Retirement Planning for Doctors in Tampa, Florida

 

 

Whether it is lack of financial sophistication, a sense of entitlement, or lack of self-discipline, you cannot invest if you cannot save.  Choosing to skip on retirement plan contributions, especially early on when compound interest has plenty of time to work its magic, can devastate a retirement plan.  Consider this:  One physician saves $50,000 a year for his first 15 years of practice, then saves nothing until he retires 25 years later.  ($750,000 total saved) A second physician saves nothing his first 15 years of practice, then saves $75,000 a year for the next 20 years.  ($1.5 Million saved)

 

Which one ends up with more money? The physician who saved early ends up with $2.86 million and the late-saving physician, despite saving twice as much of his income, ends up with $383,000 less. 

 

The longer you wait until you start saving, the more you need to save.  Likewise, saving just 5 or 10% of your income isn’t enough.  With savings rates like that, you’ll end up with a much lower standard of living in retirement than while in practice.  Another benefit of a high savings rate is that you’re used to living on less money. 

 

A doctor earning $200K a year and saving $50K a year only needs 75% of his pre-retirement income to have the same standard of living.  A doctor earning $200K a year and only saving $20K a year would need 90% of his pre-retirement income to maintain his standard of living.  That will mean more years of work.  You should aim to save 15-25% of your income each year you practice.  More if you had a late start or want to retire early.

 

With a high income and a high savings rate, any reasonable investment plan should get the physician investor to his goal.  Unfortunately, far too many doctors have inappropriate investment plans.  These range from day-trading tech stocks, to huge swings in asset allocation into the asset class with the most impressive recent performance (buying high/selling low), to being overly conservative and leaving money in assets without adequate long-term returns.  Getting 5% after-inflation long-term returns is not that hard to do, but without a reasonable investment plan, even that may be asking too much.  Compounding doesn’t do any good if it doesn’t happen at a rate significantly higher than inflation.

 

 There are really only a few things that can wipe a doctor (or his family) out financially.  Death, disability, natural disaster, and liability.  These are all very easy to insure against.

 

Getting help from a financial adviser can help the physician investor avoid the problems outlined  above.

 

Each financial situation is unique. Understanding retirement objectives and current financial status is the first step in creating a manageable retirement strategy.

 

Mintco Financial Team of Independent Advisors have been helping many doctors achieve their financial goal.

 

Mintco Financial Advisors understand you as a doctor has a busy schedule and will be glad to accommodate time to review your plan.

 

Mintco Financial is located in Tampa, FL and Buffalo , NY.

 

Call 813-964-7100  or 716-565-1300.

 

Visit the website for more info www.MintcoFinancial.com