Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents

“I’ve always been fascinated by Socrates’ bold statement, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” As a residency program director, my main responsibility was to prepare residents clinically and educate them on the business aspects for a life after residency. Residents need to go beyond their residency program to examine their own wants and needs and identify their strengths and weaknesses.” – Glenn Loomis, MD Chief Medical Operations Health Quest F I E L D N O T E S Match Your Spending Plan With Your Goals Now that you have your priorities and some goals, take a look at your spending plan (also known as a budget). Can you see your goals and priorities in that plan? If one of your goals is to retire at age 60, you must have the appropriate retirement plan contributions in your spending plan? If not, then you will never reach that goal. If you have a goal of being debt free in five years, does your spending plan have enough money going into debt repayment to meet your goal? If not, then you need to make some adjustments. Here iswhere the rubbermeets the road. You should be able to find all your goals that require money in your spending plan. If you are not financing the goals, they will not be successful. Some goals don’t seem to have any money attached to them, like losing 25 pounds. But if you don’t have the tools you need, like running shoes, gym membership, or workout equipment, then you will need to buy them. Do you have the acquisition in the plan? If not, you will be hard pressed to reach that goal Life, Money and Career Priorities 147 WWW.PHYSICIANCAREERPLANNING.COM