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Retirement expert David Alemian debuts his new commentary series with a look at the challenges physicians face when they plan for their Golden Years.
Editor's Note: What follows is the first installment of a video commentary series, The Alemian File, hosted by retirement expert David Alemian.
Has your practice revenue gone down? Have your costs got up? Have your taxes gone up? Are you concerned about retirement?
Hi, I’m David Alemian, retirement expert, business consultant, radio talk-show host, video columnist, and author of the soon to be published book “The Physician’s Retirement Plan”. Welcome to “The Alemian File.” This ongoing column has been created exclusively for Physicians Money Digest visitors. I’m here to reduce your financial stress by providing you with solutions to your financial challenges. Together, we’ll cover a wide range of financial topics. “The Alemian File” is also interactive. If you have questions about anything that you see in any edition of The Alemian file, send me an email. My commitment to you is to reply directly to you with answers to your questions and/or solutions to your problems. I want to help you apply the information that you receive here in your practice and in your personal life.
By doing so, I absolutely believe that your practice can thrive and you can have the retirement lifestyle of your dreams. If you’re wondering… retirement lifestyle of my dreams? .... Really? ... How can that happen? I’m here to tell you that you’re not alone, because physicians just like you are getting hit financially on all sides. Lower revenues, rising costs, and higher taxes are financially killing physicians.
So what do physicians do? They buy practice management software and hire practice management consultants. It all focuses on improving workflow and faster patient processing. As a result, you end up working longer hours, and seeing more patients than ever before. Your practice becomes like a mini factory and you become like a cog in a machine.
Here’s the problem — at some point the workload creates work related stress; add in financial stress and it is the perfect recipe for physician burnout. If this sounds like you, or a physician that you know, please understand that it's a lot more common than most people think. I spoke with one truly remarkable physician the other day, who has studied the problem of physician burnout and he told me that about half of all MDs are affected by it in some way or another. Want of the problem? It has been reliably established that about 400 physicians in the US commit suicide each year. Want more evidence? Recent studies from the AMA insurance agency reveal that the number one concern of all physicians is retirement. Those same studies showed that half of all US physicians are behind in their retirement savings.
As a retirement expert, I have personally interviewed countless physicians, and I always ask them the following question: If you could ask me only one question about retirement what would you ask? Do you know that they all ask me the same thing? They all want to know how to maintain their current lifestyle throughout retirement without the risk of running out of money. Yes, even the most highly paid specialists are concerned about running out of money in retirement. The bottom line is that they don’t know how they are ever going to be able to retire.
In coming articles, I’m going show you exactly how to maintain your current lifestyle throughout retirement without the risk of running out of money.
For the physicians who are in their late 40s, 50s, and even 60s, I’m going to show you how to use leveraging and other people’s money to make up for lost time due to a late start in your career. For the physicians in private practice, I’m going to show you how to lower your overhead costs, so that you keep more of the revenues you are generating. This will create huge additional income for you without you working one more hour or seeing one more patient.
Together, we will create for you, lifetime income that you cannot outlive, and that will fully support the retirement lifestyle of your dreams. Today, I just want you to know that YES, there is hope, and YES, there are solutions that work. Together we’ll significantly increase your bottom line and eliminate financial stress. The financial freedom that you gain will give you more control in your practice. Most importantly, you will be able to afford to spend as much time as you like with each of your patients. Remember, check back here to Physician’s Money Digest for my future articles that are designed to enrich your practice, and your personal life.
Please email me your questions and/or comments at David@TheAlemianFile.com. You can also visit my websites at www.PhysiciansRetirementPlan.com and “Like” The Alemian File on Facebook www.TheAlemianFile.com .