#121 Why Creating Multiple Streams Of Income Is Necessary

Foreign. 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. Hey, everyone. Hope you've had another great week. I think this summer for me, this is when I'm recording. This has been an epic one. Why has it been epic? Just because I've been able to do some amazing things with my family. I realized that life is all about experiences. I hope you feel the same way. My kids and I talk about collecting experiences and making memories, and that is the goal. Whenever we do things, we always talk about making memories, taking a snapshot so that we can remember these things later. Because what I found is that the value of these things continue to pay off, and these kind of things pay off way into the future. We always say, remember this time and that and brings us joy again and these kind of things. So hopefully you've been able to do the same, and that's been a goal of yours. You know, this week's episode, we're gonna be talking about something that I think is extremely critical. Now. When I started the blog, Passive Income md, I started talking about creating additional streams of income. For me, at that time, I was going through a tough time, meaning that I went through a time where things were changing at work and honestly was out of my control. I didn't feel that I had some say in the matter, and my income was cut and I wasn't in control of my schedule, and it was a tough place to be. Especially when you're coming out of residency and training and you become an attending, you feel like you're set, and then somebody else is still in control. That wasn't a great feeling, and it forced me to figure out other ways to create income. At that time, I thought it was something nice to do. And when I told people, I told them this thing would be nice to do to create additional streams of income. This whole idea of financial freedom, it would be amazing. Now, having done this for years and seeing where medicine has gone, seeing how society is, life is, health is, and these kind of things, I now absolutely believe that creating additional streams of income, it's no longer optional. You have to do this or at least consider it, if you want to live the life that you want to live. And I assume that is everyone. Everyone listening to this, I believe, wants to live an intentional life. They want to live a Life on their own terms as much as possible to at least control what they can control. If you've been online at all, or at least on social media, probably they understand what you're looking for. The algorithms now know that you're interested in finding out more ways to create income. I happen to just see it more on even things like TikTok, Facebook. Just seems like everyone likes to have that side hustle. And I'm also here to tell you that it's no longer just a fun hobby. It's actually a necessity. Even for doctors. Maybe just the way I think about things in the past, having an MD like in my father's age and that kind of thing, it was pretty much guaranteed prosperity. I always Remember on certain TVs and movies you see, like on Caddyshack, you see a doctor playing golf and then taking calls from his office and that sort of thing. Now when I talk to people, they don't even have time for that. They don't have time. They barely have enough time for themselves and their family. Back then it felt like you'd basically be able to find a job and that job would pay well enough that you wouldn't have to worry about too much. Find, financially speaking. So student loans that you might have, well, again, they were no big deal. You were all but guaranteed an income that made paying off student loans not a problem. And of course, we all know that student loan debt, especially medical student loan debt, has ballooned so much over the last 10, 20 years. Back then it felt like as long as you didn't throw your money around carelessly, you'd be just fine. Now I believe that job security and income security, they're just not a guarantee anymore. Everyone's heard of a physician shortage and what they've tried to do is increase the size of medical schools all across the country. They've tried to increase the size of residencies, which lead to more doctors being out there. You might have heard recently how they've taken ER physicians and created too many of them, essentially flooding the marketplace, which makes it difficult for them to, number one, find a job and to have any leverage when it comes to positions. So many of them have found that their, their pay has been cut. I don't know if that's been you listening to this. Also. We all know that the field of medicine is changing and what we're able to do. The lines have been blurred quite a bit between who is able to do what. The line has been blurred quite a bit about who is able to do what. There's all sorts of autonomy, new autonomy out there, which changes the way doctors and physicians practice. Automation algorithms, again, other types of service providers, they're taking over so many of the duties once performed by physicians, reducing demand in certain areas and turning a lot of doctors days into like these lists of transactions, just check boxes that, you know, allow doctors to improve cash flow for the health system and maybe increase productivity on their part, but not necessarily improve the lives of the physicians themselves. When it comes to income security. Obviously we saw some things happen during the pandemic, but we all know that treating the patient, doing your best isn't enough anymore. A lot of times you have to fit within a certain box, certain protocol to get things done. If you just do a great job, that doesn't mean that you're gonna get and keep a reliable salary. You probably all heard of situations where private equity might come over, take over a group or another group, and then now the contract has been lost and now you've got to either take a pay cut or you gotta move to a different health system. These kind of things are happening all over the place. Again, I don't wanna embellish it and make it feel like the sky is falling, but I've heard from start so many colleagues, especially my colleagues in anesthesia in recent years, how they've been told their contracts won't be renewed unless they take a pay cut or they're willing to change their call schedule and these kinds of things and work more for the same amount. So we're often treated as commodities. And so we don't have a lot of negotiation power, or at least it feels like it. And so what happens is that since we don't have that power, negotiation lobbying power and these kind of things, the concept of the modern physician, our power, our ability to practice, it's really been dictated by people above us. And I know that in the past, a career in medicine, and that's probably why you and I went into it in a lot of ways it was one of the steadiest career paths one could choose. People always need doctors, but that's not always the case. Now. We found in certain cases that we are expendable. And so I believe that passive income, especially multiple streams of passive income, it gives us doctors, gives us financial breathing room despite, you know, things that might happen with the job, with their income that might not be guaranteed. There are other people listening to this. There are other high net worth and high income professionals. And as I've heard from them, their fields are changing. Reimbursements are changing. So many changes are happening and it never seems to be in the right direction. And things that I have heard from people in the medical hierarchy, in administration, people that are involved in these kinds of things, is that we as a field are ripe for disruption. In fact, they're trying to constantly do that. New startups are constantly coming in, trying to disrupt medicine, not in a bad way because they're trying to improve ultimately patient care, improve efficiency and things like that. But that means the job of the doctor is constantly evolving and changing. Medicine's not immune to disruption. And we've all seen and heard about other industries that, that have been so called disrupted and how things have changed quite a bit. Obviously we're not all there yet. We saw some of that take place and maybe even accelerate over the pandemic. We saw the rise of telemedicine and things like that. And there's now certain robots or things that they're trying to replace doctors with. And we're not quite there yet. But I bet you it's in our lifetime that a lot of these things will come into place. Again. Passive income streams will help in this situation to really protect that financial future if industry disruption causes some major changes right to how you earn money in your field. And now another point to try to really bring this home. Why passive income having multiple streams of income is absolutely essential. It's just that life is uncertain. How many of you had something happen to yourself or your loved ones that was just not something that you predicted or that you could have even predicted at all? You know, unfortunately life happens and we're all good at pivoting. We make the best of it. It's happened to us before, but surprises happen. Change happens where people have to move locations, health issues with themselves or their family. The one thing we do know is that change, it's going to happen. And so to really protect yourself, to insulate yourself from whatever those negative consequences might be of that change, whether the ones that you can control, or maybe they're again out of your, out of your control or been forced upon you, having multiple streams of income helps you decide what you can do. And you can kind of be free of thinking about it only in terms of financial perspectives. So when it really comes down to it, if I have to boil it all down, the reason why all of this is essential, why passive income, having multiple streams of income is essential, is because you want to have options. You want the freedom to choose. And who doesn't want the freedom to choose? I think many people these Days, Whether it's their job as a doctor, as a dentist, a lawyer, whatever it is, if they feel trapped in it, I don't care how enjoyable it was. If they feel like they have to do it, that there's no optionality, they're not doing it because they love it, or they feel like it's forced upon them in some way, then it kind of changes their perspective on the job. You know, when I started all of this, this investing and talking about it, it's not because I didn't want to work in medicine anymore. In fact, it was the opposite. I actually wanted to stay in medicine, meaning that I wanted more control over how I practiced, but I also wanted control over my life outside of medicine, how I spent my time. My children were really young at that age. In fact, I think I just had one child when I first started investing and really getting into it. Now I have two children that I've watched them grow up, and I wanted the luxury to spend my time with them how I wanted. I wanted to practice again on my own terms, live on my own terms. And unfortunately, with things changing today, of course, that massive amount of training and the debt that comes along with it, it leaves a lot of us in a bad position. We've invested so much time and money, it's not like we can just go into a different career. So many of us, we're on this one path and we have to stay on that path. However, I can tell you right now, if you don't rely on it completely as a paycheck for your income, for your life, you can deviate a bit. And that's a nice thing. When you're choosing to practice medicine versus feeling you're forced to do it, you can actually practice because you're passionate about it. You practice because you love it. You can shape your practice how you want, you can treat people how you want. I believe this is better for you, better for your family, better for society. And maybe that's just me thinking big, but that's what I absolutely believe. And that's part of our mission here, is to talk about these things. Because I think this is where we make impact. This is how we help not just people, but generations, and help society in general. And that's really what we're trying to do here. So I'm wondering, how about you? Do you feel that when we talk about multiple streams of income for you, you feel like, hey, that's something I could do, it would be nice. But I'm wondering for some others, do you maybe understand why it is absolutely essential. Now, at this point, I'm just curious. I would love to hear more from you. Let us know in our Facebook group, Passive Income Docs. Hope you're having another amazing week and let's talk again soon. Thanks. 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 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.