To step aside from the topic of finance here and spend just a small amount of time on the concept of health. The reason why I think it's so important that we have a brief discussion about this is that obviously the maintenance of your good health will mean that you are able to continue doing the profession of medicine without being interrupted. Obviously, we all cannot predict whether or not we will have an unforeseen health crisis. Yet, we can be logical and smart about taking good care of ourselves and actually practice preventative medicine on the worst patients in the population - us physicians.
Everyone needs to listen to me when I say become established with a regular primary care physician and then visit that physician on a yearly basis. I know everybody's busy. I know everyone knows everything about medicine. Blah blah blah. Go see a primary physician on a yearly basis! You need to have an objective opinion by someone that can monitor your health without bias. They will ask you the right questions and "review your systems" better than you can ever do. They will think of things that you don't think about. Common medical problems can be diagnosed early versus late. For example, instead of having to take three separate medications for high blood pressure, all you have to take is one medication because you caught the disease when you are 35, not when you were 55. Go see your doctor!
A simple thought here: Fruits and Vegetables! Drink more water and less soda. Doing these things is not easy. It actually does take some thought and planning, however it is sooooooo healthy. Picture this (and I know that we all can). If you start doing this now, you won't be the old man or the old woman who's complaining about the fact that you're not regular. I had an old professor when I was in medical school who used to say that when you get old, all you really care about is having a good bowel movement. Don't be this guy!
Exercise if you are able. Any type of exercise on a regular basis is worthwhile. You don't have to do P90X. Just make sure that your doing something that increases your heart rate. My wife and I really enjoy running, but walking or bike riding is perfectly fine.
Stop smoking and drinking too much alcohol. If you are a physician and you smoke, I don't get it. You've got to quit. Hopefully this is an obvious recommendation, however I'm often very surprised at how many physicians I've known who smoke. I just feel very fortunate to have never started that habit. But one thing I say to all smokers is that I believe the best way to stop is quitting cold turkey. All the people that I've known that ever quit for good actually just quit cold turkey. In regards to alcohol, obviously moderation is the key. Enough said.
So why am I preaching good health to the people that should know the most about good health? If I've reached just one person with this topic with anything of value, I've accomplished my goal. I want us all to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. Live long and prosper!
Loy Puckett MD
Clairelynn Financial LLC
My vision would be that physicians can become financially savvy and turn into members of our society who not only practice medicine but who also understand finance and can create wealth. I believe that this can be achieved via the effort of educating ourselves past our careers and actually learning how to use our available resources to grow money and attain financial stability. Being healthy allows us to achieve these goals which is the reason that I wrote this alternative article.