Speaker 1 00:00:08 What's up, everyone. Welcome to the finance for physicians podcast. I'm your host, Daniel Raimi. Join me as we dig into what it looks like for physicians to begin using their finances as a tool to live better lives. You can learn more about our resources and finance for physicians.co let's. Jump into today's episode. What's up guys. Thanks for joining me again today. I'm excited to talk about some, what I would consider really important stuff here, and that is how do you live out your values and day to day decision-making? So we're going to talk about kind of what the standard setup is, or kind of how most people operate on autopilot and what kind of, what that looks like. And then I'll also share some, um, some ways to, or steps to, to try to be a little bit more intentional with this. So I'm going to talk through this.
Speaker 1 00:00:57 Um, I think it's going to be helpful for everyone really, you know, all of us want to live a more in line with what's most important. And so I think everybody will benefit from working a little bit more towards this. It's a lifelong thing for, for all of us. So before we jump into that, a couple of just quick things, I think a lot of you might be interested in hearing, uh, update wise. So, uh, there's the big tax law change right now. So as we're recording this it's, uh, November of 2021, so there's a big tax law potentially, uh, coming, you know, in the next couple of months. And one of the things that is proposed at this point in time, uh, which we talked about more in an episode, a couple of back, but one of the big changes is proposing getting rid of backdoor Roth IRAs.
Speaker 1 00:01:49 And so if any of you guys are doing backdoor Roth IRAs, you want to get them done. Ideally before the end of the calendar year also, there's probably going to be like a backlog of people doing this. So processing times are going to be super slow. So you got to do it like now, as soon as you hear this, make sure it's happening. Um, if you haven't already done it for 2021, if you work with us and you're not sure, please reach out for questions, um, we're on it. And, you know, knocking out as many as we possibly can, but that's just kind of an FYI it's going to be. So technically you have, uh, you know, under the current laws you have until tax time next year to get them done, um, at least to fund it. And really you can convert whenever, but, uh, the proposed change is the getting, they're getting they're proposing to get rid of the actual conversion step itself.
Speaker 1 00:02:43 So that could put, you know, that'll kill the whole deal. And, um, and the ch you know, the proposed change, you know, I could see it likely going into effect January 1st. So that's just an FYI. Okay. So, um, so let's talk about, let's talk about values. So, uh, the question I would propose is, are you letting your values guide your decisions? I mean, everybody has, you know, a million decisions you're making day to day. And, um, you know, we're going to kind of put a little bit of a financial spin on this because there's an, a lot of decisions that are nonfinancial tend to kind of tie into financial as well. But the question is, how well are you in alignment with your values in your actions? Uh, or are you letting those values guide the day-to-day decisions? Now, everyone, this is like I mentioned before, a lifelong thing, everyone struggles with it.
Speaker 1 00:03:40 There's a lot of different competing, uh, pools in our lives. And so this is not something that you can do, like perfectly, I don't, that's impossible. So it's a, it's a, it's a lifelong thing. Um, but I, I like to think of it, like, you know, you got like, think of it like two bar, 2, 2, 2 circles. You know, if you have values over here on the left and actions over here on the right, ideally you're trying to like pull those circles together to where they're like overlapping, um, in an ideal world, your values and your actions are pretty well in alignment. So what does this look like? So, well, first of all, you have to be really clear on what actually your values are in the first place. So what is most important and not everybody, I guess you kind of go, at least for me, it's kind of like, you go through waves in life where sometimes you are really clear on it, and then sometimes you're, you don't feel super clear on it.
Speaker 1 00:04:35 And so that's something you always have to be kind of fine tuning. Is, are you really aware of, or aware of what your values actually are? So, you know, that's, that's key. And then also you have to be, you really have to be aware of your decisions or your actions themselves. So I'll get into this more, but everybody is, it seems like, you know, our world is like super busy, so it's like, go, go. Uh, what happens is you, everyone tends to end up in this autopilot mode where we're just rocking things out. I also think there's a little bit of, uh, there's a little bit of, uh, a tendency for people to feel like the right thing to do is to make quick decisions and just kind of get past them. That's how you move through life. So, so those, those are important things.
Speaker 1 00:05:22 You have to be aware. It really, this comes down to awareness, awareness of your values and awareness of your decisions. So most people including myself, really what happens is you get, so let's say a decision is, you know, presented itself. Um, it could be a little, one could be a big one when you're not aware and you're not being intentional. You tend to get just caught up in the emotion or the rush. And so in that, when that starts to happen, things tend to kind of progress pretty fast. And yeah, if you're not making an intentional effort to like deviate or, you know, stop, uh, you're going to tend to forget to consult your values. So people, it sounds weird to say this it's like, did you consult your values on this decision? So it's like, well, I don't know. I mean, I just made this decision.
Speaker 1 00:06:17 That's kind of how most, and I've done this a million times myself. It's like, well, I just made the decision. It's like, well, how did you make the decision? Or why did you make the decision? It's like, I don't know. I felt like I did the thing. I felt like it was the right thing to do. So that's how you kind of tend to gravitate. But the problem with that is if you peel back the layers, a lot of times when you're not being intentional about it, or you're not really intentionally consulting your values, uh, you tend to make, uh, decisions that actually conflict sometimes are in direct conflict with your values. So maybe, maybe you have a, you know, a, uh, an influence in your life. Everybody's got influences and, and really maybe they're pulling you towards one direction and really the culture, our culture in America, you know, you have a pull, there's a pull towards, I think, materialism or just, you know, more stuff.
Speaker 1 00:07:15 And, and there's all these like poles around you that are gonna definitely affect your decision-making. Whether you know it or not, you're going to get pulled one way. Uh, no matter what, especially if you're not aware of it. And so the worst part about all this is once you get in that emotional kind of rush of decision-making, and you're just kind of caught up in it. At some point, you wrapped your head around it being the right thing to do. And maybe that's because your buddies are telling you that indirectly, or maybe it's because culture's kind of telling you that, or, you know, whatever, but you've kind of started to think maybe this is a good decision. I'm not, maybe you don't exactly go through, you know, you feel that's a key is you feel like it's a good decision. Uh, the, the worst part is when you start to justify it with logic and reason.
Speaker 1 00:08:14 So the classic is when you have not really gone through a logical reason or a values based approach. Uh, and, and then you're justifying it with reason and logic, because we all want to make, we all want to naturally justify our decisions. We're not going to just, we don't want to feel like we're making irrational decisions, but at the end of the day, these kinds of decisions, a lot of times are irrational because they're in conflict with our values. So, but once you get to this point of justifying your decision with logic and reason, it's kind of like too late, because that's your way of like, saying, well, this is, this makes sense. Um, logically, and that's, that's, uh, you know, you want to ideally get it kind of stop the train far, but before you get to that, that point. So everybody, like I said, we all struggle with this.
Speaker 1 00:09:08 So let's talk about some examples, let's say, uh, maybe your getting recruited or, uh, so you guys get approached a lot about like locums work or working extra shifts, or there's always this, like, there's a shortage of physicians and the medical community in general. I mean, there's just a shortage of, um, help. And so there's a lot of, a lot of people, uh, are looking for, or in your ear about potentially working more. And as, as that need increases, like the dollars also go up. And so the question is, or the decision say, maybe comes up in your world is like, I have this opportunity to work a few extra shifts and make some more money. And maybe it's like a really good rate. And maybe it's even a somebody you trust and maybe, you know, all of your colleagues are doing something similar and, you know, it seems like a no brainer decision.
Speaker 1 00:10:13 And then, and then you start to think about it maybe a little bit more. And you're like, well, actually this is actually a great decision because I have this thing that I want to do. Uh, we want to, we need to go on a vacation and this will pay for it. So all of a sudden it's like, why would you not work extra shifts? And, you know, it's an easy decision. You make it. And so it almost feels like, you know, a home run, but it's not. So, and maybe in the, you could also be in a situation where this almost feels required. So I could, I can see, I see situations where it's like your boss, this might happen when your employer is kind of doing this thing. So let's say your boss, this is probably even more common. It's like, let's say your boss is like, I need you to, uh, Purdue, see more patients.
Speaker 1 00:11:01 Like, I need you to get your RV use up or whatever. It's like, I'm already doing a lot, but then they're like, well, where did you get a RVU based compensation? So like, here's the numbers and you're going to make a lot more by doing this. So, and they kind of position it, like it's required almost. So, first of all, like you're in control. Like don't, don't get in that mindset of like this type of thing is required. Ultimately you make the calls on these kinds of things. That's always a good reminder, but how do you, so the question is, how do you get, how do you avoid like this? So that's such an easy, uh, or, you know, slippery slope. Um, you're going to get paid more work, you know, work a little bit more, um, everybody around you is doing it. Maybe they're even kind of pushing you to do it.
Speaker 1 00:11:47 And they're like, you gotta do it. So that's such an easy one to just go with. It's almost, it's more difficult to say no to that, or, you know, or even just say like, what's the real reason, or how does this fit in with my values or what's most important. So we're going to talk about that next. What are some good steps and processes to, to kind of take a step back and say, you know, is this really the best decision because it could, you know, that could be a good decision. I'm not saying like working more is always bad. I just think that's, that's a good example of where it can be slippery. So before we go into the, the, the steps to take, to kind of really make sure your consulting Dottie's, I think this is, uh, a big deal. So really these, it doesn't seem like it doesn't seem like maybe it doesn't seem like a huge deal, or maybe you even think, you know, I'm kind of doing, I'm making the right decisions, but, um, if you're not being really intentional about this, it's the difference in like good, you know, living a really good life or getting into a bit of a terrible situation.
Speaker 1 00:12:56 So th this kind of thing is a big deal. I think this is the difference between people that move towards that ideal life. So it's a big deal before. So I think there's some like prep steps. You have to be in a certain place to be able to do what I'm going to talk about. So, um, so the prep stuff you gotta be thinking about. So I think first of all, it's important to have kind of like a list, not like a formal list. I mean, just kind of a group of people that, you know, and trust that you can, uh, reach out to and consult with, or, you know, talk through or run by whatever given idea or decision it is. Ideally this, uh, group is, you know, has like, um, well, they have to be trustworthy. That's a given no matter what we're talking about.
Speaker 1 00:13:50 So they have to be trustworthy, but, um, ideally they, they need to be, I think expertise is important, especially when you start getting into specific areas. So ideally these people know kind of what we're talking about in whatever given decision it is. So I kind of have like my group of like work people that kind of do the same sort of thing that I do and run into the same sort of decisions I run into and that I consider like good examples of what I want to move towards and that I also trust. So that's kind of one group and then like buddies that have families with young kids that I trust that have, you know, make are good examples. So like family type decisions, those are the type of people I might talk to. But I think the key is having a, in general kind of idea of these people in your life.
Speaker 1 00:14:44 If you don't have those people, you gotta go seek them out. Like they're not going to, nobody like calls you, nobody's going to reach out to you and be like, Hey, do you want to be in my, my policy or whatever. I mean, the people, you have to take it on yourself to go be, uh, to go make relationships happen. And so that's important. That's why relationships are so important is you, one of the benefits is you have, you start to have this kind of circle of trust. And so having that key, you got to have that, the second thing is having clarity on your values or, you know, your goals or priorities, or, you know, just generally what's most important and where you want to go in your life, having clarity on that. And then also it needs to be like fresh, because like I was saying earlier, I kind of go through this up and down of, like, I know, I feel good about knowing where my values and goals are at, but then I get to where I'm like, eh, it just doesn't feel, I don't feel good about it.
Speaker 1 00:15:43 And so you got to refresh it over time. So having just kind of a general rough and it doesn't have to be like, this has to be a bigger picture. It doesn't have to be to a T you obviously can't predict the future and you don't, you never know what's going to happen, but just having a rough idea of what's most, most important and where you want to go in your life, that's, that's huge. And you gotta, you gotta have that. And that's going to help you to kind of, you'll be able to consult that. And, uh, that's going to be key to these steps. I'll talk about that's really what, you know, having a financial plan is. So for any of you that hasn't gone through a financial plan, a big part of that is like clarifying what's most important and where you want to go.
Speaker 1 00:16:25 Um, that's why the planning process is so beneficial is because it's all kind of points back to like, what is most important and, uh, where do you want to go in your life? And why? So having that lined out is a necessary prep stuff. So then, so let's say the decision comes, first of all, rule, you know, rule of thumb or just kind of thing to think about, never say yes, like right away. Like I have been tempted to just rock through decisions, but like, if you're that type, you gotta force yourself to, especially if it's a big one, just take a time out and just say, give me a minute. I, you know, let me take a second to think about it. Uh, I'll get back to you on it or whatever. So it never hits. You can always say like, I'll get back to you.
Speaker 1 00:17:14 Don't ever just say yes off the cuff. So, so let's talk through some steps. So first step I think is key is just taking, you know, a timeout, especially the bigger the decision is. And maybe so this, I don't know, this might sound a little weird, but I mean, most people, I feel this way. It's like hard to get like one minute of nothing's going on, especially if you have a lot going on, I'm sure most of you do. And so when you're in that setting, you gotta intentionally carve out a chunk of time to just like, sit, do nothing and like sit on the decision. So maybe you're reflecting on it or revisiting it or thinking about it. Maybe you're praying if you do that. And maybe you're meditating, whatever you do. You're just taking a timeout and saying, let's look at the decision and just sit in silence and like kind of work through, and it doesn't need to be like technical it's, you know, I would encourage more of a bigger picture sort of thinking, like, what is this going to do?
Speaker 1 00:18:24 How does it affect things? You know, just kind of just sitting and maybe even just sitting in silence. Second thing is, I think it's always good. So especially these big decisions you want to sleep on it. I think it's always good to at least take one night and maybe a lot of nights, but it's good to sleep on a decision and just kinda let it set, because I've had many decisions where I'm like, this is a no-brainer the next morning. And I'm like, eh, 50, 50, the third thing, this goes back to your trusted people. You got to run it by them. So you have the group, maybe you have the group of trusted people. You have to take the time to like boil the idea down and share it with them and ask their advice. So this is not always easy for everyone. I hate know I'm not the best I hate asking for help.
Speaker 1 00:19:15 You know, it's hard, it's harder for me. I have to make an effort. So, and you want to kind of come across as like, I got this, but like at the end of the day, you don't really have all of it. You got, you're just kinda trying to figure life out. And so that's where this, these groups of people that are kind of, you know, mentors or trusted circles come into handy. It's very, you know, one of the huge benefits to it is run it by them. It also helps you to further like boil down the decision and, um, you know, think through it even more in preparing to kind of share it with them, but share it with them. Talk through it, ask for input on it and ask for like honest input or ideally of, of the type of people that just give you straight up they're direct.
Speaker 1 00:20:02 And they just tell you how it is and, and real advice. And so you gotta run it by them. And maybe that's a, so we do this work kind of like the, I guess, expert or, you know, trusted circle for a lot of people. That's, you know, financial planning is what we do. And so, you know, ideally all of our clients, we encourage them to run it by us, but like, ideally if you're a client like, especially big decisions, financial, especially, you know, throw it at us like just front of bias and say, and also make sure to like, so it doesn't have to be if you're working with us, but working with anybody, make sure to like, add the part about asking for advice, because I'm, you know, if you ask, if you're just sharing an idea with me and you're not saying, what do you think about it?
Speaker 1 00:20:50 Or what do you think about this specific thing? Um, I'm going to attend to just give you general, general thoughts. Um, I don't like to give advice unless, or I try not to give advice unless people are requesting it. So I think it's good to mention that part about, like, I would love to hear your thoughts on this, or what would you do if you were me or, or is, is there anything I'm not seeing or that kind of thing into your, um, overview of the idea? So financial planner, if you're working with them and it's a financial thing, definitely should run a, share it with them. If you have accountants, you know, and it's to Tyson, to tax in any way, or even if it doesn't, I mean, it's just, it doesn't hurt to share the idea and ask for input, especially when it ties into those things.
Speaker 1 00:21:40 And, and, and a lot of times they're going to give you something great. But what my experience with is in this is that they tend to kind of pull you, reinforce your, where you're gravitating as it is rarely do I get like bucked off track completely. It's just kind of one little nudge in the right direction among the other steps we're going to talk about. It helps to kind of knock me a little bit towards that right direction. And then they're, they tend to, you know, uh, reinforce, you know, they get, they're going to know what's most important in, in my life. So they're, they're gonna kind of reinforce that as well. So make sure to run it by that trusted circle. And the other thing too is sometimes they say it's a bad idea. Or sometimes they say it's not great, which doesn't mean you aren't going to do it.
Speaker 1 00:22:31 I remember when I started my planning business a long time ago, and some of the people I shared it with said, it's not going to work, or it's a terrible idea. Maybe they didn't say it quite that blunt, but they're like, it's not going to work. I remember my old job when I, um, shared it. They had a conflict, I guess, interest. But when I shared it with the main person there, they said, you're always welcome to come back when it doesn't work. Like, I mean, there was a lot of nos, you know, it's not a good decision and that, but that doesn't mean you have to, you can do whatever you want. This ultimately is about making a decision that's in alignment with your values. So this don't let these other people 100% guide your decision. It's just one piece of the puzzle. The fourth thing, prob this is really the most important one is just going back to those values.
Speaker 1 00:23:29 And maybe, maybe you're not like formally reading them. Maybe you do need to do something like that, but you're just kind of going back to that big picture summary of like, where do you want to go? What's most important and ask yourself, is this pulling me towards it or a way, and if it's pulling you away from it, you know, that's a good, obvious sign that the answer needs to be. No. And then at that point, you know, you should be ready to make your decision. And if you're not, don't make a decision. You're, you're just, if you're not ready after going through those steps, the answer is no, I think, I think, or, you know, knows take some time, but you know, if it, if it's in alignment with your values, you've worked through this process. That's, you know, you're, that's a sign you're making an excellent decision.
Speaker 1 00:24:15 So going back to the workshop shift example, so let's say, so maybe you took some time, you said your boss brings it up. They're like, I want you to work. I want you to see more patients and I expect you to start now and, uh, I need you to increase by 20% and you're going to make this much more money. So this is awesome. And so maybe you say, you know, I don't know if that give me a minute to, before I commit to that, like, I'll get back to you and take, uh, you know, take a second to think about it. So you take, take your time out and, you know, you can just reflect and kind of let the ideas start to soak in, sleep on it and run it by your people that know you really well and trust you and have an understanding of what's most important.
Speaker 1 00:25:03 And then you consult your value. So maybe your values are balance or spending time with family and traveling and experiences. Those are really common values. I hear people, uh, sharing is, um, you know, maybe those are huge. Maybe that's your top. Maybe your top number one value is family and having time and experiences with them. And so what you, so as you go to consult your values, you're like, okay, well maybe, um, financial independence and security and all that, that's on the list, but it's like further down the list. It's like three or four or five. So you're like, well, this, if I work more, that's less hours. That's actually pulling. I'm already working a lot. Like that's pulling me away from being able to spend time with my family and have experiences. And maybe I'm going to earn more to have a vacation, but really I'm not going to actually have any time to go on vacation.
Speaker 1 00:26:07 And so this is definitely pulling me in the wrong direction. And so at that point, you're like, well, I need to find a way I need the answer is no. Like I need to start crafting my response to this person that is presented the idea that it's basically like a strong from no, because it's not worth it. I mean, if it's pulling you in the wrong direction, if it's in conflict with your values, you got to go as far away from it as possible. I have another example that comes to mind that I recently have, have gone through. So this is with more of like a business type decision. So, um, I had an opportunity. I'm not going to get into details, but come to me through someone else. I know. And it was totally a surprise on a weekend. I taught, um, tall talking with them on the phone.
Speaker 1 00:26:59 And, um, basically the idea financially, at least as it was presented was about as teed up to be a home run, as you can get. I mean, at least that's how I was viewing it. I'm like, this is an absolute, no brainer home run financially, at least. I mean, it was like a, just a knock it out of the park, like for the business and would, you know, take us to another level and it's like, everything's lining up. Well, it's, you know, couldn't have been better. So that's kind of where I'm at. I was tempted, um, in this conversation to be like, let's do this. Like where do I sign kind of feeling. And so I didn't say that because I've done that before and if screwed up enough times, but you know, I said, you know, it's this all sounds good, but like all take a minute and get back to you.
Speaker 1 00:27:54 So I kind of worked through, so I did take a minute more. I worked through the steps, took a timeout, prayed about it, thought about it, slept on it, ran it by some other people. It's funny. I, I ran it by my mom just because you happen to be in my house and she's not the trusted circle for, she's not like in that she's not the person I normally would run this kind of thing by, because of just, she's going to say that's an awesome idea, no matter what. So it's like, but I was just excited about it. So I shared it with my mom and she's sure enough. She's like, wow, that's, I mean, that sounds like amazing opportunity. Like you got this, this is a no brainer. So she was just on board, uh, instantly. But, um, the, the group that I have, I have a group of people that basically have similar businesses and run into similar decisions and I ran it by them and they had like 15, you know, a long list of like very important points that I hadn't really thought about.
Speaker 1 00:28:56 Or I was just like, kind of caught up in the shiny object and they were immediately throwing those out and it kind of started me. It started reminding me of the things I knew I should be thinking about. And one in particular said like, um, uh, what did he say? He said, um, are you going to be able to maintain like the balance, uh, you know, working at the level you're working at and be able to still do this. And so that's where I got into, like, so after that, I kind of started to think about, well, what are my, I need to remember to check my value. So we have, in our planning business, we have values like documented. We have a document that has it literally it's like, so one of the values is a balance, really not letting the business like takeover life.
Speaker 1 00:29:42 And so, you know, maybe it's working 40 hours a week. And my buddy that I had talked to had, he knew, he kind of knows that about me. And it reminded me like, you know, cause what I had proposed is like a big thing was going to need a lot of attention. And it was probably going to just blow up our workload. And as I started to kind of run through that, I'm like, oh, well there's no way I can do XYZ. Whatever this decision I was excited about started to become like less appealing to the point where, um, at this point I'm like, this is a no-go because I realize there's no way I can, there's no way I can maintain the balance or are people really, even more important? The people that work in our company, like there's zero possibility of them maintaining balance if we take this thing on.
Speaker 1 00:30:38 And so it was just at that point, it was an easy note. So I went from like a no-brainer home run yes. To like an easy, no. Um, and it was really just through kind of working through these steps. So it doesn't have to be on like monster, you know, big, huge decisions. Um, you can use it on littler decisions. Cause a lot of times it's like all these little decisions that add up to bigger impacts. So I think the key though is to, and it doesn't have to be huge time commitment. Um, you can work through this in a span of, uh, you know, it's not a huge, huge amount of, you know, a few hours or something. Uh, but you're, you might be thinking that, you know, I already got too much going on. If you have to, if you don't have enough time to like take a time out and think through these things, I think that's a problem in itself.
Speaker 1 00:31:25 So I think it's worth putting in the time. It's not a huge time commitment. I think it's well worth it to kind of work through this exercise and I feel confident it'll put you on a better trajectory in general and so hope it's been helpful. Thanks again for joining me today and uh, hope all you guys have a great rest of your day and we'll see you next time as always. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you found this valuable, please give us a review on iTunes and share with a friend. Also check out our
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