Top 5 Ways Yoga Helps Make Me a Millionaire

After a decade of hardly exercising, I decided to take care of my health at last. I started a 30 day yoga challenge, doing home yoga practice with YouTube instructor the same time I started recording “30 Day Mindful Financial Practice with Dr. Wise Money.”
Beyond the 30 days, I continue to practice yoga for 30-90 minutes daily and have benefited tremendously from my practice, which is full of challenges, flaws, and the excitement of trying new things and making progress.
While I was on my yoga mat this morning, I realized that Yoga has taught me many things about life, and about personal finances. Here I share the top 5.

1.     Self-love.
As I care of myself, I am learning to love myself. Something honestly, I did not how to do very well. The yoga instructor said that curiosity is a form of self-love. Staying curious is great way to make progress in life’s all dimensions, definitely in personal finances as well.
The more I love myself, the more I can love others, and the less I love “things” particularly inanimate objects without souls. I feel no desire to buy anything and am perfectly content with all the already comfort I already have.

2.     Mindfulness.
Without mindfulness, yoga practice can be dangerous. There are plenty of opportunities to twist a joint or fall flat on my face on the mat. While medical training has conditioned us to perpetually live in the future, ridden with anxiety and fear for the unknown. Only living in the present provides peace and practicing yoga has taught me to be in the present.
Planning for my future, such as balancing saving (at a rate sufficient to allow me to retire by 2023) and spending today, requires presence of mind. I am here now; I hereby release the fear of financial insecurity from my childhood; I hereby also let go of the fear of the unknown in the future. I embrace all that I am blessed with today with gratitude.

3.     Adventure.
Fortune favors the brave. While many are scared of using credit cards to help them build wealth. I combine the spirit of adventure with mindfulness, and have been able to accelerate the growth of my net worth using exactly credit cards.
Borrowing money from the big banks at zero to negative interest rate has allowed me to save 60k of interest on medical school student loans, max out my retirement savings, stretch my limited PGY dollars, and have a flexible and sizable rainy day fund.

4.     Resilience.
Mom always says there are always more solutions than problems. That’s exactly what doing daily yoga has confirmed for me. There was a time when I worked 7 odd jobs in college to help pay down my parents 30% interest rate credit card debt.
Guess what, that’s how I learn the ins and outs of credit cards, and now have turned the table around to use these cards to help build my dream and achieve financial independence much sooner than I would have without the assistance of credit cards!

5.     Benevolence to all.
Namaste means “the light in me bows to the light in you.” What a beautiful way to interact and perceive another being. When I respect and have good will towards all those around me, it is hard to Not succeed at all that I put my heart to.
When I freely share the painful lessons I learned from my struggles and mistakes, those who are open and benefit from my sharing, send back such positive energy, which fuels me to do more, serve more, and greater success comes as a side product.

In short, Yoga has taught me to care myself and others, with mindfulness, adventure and resilience. I will become a millionaire much sooner than I anticipated. Will keep you posted!
Join me today in loving and caring for yourself and those around you. Start here and now, “30 Day Mindful Financial Practice with Dr. Wise Money”!

 

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3 Things Society Doesn’t Know About Doctors

A Chinese folktale goes like this,

 

A magnificent Buddha statute sits at the mountain top where worshipers climb 100’s of 1000’s steps of stairs to arrive at his foot and to kneel down in prayers.

One day, the slab of stones from the winding stair cried out to the Buddha, “We are made from the same stone carved from this very mountain. Why is it that every day thousands of people step on me to kneel at your feet in prayers?”

The Buddha, serenely, with one tear down his cheek, “Do you know how many slashes and burns, how much hurt I endure to be who I am today?”

 

To some degree, the story of the Buddha and the stairs parallel those of US doctors and the rest of the society. Do you wish to be the Buddha or the stairs?

 

Many days of my life, I’ve wished that I have chosen to be the stairs. In fact, I’d happy to serve a purpose in our society, even if it means that it’s not perceived as prestigious as being a physician. A function, a service is all I want to provide my fellow human beings.

 

Yet I was dreamy, I chose medicine as my primary way to serve my neighbors, near and far, anyone who’s brought to the hospital where I work. I did not know how hard a(n aspiring) doctor’s life is. How much it demands of me and of my loved ones.

 

  • What we have gone through to complete medical school is nothing short of epic. For one thing, how does one focus on learning, studying so much material (2 weeks in medical school covers 1 year of undergraduate upper division science class), while enduring the financial stress of borrowing 100k a year @ 7% interest rate while in school?

 

  • For many, just getting into medical school exhausts all resources and energy they have… then they are expected to perform like super human the day med school starts.

 

  • The residency match was yet another bizarrely inefficient and antiquated torture for the aspiring physicians and their loved ones. I was on the road, away from my 5 year old for 6 months, traveling from one city to another across the country, speed dating residency programs, spending 1 day/1 night at each program. The whole job search for a residency spot that pays 50k/year cost 20k of traveling expenses, not to mention the damage done by forcing our partners to be single parents, and our kids to have absentee parents. The only explanation offered to our little ones was, “daddy/mommy is gone because he/she is trying to find a job.”

 

The worst part of this all is that, our society does not see the burns and slashes of medical training, all they see is the magnificent Buddha sitting at the mountain top, worshiped and prayed to.

 

Next time someone remarks that doctors have it easy, please take a few minutes and share your journey with them. If you don’t have time to so, share an article or two about physician suicide with these people who think that doctors should be from the public service loan forgiveness program because they make too much money.

 

We, doctors or not, are in fact made of the same material.

 

While doctors don’t expect to receive charity or pity from what we endure, we could certainly use some understanding and support from those around us by raising awareness regarding what it really takes to pursue and practice medicine.

 

While the majority of press attention doctors get are the few bad apples who defame our profession, we could make a change, by starting a grassroots movement. Share with our patients and the society at large what we are truly about. We need to shed light on and reform antiquated physician training/schooling styles and protocols. We need to remove the causes of physician suicides. Shedding light on rather than covering up the problem is the first step to finding solutions.

 

Please join me in Physician Support Initiative (P.S.I.) 

P.S.I.  aims to raise awareness, empower, and support doctors & their community in maximizing their individual and collective wellness in all of life’s dimensions, encompassing personal, professional, psycho-social, and financial health.

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Money, Medicine, Motherhood, & the Presence of Mind: Moving up in Life

As I was on my mat today at a Yoga class, getting my as* kicked. I realized that I’ve progressed through four learning stages of my life… although at times still oscillating between the last 2 most challenging discipline to study and practice: Motherhood & the Presence of Mind.

While some many want to you to believe money matters are complicated, the study of finance is never ever even 1/1000th of the complexity, depth and breath of medicine.  Medicine has never been that challenging compared to motherhood for me. Then lastly, the presence of mind has been the greatest challenge of all. So the progression of greater complexity and challenge from learning and practicing the study of money, medicine, motherhood, and to the eventual presence of mind is a personal journey that I’d like to share with you today.

Money

Any 2nd grader who’s mastered subtraction and addition can manage money. It’s the attitude and actual practice of money knowledge that’s challenging. A blessing in disguise was my parents’ financial insolvency and my extreme fear of debt developed as a child when Taiwanese Mafia creditors bang on our door, demanding pay back.

I’ve never made a lot of money in my life, the most was 60k in 2015 from PGY2 W2 income + a little side income from tutoring. Yet I’ve managed the little I had and became completely debt free, with a sizable retirement and college savings for Mini Wise Money today (8/17/2016.)

I knew how to manage money before I knew how to practice the other 3 M’s.

Medicine

Medicine was my passion, 2nd to only motherhood. Medicine was much harder than money, much easier than motherhood to master. I worked 2 jobs in medical school as a single mother and managed the top of my class.

Medicine fascinates and captivates me. I gobbled up as much knowledge as I could and practice my doctor skills whenever I could, so that I could be a good doctor, someone deserving of being entrusted with another’s life.

Motherhood

Although I became a mother before I started medical school, I didn’t start learning about what it truly means to be a mother until recently. A tad late, you may say, as Mini Wise Money is turning 9 years old soon.

I struggle a lot with mommy’s guilt. I left Mini home with my partner during interview-audition-rotation season as an OMS4. I was absent for nearly 6 months physically. Not to count the innumerable days when I was absent mentally from shear exhaustion of sleep deprivation (I slept 4 hours/night for 15 years until recently).

It’s not whining when female physicians talk about the challenges of balancing motherhood with medicine, not to even mention marriage and me time. Any of these components take the lion’s share, the rest will suffer. Unfortunately, medicine takes the lion’s share in most cases.

While I’ve mastered money matters and developed a sound footing in medicine, I’m still a total rookie in motherhood. I do notice however, learning to become a better mother definitely make me better at medicine too.

Presence of Mind

This is the real challenge, how do I be present, here, now. Writing an article and not think about Mini, listening to Mini’s excited jokes and not thinking about studying more neuro-radiology chapters, doing questions in radiology board bank and not wishing I’m taking Mini out to Fantastics, and doing yoga on the mat while thinking about the next money article I’m writing.

It’s not easy to stop chasing my own tail and start living in the moment.

I find yoga helpful for increasing my awareness, mindfulness, and intention. The one hour I’m nearly 90% present is when I’m on the yoga mat in a yoga class listening to the instructor and willing my body into creating more space and decompress.

I hope you find your presence of mind too because it naturally makes you better in the other M’s: Money, medicine, and parenthood!

If you see a colleague stuck in one of the stages, lend a helping hand. Invite him or her on a hike, to a yoga class, or something else, in hopes of bringing their attention to the happiness and potential of this very moment.

 If you like this article, you might enjoy other DWM articles on Personal Finance, Investing, Retirement, Practice Management, & Lifestyle.

All articles by DWM are for informational purposes only and not intended as a substitute for professional advice. Please consult a professional accountant, financial adviser or lawyer, before making financial decisions.

5 Ways Good Finance Parallels Good Cooking

Having grown up on the kitchen counter while my gourmet chef mother cooks, surrounded by the aroma of her 24 hour simmer chicken broth, and her 200+ types of wines jam packed in our 1,000 square foot apartment, cooking is in my DNA.

Feeling powerless when the Taiwanese creditor/mafia shows up at our door, banging and shouting to see my dad, the debtor, and worrying about my dad losing an extremity each time he leaves house to re-negotiate pay back terms with the mafia, personal finance resourcefulness became a survival necessity.

Today I love equally sharing financial tips and cooking up a storm to entertain my friends. On my walk this morning, after yoga, I had an epiphany. Cooking and personal finance work stunningly the same.

  1. A little goes a long way.

5.5k I put in Mini Wise Money’s (my 9 yo kid) Roth IRA today in 2016 will be worth more than 300k at her retirement (assuming 8% annualized return and retirement at 62.)

Similarly, the most delicious and popular part of my 4 hour slow baked baby-back ribs are the caramelized sweet delicious onions, which brings life to any ordinary starch like mashed potato or quinoa or wild rice.

  1. Healthy ingredients may not be the cheapest

Healthy financial habits, such as saving, discipline, and patience seem costly, at the opportunity cost of not doing retail therapy, not buying a sports car the day you get your residency or attending job contract. Yet, if we look closely inward, we know that investing our money and finding our happiness from within rather than purchasing temporary ecstasy is not only healthy for our finances, but more importantly for our inner peace and joy.

Many Americans are lead to believe that healthy foods such as produce and un-processed/un-tampered meats are more expensive than TV dinners/ fast food. That’s not true. When you buy seasonal local fresh veggies and fruits on sale and on credit intentionally, you can get great deals. Not to mention the exorbitant lifelong medical bills you save by eating healthy.

  1. Homemade is always better and cheaper than restaurant made.

Financial advisers who charge AUM (asset under management fee = a % of the amount of money you turn over to them to manage) are like restaurants, their primary goal in business is to make money off of their clients. Your dollar goes to supporting their family (rightfully so, as they too have to make a living, but it sure is easy to make 13 million over 6 decades from sitting on just One average physician’s assets!), to the advertising, to the facility/building, to their time preparing a portfolio or a meal for you.

Homemade is always better and cheaper in the long run if not immediately. DIY cooking and finance alike, you cut out all the expenses not related to the actual quality and quantity of the food, and you make a delicious healthy meal for your family out of such love and care that no one who’s trying to make a profit can surpass.

  1. A little knowledge goes a long way.

Watch 1 documentary on food (I recommend hungry for change), watch another one, you start seeing repeating themes and principles. So is finance. Just because we study and train really hard for 26 years to become a fully boarded physician, does not mean other professions demand the same dedication and qualification.

Majority of financial advisers had 2 weeks of training before showing up at your door, selling you financial products with commissions they hunger for as most of them have little to no base pay. Their bosses know how low the educational/professional threshold is to get another swarm of financial advisers, so they are paying these salesman as little as they can. I know this because I was recruited to do so as a college junior at UC Berkeley. And my father, with all the love and respect, who’s financial idiot, was taking such a 2 week online course in hopes of making it big in his 60’s! The fact that my dad was in a training class of financial advisers tell you a lot.

  1. It’s simple.

As much as the workers of the financial industries want you to believe finance is complex, it is SIMPLE as hell. Use 1% of your giant central processing power that got you through 26 year of schooling/training and beyond, you will be the best financial adviser to your loved ones and yourself in no time. I’d say in exactly the time it takes you to read your first investing/personal finance book.

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5 Ways to Stay in Clinical Medicine & Be Happy

My hero and mentor recently wrote “5 Ways to Get Out of Clinical Medicine.” His article inspired me to write “5 Ways to Stay in Clinical Medicine & Be Happy.”

 

Even though I am radiology resident and frequently seen by the society and other doctors as Not a Real Doctor, I think of myself as very much practicing clinical medicine every day.

Not only do I do procedures involving educating an partnering with my patients, but also I frequently call up patients to share findings with them, answering their questions, and recommending follow up with their clinicians with appropriate imaging modalities when warranted.

I recently learned in a very humbling and scary fashion, how challenging clinical medicine is. I missed a critical fracture in a multiply injured patient who was a high-speed car struck pedestrian. Even though my miss was caught immediately and that I recommended the appropriate management immediately for all the other critical findings I reported, I was shaken by the fact that I could have harm this patient.

I came to realize that bearing the weight of a fellow human being’s life or death is simply too heavy for any human like myself, fallible, imperfect, distractible, and fatigueable. Now compound the fact that a “fast” clinician may see 60 patients daily, yet an average radiology resident will see the images of at least 60 patients daily. The impact of practicing clinical medicine on the practioner is multiplied simply by the number of cases/lives he or she touches.

I thought about leaving the clinical practice of radiology. I would love to be a yoga instructor. I don’t need to make more than 50k a year to have a happy life and save for my retirement, and as it is, I can easily work 20 hrs/week and make 50k annually. There are so many things I could do and would do extremely well and make a living out of, from blogging, tutoring, writing books. I’ve always made more money hourly doing something else other than medicine. The easier way out is certainly tempting. But I decided, like how I initially chose medicine in my teens and 20’s, to take the path of great resistance and greater rewards (albeit not financially speaking.)

Fully recognizing the stress, burden and sacrifices associated with practicing clinical medicine is not worth a million or even 5 million and more, I also know that the true rewards of clinical medicine is also priceless.

So for those of us who are overwhelmed, overworked, underpaid (like I said, financially, no amount of money makes it worthwhile to bear the burden of another’s life), squeezed and taxed in all directions, let’s look at some ways we could be happy doctors rather than leaving our once-upon-a-time “dream career” all together.

#1 Give yourself the permission to work less.

Why are you on a treadmill, running and running trying to keep up? I also abhor the endless, mindless, tedious paperwork associated with getting insurance pre-auth and workman’s’ comp. When you are so overworked, seeing 60 patients daily, back to back with hardly any food or bathroom break, no one is going to be a happy doctor. But if you see 30 patients and work 8 hours daily with a 1 hour lunch break, you’ll be happier. To get from stressed out overworked to relaxed and happy, one just needs to cut his/her paycheck. You ask, how can I cut my paycheck in half?

Sit down with a cup of your favorite beverage and track your monthly expenses for 2 months. Find out where your money goes. I bet there’s fat to be cut out. Ask yourself, “Is my happiness and well-being worth half of my paycheck?” My answer is, of course, your health in mind and body is the greatest asset you have to generate wealth!

If you have been successful with all the fear and stress you have, imagine how much more successful you’d be if you are filled with love and positive energy instead. For instance, I increased my sleep hours by 50%, from 4 to 6 hours daily, and I found myself writing 3-5 articles in the same amount of time that I used to take for just 1 article!

#2 Reduce clinical hours and increase academic/educational hours.

Many of us go into medicine because we enjoy the role of a teacher and life long learner. If the goal was to obtain the most amount of money for the least amount of work, medicine is probably the worst choice of professions to accomplish such. So reduce your clinical hours to half, increase patient/student teaching hours.

You may think that the latter is fine and dandy but don’t put food on the table or pay the bills. Then first, go back to step I and cut out the fat in your expenses, allowing yourself to work less for money and more for passion.

In this age of YouTube and blogging, you’d be surprised you could in fact make money educating others. See the next point.

#3 Replicate yourself.

We all don’t enjoy repeating ourselves, to our children, our parents, or our patients. So replicate your voice, your knowledge, your recommendations in a video or a publication. Refer those who need your teaching and expertise to the educational materials you produced to perfection. Save yourself time (time is money), make money (YouTube views and online article blog views make you money), and free yourself to do more good for your loved ones, yourself, and the society.

#4 Outsource tedious work.

Hire someone from oversea for 4 bucks/hour to do your grunt work. Writing a research paper, PhD’s abroad are available at $10-15/hr to do the literature search for you and/or even draft the entire paper for you! You can outsource as much as you’d like, only you know how much your time is worth. If you ask me, your time, should be priceless (at least to you and to those who love you.)

#5 Practice medicine in a different country.

I’ve heard that medical system is not so messed up in Canada, Europe, or Australia. Consider that. You may make less. But I’ve also heard that radiologists in Australia makes only slightly less than their miserable US private practice counterparts. It’s worth exploring to say the least.

We spend 1/3 of our lives and 1/2 million dollars to obtain the privilege of practicing clinical medicine.

Before trying to get out of it, perhaps we can figure out ways to be happy staying in clinical medicine. 

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