In June 2022 I left pediatric neurology (or perhaps it’s just a pause?) in order to spend my full employment-related efforts on my financial planning firm and to continue my financial education and advocacy work.
It was a difficult decision, and a bittersweet one. I dearly love my patients and my co-workers, and feel I was a decent enough doc such that I was making a positive contributions to peoples’ lives and the field of medicine. But while medicine is a joy and a privilege, it’s also very challenging in many ways and substantial portions of my day (e.g. the times when I was not directly interacting with a child and family, or time not spent teaching) were not as enjoyable as they once were.
So I decided to pursue, full-time, my other passion: providing financial advice and education. I have been doing this in some capacity for over 20 years, as a part of my financial planning firm for 10 years, and also on behalf of a non-for-profit for the past 5 or so years. I’m expanding the number of financial planning and tax-prep clients I accept, and also filling up my calendar with lectures and workshops to medical colleges, residency programs, and hospital/university faculty/physician groups. I literally enjoy every minute of it, and look forward to each day I work and I expect that to continue.
I’m getting paid to educate people and help improve their financial situation and by extension increase their job satisfaction (for those who work). And because half of my clients are medical professionals, it feels that I’m still contributing to “medicine” and that I’m still a part of the field.