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The Ultimate Doctor’s Guide To Preserving Wealth

The Ultimate Doctor’s Guide To Preserving Wealth

Warren Buffett is known for his wealth and most notably his rules for attaining it.

One of his more popular rules involves preserving wealth:

  • Rule #1 – Don’t lose money
  • Rule #2 – NEVER forget rule #1

As a doctor, making money shouldn’t be an issue as your income is typically higher than the average person:

  • primary care physician – $243,000
  • medical specialist – $346,000
  • dentist – $175,840
  • dental specialist – $270,000

It’s the other part (keeping it) that causes the MOST trouble.

I can’t tell you how people that want to join the Passive Investors Circle that are 55+ years of age that have NO money saved.

Granted, they did a great job making money during their careers but it was the preserving wealth that got them.

Financial Information

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Most of the information that we receive via blogs, publications, seminars, advisors, etc. typically focus on what?

Making MORE money, right?

Why is that?

Saving or preserving wealth doesn’t make for a great headline but it’s vital to your long-term success.

What about you? Are you actively pursuing steps that assist you with preserving wealth?

If not, no worries. Help is on the way today.

Uncertain Times

If you weren’t practicing during the 2008 financial crisis, then certainly the 2020 COVID pandemic caught your attention regarding ways for preserving wealth.

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Back in 2008, I was eating with two of my friends and one happened to be a financial advisor.

At the time, I had only been in practice for a handful of years and didn’t have much invested in the market.

The little I did was in Vanguard Index Funds.

As you can imagine, he was a bit spooked by the possibility of all of his clients running for the hills selling their assets they had with him.

Unfortunately for him, many did but I was so naive at the time that I couldn’t figure out what all the fuss was about.

Diversification

Fast forward to 2020. Now I began to realize the issues people were going through back in 2008. When the markets began to plunge during the pandemic, it certainly got my attention. Back then I had little to lose, in 2020, it was a MUCH different story.

Luckily I’ve spent the past few years slowly diversifying into passive real estate instead of relying totally on the stock market.

Granted, I still have investments in the market, but I’m slowly moving towards more of a 50/50 split for now.

What about you? Are you actively pursuing strategies to help protect what you’ve built thus far?

If not, you’re not alone.

Here’s some help…

The Ultimate Doctor’s Guide To Preserving Wealth – 7 Strategies

#1 Fund a large emergency fund

#2 Get a financial plan

#3 Create an estate plan

#4 Get adequate insurance

#5 Diversify

#6 Obtain investment education

#7 Seek wise legal advise

Join the Passive Investors Circle

#1 Fund a LARGE emergency fund

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You’ve probably read the statistic that  — 40% of Americans can’t cover a $400 emergency expense.

Sad but true. Before the pandemic, many docs on the financial forums I subscribe to downplayed the rationale for having an emergency fund.

Their thinking was they hated the fact that they had a large amount of cash sitting in an account earning next to nothing.

We keep ours in the Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund.

I understand where they’re coming from but am thankful we had adequate reserves during the pandemic shut down.

You should view your emergency fund as an insurance policy against future quandaries and NOT worry about what interest rate you can achieve.

If you don’t have an emergency fund that can pay at least 3 months but even better 6-12 months of living expenses, get that going now.

If not, you’ll be singing the 80’s Cinderella song, Don’t Know What You Got, Till It’s Gone….

#2 Create an estate plan

Psychologically, humans respond more to fear of loss than to gaining something. Honestly, I never had an issue about losing money early on in practice because we had none!

Now that God has blessed us with a little bit of money, I realize how the fear of losing it can start to creep in.

Because our kids are getting older, we want to ensure that they’re properly prepared to handle what will be given down to them and our future grand kids.

It’s important that an estate plan is created that guides the direction of the future sustainability of your family’s wealth. It should include how the wealth should be managed and invested for future generations.

In order to assist you, consider finding a good reputable attorney that specializes in estate planning. I realize that if you’re fresh out of training, you may not think you need one. Trust me, the sooner this is set up the better.

Life is going to continue to change during the course of your career and updating it at least every two to three years is a good idea. Especially if you have kids.

If you’re married with kids and something happens to both of you, your plan will ensure your wishes of who cares for them. If you don’t have one in place, the state decides. Your choice.

#3 Get a financial plan

Maybe this strategy should have been placed at the #1 position? Getting a solid financial plan early on in practice will do wonders to preserving wealth.

It will act as a road map to ensure that you’re not wondering off too far from the path depending on what stage of practice you’re in.

For instance, early practitioners typically can handle more risky investments.

But the older you get, your financial plan can be adjusted to preserving wealth via more conservative options.

#4 Get adequate insurance

This one should be a no brainer.

I get it.

No one likes to pay those LARGE insurance premiums each year but when it comes to preserving wealth, this strategy might be the most important.

I’m not going to go into detail regarding the different policies needed but some of the basic ones are:

  • Health
  • Life
  • Disability
  • Home/auto
  • Malpractice

My good friend over at the Physician on Fire has several recommended insurance agents on his resources page.

#5 Diversify

As mentioned earlier, we’re in the process of diversifying our investments from index funds to now passive real estate.

diversify

By choosing diversification, you’re able to benefit from the potential higher returns of riskier investments as a certain percentage of your assets would be in other more conservative investments.

Also, you’ll want to hold a certain percentage in cash to take advantage of any opportunities that may present themselves.


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#6 Obtain investment education

If you’re really interested in preserving wealth that’s going to take you a lifetime to accumulate then investment education will be the key.

Dave Ramsey states that he sits down with his family each year and discusses the different types of investments that they have, who gets what and how they should manage it to ensure success with future generations.

Investment education has been one of the driving forces behind how families such as the Rockefellers have been able to build enormous wealth and sustain it for multiple generations.

We’re currently raising two teenagers and constantly teach them, when they get money from working, to save, spend and give some away.

We also involve them with the types of investments that they already own in Roth IRAs (index funds).

teaching-kids-cash-flow-board-game

I recently started playing The Cash Flow For Kids Game with them that Robert Kiyosaki created to teach kids about passive income and real estate.

It’s been a great way to spark conversations about active vs passive income.

I wish my parents would have started me down this track when I was younger!!

#7 Seek wise legal advise

Proverbs 15:22 – “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.”

Is there such a thing as wise attorneys? Just kidding to all my lawyer friends. 🙂

They’re like dentists, nobody likes them until you REALLY need them, and when you do, they’re your best friend.

If you’re interested in preserving wealth, then obtaining constant legal advice is a must. Unfortunately, the MORE successful you become, the larger the target gets on your back.

Protection of your assets against those seeking to bring you down (predators) is a necessity.

Also, having a group of attorneys can assist you with real estate, complex tax issues and business contracts.

Preserving Wealth Summary

There you have it. Now you know what it’s going to take in order to help you keep what you obtain in life.

The 7 strategies were:

#1 Fund a large emergency fund

#2 Get a financial plan

#3 Create an estate plan

#4 Get adequate insurance

#5 Diversify

#6 Obtain investment education

#7 Seek wise legal advise

Ready to grow and preserve your wealth by investing in passive real estate?

Join the Passive Investors Circle today.

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