I’m really excited to present this post in the Nutshell series! Reach for The Stars was written by a physician- Dr Michele Cho-Dorado- and it always makes me immensely proud to shine a light on the amazing work our colleagues put out, outside of doctoring. When I was doing some work in the realm of kids and finance, all the research says that one of the biggest hurdles is that parents do not know how to broach the subject of money with their children. Especially the very little ones. The research also says that the earlier we start, the better it is. In fact, preschool age children are alread ..read more

It is an honor for me to be writing this post. I had been eagerly anticipating the release of Dr Latifat Akintade’s first book, Done with Broke [The Woman Physician’s Guide to More money and Less Hustle] ever since I heard that she was writing it. I have had the immense pleasure of meeting her in person and being on her podcast, and with every interaction, I am blown away with her wisdom. The book was no different. The book arrived about a week back and patiently lay on my desk, waiting to be picked up. I was planning to savor it over the weekend, while the rest of my family soaked up sun and ..read more

I was just talking to a dear friend who’s starting up her own solo practice and finding out for herself the roller-coaster ride that this journey is. She may not be feeling it today, but what today is teaching her is priceless. The way life schools you, no book can. No private practice consultant, no matter how much you shell out, will impart quite the same lessons, quite as effectively. So, the backstory is, my friend had hired a credentialing company to do her credentialing and contracting with the insurance companies. She was paying this company by the week as long as it took to get her in ..read more

In running my lean private practice, I use a shared workspace. This cuts down my expenses considerably. But I use the shared workspace only to see patients. I do all the administrative tasks related to my practice from home. So, I do a home office deduction every year. This way, not only am I saving money on office space but also making money on the tax deduction. I reached out to Johanna Fox Turner of Fox and Co CPAs, who is a long-time trusted sponsor of this site- both as a CPA firm as well as a wealth management firm– to write a guest post on this subject and she very kindly obliged. So, h ..read more

One of the barriers to entry in private practice is the high start-up cost. Office space, EMR and supplies can easily end up in tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, in startup cost. Let me tell you how I started private practice with $1200 in start up costs. Startup costs: The Breakdown As I’m looking back at my spreadsheet, it’s a very short list of items, by date, that cost me money before I opened my doors to patients. Mailbox Address Chronologically, the very first expense is that of getting a mailbox address and renewing it a couple of times before I opened my practice to patien ..read more

Lean Private Practice is a way of practicing medicine that brings the focus squarely back to the patient’s wellbeing, while sustaining our private practices profitably. It is the only way to practice medicine in this day and age when reimbursement for care and the cost of doing business are going in opposite directions. Lean Private Practice is going to be the game changer that puts physicians back at the helm at a time when most feel they have lost their voice in the din that is healthcare in this country today. Lean Private Practice is a mindset shift, for us physicians as well as our patien ..read more

I did quite a few out-of-the-box things in my custom build. But this one probably takes the cake. I did IKEA cabinets in multi million dollar home. Gasp! My favorite peeps in my favorite space The Recommended Path When it came time to think about cabinets, I took my builder’s recommendation. He was a good guy and had worked with a custom cabinet-maker in town for decades. He really trusted them- they’d done a great job for his clients over the years. We sat down and talked about what I was looking for. They took a couple of weeks and sent in their drawings. My heart sank. Was this what people ..read more

This past weekend, I learned how to look up past IRS payments. So I thought I may as well share it with you. You’re welcome. If you’re anything like me, it’s chaos around tax time. I don’t even do my own taxes- I just have to hand the information over to my CPA. And that itself seems hard enough, lol. One thing I can never remember is how much I’ve paid in estimated taxes throughout the past year. That number is always changing for us, because we are self-employed and the business income is not steady through the year. I finally learned how to look up my past payments to the IRS, including est ..read more

Can I have a solo 401(k) with employees? I came across a version of this question on social media and reached out to our resident expert on all things related to retirement plans: Konstantin Litovsky of Litovsky Asset Management. I have worked with Kon for years and have great respect for his depth of knowledge. Kon is a valued sponsor of this blog and was kind enough to write a guest post on the subject. Let’s find out what he has to say! Can I have a solo 401(k) with employees? The question: “I’m a solo physician with one part-time employee. Am I able to open a solo 401k since the employee d ..read more

I have two single member LLCs- one for my practice and one for this fun venture. I set them up last year on Florida’s SunBiz.org for $125 apiece and without breaking a sweat. It let me know at the time that I have to file an annual report every year, starting the year after the LLC is formed. So, here are the steps I took on how to file annual report for your LLC. Yours will vary a little bit, if you’re not in the sunshine state but still nothing you can’t do in less than 15 minutes. What is an Annual Report? An LLC or partnership has to file a report every year to keep it active with the stat ..read more