#1: Becoming Passive Income MD

Welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. I'm your host, Peter Kim. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe so I can bring it to you every week. Now let's get on with the show. Hello everyone and welcome to the very first episode of the Passive Income MD podcast. I couldn't be more excited to be bringing this to you and so excited that you're on this journey with me. I mean, if you had asked me about three and a half years ago when I started the blog whether I'd have a podcast as well, I would have thought you were absolutely crazy. In fact, I didn't. I don't even think I really knew what podcasts were back then. But now here we are together on this and I couldn't be more excited. So thanks for listening in. Who am I? For those who don't know who I am, my name is Peter Kim. I'm a board certified anesthesiologist in Los Angeles, California. I primarily do obstetrics and labor and delivery. But how I got to be an anesthesiologist, that's a story for another time. It's kind of a twisted journey, but I'll share that with you later. But more importantly, I'd love to share with you a little background into how I became Passive Income MD and started the blog. You know, like many of you all along, this journey to becoming a high income professional, being a physician, as you get into med school, get into residency and your fellowship and then get your job, every step along the way, you know, you feel like you're set, that you've made it. And that was me. I got what I've, you know, considered my dream job right off the bat. It was the same place I did fellowship and it was perfect. And I was so happy to get this job. And don't get me wrong, I still love this job and I love being here. But what happened was that a couple years into it, as when I was working as a junior attending, you know, I expected my schedule to improve. And if you know anything about anesthesiologists and especially OB anesthesiologists, especially where I work, you are really paid by the hours that you put in. I mean, we're essentially high paid hourly workers. And so your shifts and your hours really determines your income. And in my case, what I'd expected to be at, in terms of a point, I wasn't there. And, and I think there were some political things that were going on, which kind of prevented me from really being in the place that I wanted to, both in terms of shift time and income. And so I got pretty upset about that. And I remember at that time feeling kind of trapped. This is what I wanted, and this is where I was at. And honestly, it's not where I want to be. And so what do I do now? I don't know any other thing to do except be a physician and be a physician here. And I remember being pretty upset about that for a couple nights. In fact, there were some sleepless nights there involved. And then something clicked in my head, all right, I needed to find other physicians who were happy in the hospital. You know, those people that you see in the doctor's lounge or you might see in the operating room who talk about the travel, the last vacation that they went on with their family or with their significant other. They talk about maybe the restaurants that they went to go eat recently or spending time coaching their kids. I sought out those people and I started bugging the heck out of them. I started asking them, what are you doing, you know, which allows you to have this kind of life? The funny thing is, I found most people were way more willing to share than I expected. And I think it's because when people find something out, most people, when they find a nice place for, you know, to eat, or when they find a nice solution to a problem, most people are. They're willing to share it, and they want to share it, most likely because they've been the recipient of some good information in the past, and they're probably just willing to pay it forward. And so I started talking to as many of them, those type of physicians as I could. And it turns out that most of them actually had created some sort of income outside of medicine. And by doing so, that really helped them shape their career, how they wanted to, and really help shape their life outside of medicine. When it comes to travel, when it comes to spending time with their families, how they spend their time, it was really a downstream effect of the other streams of income that they were able to create again outside of being a physician. And so I started finding out what, you know, I started asking them, what exactly are you doing and how did you get started? And it turns out a good chunk of them, a good number of them, were actually investing in real estate, and they being able to create some cash flow sources using real estate. And so I started asking them, how did you get started? What were you investing in? What were the resources you used to learn how did you learn and who helped you along the way and these kind of things. And so I started finding myself really trying to get in the same room with other real estate investors, successful ones, as much as possible. So it wasn't just physicians. I started finding myself online and in different Facebook groups and forums. I started going to, in person, local real estate meetups, just to talk to people, just to hear what they were doing, hear their stories. Of course, I read a ton online books and these type of things and eventually got to the point where I realized, hey, I wasn't making any progress. I mean, I'm reading a lot. And sure, I was educating myself and feeling more comfortable about it, but in terms of my bank account, in terms of my cash flow, nothing had changed. So I decided to take a leap. And I didn't feel ready necessarily, but I knew that the best way for me to learn would be to actually do it, to invest, to have some skin in the game. It's kind of like most of us when we were in med school. Sure, we learned about it academically, we learned about it by reading about it and this type of thing. But until you see a real patient in front of you, until you're out there doing the procedures, these type of things, you're really not. It's not really going to kind of round out your learning and you're not going to really grow as fast. And so that's what I decided to do. Started investing and slowly, little by little, started adding on cash flow sources, whether it was through investing in crowdfunding, whether it's purchasing my own properties, investing in these passive real estate opportunities, some things that called syndications and funds, which we'll definitely talk about on this podcast. And I started doing other things like angel investing, started creating my own businesses. And it's so funny how just one small step led to so many different things in only a few short years. And, and that really got me to a place where I was able to be financially independent from medicine. And what that means is that I could quit my day job as a physician and really maintain the exact same lifestyle, if not better than I was when I was working. And to me, that was a huge freeing moment to feel like, again, I was in control of my life, meaning that I was able to really shape my career in medicine, shaped my life outside of medicine as well. And I wasn't bound financially to one thing or another. I had multiple streams of income, it was well diversified. And that's something that I tell people. Again, not to boast, but to really try to share with what's possible because other people shared with me in the past and they were able to give me hope, to give me a belief that this thing was possible. And so that's really ultimately the mission behind what I do. I mean, behind Passive Income md. And I had talked to enough people that they again, before this whole thing started, they asked me to put it online. And again, I was really shy about it. I necessarily didn't think I could do it because I'd never done it before. But somehow I got the courage to do it. And it's just grown into not only a blog, but now it's this podcast. We have an online community called Passive Income Docs Facebook group. We have courses now and a community around that. And we did our first in person live conference event just a few months ago and we'll be doing another one in 2020. And so it's just amazing to get people in the same room to have. What I didn't have necessarily was a group of other physicians, high income professionals, all in one room talking about it. And so I'm just trying to create that for others now that I have the opportunity to do so. And so through this podcast, I hope that I'll just continue to share actionable tips, some strategies, and really get the stories of those people that are just like us, who were in probably a very similar situation that you're in, or civilization that I was in and even in now, who have been able to take it to the next level and they're able to show what's possible and how they did it and how they kind of got started. And so those are the stories that I want to just really get out to people. And I feel like through the blog I've been able to do some of that, but I really think a podcast allows for that. And so I'm so excited to share that with you. You know, if you're one of those people that has that kind of story and wants to share it with the world, this is a perfect place for that. Now, you know, people ask me all the time, you know, why do you think a lot of physicians actually have not been able to figure out most of this stuff? And I don't think there's one right answer to that. But I think a lot of people, they don't necessarily believe that they can do this successfully. I mean, we have all been kind of stuck on one career track our whole lives and it was very well defined for us. You do well in high school, get into a Good college, get into a good med school, get into a good training program, advanced training, whether it's fellowship and get a good job and start working and hopefully you create enough income for yourself and that when you're 60, 65, the market's been kind to you, you have enough to retire on and that sort of thing. And I think that's what most of us have been taught, if anything, about finances. I mean, most of us, again, don't get taught anything. But if that's what we've heard most of us buy, whether it's financial advisors out there, certain things we might read online, that's what's been fed to us. And so I think a lot of us, when it comes to the idea of perhaps retiring early with cash flow sources or creating other streams of income through business and entrepreneurship or through real estate investing, and to have, you know, that create enough cash flow that we can choose how we want to work and live our lives, I think it feels foreign and it feels almost unbelievable to most of us. And because of that non belief, you know, what kind of actions do people take? And I would say that if you don't really have the belief that you can be successful, I'll bet that people probably won't take big action. They won't take really big steps to make that a reality. So unfortunately, because they're not taking the steps, because they're not taking that action, they're not getting the results. And not getting the results really kind of just feeds again into that lack of belief. And unfortunately, it's kind of a vicious cycle. And so what I found through talking to so many people who have been successful in creating businesses or really, again, investing, well, it's not like they had more knowledge or they had a better background or more resources. In fact, we're all extremely hardworking. We're obviously ambitious, and we have the intelligence to be successful. I believe in anything that we really put our minds to. I think that it just really starts with that belief that we just don't have it. And so it's really kept you from taking that action. And I think that's, that's a normal thing because most of us really want to protect ourselves and we're all into protecting the downside, right? And we don't want to put ourselves in trouble, and we're not necessarily risk takers, and that's a normal place and position for us to be in. So I totally, absolutely get it. But I think what a lot of us forget about is something called the cost of inaction meaning that what will it cost us if we actually don't take any action? You know, what will our lives look like five years or 10 years down the line with medicine as it is, and perhaps a trajectory that you believe it's going in, you know, what is your life going to look like in 5 to 10 years? Is it guaranteed that you'll be better off? Maybe it's the same better, maybe it's worse, you know, so depending on how you believe the cost of doing nothing is, or really putting all your belief that your current life and your current trajectory will be better or will be where you want it to be by doing nothing. And I was absolutely the opposite. I felt that, all right, if I don't do anything in five to 10 years, I got to that point that I realized if I did nothing in five to 10 years, my life really wouldn't be where I want it to be. In fact, I felt it would be much worse. And so I knew I had to do something. And that's really what caused me to take that initial action. It wasn't huge amount of action, it wasn't a huge amount of funds, but it was just one step in the right direction. You know, one step leads to the next and that leads to the next and leads to the next. So I encourage people as much as possible to just to take a step. I can't tell you what that step necessarily is, but just taking a step helps you figure out what you enjoy, what you like, what works for you, what doesn't work for you, and allows you to start moving in a direction and course correct as necessary. So in any case, we're going to be doing that over the course of this journey, over this podcast, we're going to be talking so much about all these type of things and however I can add value to your life, I look forward to doing that through this medium and through my blog and through everything else that's still going on. So thank you for letting me be a part of your lives and I look forward to being on this journey with you. Don't forget to hit subscribe for every episode and subscribe and we're going to have fun with this. So see you on the next episode. Thanks everyone. Enjoy the show. Let me know by dropping a review in the podcast app you're listening to us in. And if you haven't already, make sure to hit subscribe. Are you a part of our community yet? Join thousands of physicians who are also on this journey to creating their ideal lives through multiple streams of Income. You can join us on our Facebook group Passive Income Docs, and you can always learn more at our website, passiveincomemd.com thanks again for allowing me to be a part of your journey. See you next time.