How Healthcare Professionals Should Think About Investing: Setting Goals

How Healthcare Professionals Should Think About Investing: Setting Goals

By The Galecki Financial Management Team

As a physician, nurse, dentist, surgeon, or other healthcare professional, you might spend long days caring for the health of others, leaving little time or energy to care for your own financial well-being. Developing a financial plan for investing in your future can go a long way toward maintaining your mental and physical health and giving you freedom in your career.

Many healthcare professionals face unique financial challenges because of high student loan debt, the costs of medical malpractice insurance, and continuing learning requirements. Uneven income due to policy changes or practice expenses can complicate their budgets. 

Despite these challenges, a recent study from Laurel Road, an online bank, found that just 32% of nurses and 56% of doctors would seek advice from a financial professional.

Working with a financial advisory or wealth management firm can help you find your financial footing, build wealth through investing, and redefine your financial goals. To help you get on track, this article shares how you should be thinking about investing as a healthcare professional.

Set Goals to Begin Investing in Your Future

When you’re not sure about the road ahead, you can use a map (or a GPS, in this digital age) to find your way to your destination. Setting financial goals can work like a road map too. These might include paying off tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in school debt, managing increasing expenses, saving for the things you want, and investing for your future. 

Through financial planning, you build this road map by setting:

  • Short-term goals
  • Mid-term or intermediate goals
  • Long-term goals

Each goal should be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) to lead you where you want to go. Through this system, you can align earning, spending, saving, and investing with your and your family’s aspirations and needs. 

Short-Term Goals

Short-term goals are ones you want to experience within a year or two. They might include building an emergency fund, which should cover somewhere between three to six months of your expenses. 

Saving up for a vacation is also a short-term goal. Careers in healthcare are often high-stress. Getting away to relax and recharge can be good for your psychological and physical well-being. When you plan ahead, a vacation should not damage your finances.

Short-term goals require making a budget of your income and expenses and setting aside some money into a savings account.

Mid-Term or Intermediate Goals

Intermediate goals are those you want to accomplish in one to five years. For example, the average student loan debt for nurses is $40,611, and for physicians, it is $188,317. Your mid-term goals are where you lay down a plan for tackling these loans.

You also can include plans to pay off other debts, such as credit cards. Other mid-term goals may include saving for a house or funding a child’s education. For these goals, you might turn to investing options that have the potential to grow your money but still leave it relatively easy to access when you need it.

Long-Term Goals

Long-term goals may include planning for retirement and passing your wealth on to your family. Since the timeline for these goals is at least five years, any long-term plan should consider the many potential changes and challenges ahead.

Investing for long-term goals requires you to project your income, costs of living, and potential returns. A financial advisory and wealth management firm can guide you through investment options like retirement savings accounts, stocks, bonds, and other growth- and income-oriented assets that support long-term investing goals.

Find a Wealth Manager to Begin Investing in Your Future

While you’re looking after the physical welfare of others, you can find support from a professional looking after your financial well-being. At Galecki Financial Management, we provide personalized, Fee-Only financial planning to guide you to your investing goals. To schedule a meeting, call (260) 436-8525 or email [email protected].

About Galecki Financial Management

At Galecki Financial Management, we help individuals and families confidently pursue their financial goals. We’re anything but a business-as-usual wealth management firm. We’re different. Friendly. Casual. And really good listeners. Indeed, that’s a big part of what makes us different. Everything we do is based on what we hear from you, because our experienced team of professionals specializes in comprehensive financial planning, cash flow analysis, IRA rollovers, financial services, money management, estate planning, retirement planning, and advising. We help you identify your short- and long-term goals, and then we work together to pursue them. Lastly, and most importantly, we’re Fee-Only, meaning we’re only compensated for our time. Our only incentive is to help you succeed.

Get In Touch

take the first step

SUBSCRIBE


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact