Traveling the World and Practicing Medicine on Your Terms With Dr. Latifat Akintade

Welcome back to another inspiring episode of The Physicians and Properties Podcast with your host, Dr. Alex Schloe!

In this episode, Dr. Schloe sits down with Dr. Latifat Akintade, a board-certified gastroenterologist, coach, and founder of Money Fit MD. Dr. Latifat shares how she paid off six-figure student loans in just 2.5 years, built a real estate portfolio, and took a year-long trip around the world with her husband and three kids—all while still practicing medicine on her terms.

She breaks down her journey from burnout prevention to intentional living, and how real estate and mindset mastery gave her the power to choose. From paying off debt to embracing financial independence and emotional clarity, Dr. Latifat is helping physicians move from feeling trapped to fully free.

💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Why debt freedom is not the goal—freedom of choice is
✔️ The four key questions every new attending should ask about money
✔️ Why budgeting isn’t the answer—and what to focus on instead
✔️ How one hour per week can change your financial trajectory
✔️ How to work through money fear, scarcity, and shame
✔️ The mindset shift required to take a sabbatical or travel the world
✔️ How to calculate your “minimum viable expense” and design your dream life

🔥 Key Takeaways:

✔️ Budgeting won’t set you free—investing will
✔️ The power to walk away makes you a better physician
✔️ Your calendar and finances reveal your values—pay attention
✔️ You don’t need to be burned out to make a change
✔️ Having the right who in your life is more important than knowing how

Whether you’re looking to take a sabbatical, pivot into entrepreneurship, or simply feel less trapped by your job, this episode is a must-listen. Dr. Latifat’s story is a powerful reminder that money is a tool—and freedom is possible for you, too.

If you want to learn how investing in real estate can give you the freedom to practice medicine and live life how you want then check out the links below:

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Transcript

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Where is your money going? When the money eats your account, what does it do for you?  And the analogy that I like to use for this is,  you know, we live in a house right now. We have cameras. If someone comes into the door,  we see them coming,  the question is where are they going in the house? Are they going into the dining room,  the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom?  Where do people go after they hit the door? And the same thing is true with your money.  When the money hits your account, where is it going?

Dr. Alex Schloe:  Welcome to the Physicians and Properties Podcast, the show where we teach you how investing in real estate can give you the freedom to practice medicine and live life how you want. Doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor. Now here's your host, Dr. Alex Schloe

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Physicians and Properties Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Alex Schloe.  Today. We had an absolutely amazing podcast.  If you  are thinking about, Hey, is there a possibility for me to take a year off  and travel the world with my family?  The answer is yes.  But in this podcast episode  we talk about that.

We talked about the fact that like money is actually simple  and you can brainwash yourself to create the success that you want.  And real estate can give you that freedom. Entrepreneurship  could give you that freedom  to just take a little step back so you have some breathing room, you have some room to think,  you have some room to spend more time with your family.  This episode was amazing. This was with Dr. Latifat of Money Fit MD  and was an absolute incredible podcast episode.  I guarantee you, you will learn something  from this podcast that will change your life, and if you do,  please share  this podcast episode with someone who you think  will benefit from it.

So without any further ado, let's get started with today's amazing podcast episode  with Dr. Latifah.

 Dr. Latifat, welcome to the Physicians and Properties Podcast. I'm so glad to have you on the podcast.  I think we tried to schedule this  quite some time ago. You were traveling and time zones and everything else got crazy.  So really excited to make it work.  Thanks for calling in from California. How are things going?

Dr. Latifat Akintade: I am doing fantastic. Thank you for inviting me here. Thank you for,  you know, sharing what you do with the world and I look forward to sharing  whatever I know with the audience and hopefully that  helps at least one human out there.

Dr. Alex Schloe: I'm sure it will.  It's been really fun to follow your journey and, and learn from you on different social media platforms and, and  your podcast as well. So we'll make sure to,  to talk more about that. But before.  You started Money Fit MD before you traveled with your family for a year because of real estate.

 What was life like? What was it like when you were getting into medicine and take us back to that time period?

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Feels like a lifetime ago. It actually was a lifetime ago
because that girl is not her anymore.  And I wanna just acknowledge that  because I think that's important because we all change in ways that  could be  indescribable. Like  indescribable.  But  if you told me 10 years ago, 15 years ago that I was gonna be this, I would've laughed at you because  not related to  my life  at all,  but  I grew up in Nigeria, moved to the US about 25 years ago.  Went to undergrad in la  Med School in San Francisco  residency in New York, and then back to California for fellowship, and then post-fellowship life as an attendant.  And my entire goal in life  was to be a great physician.  That was my goal.  I wanna be  good at what I do. I wanna take care of my patients.  I care about mentorship, I care about access. I care about disparities,  and I would've died happy as one of those GI doctors that can smell diagnosis from like  10 feet away. That was my entire goal.  But  then  I, in fellowship was when I had this moment  where I realized that  if I wanted to be, that if I wanted to be a good physician.  I had to be willing  to walk.  I had to be willing to not be afraid of losing my job as a physician.  And I'd seen my attendance. Amazing smart individuals who over the course of practicing medicine,  were burning out in medicine and, you know, you could see their shoulders slumped  down.  And I just felt like I had sacrificed too much  to regret going into medicine.  I had sacrificed. I, I mean, there was a time in my life where  after moving to the US I did not see my mother for five years.  That was a sacrifice that she paid for me to be a physician,  and she did not pay all that sacrifice. I did not pay all that sacrifice  to only be a  physician  and have my degree be  all that I'm proud of.  Have a life that I was not proud of. So  what that meant for me was I had to start learning about money.  At that point, I knew nothing about money. I did not know who I owed.  I knew I had student debt, but I did not. I just knew there was some Auntie Sally,  Sally May  that used to write me letters like, and I would just sign it, like for Bear de Fair, whatever, just get it outta my face.  And so at this point I'm like, okay, you have to.  Change things. You have to  get into your finances so that you can just,  at no point did I think about reach  or wealth.  I just wanted to  have a choice. That was all I wanted  at that point. I had two kids, now we have three children,  and I also knew that I wanted to be the kind of mother.  That was not apologizing for choices she thought she did not have.  Meaning that I don't wanna feel bad for being on call. If I'm on call. I wanna like stand up and say, yes, I'm on call and it is what it is. This is how I choose  to spend my time. So  all that to say that I  started figuring out my finances, this is now about nine or 10 years ago.  Just to literally save myself in future, so I don't hate my life.  And what that journey led me to was realizing that money was not something that many of us are talked.  Like taught about  people don't talk to us about it. There's a lot of shame and guilt  about money.  So I started demystifying money for myself because now it was like I wanted to save my own life in future.  That journey led me to learning about the basics of money in a way that made sense. I hated budgeting.  I still hate budgeting.  I hated spreadsheets.  I still don't like 'em, but I do 'em to a degree.  But I figured out how to do money in a way that made sense for my life.  And after that I started teaching others how to do it, which my friends,  my colleagues, started asking for help.

'cause  at no point did I wanna start a business.  But that journey though led me to helping so many people that I knew that I had something that was life changing. I had primary care doctors  whose net worth were now seven figures before age 40 and things like that. And so  that was where my own personal journey started from.

And then eventually I rolled my eyes and went, okay, I should probably teach people how to do this,  which is how Money Feed MD started  and now it's turned into, you know, the podcast, the book. We have our second book coming out next month.  And the money schooled for women physicians that I run.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's a beautiful story. I, I think, you know, a lot of us, well, one, as physicians, we never get taught about money. Right. And you. And you hit on that, like  I, I don't know about you, but there was not a single financial class in med school. Taxes,  investment, even how to run a practice. Our business. There's, there was none of that.

You know, thank,  I'm thankful for the White coat investor.  That was what led me to start this podcast too, was like, there's just not a lot of.  Education in the space and  real estate education and, and small business and entrepreneurship education that's out there.  And, and I think a lot of that is surrounded around fear and fear of money.

 What, what are your thoughts to that? What's kind of, you know, your thoughts if someone's like, Hey, I have a lot of fear of money, or I feel like  I  maybe have a scarcity mindset when it  comes to money.  How do you kind of help folks work through those fears?

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Absolutely. You know, one of the things I love about money is that money  is honest.  Actually,  money tells the truth.  So many times we're afraid of the truth, and that's why we avoid money. We don't know it consciously,  right? Subconsciously that's the truth. But consciously you're like, I'm not good with money.

 I get overwhelmed by it,  right? No one has taught me  I did not grow up in money and all of this other things that are.  Acceptable culturally, right?  But the truth of it is that money tells the truth, and many times we're afraid of the truth, right?  We're like, okay, maybe I earned  $250,000 a year,  and if I look at my finances and it's not accumulating, then I, it tells me that I'm not doing a good job,  and most of us don't want to hear  that we're not doing a good job.  We forget the fact that it's just a data point that we cannot use to move forward,  but we  we're not taught how to be,  how to separate our identity from money.  And so I think a lot of fear that people have about money is really a projection of the fear we have  about,  about something else, about looking at ourselves,  about doing the hard things, about not having excuses,  right?

 What I like to teach people or explain to people is when you work on your relationship with yourself,  which is  if you, the more you like yourself,  the easier it is for you to actually do money,  right?  And  anytime you find a weakness,  it's not a problem. It just tells you, just spots light  the next place for you to work,  right?

The next place for you to make a change.  So if you're listening right now and you're like, I'm afraid of looking. I have fear about  negotiating, it just tells you that now maybe you need to work on people blazing.  Or not give a crap what someone else thinks about you.  I'm not good with investment.

Maybe you just need to learn the simple ways of investing.  I'm not like, whatever it is you think you're not good at when it comes to your finances,  it can be changed. But you have to understand that there is truth  that you will see. But you know, one of the things that I believe by is the truth will set you free.

And really this can set you free.

 Yeah, absolutely. I think if you  really want to know.  Your truth  or you want to know the truth about someone, you look at their calendar and you look at their finances,  that's gonna tell you pretty much everything you need to know that's gonna tell you what they value,  what they wanna spend their time doing, all those sorts of things.

Dr. Alex Schloe: And so I think you hit the nail  on the head there.  And I, I think it's hard as, as physicians, 'cause we don't have that education and then.  We have  tons of student debt, a lot of us, and then we go to residency and we,  you know, make pennies compared to the hours that we work.  And then you come out and you're an attending and all of a sudden you're getting the doctor's salary.

 And I think it's really hard for folks to  go from a residency salary to an attending salary without any education.  Then a lot of folks feel like, Hey, now I'm owed that doctor lifestyle. I've spent med school in my residency giving up my twenties or my early thirties  and I've missed out on all these things.

Now it's time to buy the fancy house and the Tesla and  you know, all the above. And so I think it's really hard for folks to delay that lifestyle creep  and put that money towards  assets that are gonna pay for those lifestyle things in the future.  What are your thoughts in regards to that?

Dr. Latifat Akintade: You know, I think there is a part, you're absolutely correct that it is perceived as hard. Part of the reason why we think it's hard  and we say it's hard, is because as a culture we've accepted that it's hard.  However,  as physicians wear  badass,  we've done  things that are harder than money,  right? We've done things that are harder than real estate.  So what I tell people  is there's  actually only a few things that are  truly hard for physicians.  Most of the things that are hard for us or perceived as hard.  Feels that way because they're actually easy.  We just looking up instead of looking down.  Right. So it's like, it's not actually hard,  it just takes intention.  Right. And it's easier to say. It's hard.  For me to say it's because I've not made the decision to block out my calendar. All you need is an hour  a week  to make a difference in your finances forever. Every physician has an hour a week,  but it's easy for us to say, I don't have time, because everybody believes  that we don't have time.  The only person that will not buy that is your mentor, your coach, or people that I've done it because I'm like,  I get it. Me too.  And.  We can find an hour  a week for you to do your money. And literally, I think if there's anything anybody takes away from this  conversation, it's all you need is one hour a week  in your numbers to make a change in your  financial trajectory,  potentially for generations, one hour a week.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Let's pull that string a little bit. So let's say I am  a new attending. It's my first year,  I'm, I'm struggling as an attending the time,  all the above,  and I have that one hour.  How can I make the most  difference with that one hour that I have for my finances?

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Absolutely. You know, I cannot give people a little grace at the beginning of their attending

life because you're doing your, you know, your boards.  All you can think about is your boards, and I'm like.  Okay. The most important thing is  don't make too many changes in that time.  Just focus on your boards.

 Be glad you don't make like five figures  you know  anymore,  but  hold that  conversation.  Don't make too many changes yet until when you're done with your boards,  and now that you're done with your boards, the first question is, what are you actually earning?  What is coming, and many people don't actually know what they're earning,  and that can be from one income source, that can be from multiple income sources, but how much are you actually earning?  The other question that I like to ask, which  would be nice if you asked before you actually got the job, was  making sure that you actually are negotiating well for what you're,  the work that you're gonna be doing.  Because we know based on data that not everyone, even in academic W2 settings are offered the same amount.

 So hopefully you negotiated well, but if you did not negotiate well, you can still negotiate later on.  So having the conversation with your colleagues and getting to know what other people are earning, I think we need to be more transparent about that.  Then the next one is, now, where is your money going?

Dr. Alex Schloe: Where is your money going? When the money eats your account, what does it do for you?  And the analogy that I like to use for this is,  you know, we live in a house right now. We have cameras. If someone comes into the door,  we see them coming,  the question is where are they going in the house? Are they going into the dining room,  the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom?  Where do people go after they hit the door? And the same thing is true with your money.  When the money hits your account, where is it going?  Is it going to a bunch of YOLOs? Is it going into  paying for credit card debt? Is it going to pay for  any, like, just get the data.  You don't have to make it about you.  The, the problem is that people make it about them.  They internalize, they think my money reflects me.  When your money doesn't reflect you, your money just reflects your decisions.  And if you can decide to turn right today.  You can decide to turn left tomorrow. It's the same thing when it like literally, let's just make it easy.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Let's make it simple.  So where is your money going? That's the next question.  If you are, if I sit you down right now and I ask you what your goals and your priorities are for the next five years,  what would you like to see in your life in the next five years? You're like, I'd like to  work part-time. I'd like to be able to take a vacation a couple of times a year.

I'd like to have this amount  in net worth. I'd like to have this amount.  Left in my debt or not at all. Like what do you wanna see in five years from now?  Like just dream on paper and pick out like the top five goals you have for the next five years.  And now the question is, is your money where your money going?  Aligning in a way to create that.  If it's not, then all you have to do is just make changes.  If you are like, I wanna have a million dollar net worth in five years,  that means you have to invest over the next five years.  Right?  Do you wanna do that in the stock market? Do you wanna do that outside of the stock market?  And I think especially as people are starting, it's good to have a  a baseline. And I like to,  many of the people that I work with are busy women physicians, they.  Maybe parents or not have parents or not be parents.  They may have businesses outside of clinical work. So our time is of value. You don't have time to be babysitting the stock market for its return.

 So doing more of like a set it and forget it baseline foundation  where you look in the future and you're like, if I don't do anything else,  I'm  gonna have multiple seven figures  in 10 years, in 15 years.  Just set that baseline.  Then now do other fun, crazy things like real estate and  you know, all those other things that I'm sure we're gonna touch,  touch upon.

But the important thing is what are you earning?  Where is your money going? Is it aligning with what you wanna see in five years?  And  make sure that investing is part of that.  One of the things that annoys me when we're talking about personal finance is  I think there's so much emphasis on budgeting.

Budgeting that it actually  piss me off a lot  and  it actually literally annoys me.  And the reason why it annoys me is that  many times we avoid conversations around money. And then when we get in,  if all that's been talked about is budgeting, I'm like. Budgeting is not the goal. Budgeting is just the means to the end.

 The end is investment. Investment is actually what creates freedom.  Investment is what helps you  not overwork like crazy.  Investment is what builds your net worth  without you having to exchange money for time, one-to-one ratio forever. So  again, I'm, let's not talk a lot too much about budgeting, humans.

 Budgeting is perfect for procrastinators.  When people wanna procrastinate, they talk about budget and apps, like,  look at what your money's going. But that should be  I would say maybe about 15% of your financial energy. The rest of it should be about where are you putting your money, what vehicles are gonna help you get each to the finish line  without you striving to pieces.

 That way  you can spend your time,  your energy on other things that matter outside of money, because at the end of the day.  Money is a tool  to something. Money is something that gets you to a place.  But what is that place you wanna go to?  That's where your time,  your attention, your energy, those are the currencies  that you truly, truly need.

 And money's goal is to help you get  those currencies  so you can spend along the things that actually do matter.

Dr. Alex Schloe: I love that. Yeah, those four simple steps that you mentioned,  great way to get started.  I can also guarantee you're not gonna budget your way to financial freedom.  So  yeah, I agree with you there wholeheartedly. And I think about  my buddy Brian Lubin with Action Academy Podcast talks a lot about periods of navigation and acceleration, and basically  the analogies like, Hey, you're in your car,  you're going on a road trip,  you're figuring out where you're gonna go.

You're probably gonna take some time to navigate.  Figure out, hey, what's the be best path to get there?  Then you're gonna put your foot on the gas, and that's exactly what you're saying. You have that  initial time period to navigate. Do maybe your  15% of budgeting,  figure out what path you want to take, setting your baseline investments that set it, forget it,  and then you're accelerating towards what you love and what you really want to do,  and you're on that road to financial freedom.

And so  I think it's a really great way to think about it.  Going, going back to your journey as a gastroenterologist,  what was that pivot like when you realized like, Hey, you know, money is this tool. I want to utilize this tool, I want to utilize this to practice medicine and live life how I want to.

 How did that transition happen for you? I, I.

 You know that transition, there were multiple points in time.  So  when like many people, when you start learning about money,  debt is the first thing you think about,  and I did not know a lot about money, so I just thought, okay, I've heard that you pay off your debt. Debt  and so I focused on paying up my debt.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: My goal was to pay off my student loans. I had six figure I wanted to pay it off in five years.  I ended up paying it off in two and a half years.  And then  at that point though,  I had no debt, but I still wasn't free. I still was afraid  of losing my job. I still  could not.  Rest. Well, knowing that if something happened to my clinical income, my family would be negatively impacted.  And that's when I realized that debt is only one piece of the puzzle.  And debt free is not the goal.  Debt freedom of mind  is the goal.  So after that was when I started focusing on real estate where,  and it's funny 'cause I had to sell my husband on us paying off my student  debt.  I was like, babe,  listen,  if we have no debt,  we'll be free.  And then we paid off the debt. And I was like,  babe,  actually if we  invest,  we'll be free.  It's not debt, it's investment.  And it was like, wait,  I thought it was, I'm like,  that's what I thought too.  So that's when we started learning about real estate investment.  We started investing in small multifamily  residentials in California and Washington State, and we've been doing that now since 2019.  And that's been a part of like our own vehicle to life freedom is what I call it, life freedom and financial liberation.  But again, I know  I have to say, and maybe I just didn't have big dreams.  Maybe I just didn't have big dreams, and I'm sharing this because  there are people in your audience where  maybe they don't have big dreams.

 My dream was just to be a good doctor.  Then my dream was, let me just help  a few physicians do this.  And my dream, my,  my  freedom is the most important thing to me. If you take away my freedom, you literally we're dead  away from like our souls are dead.  Right? And you know that as a military  person that is sacrificed many years  for us to have that freedom.

And I wanna say thank you for the work that you do.  Thank you for sacrificing that.  It's not free.  It's not free.  It's not free, somewhat pay for it. So thank you for, for doing that for us. But I truly, truly believe that  when we have freedom, when we don't have freedom,  we are, our souls literally are now going to die,  start dying.  And so for me, I just had small goals. I just had small dreams,  right?  But then it was after I saw the fact that there are so many physicians that are negatively impacted  by  being trapped financially.  Sort of like increased my mission and my vision for helping more physicians,  but I've continued to be a GI doctor throughout it.  You know, I was W2 until two years ago when my husband and I decided that we wanted to travel.  And again, it was it was,  it was, it felt like what the right thing that we were supposed to do, it felt like a pull.  We're not running away from burnout.  It just felt like this is what we're meant to do.  And so I quit my W2 job.

They were like, oh, maybe you can,  we can save your spot. I was like, you know what? I don't know who I'm gonna be at the end of this. I just feel like I'm meant to  like, just break it up and leave.  And so that's what we did with our three kids. We traveled around the world for a year.  Came back last year.  I love medicine, so I'm still practicing medicine, but per DM about six to eight times a month  which is, it fits into the other hats that I wear as a business owner, as a leader, as a coach, as a mom, as a, you know, faith leader as well.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's amazing.  Yeah. So cool to, to see your journey. And I think a lot of folks listening to this are trapped by  the golden stethoscope, I like to say, instead of the golden handcuffs. But  it's, it's the same,  the same thing. And and you know, it's, it's tough and it's, it's tough too.  And I'm kind of interested to hear your thoughts on this too.

I think a lot of people struggle with.  Their identity getting wrapped up in the fact that they're a doctor.  Their identity getting wrapped up in the white coat and thinking that,  Hey, I worked so hard for this. If I step back or if I quit,  like I'm just throwing this away and I don't know who I'm gonna be.

 What was that like for you when you quit your W2? Did you struggle with any of those internal struggles of like,  this is, you know, this has taken so much of my time and, and kind of created me to who I am at that point?  Was that something that was hard for you?

 Dr. Latifat Akintade: It was hard for me,  but  what was, what was not optional was for me to stay and continue the status quo.  So if you're trying to leave.  Something you need to figure out the thoughts  that you need to tell yourself  to make it intolerable for you to stay  right When it becomes intolerable for you to stay, you literally have no choice  but to move, but to go to  whatever that thing is are you trying to go to?  And now the question becomes, what do I need?  What do I need? And I think many people don't answer that question strategically.  Right.  What do I need? And so the question that I, that was a question that I asked myself.  I'm a huge believer in coaching. It's changed my life. It's changed the life of the people that I get to serve as well.  So I know that most answers to problems is gonna be a who,  right? So I specifically look for a one-on-one coach.  You would say, Latifah, are you quitting your job and you're  spending to get a coach? Because yes, I know that coaching literally.  Is a hack.  Right? So found a coach specifically for that transition because I knew, without a doubt, I was humble enough  to know that I was gonna need help and I did need help.

But honestly, just knowing that I had someone to talk to was helpful by itself.  But I've coached many physicians through that transition, whether,  you know, they're taking a sabbatical, we have people in our community that, that, you know, they've taken three months, four months,  and the struggle is real.  But I will tell you that with most things that are  going to be the best things you've ever done,  it will feel hard  because you literally are taking off a jacket  that you've worn forever.  When you are, like  a lot of our identity has been a physician. You see your patients. You, you,  you get up every day with a purpose knowing that you're going to save lives.  At the worst case scenario,  I can say I saved a life at some point.  Now that's not gonna be there anymore.  So you're like, who am I?  Who am I outside of this? Who am I as  not a title, not as a physician,  not as a lifesaver, but Latifah  as a human for me, Latifah as a child of God. Like who am I?  And I will tell you that the answers to those questions  will change your life if you let it.  But just be humble enough to ask yourself, what support do I need?  To make it less hard because it will be hard,  but it is worth doing,  and that decision honestly, has changed my life. Top three decisions that I've made in my life was quitting  and traveling. It's changed my life. I'm more of who I  am meant to be.  I still serve humans. I serve  my family.  I'm more present.  Like  I was a good doctor before I traveled, and not to brag, but I was, you know, voted top doc multiple times. If that means anything to your audience.  My patients love me. Like  I was a good doctor. I would have one of the highest  written from patients in the region,  so I was not  a bad doctor before, but I can legitimately say that I'm an even better doctor  because I'm more human.  I don't have to know it all.  It doesn't have to be perfect,  but based on what I hear from my patients over and over, now, the difference is obvious. And I think that difference was because I was willing to let myself go through  that identity shift.  But really it's not even an identity shift. It's like reclaiming back to my core,  getting down to my roots of who am I as a human being.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Ooh.  That was, that was awesome.  I'm personally gonna go back and listen to the last five minutes of that 'cause that that hit.  Hard, I'm, I'm kind of in that transitionary process We were talking about before  the podcast, how I'm getting ready to separate from the military and  kind of figuring out next steps, taking about three months off to spend some time with the family and travel as well.

 And really looking forward to that and looking forward to the insights that are gonna come from that. So I think that's great

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 if, if folks are listening to this and they didn't, they just kind of glazed over what we just talked about. I, I just wanted to foot snapp one thing that you said.  It's finding the right who  that is something that I, I had heard many times  oh, your network is so important, your network's, your net worth, you know, finding the right who get the right people on the bus, all those sorts of things.

 And I never really thought about it seriously. And I tell you what, over the last year and a half, two years since  been doing the podcast and really focusing on real estate and entrepreneurship, I could not agree more with where that is.  Or sorry, with, with that truth,  and I would not be where I am today.

I would not be in the position to take three months off to hang out with my family and travel all over  and practice medicine part-time, just 'cause I love seeing patients  coming up if it wasn't for that. And so I just wanna foot stomp that. They're like, the sooner you realize that I'm not in this journey alone,  that the who is what matters.

 And the worst thing that happens if you quit your job is you just go back and get another one.  Like your,  your biggest fear is your present day reality. There's always gonna be more doctor jobs that are available out there for folks.  And so once you realize those things, once I've realized those things, it was like a whole weight came off and just, yeah.

I, I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: and I have to say that I think about it as an act of kindness. Finding the right support is an act of kindness to yourself. You already know that you're gonna have a hard time. So it's an act of, it's investing in that future version of yourself to find the right environment, whatever that is, whether it's like a  community or whatever it is, like it's an act of kindness.  But I also wanna say that that thought of it is hard to take a break.  It is legit.  Right.  I mean, think about it. I was a W2 physician, even though I had multiple sources of income,  I was a W2 income physician. So regardless of what happens, you know, that that money was coming,

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: right?  And so it's almost like this, you know, is a pavlo or whatever that experiment is like with behavioral whatever.

Like every time  you know that that money's coming.  So now here you are,  that money may not come and it literally could feel like you're walking out. In New York City in winter without pens on,  you're like, it's going to be cold out there, right?  But I wanna let you know that  many of this are actually thoughts.  There is a fact, and you wanna make sure like you take care of. The fact is you have money taken care of, you have good with your money, you've invested your money, you have multiple sources of income and all of that stuff.  But the fear is still there. And I will tell you that when I, even as a coach that teaches people about money  that has taken care of her own finances  to an extent,  I had those fears still.  And I literally listed out like seven things. Seven sources of income,  and my brain was still freaking out.  My brain, and I'm saying this because  it is not all conscious. Some of this is subconscious.  My brain was still freaking out.  Do you wanna know what I told my brain that made it finally rest?

Dr. Alex Schloe: I would love to.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: I said, if worst come to the worst, I would go sleep on my sister's couch.  And my brain finally was like,  whew,  we have a plan.  Forget the fact that I had like multilayer lasagna plan,  right? So if you are feeling that fear, it is normal and sometimes you need to tell your brain some sweet nothings.  Until it calms the heck down. That was my sweet nothing. The sister  was couch. I was gonna go sleep on leaves in the uk, by the way.

So like, it doesn't make sense,  but it's okay to be kind to your brain and giving it the sweet nothings  as long as you've taken care of the, the fact  and making sure that your finances are otherwise taken care of.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's great. Yeah. The brain's just trying to protect you. I mean, that's, that's a whole purpose. And so yeah, that, that makes a whole lot of sense. And, and I, and I love that and hopefully folks have gotten a lot out of it. I think,  I feel like these are the conversations that are so important to have  and this is the place that, you know, a lot of people are in and they're, they're wrestling with some of these thoughts and ideas 'cause.

 Medicine. It's hard.  It is, it's a hard job. It's, it's a lot of work. It's burnout's a real thing. And you know, you have to do what's best for yourself, what's best for your family  and what's best for your patients. And sometimes that is putting yourself first and putting your family first. And maybe it is taking that sabbatical or  finding another job or working part-time and.

But I, it all does kind of come back to the fact that like  some degree of  of income coming in from an alternative source, some degree of financial freedom  is gonna give you that protective factor. It's gonna give you that ability  to step back or to make those changes and quiet down the brain as you said before.

So  I think that's really important.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, my, the next book that's coming out next month, which I'm so excited about,  it's gonna be called The Power to Choose.  And what you're describing is exactly that, that is what physicians need.  And I'm all for financial independence. I'm all for financial freedom,  but people just need the power to choose.  And the question is,  ask yourself the hard question, the uncomfortable question  of what would need to change.  For me to have the power to choose.  And this is not about leaving medicine. This is about becoming an A better doctor.  Right?  And if we look at 20, 25 and the future going forward, in order to be a good doctor,  you have to be willing to walk.  Because if you're not willing to walk, you will compromise.  You will make decisions,  but you'll burn out faster.  So  what we're talking about here, it's not.  Just like  cool to have.  This is also about surviving.  You know, when we talk about mental health, we talk about suicide. That's one of the things that I  honestly was one of the reasons why I decided to do what I do,  is because if you look at the data with suicide among physicians, it is high.  It is high, and part of it is because I hear over and over and over again, I feel trapped.  So wealth is great. I want you to have wealth. I want you to  reach that FI number.  But at the very basic core of your safety, your security, your wellness is your power to choose.  So this is not a acute thing to have.

This is literally you  grabbing a live jacket so that.  Your family can enjoy you for a longer period of time  so that your community can enjoy you for a long period of time so that your kids can,  can have a story where they get to have their parents for longer, potentially because you were alive. Not just physically alive, but also like mental, your soul, your spirit, the essence  of who you are, which is one of the biggest legacies that we can pass on to our families,  who we are,  not just the paycheck we bring.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Couldn't agree more. Yeah. The amount of physician suicide is, is unbelievable. You know, residents, attendings, all the above medical students. I mean, fa family medicine has the highest  suicide rate or one of the highest suicide rates, and it, it is, it's exactly what you're saying. It's. It's the, the feeling of feeling trapped.

It's the pressure of,  of everyone else telling you, you have to see more patients with less time and do more with less staff.  And then it's that, that,  you know, Hippocratic Oath that you took to do no harm. And so you feel the full weight of that.  On top of, you know, patient expectation,  administrator's expectation, the, the system's expectation, and you're, it's just overwhelming for folks.

And until they  have that outlet or have those folks that they can talk to or have that community,  it's really overwhelming. And, and, and  I welcome anyone who's listening to this, if you're in that spot, like,  please figure, you know sign up to. Talk with me on the website, reach out on Instagram, send me an email at alex@physiciansandproperties.com.

Like more than happy to talk with anyone about this because yeah, just, just one  suicide is way too many and unfortunately there's way more than one.  And so, you know, we're, we're here for you.  Absolutely. If that's something that you're struggling with, and I think that's why.  What we're talking about so important.

'cause you, you can, you can  kind of hit that sur survive, survive,  arrive and thrive in terms of financial freedom and, and figure out what that looks like for you. And,  hey, what is,  what is that number that I need coming in where my, me and my family can survive in our. Basic needs can be met.  Okay. So we hit that and then we've,  we've arrived like, Hey, okay, what can we  do?

What's our cash flow number? What's our number that we need, that we can have a decent quality of life? Okay. And then  now we're hitting the thrive in terms of, hey, we're living the life of our dreams.  And that all takes getting started which is so important. So anyways yeah, really, really glad that you shared that and were able to touch on that.

 Dr. Latifat Akintade: Absolutely, absolutely no thank you for, I call that minimum number, I call the minimum viable expense. So if push comes to shove.  What is the absolute minimum number that you need to, to thrive, to survive?  You know, it's food, shelter, transportation, like what is that number? For most people, it's actually not high  because if push comes to shove, I would literally rent out my house and go rent like a two bedroom.

My kids can share a room like, you know, so what is that minimum viable number?  And it is a practical number, but this is also like there's a mental math to it,  right? And I tell people, if you've realized how low that number is.  You would see that you have a choice even now

that your income that you're earning every month  if push comes to shove, can actually take you for longer,  right?

That's not where we want you to leave, of course, right? No one should be like living on a,  you know, on a diet forever, but it's a matter of like that mental safety. And then now how do I replace that number  outside of my clinical income? How do I replace that number?  Outside, it doesn't take a lot of time.

 It just takes creative learning, asking him the right question and taking action.  And after that minimum viable is now the comfortable number,  and then I'll like the bougie number above that. But you can  take this at a level to level.  But the very, very basic thing is you need to  figure out what that minimum viable expense for you is for you  and set your goals on how am I gonna replace that  with a nonclinical income?

And there are many ways, which is,  you know, Alex talks about and brings people on the podcast to share about as well.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah. Absolutely. I love that.  Well, let's let's turn to a more cheerful topic.  Let's talk about traveling around the world for a year, which is absolutely amazing.  What gave you the idea, or, or what was that tipping point of you're like, Hey, it's time. Let's do this. Let's, let's pack up the family and let's go.

 What was that like for you?

Dr. Latifat Akintade: It was. Traveling around the world was not a bucket list item for me.  It was not. I just never thought about it. I never imagined it,  but I will be completely honest with you. It was in 2022, had gone to Aruba to speak,  my husband went with me.  And we found out that most people in Aruba speak multiple languages.  So at some point we're like, how nice would it be for our kids to be exposed to multiple languages? Imagine what that could do to their brain.  And we're like, that would be awesome to be in a place like this for like three months or six months. But I'm like, oh, I'm a physician, ain't nobody gonna give me six months vacation.

 So we just like tossed it off. And then we got home and about a month later, my husband was like, you know that thing we talked about.  If you wanna do it, I'm down. And I'm like, what? What were you, what are you talking about? I thought we were joking,  right? And so we just sat on it for a little bit because again, this was never a dream of mine.  We sat on it for a little bit, meaning like six months later I quit my job. So it wasn't like a long time,  but once we just knew that this  felt like what we were meant to do. I was not leaving because I was burnt out. And I'm sharing that, not to brag,  but to let people know you don't have to be  dy to change your circumstance.

I was not burnt out.  I just knew that that was what my soul, my spirit was calling for.  And so we,  I told my chief and I was like, I'm gonna believe in, in like,  I think I gave him like six months notice really.  And so we  took our kids out of school. We had, our kids were five to. 10 at that time.  Now they're older, they're, you know, like you can add a year or two years to that.  But we took them out and it was really, really scary. 'cause I had a moment where we were,  we started in, in Ousel where we had all of our suitcase, and I was like,  did I just make the biggest mistake of my life taking my kids out of school,  going to countries? I don't know anybody.  But we're like, you know what?

 That's the whole point of this.  One of the things we like to ask ourselves is our expectations.  And for those that are listening, it's always important to make sure you,  you, deciding what the expectations are for yourself, not based on what people's expectations of you  are.  So as we started traveling, we decided we're not gonna do a bunch of like.  Bucket list stuff. We wanted to  travel. We were more travelers than vacationers.  But then the other question we asked ourself was, what's the biggest gift that we wanna give ourselves now that we've never given ourselves before?  And for us, that was flexibility.  So we said, we  will be flexible.  If something comes up that sounds amazing,  we will evaluate and we'll do it.  So our goal at the beginning was to do 10 countries.  We said, if we're inspired, we'll do more.  And that's what led us to 20 countries. So literally  we were in Aruba with some friends  and they were like, oh, we're doing a spart and race in in south of France.  And we're like, you know what?  That'll be fun.

 Let's add on a spot and race inside of France. So we added Switzerland. From Switzerland. We drove to side of France,  so we just gave ourselves the gift of space,  the gift of less. Right.  And that was the other thing as well. We did not wanna be busy in a different time zone.  So my husband was an IT consultant, literally dropped almost all of his clients.

 I did the barest minimum possible. I probably did like two hours of money feed MD coaching mix.  Two to 10 hours max a week.  Right? So really everything was down to the bare minimum. And we just got to live life  experience ourselves  experience our kids. You know, I, I, I remember  I think it was like the first month after we started traveling.  We were in carousel by the water.  My kids were on a swing.  My kids wanna swing something that simple.  And I just had a moment where I just, I just was staring at them.  I was just,  just nowhere to rush to.  I just stared at them and I was like,  how beautiful they were.  And I just started tearing up  because  after going, going, going as a physician, like most physicians are,  I knew my kids.

I saw my kids. I spent time with my kids,  but I did not linger.  And that moment  just imprinted in my own brain.  Just the importance  of just slowing down. I,  I tear it up just seeing my kids,  really seeing every, just seeing them.  And I think that  we are,  at the end of the day,  when you look back on our lives, you look back at your life, you look back on my life,  you're never  gonna wish you did one more shift.  You may wish you helped one more person.  You may wish you taught your kids how to bike, but.  I think there's just a call for us to slow down a little bit.  I, I don't plan on retiring from medicine because what do I have to retire from because I'm living a life that's well paced even right now,  and I can practice medicine till I'm 80, 89 if I want to, if I'm able to.  But again, the power of choice.  So I hope that answered your question.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, that's absolutely amazing. 20 countries awesome experiences. What was your top country  and maybe  top experience that you had?

Dr. Latifat Akintade: I will say top three countries, 'cause it's hard to pick one. One is because I'm biased. I'm  from Nigeria originally, so Nigeria is there.  Portugal, I love, love Portugal.  Okay, I'm gonna add a fourth one. Sorry. Al, I love Issa. Al just felt like home.  There was just  down to earth,  normal humans. No pretension.

Like no pretense.  And I'm gonna have to add Southeast Asia, which is not a country. But yeah,

Dr. Alex Schloe: Let it slide.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: my heart out in Southeast Asia. I ate my face out and it was so good. So  those would be my top ones.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's awesome. Yeah, my wife and I, we did  our honeymoon to Thailand and I probably gained like 10, well, I probably gained 10 pounds and then I got a terrible GI bug at the end of the trip, and so  I lost a lot of weight. But it was a,  it was a great experience, but yeah, I I love that. I,  you know, I was thinking  as you were telling your story about the, your sons and or your, your kids on the swing in au and  that moment of just slowing down and.

 It's so hard to slow down in America and we have a camper and we do a lot of camping. My family,  that was the best investment I ever made ' cause it forces you to slow down.  And I personally love camping where there's no cell service and where there's no internet, we just go boondocking and  just get into a bunch of  shenanigans and, it's just the best. And I would, I would encourage folks to think about like, Hey, how can I  slow down? Whether that's just for an afternoon or whether that's just for a day and just turn the phone off and get off the social media and get off the internet and just  spend that time with the people that matter most.

'cause gosh, it's beautiful. I mean,  I, we're getting ready to do a three and a half week trip coming up and in May and June, and I just can't wait for that to just have that time uninterrupted with my family. 'cause that's what matters the most.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Absolutely. And when you set up your finances in a way that you're not having to think, oh, if I don't work,  I'm not going to earn.  Right?  That is the whole point of setting things up.  I mean, I have every week, I have half a day that I spend in this room.  If you call me, I ain't going to pick up. I'm just here  resting, meditating, praying.  Everybody that knows me, no. If you have one call only to make you, don't call me on that day  at that time. 'cause for that afternoon, I ain't going to pick up.  I don't earn money. I could earn money.  I could earn a lot of money  if I was gonna exchange that time for money,  but I don't need to 'cause I set things up, number one.  But also, many of us and your audience are leaders.  When you're a leader, you have to take time to rest. You can't pull out of an empty container.  So set your finances up, which is investment in a way that helps you earn even when you rest.  Right,  and you still may need to work on your mindset and the fear of not overworking because so many of us are  sort of like  cuffed into that system of overworking, which is why we grind to pieces.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, I heard something from Stacy Gray. She  does a lot of organizing businesses to scale.  She's amazing. And she said, you know, you need to have a day to think.  You need to have a day to think,  and you need to have a day to do.  You can't do both. I. And I love that. And you know, I, I,  you know, honestly, I haven't done that and I, I really want to, 'cause I know it would be beneficial ' cause it just forces you to slow down.

It forces you to think through and use that time to solve the big problems in your business or some problems that are in life or figure out that question we asked earlier of who am I, who do I want to be and what's next?  And so it's just a, it's just a, a beautiful thing  to think about. And so I'm looking forward to, you know, as  things slow down after the Air Force having some time.

Having that day to think, having that day to get things done.  But,

Dr. Latifat Akintade: to say that thinking is it's a skill. That most people actually don't know. And I did not know that as a physician, we've spent so much time learning. We, we believe, we know how to think,  but  I did not know that. I did not know how to think until I learned how to think. And I'm happy to  send a link to two,  two books  that I think will be, could be helpful for your audience about how to think.  It's so good to think that when you learn how to think, you start looking for  problems to solve. Be like,  what other problems do I have in my life that I need to think about? 'cause I know how to think now.  Right? And one of them, it's like thinking through writing. But I'll, I'll, I'll send those to you

Dr. Alex Schloe: Please. Yeah, please do. That would be great. Yeah, and I think, you know,  being an entrepreneur,  we're, we're always solving problems. I mean, that's, entrepreneurship is solving a problem and then going on to the next problem. And hoping the first one you solve doesn't break,  which is,  which is awesome.  Well, I wanna be respectful of your time.

I could talk to you all night long  but really appreciate you coming on the podcast. A, a, anything that you want to hit on before we wrap things up?

Dr. Latifat Akintade: No, I just wanna say thank you for inviting me as well. You know,  just a reminder to your audience, like  if you're listening to this, you've probably done some of the hardest things,  and anytime you encounter something that feels hard, I just want you to create that habit  of stopping and thinking, okay, if it's hard for me,  it means that I'm overthinking it because  everything that is hard, if you are on this level.  If it's also at that level, it would be easy for you. So the only reason why it's hard is because it's easier than everything you've ever done.  So there's literally nothing you cannot like, it's almost nothing you cannot solve because you've already proven that you can solve the hardest problems.  So just give yourself the gift of time, the gift of space,  take care of yourself.

And if you're afraid of investing,  you should be more afraid of not investing,  because at the end of the day, your life matters.  Your energy matters.  And one of the. Things that I like to do as an exercise is I like to  ask my 80-year-old self what she would do.  So even when it came to traveling,  the question was to my 80-year-old self, would she, what would she be proud of that I did today?  What decisions would she want me to take? Because if I had no money, if I was not investing  and I wanted to like take a year long trip, my 80-year-old self would go sit your butt down  and get your money in order. 'cause we ain't gonna be broke at 80.  You wanna be able to like afford some bougie senior house aid at age 80. You better not travel now yet.  Do that first and then you can travel.  But I had done those things and that meant that when I was asking my 80-year-old self for wisdom, I like,  should I travel? Should I not travel?  She would whack me and go, why did you not travel? When our hips worked?  When our joints worked?  So, you know, just take care of yourself, but don't,  don't run away from wisdom. Wisdom is here to help you.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That is so good.  Well, I think that is a perfect place to wrap things up.  I know you do a lot of coaching. You're, you have a heart for female physicians  who are badass.  How can folks reach out to you? How can folks learn more  about what you're doing at Money Fit md?

Dr. Latifat Akintade: The easiest way is if you're watching on YouTube or on a podcast, you can literally just find Money. Fit MD Podcast. I  realized an episode every week you can learn about money  how to think. Think about money, how to grow wealth in a way that is wholesome.  But also if you wanna send me an email, you can go to Dr.

latifa@moneyfitmd.com or you can just go to my website, money fit md.com.  We're on Facebook, we're on Instagram,  we're here to serve.  We're here here to help more physicians and specifically more women physicians.  But a lot of my, actually I have a good number of my audience that are men 'cause they email me about the podcast episodes and I.  I just wanna say thank you to them as well. If they're listening to this. You guys are all, are all important  and it's an honor to serve you here and  wherever else I get to do that.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Absolutely couldn't agree more.  This was fantastic. We'll include all the links in the show notes as well.  If folks want to connect with Dr. Latifah and Money Fit md  this has been awesome. With that, it's been another episode of the Physicians and Properties Podcast with Dr. Latifah and Dr. Alex Schloe  signing off. 

Hey, real quick, if you're still listening to this, I'm assuming you got value from it, so I need your help. Specifically, my two year vision with this podcast is to help 100,000 physicians learn how investing in real estate can give you the freedom to practice medicine and live life how you want. There are two main ways that a podcast grows.

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