How Doctors Build TrueWealth: The Overview

Do you feel like you’re in charge of your money—or does it feel like your money is in charge of you?

Are there things you want to do with your life—but finances keep getting in the way?

If you don’t understand how money decisions actually shape your life, you can work harder, earn more, and still end up with less of what you want and more of what you don’t.

In this episode, Dr. Vicki Rackner lays out The TrueWealth Way--a process of making consistent conscious choices that lead to a life in which your calendar and bank statements reflect your values and your priorities. 

For more tips and strategies about how to get more of what you want--and less of what you don't.

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Transcript

Doctor, do you feel like you’re in charge of your money—

or does it feel like your money is in charge of you?

Are there things you want to do with your life—

but finances keep getting in the way?

If that question makes you uncomfortable, you’re not alone.

And it doesn’t mean you’re bad with money.

It usually means you were never taught how money decisions actually work—

or how deeply they shape the life you’re living.

Most doctors believe that once they earn enough, things will finally feel easier.

Less stress.

More choice.

More freedom.

But for many physicians, that’s not what happens.

Income goes up…and so does pressure.

Decisions feel heavier.

Options feel narrower.

And money—ironically—starts to feel more complicated, not less.

That’s because **more money rarely fixes a money problem**.

What looks like a money problem is often a *decision problem*—

driven by habits formed under pressure, responsibility, and time scarcity.

If you don’t understand how money decisions actually shape your life, you can work harder, earn more, and still end up with **less of what you want and more of what you don’t**.

If we haven’t met, my name is Dr. Vicki Rackner. I’m a retired surgeon, and for a long time I believed what many doctors believe:

*If I just work hard, do the right things, and make smart choices, everything will take care of itself.*

But over years of practice—and later through hundreds of conversations with physicians—I started to notice a pattern.

Money was never “just money.”

It was tied to safety.

Responsibility.

Identity.

Worth.

Belonging.

Those forces were shaping decisions far more powerfully than intelligence or knowledge.

I also learned this in my personal life.

When a family member struggled with OCD, I learned something essential:

**insight alone doesn’t change behavior**. She said, “Look I know that that a half hour of handwashing was creating chapped cracked hands that actually increased my risk of infection. Still, I can’t help myself. When I was my hands my anxiety about infection temporarily lifts.”

You can understand exactly what’s happening—and still recreate the same patterns unless you change what’s driving the decisions.

Money works the same way.

That’s behavioral finance in a nutshell.

That realization led me to what I now call **The TrueWealth Way**.

TrueWealth is not a number.

It’s not a net worth target.

TrueWealth is about **how you design your life**.

Here’s something most physicians have never been told:

**TrueWealth and burnout are two sides of the same coin.**

The same unconscious decision patterns that quietly lead to burnout

also shape your financial life.

Moving *away* from burnout is not a different process from building TrueWealth.

It’s the same work—viewed from the opposite outcome.

I think about TrueWealth in three parts:

A **Satisfied Life**

Where your decisions, bank statements and calendar reflect your values and priorities—not everyone else’s expectations. There’s a big intersection between what you have and what you want.

A **Rich Life**

Where your spending supports your satisfaction *today*—without guilt, pressure, or regret.

A **Wealthy Life**

Where money buys freedom and options—

and work becomes a choice, not an obligation.

Most doctors skip the first two and jump straight to wealth tactics.

That’s where things quietly break.

At the center of the TrueWealth Way is a simple model I call **the TrueWealth Engine**.

Here’s the reality we all share:

Every month, for the rest of our lives, we will have bills to pay.

Which means our lives are always being funded by an exchange between **time and money**.

You exchange **time for money** through your work.

And you exchange **money for time** when your money starts working for you.

Every dollar that enters your life is assigned one of four roles—

consciously or unconsciously—based on how you choose to:

* **earn**

* **spend**

* **invest**

* **protect**

Both your **time** and your **money**.

What feels like a money problem is often *referred pain*.

Just as left arm pain can be a symptom of angina,

financial stress is often a signal—not the root cause.

When you look at the *entire ecosystem* of choices, the real issue becomes visible.

This is where many doctors get tripped up.

Being **rich** is about today.

Being **wealthy** is about freedom.

After years of delayed gratification, it makes sense to finally spend like you’re rich.

That impulse isn’t irresponsible.

It’s human.

But when those spending habits go unexamined, they quietly limit future choice.

Medicine trains us to compare ourselves to peers—to follow a standard of care.

That comparison saves lives in the hospital.

But at home, it often drives financial decisions that feel normal—

and lead to constraint instead of freedom.

Here’s a myth many physicians carry:

*“I have a money problem that can be fixed with more money.”*

The truth is different.

**Poor money outcomes are usually driven by unconscious habits and decision patterns—not a lack of income.**

Until those habits are examined, more money often just creates bigger versions of the same problems.

Nothing is broken.

But much is misunderstood.

The TrueWealth Way is not about picking investments or managing portfolios.

It intentionally stops before execution.

Because my goal is not to make you wealthy.

My goal is to help you become **the kind of person for whom good financial advice actually works**.

I help you change how decisions get made—

so the outcomes change naturally.

When you **uplevel your relationship with money and make better money choices, you uplevel your life**.

Because those choices—about how you earn, spend, invest, and protect your time and money—

are what quietly shape whether your life feels aligned…or exhausting.

In future episodes, I’ll walk you through each part of the TrueWealth Way—

how to build a satisfied life, a rich life, and a wealthy life—

without losing yourself along the way.

Because money should support your life.

Not run it.