Physician Finances

How military doctors get paid, and to how to make sure you’re getting paid what you deserve

December 21, 2020 Spousal Unit Military Medicine, Physician Finances, The Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP)

Between Indy and Spousal Unit, we have 15 consecutive years of experience in dealing with military finance. Military pay is complicated enough, but for military physicians the situation gets much more complicated than a typical member of the Armed Force. Physicians serving as military officers receive the same pay and allowances as other military members; basic pay, basic allowance for

Why you should buy disability insurance RIGHT NOW (even the interns)

October 22, 2020 Spousal Unit Physician Finances

Hello, Spousal Unit here in my first post. Indy and I got married in the middle of medical school applications, I’m a Muggle (non-medical type) who works from home and makes sure our two Tiny Humans grow into productive members of society. This situation works since it allows me to easily tag along as Indy’s career takes us all over

What’s going on with the Social Security tax deferral?

October 5, 2020 Spousal Unit Physician Finances

This post is brought to you by Indy’s Spousal Unit. The Spousal Unit is a work-from-home parent and self-proclaimed finance nerd who helps keep track of the crazy things DFAS does with our military pay, makes sure the money we save for retirement goes where it’s supposed to, and takes care of all of those other “real life” things that

Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts

June 1, 2018 Indy (admin) Physician Finances

Flexible Spending Account Basics If you have dependents who need care while you are at work, and you are getting ready to start a civilian job, you need to know about Flexible Spending Accounts, or FSAs – a way to help you cover the costs of taking care of your dependents while you work. If you already know all about

What new residents need to know about saving for retirement

May 18, 2018 Indy (admin) Physician Finances

Residency brings a lot of firsts: first admission, first discharge, first actual orders, first prescriptions, and for a lot of people, their first real paycheck. When you go through your hospital’s new employee orientation, they’ll talk to you about saving some of that paycheck for retirement. You’ll most likely have at least one option presented by Human Resources, as well as others

How far from the hospital should I live in residency?

May 13, 2018 Indy (admin) Physician Finances

Continuing our theme of housing and home-buying topics for folks who are getting ready to start residency, let’s consider another common question: how far should I live from the hospital? Of course, as with anything else, it depends. Let’s look at a few of the factors to consider. Commute Time It’s important to remember that as a resident you will

Mortgage Basics and Terminology

April 27, 2018 Indy (admin) Physician Finances

Now that we have talked a little bit about whether you should buy a house and the types of mortgages available, we will review some key terms that you will need to be familiar with in order to understand the detailed explanations of each kind of mortgage which are coming up in the next several posts. Amortization When you take

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Mortgage Options

April 20, 2018 Indy (admin) Physician Finances

So you’ve decided to buy a house. If you haven’t read the previous post about whether or not you should buy a house, I would recommend reviewing that post. Depending on your circumstances, you have a lot of options available on the kind of mortgage to get. In this post I’ll briefly cover each of the major types of mortgages that medical

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Should you buy a house in residency?

April 14, 2017 Indy (admin) Physician Finances

Happy (belated) Match Day, everyone! Now that the dust is starting to settle, I bet at least half of the graduating medical students in the country have been on zillow shopping for houses. I know because I did the exact same thing. I think my husband’s new hobby for the last month leading up to match day was looking at the houses we

Should I buy a house in residency?

May 6, 2016 Indy (admin) Physician Finances

It’s that time of year again. Spring is in the air, match day is over, and people are preparing to move and start residency. This time of year, graduating medical students often start to talk about taking that next big life step and buying a house. The challenge, of course, is that residency can end up being a terrible time

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