bond — built from whatever menu your hospital hands you
Wealth Building · 11 min · advanced
Tax-Loss Harvesting Without the Wash
Turn a market drawdown into $1,050 a year — without tripping the 61-day rule
Wealth Building · 14 min · advanced
Physician Real Estate: The Honest Math
The 18% IRR on the syndication deck is a projection. The fees are a contract.
Wealth Building · 30 min · foundational
The Physician Behavior Gap
Why investors earn less than their own funds — and why high earners are recruited hardest
Wealth Building · 13 min · advanced
Cash Balance Plans: The Six-Figure Deduction
Why a practice owner in her fifties can deduct $150,000 or more per year — and what that commitment costs
The Paycheck Series · 33 min · intermediate
W-2 or 1099: Pricing the Difference
How to convert a 1099 rate into an honest W-2 equivalent before you sign
The Paycheck Series · 32 min · intermediate
Estimated Taxes Without the Panic
Safe harbors, set-asides, and the quarterly calendar for 1099 income
Wealth Building · 12 min · intermediate
Solo 401(k) vs SEP-IRA for Physician Side Income
The 1099 retirement space most physicians leave unopened — and the plan choice that decides whether your backdoor Roth survives
Contract Mastery · 31 min · intermediate
Locums: The Real Hourly Rate
The posted day rate is revenue for a one-physician business — here is the honest conversion.
Contract Mastery · 31 min · intermediate
Malpractice Insurance, Decoded
Occurrence, claims-made, and the six-figure tail
The Paycheck Series · 10 min · foundational
Open Enrollment, Decoded
HDHP versus PPO is arithmetic, not instinct
The Paycheck Series · 12 min · advanced
RSUs, K-1s, and Physician Equity Comp
Vest-date taxation, pass-through mechanics, and the withholding gaps between them
Contract Mastery · 31 min · advanced
Practice Ownership: The Business of Medicine
Read a practice P&L, price a buy-in, and know exactly when to hand the pen to your CPA
Money Foundations · 11 min · foundational
Running the Household Books
Two incomes, one balance sheet, and the shared view neither of you has built
The Paycheck Series · 12 min · intermediate
Filing as a Physician Household
Joint versus separate, the real marriage penalty, and the two-state return
Money Foundations · 10 min · foundational
Living on Disbursements
How to turn a lump-sum loan refund into a budget that lasts the whole term.
Money Foundations · 9 min · foundational
Credit, Built Quietly
Leave school on a 740+ trajectory without ever carrying a balance.
Money Foundations · 10 min · foundational
The Price of Applying to Residency
The real MS4 bill — ERAS fees, signals, interviews, aways — priced 18 months early.
Money Foundations · 9 min · foundational
Match Money
A cash plan for the strangest financial quarter of medical school: rank list to orientation.
The question bank
307 board-style vignettes across 5 series — each with a teaching-point explanation for every choice, tied to the module that covers it. A free account opens 25 of them — plus the daily question, always free — and your mastery is tracked by series.
Start practicing — free to start →Today’s sample — answer it here
A hospitalist with $310,000 in Direct loans works for a 501(c)(3) health system and has 68 qualifying PSLF payments. A recruiter offers a private, for-profit position paying $40,000 more. If she takes it and rides IBR to 20-year forgiveness instead, what changes about the TAX character of her eventual forgiveness under 2026 law?
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