How To Be Frugal And Rich with Dr. Disha Spath

🎙️ Welcome back to another insightful episode of the Physicians and Properties Podcast with your host, Dr. Alex Schloe!

💡 What if you could pay off $238,000 in student loans in just 18 months, teach your kids to value money, and still build a life you love on your own terms?

In this episode, Dr. Disha Spath, also known as The Frugal Physician, shares her powerful financial transformation story how she and her husband crushed nearly a quarter million dollars of student debt while raising kids, relocating across the country, and living on a single physician income. What started as a personal journal became a viral blog and national platform empowering physicians to take control of their finances and their futures.

🏠 From debt freedom to legacy building, Dr. Spath and Dr. Schloe go deep on what matters most family, financial freedom, and designing a life aligned with your values. They also discuss Direct Primary Care, charitable giving, and how to raise financially savvy kids in a world that rarely teaches financial literacy.

💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ How Dr. Spath paid off $238,000 of student loans in just 18 months
 ✔️ What it means to make intentional trade-offs for long-term financial peace
 ✔️ How to raise financially literate kids using tools like GoHenry, Acorns, and money conversations
 ✔️ Why giving and generosity are essential components of financial wellness
 ✔️ How blogging and storytelling helped her create The Frugal Physician platform
 ✔️ What led her to choose DPC and how it’s reshaping her relationship with medicine
 ✔️ Why legacy isn’t about money left behind but wisdom and values passed forward

🔥 Key Takeaways:

✔️ You don’t have to choose between medicine and meaning you can have both
 ✔️ Tracking your spending and building a debt payoff plan is the first step toward freedom
 ✔️ Kids learn money best when they see it lived out with intention and transparency
 ✔️ Physicians deserve to design a life that includes rest, autonomy, and purpose
 ✔️ The real ROI isn’t just financial, it’s time, family, and peace of mind

From debt freedom to direct care, this episode is packed with real talk, actionable steps, and empowering encouragement for any physician ready to reclaim their finances, time, and life. If you’ve ever wondered if it's possible to raise a family, serve patients, and live in alignment with your values, this episode will show you the way.

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. Disha Spath: And that's  when I first got started writing and  we had just literally just paid off a hundred thousand dollars of my student loan debt in six months. And we realized, okay, holy cow, like it's been six months and we paid off a hundred thousand dollars.  And I'm a primary care physician, you know I was like, how did this happen? And so I sat down and wrote out what happened. And you know, it was just a document. And I was like,  Josh, my husband asked Josh like, what should I do with this?

 And he goes, you know, why don't you just put it out there in a blog?

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 another episode of the Physicians and Properties Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Alex Schloe, and as always,  I'm so grateful that you're here listening to another episode.  Today's podcast episode was with none other than the frugal physician, Dr. Dish Spath.  This was a fantastic episode.

 We covered everything from. Personal finance and how she paid off almost a quarter of a million dollars in debt in 18 months,  which is absolutely amazing. We talked about that journey and some money mistakes that she made and physicians commonly make,  and we also discussed  legacy,  heritage,  what it means to teach your kids about money, and some  different  tips and tricks to teach your kids  about money, how to value money, how to respect it, and treat it as a tool  and how to  teach your kids.

 More and more about finances. So this was a really great episode and this is the stuff that's really important.  It's great to learn about how to buy a rental property or how to  start a small business,  but  the family piece is what's important. That is what is gonna be left behind  when you die.  So it's worthwhile.

It is so important to invest in your family, invest in time with them, and I'm excited to say  we're packing up. We're getting ready to go camping  for about four weeks in Yellowstone Glacier and the Tetons.  So I am  looking forward to spending that time with my family  and diving deep with them during that time,  and I hope that you get some time to do that soon as well.

 So, without any further ado, let's get started with today's episode  with  D  Spath. I.

 Dr. Dish Bath. It is so good to have you on the Physicians and Properties Podcast today. It was an honor to recently be on your podcast, the Frugal Physician, and really excited to have you on so I can learn about your journey this time. How are things going in upstate New York?

Dr. Disha Spath: Thank you so much for having me.  Upstate is beautiful right now. I mean, we've had a lot of rain, but it's warm, so I'll take it.

Dr. Alex Schloe: There you go. Yeah, that's good. Probably probably ready for the snow to be over with, I would imagine at this point. So

Rain's probably a welcome change.

Dr. Disha Spath: Yes, exactly. I am a southerner by upbringing. So the snow and the cold is still a little bit new to me,  though I am ac  acclimating it. You know,  now that I've been here for seven years. But  but yeah, no, it's beautiful. I love, love it here in spring and summer. I.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's awesome.  Well, for folks who don't know you, do you mind sharing  a little bit about  yourself before we get started?

Dr. Disha Spath: Sure. Yeah.  I'm an internal medicine physician. I started off as a hospitalist and I've  basically done inpatient and outpatient work my entire career.  I  am also the founder of the Frugal physician,  so I decided that I was a total, neophyte when I came to physician finance when I  first became an attending and realized that there was a lot for me to learn, and so I started learning.

I started deep diving into personal finance, and as I did that me and my husband really went down the rabbit hole of.  All the finance things and then started a debt snowball and  you know, started investing heavily. And anyway, we turned our financial situation around from living paycheck to paycheck to, you know, being  financially well  in a few years and three years.

And  we started writing about it, podcasting about it around 2018.  And,  i've been doing it ever since, and this has been my side hobby, side gig, I guess. You know, just something I'm passionate about in  my podcast, finding Financial Freedom with the Frugal Physician and my website, the frugal physician.com.

 It helps me continue to learn, you know, on the job and talk to an interesting folks like you and hopefully help other people by sharing my hard-earned lessons with them.

 Dr. Alex Schloe: Absolutely.  I love that. And I think a lot of us have similar stories, you know, kind of  realizing like, Hey, we don't know anything about finance. Financial freedom or financial literacy. I didn't get taught any of that in medical school. And so grateful for some resources along the way and getting into that, and then now  having the opportunity to talk to other physicians about financial literacy and real estate and entrepreneurship.

It is awesome, and more and more people  need that education, need to hear that. And so it's been really cool to follow along with your journey  and learn about what you're doing.

 Okay.

 specific resources when you first got started that were really beneficial for you? Or if someone's listening to this and they're thinking like, Hey,  I'm, I'm in that same spot.

I just graduated residency. I wanna learn more

 Yeah.

financial literacy. Anything in particular that you'd recommend? I.

Dr. Disha Spath: Yeah, absolutely there.  So books, I, you know, I have a podcast but I think books are a great way to learn. Podcasts are a great way  to continue to learn once you get the basics down. But for the basics, I would say simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins,  the Millionaire Next Door rich Dad, poor Dad. And then of course, the White Coat Investor book. The, in the first one I thought was that was, that book was my eye-opening experience. I'd been looking for  just one condensed book that would give me all the information I needed as a physician handling my finances. And after many, many years of searching, I found that one and I was like, yes.

 This is it, this is what I need. You know, so, and, and Jim did a great job with that book. So I  for any physician looking to just get their, you know  bearings in the financial world,  those are good places to start.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, I completely agree. I'd also throw in The Rich Doctor by Dr. Tom Burns. That's a really good book as well to to lay that foundation and  kind of opens up the idea of, okay, well what is this idea of cash flow and quote unquote passive?  Come and alternative investments and a lot of things  that we don't necessarily get as well.

 So yeah, I agree. Those are all fantastic resources and I think, you know, bottom line, a lot of times  physicians that I'm talking to are just scared to get started or just scared because they don't know. And I'm like, if you can go through  med school residency, fellowship and excel in all of that, you can a hundred percent take control of your financial journey.

Dr. Disha Spath: Yes. Agree. I just thought of as you were talking, you know  real estate investing,  you know, the book on Real Estate Investing by Brandon Turner. Huge. And, say one more,  I'm forgetting it.  Oh, tax free wealth.  I forget the, the author of that one, but that one's really great to learn about the tax code and how you can make it  work for you.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, there's a lot of fantastic tax benefits. Been fortunate to  become friends with Amanda Hahn, and she's amazing. She's been on the podcast a couple times, so  go back and take a listen to those episodes if you wanna understand how real estate can really benefit  you from  a tax perspective. 'cause that's huge.

I mean, our,  our tax bill as physicians, we're really lucky to be. High income earners, typically for the most part in our tax bill is quite substantial. Probably the biggest expense that we all have, and so figuring out  legal and great strategies to combat that tax bill can be really important.

Dr. Disha Spath: Yeah, and I look at it less as trying to lower my tax bill, but  more as just trying to do what the government is wanting me to do  which is, you know, the government wants to give you tax incentives and that's what the tax code is about.  So really maximizing  the use of those incentives and doing what they want you to do to lower your tax bill  is, you know, there are many, many legal ways to do that and real estate is a very good one of them.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, it sure is. I mean, the government wants to house people, right? So  providing housing is important. By real estate investing, you're also creating more jobs. There's a lot of, lot of opportunity. So it's a good incentive for the government to, to incentivize real estate investing as well. I completely agree.

I.  Well, how did you, you know, you mentioned some of the resources when you first got started. How did that journey start? What was kind of the first steps  in kind of taking control of your  financial life?

Dr. Disha Spath: Yeah. The first step I think was just realizing that  even though people thought I was doing great, people told me I was. Doing great. It looked from the outside like I was doing great,  but you know, realizing that I wasn't.  Fine.  We weren't fine.  I had gotten my first attending  job and you know, I was a sole earner at that time because my husband was had just gotten out of the military.

He was in the army  and he was using the GI bill to do his master's  in project management. And so he was studying from home and I was the  sole learner at the time.  And, we were having kids, I was having to take unpaid maternity leave.  And we had bought a house right out of residency. The first job I had as an attending, we bought a nice house and  stretched our budget  too far.

 Didn't account for the unpaid maternity leaves and the student loan bills that continued to come during those maternity leaves.  And so we were feeling  like we were living paycheck to paycheck and, and just  strapped for cash  and, when, and so I was in this like super scarcity mode. Even during my maternity leave, which was unpaid.

I  was trying to create like a nice playroom for my kids. And so  we had an old couch and I didn't wanna spend money on a new couch. So I thought I would  just sew a cover for that couch. And  I was literally like that entire six,  not entire six weeks, but like a good four weeks of those six weeks that I took off.

 I was downstairs away from my baby. Sewing. And I'm like, because there were so many like little pins and, you know, dangerous things around. I couldn't have my toddler down. I couldn't, and I would just see my baby for feedings. And I was like,  what am I doing?  I am spending my entire maternity leave  that, you know, that I'm taking this whole time off without,  without pay, which I'm really stressed out about and I'm spending it away from my babies.

 You know, the whole point was to spend time with them  and and.  So I realized I was doing it all wrong. You know, I had, we were,  we had a paycheck, but not a steady one at that time. And we should have had our financial stuff together better than we did. And I was in such scarcity mindset that I just  was wasting, you know, I was not  aligning my time with what I was actually trying to do,  you know  which was to spend time with my kids during that time.

 So I said,  we need to get.  I need to get this straightened out.  And at that time I was sewing and listening to the audio of the White Coat Investor and listening to him tell me everything that I'd done wrong.  And so I was like, okay.  Yeah.  Okay, I need to change. We need to change.  So I like march upstairs from the downstairs basement playroom.

 And I'm like,  Josh,  we have to do something. We're doing it all wrong.  And he goes,  okay,  take a deep breath. And there are a lot of hormones at play here, but but he is like, okay. So he talked me down. It's like, okay, let's sit down. Let's like figure out what's happening, like  what's going on with this. So we,  the first step we took was just sitting down, logging into all our accounts.

 Figuring out how much we owed to whom and what kind of income and assets we  had. So just making a balance sheet.  And I think, and that was a big step for us because like, it's so easy to take on debt and  take on and, and have like, you know, recurring payments going out of your bank account, but not really know  how much interest you owe on certain debts or how much  there is left, you know and all of that.

So all those details, the, it's easy to take on debt in our, in our culture  because they want you to  and not realize exactly how much you owe.  So. To sit down and  look it all in the face, you know, look, the student loan bill  in the face with the, with the balance and the interest and all of that is a big step and was a big step for us.

 And after that we started tracking our actual spending, you know, which was somewhat,  which was quite intimidating. We had not done that yet. We hadn't made a budget. We didn't know really where our money was going in  on a granular level. You know, so  to make that  budget spreadsheet was the next big  heve, right?

And then once we realized where our money was going,  after a few  months, it was easy to see where we were overspending, like  Amazon and you know, my daily Starbucks habit was maybe twice daily, sometimes when I was working. You know,  it all adds up and I, you know so we realized. The ways we could streamline the spend and started saving more money at the end of the month.

 And that extra money. We decided after listening to many more podcasts and reading more books  specifically Dave Ramsey and the whole, the debt payoff snowball  we decided to do a snowball towards our debt.  And it took the last of whatever was left at the end of the month and put it towards one of the debts  and paid that off and then  paid the next one off and then paid the next one off.

And in that process we paid off two cars and all of my student loans. I.  I decided to pay off my student loans because I was not eligible for PSLF 'cause I was not working for a 5 0 1 C3 non-for-profit hospital. I was at a non-for-profit hospital, but working for a company that  that was for-profit contracting with that hospital.

So  anyway so we paid off my student loans 'cause that was like a big. Headache in my life at that time.  And very glad we did it. We did the student loans 238,000 in about 18 months.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Wow, that's amazing.

Dr. Disha Spath: Yeah. And, and we made big moves during that time,  so like big moves. As in we moved across the country.  We decided that we were paying too much for housing costs and also my babies would need.

Daycare and you know, two babies in daycare  eats into your budget.  And so we decided, you know what? Let's just relocate closer to family where we can have some of their help.  And so we relocated to  New York from Savannah, Georgia at that time.  And as we re relocated, we said, well, this is a really good time to actually even lower our monthly costs more.

Why don't we downsize? And so we downsized into a rental.  About half the square footage that we had and really just, you know, took the excess, what we saved from that process and put it towards the,  the student loans.  And then  my husband also finished his master's and got his job, so he started working again.

And so that's when we really started shoveling pot of money  into the, into the debt snowball. And, thank you. I'll give you a chance because I've been going

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, definitely a lot of things to, to unpack there, but so cool to hear  that journey and, and that you were just willing to do what it takes to pay off that debt and to  cut your expenses. You know, the only way people are gonna be able to save more or invest more is if  they cut those expenses or if they make more money.

And so

 right.

 out which way to do that. And, and there's multiple different ways, and I think you did something that's really unique that people need to think about. And that's the geographic arbitrage, right? Like you move from a  higher cost of living area because you knew  that hey, if I move to New York, I can be closer to family.

I can save on childcare, which is just insane how expensive it is  and housing and all the above. And, and those are some different ways  that, that folks can really make a huge difference in their, in their journey.  That doesn't require a ton of sacrifice other than. You know, the move and the downsize and those sorts of things, but  it's not forever, right?

Like,

Dr. Disha Spath: Right.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Not something that you're gonna have to, to sacrifice in that regard forever.  And so I think it's important to think about, well, hey, maybe I need to consider practicing medicine somewhere else for a certain period of time so I can really  set one foot in front of the other and keep climbing up that mountain and tackle that debt and go from there.  And in regards to the debt, $238,000 paid off in 18 months is  amazing.

 Thanks.

feel when that was done?

 Dr. Disha Spath: Fantastic. Oh my God. I mean,  like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. You know,  at first I'd like to just  comment on the geographic  arbitrage. I think you, you laid it off really well. Right.  Excuse me.  You laid it out really well. But, you know, most people wouldn't consider going from Georgia to New York arbitrage.

But  we forget that New York's a really big state. You know, New York City's really expensive, but but upstate New York is not.  And and  there the taxes are high up here, but. There are actually also a lot of good veterans benefits in upstate New York. So we actually get,  we pay the same amount in tax up here that we did down  down south because of the veterans benefits.

 So yeah, so that's something to think about and, and I think being a military family also makes move moving seemed like a much. Smaller deal, you know, in, in other families that have only been in one spot for a long time. That might  seem like an incredible heave, but  yeah. You know,  when you're a military family, you move, like that's what you do and we're okay with that.

 And so yeah. And.  Once, once we made these huge moves and, and decided that, you know, that we were just done with the, with the debt, then we paid it off and we used a tracking mechanism for my student loans 'cause it was such a large.  Amount just to keep us motivated, we decided to put Macaronis into a jar and each macaroni was a thousand dollars.

 And so we put like, you know  238 macaronis plus, I think we were gonna pay like 50 grand in interest. Or something, you know,  over the timeframe,  and we put it all in the jar and every month when we made payments, we would take  some macaronis out of the jar. And at the end when we paid it off, we like,  you know, had as a family confetti everywhere.

And  you know, just really woo-hoo because every, at the end of every month, we would celebrate each payment.  And then at the end of the.  The lone being gone.  We made a  delicious bowl of mac and cheese and ate all that extra interest.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That had to be the best bowl of mac and cheese you've ever had.

Dr. Disha Spath: Fantastic.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's awesome. Yeah, I love that. Well, it's so cool to do that as a family and for your kids to see that like  the importance of paying off debt and celebrating that, I was gonna ask like, Hey, what did you do to celebrate paying off 238,000?

Because I think we forget sometimes. That we need to celebrate these wins, you know, and,

Dr. Disha Spath: Yeah.

Dr. Alex Schloe: to celebrate them. It's okay to spend some extra money to celebrate some of these wins 'cause they're massive. I mean,  almost a quarter of a million dollars in debt paid off is,  is enormous. And so that is so cool.

 I don't think my son Jack would be patient enough to wait until everything was paid off to, to have the mac and cheese. So I'd have to think of another way if I was in that situation. But that's really cool.

Dr. Disha Spath: Oh, we had like other mac and cheese. This is the special mac and cheese, but yeah. Yeah,  that's how my kids learn to count is  counting those macaronis and, you know, and  that financial management has been like a huge deal in their life because I write about it, I talk about it all the time. And  and we, you know, and I am very, proactive in teaching them the concepts that I wish I had known, you know?  But  yeah, so I hope some of it sticks. And, you know, I hope it  it helps them in the future as well.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Let's sit there for a minute. 'cause I think that's super important is how. Can we pass on what we've learned from a financial perspective to our kids? Has there been any  specific tips or tricks or things that you found really, really resonate with your kiddos?

Dr. Disha Spath: Yeah. You know,  so we've been doing sorry, I'm blanking on the name of the app. One second.

 It's Acorns, but

oh my God. Shoot.  Why can't I remember the name of the app that we are using?  Good lord. It's a, it's like  they have their own card. Go Henry. There. It's okay.  Sorry.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's Okay.  So some of the tools that we've used to teach them first books, right? I, I do book reviews on my blog or at least I used to.

Dr. Disha Spath: And now I do book interviews or author interviews on my podcast. And so when I'm reading the book, sometimes my kids will ask me about it and then, we'll,  we've actually, we read Dr. Faucets. Real estate investing book together. Me and my older one Aiden  and, you know, and he was like really into it and asking me about taxes and like,  you know, what's escrow and that kind of stuff.

I mean, like,  it was, it was really cool to see him learning, with reading by reading with me.  But what's been really impactful is actually  getting them their own accounts set up.  So we're using Go Henry as their checking account.  And you know, there,  there are a few of these apps out there.

There's Go Henry and there's a green light.  But Go Henry's nice because it helps.  Me give them an allowance, but also it gives them incentive to do whatever I want them to do. So like  I want them to make their bed in the morning or, you know, help with the dishes or whatever,  the household chores.

I can set a certain amount of money to give them and check it off as they do it every. Week or every day.  And then so they get paid for those things and then they have that money and they can choose to invest it.  They can choose to donate it and or put it into their savings account. And in their savings account I can match them.

So I had to do like a hundred percent match. So whatever they put in their savings, I put that much in there as well.  And they get their own. Checking card their own debit card to use at you know, whatever they wanna use for or use it for. So  they have a little bit of  control over, you know, their own spending.

And  it's really fun to see like my. Older ones saved enough money to buy himself an iPad,  you know  and he is really cashing in on that a hundred percent match. Right now it's kind of hurting, but he shovels it all into a savings account. And then they have their own utma and we use Acorns for that for investing.

So if they wanna invest their money  we will transfer it over for them. And,  and then they get to, you know, see  how their investments are growing. And  another good thing on both Acorns, but more on Go Henry, is that they actually have learning modules that they can earn  money. So they learn about crypto, you know, they have these.

 Cute little modules that  make that really simplify  the financial concepts down so that they can understand it with a lot of good  cartoonish graphics. So, so they went through all of that teaching.  So anyway, so I think, you know, so it, it helps for them. To get it to get the information presented to them in a palatable way to for them, you know,  and so I feel like they're learning about the whole process.

My older one just did a presentation on the stock market and the Fed  at his, in his class. So he is becoming quite the financial nerd.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That is awesome. Yeah, I love that. I love hearing different tips and tricks. I have two boys and  I want them to understand money and  it is,  it is a tool, but how to respect it  and,

Dr. Disha Spath: Yeah.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Steward it appropriately. I don't know if you've heard of  Scott Donald, but he, he does a lot. In terms of  teaching kids about finances and money and, and just listened to a fantastic podcast episode with him on the Action Academy podcast, and it was  so impactful when he, he talks a lot about you know, even when your kids are younger, you could have  four jars, save, spend, invest, and tithe, and you break those up however you see fit, and then, you  know, they have to.

 Put their money that they earn in, in those jars and  treat it accordingly. And then if they, you know, do something bad or you need to punish them, then they need to take money out of their  spin jar and give

Dr. Disha Spath: Yeah.

Dr. Alex Schloe: to you. So they're learning like, hey, money has consequences as well, which is really cool.

 he does what he calls like brain gigs and so they, you know, can earn extra money if they read this book and write a book report or like, rich Dad, poor Dad, for example, and write some different ways about  how he could be a rich dad instead of a poor dad, and different things like that. So really cool.

 I encourage, I would encourage folks to check him out as well, Scott Donald.  But yeah, I just love learning different ways. 'cause I think it's,  a awesome time right now because you can learn everything. Like Go Henry sounds like a great platform. I wrote it down. I'm gonna check it out.  But you can learn anything and everything right now.

But there are so many different options. So it's kind of figuring out, hey, what works best with your family, with their kids and, and their interest as well. And

 Yeah.

that my kids by, you know, seeing me doing the podcast and seeing us, you know, working hard and talking a lot about real estate and entrepreneurship, that that really spurs some interest in them from that perspective.

'cause I think we're gonna pivot  in the future away from. education and college and those sorts of things being as important more towards entrepreneurship, small business,  those sorts of things being more important. So I'd be interested to hear  what your thoughts are from that perspective.

Dr. Disha Spath: Absolutely. I mean it, I, you know, it is unfortunate. I, in my opinion, that we It's so trending away from valuing, valuing a college education. But,  you know, but the thing is it, yeah, a lot of us go to college, but we don't really come out with  extra skills that we had before. You know, when we graduated high school, we could have just started a business then.

And, you know, and yeah, I think,  I think us modeling good financial behavior hopefully helps them also.  You know, take that forward into their lives.  I keep talking about my older son, but he recently try, he's, every day he comes up with a new business idea. It's so funny. But his idea of a business is doing something, offering a service for,  and not charging for it.

I'm like,  honey, it's not a business. It's just a hobby if you're not charging for it. But but yeah, he's like trying to teach his our neighborhood kids how to solve Rubik's cubes because he is like. Super into them.  And so he,  you know, so he, he does like  Cuban competitions and  and you know,  can solve a cu in like 30 seconds.

Oh my God. I am being an obnoxious mom right now.


Dr. Alex Schloe: Not. This is awesome. Brag on your kids. This is great. And hopefully he will listen to this one day and, and be super proud,

 yeah.

to, to hear this. And so, no, that's awesome.  I, I, I love that. And I was gonna say, he sounds  incredibly intelligent and maybe one day he's running the fed, it sounds like from, from everything he is learning, which is really, really cool.  But no, I think  this is what's most important, right? Like,  how, you know, how our kids perceive money, how our kids value time and, and all these sorts of things. It's way more important than like, this is how you buy your next business, or this is how you buy a rental, right? Like  this is the stuff that's gonna matter when we're gone is,  Hey, what's, what do our kids  know?

What do they  use? What's that heritage look like? And  yeah. So, no, don't, don't, you're not being an obnoxious mom at all. Please brag away.

Dr. Disha Spath: Yes.  Well, I, I, I just love encouraging the entrepreneurship mindset in him.  I wish I had been more like that when I was a kid, you know?  And to  have  a head start like they do hopefully will, you know, pay off for them.  And I wish a lot more people learned it, you know, at an early age.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, I agree. We're a big  dinner table family. All, you know, we always have dinner,  well all our meals together, but dinner in particular. And we,  we've started really incorporating a lot of questions. My son  Jackie's four and a half, and, and he loves doing questions and a lot of time his answers are just really funny.

Like  yesterday we were talking about a, a box of questions essentially, and one of 'em was if you could.  Have a machine that can make any food you want instantaneously, what would it be? And like, of course his answer was ice cream. Right?  But just like asking those questions and being open at the dinner table has been helpful.  And we've started, you know, we've, we talk about money and we talk about business and we talk about podcasting and all these different things 'cause we want them to be exposed to it and not  think of money as like a bad word or something that we can't talk about. And

 Yeah.

 you know, that was kind of how it was in my family.

We didn't have.  lot of money growing up and, and you know, things were always stressful when it came to money and I really felt that tension amongst my family.  And so I always  wanted it to not be the same way and was like, Hey, there's gotta be another way to do this. And so I've taken that in  to my parenting, but I would encourage folks like,  do your kids even know  anything about money and your finances?

If not, like, take some small steps to teach 'em that. Even that alone can be helpful  to understand this is something that is not taboo, that we should all be able to talk about.

Dr. Disha Spath: You know exactly. I recently my kids asked us our net worth.  What do you, how do you feel about that?

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, well,

Dr. Disha Spath: How about sharing that?

 any idea.  But no, I think it's totally, you know, I think it's totally fine to share your net worth and  I, I don't shy away  from that, you know, if someone asks, I'll share it. And I think that,  think it just shows, you know.  Trying to think how to best answer it.

Dr. Alex Schloe: I think it,  it shows an understanding of where you are in your financial position, which I think is really important. And I think the more kind of  metrics and numbers that we track over time can be really helpful. I'm  guilty of that. Like I feel like I need to be tracking my net worth more to see that progress.

I usually do it like  once a year or every six months or whenever I need to do a personal financial statement.  And  I feel like tracking that can be really helpful.  I think as doctors sometimes we're anxious about just talking about money in general because  maybe that wasn't modeled for us or maybe you know, there's just that stigma around money in general and like, you know, people on the outside think, oh, all doctors are rich, which  is very far from the truth.

And so I think it's totally fine if that's something that you feel comfortable sharing.

Dr. Disha Spath: Yeah, and that's the decision we made too. I mean, we kind of told them in general. Number the,  I am all for financial transparency. I do worry though sometimes if we share like big net worth numbers that they think that we're richer than we are, you know, just because of the the social social definitions.

But, you know,  I, yes, we shared our net worth number with them,  but also qualified it, as you know, a lot of it is equity that's. Tied up that it's not available and we need way more than that to retire, you know, and that kind of thing.  And so, no, we're not gonna be lavishly spending all the time, you know,

but

Dr. Alex Schloe: Illiquid

Dr. Disha Spath: Yes, exactly.

Dr. Alex Schloe: of real estate assets and so forth.  Yeah, I completely agree. And  you know, I think that something that is interesting that I've been thinking about, I recently read die With Zero by Bill Perkins,  which is a really good book if you haven't read that. And

 Yes.

just kind of thinking more about  inheritance, you know, and what that may look like.

And I, I, I think it's kind of interesting how we.  Have that set up. You know, how it's kind of that  mindset of, you know, some people probably are just waiting for like family members to die for hopes of inheritance. And I think that  as parents, we could really bless our kids throughout  aspects of their life, not in a way to,  to,  not in a way to make them disrespect money or to like, give them everything they ever want and feed them that silver spoon. Like, my kid's gonna buy his first car, he is gonna pay his car insurance. He's gonna,  he's gonna pay for his own gas, et cetera. Like, he's gonna learn the value of money.  But I think there's different steps along the way that we could bless them, that, that is maybe a quote unquote their inheritance, but throughout their life.

Right. It would be way more beneficial for me to bless Jack  when he is,  I don't know, 30 and he is married and he is trying to buy his first home and give him X amount of.  Money towards that instead of waiting until  I am  hopefully a hundred and you know, he is.  70 and doesn't need the money. You know what I mean?

And

Dr. Disha Spath: Right.

 kind of a unique way to think about that. And I think  having those kind of  touch points along the way may be really beneficial. I heard on that same podcast I mentioned, he was talking about Scott Donald was talking about  someone that he coaches or something like that  their in-laws  would  pay, would, would take the kids every year. For one week and they would  pay for an anniversary trip for their,  for their  son and his wife.  And and it was always something pretty epic. And they were saying that how cool it was to bless them in that way, and they  became so much closer with their grandkids  by doing that as well. And so it was just really cool ways to think about  you know, what, what do we want that to look like and what do we want all these,  all this extra effort and hard work and money that we make, what do we want that to go towards? You know, and I,  I'll get off my soapbox here in a second, but I think a lot of times people also struggle with, and I know I have, like  how much is enough, right? Like how, how much money is enough  I think the more money that folks like us make,  the more good that we can do with that money.

Dr. Alex Schloe: So it's almost selfish for us not to try and make as much money as possible, if that makes sense. '  cause it's more physicians that hear  about financial freedom and their lives changes and their family tree changes. It's more assisted living homes that get open.  And so more seniors are getting the quality care that they need.

It's more. You know, it just, that economic wake is massive. And so, anyways, I'll get off my soapbox and  you know, I'm interested to hear your thoughts on that. But this has been really fun to kind of dive deeper into things that really matter  in, in life other than just starting a business or buying a rental property.

Dr. Disha Spath: Yes. You know, I, I echo every, all of your sentiments. And I totally agree about, you know, giving kids their inheritance in advance while you're alive. I think that would be a lot more gratifying than giving them a lump sum at the end of our lives.  And and you know, but also making it clear to them that that's what we're doing, right?

So  we may die with zero,  but we're gonna bless you along the way instead of. You waiting for us to die off. And and yeah, I think that's a great idea.  And, and that also brings to mind the concept of charity, you know, giving to charity as we go.  This is something I have gotten into as you know, as I've gotten more into finance.

 It's very easy to live in the scarcity mindset all your life, especially when you come from  not enough.  And just, just keep thinking that I'm gonna.  Save as much as I can and you know, I will give later.  I'll give when I die if I have any extra or i'll, you know.  But I think charity has a very important role to play in financial mindset, find and money management.

Not only does it, you know, help you help others, it also helps you realize that. You have enough right, that there is enough. And when you set aside a certain amount to give away it helps you. Also realize how much you already have, right? And in order to give stuff  money away, you need to be  pretty, well,  pretty good at managing your own money.

 And so I believe strongly in a charitable goal every time we do, do something  and, and, you know,  you are helping people around you, you're helping your community,  and.  It does, you know, if you're building a business or whatever, it also helps you, right? Because you, you make the contacts and, and and are involved with your charities before you even retire, so that when you do retire, you have something to go to, to give yourself purpose.

 So you know, I, I do feel like,  that everyone  should consider involving or at least shooting for a charitable goal as they go along as well.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, I completely agree and I, I love that. And you know, I think.  We feel  we, we all as physicians, wanna serve and want to help others.  And that's another way to do it, right? Like, hey, we can take this money that we made on this real estate deal and we can give some of that to others and that's gonna really help for, from a fulfillment perspective.

One thing we did is we kind of set up our accounts. I. Based off the Profit First Model. And so each, like, you know, each, each account goes into a different bucket and it's, it's split up by percentages and so forth. But we have a giving account  that's outside of like, tithing to our church and, and some other Christian organizations that we're a part of.

But  it's just 10% from  real estate or our investments goes right into this account. And it's been really cool to just use that in unique ways and like just random things pop up and it's been awesome to.  Be able to have that abundance mentality. And for me, I, I struggled a lot with scarcity. I struggled a lot with like  attachment to money.

And so it's forced me to be like, Hey, I'm putting this money in this account and I'm giving it away and it feels so good. And it's like,  you know, just little things like my dad went on a cruise and I sent him 50 bucks and be like, Hey, get some drinks on the cruise ship. You know,  and it's just little things like that, but it just feels so good to be able to do that, you know?

And I'm hopeful that one day, that's 50,000 bucks that I'm giving to, you know, whoever  you know, and so it's just really, really cool to,  to have that mindset and that mentality. And then  I always notice too, the more you give, the more you,  you get back. And that's not  a reason to give. But  if you just have that.  Abundance mentality. You're just really willing to give, give, give, give, give. You're gonna get blessed. And maybe it's not one for one, and maybe it's not now. Maybe it's  20, 30, 40 years in the future, but it will happen. And so I think it's really important and it just really sets the posture of our heart to,  be willing to  think about more than just ourselves and our income and what we make and, and kind of break the, the chains that money can have on our heart.

Dr. Disha Spath: Yes. I love that.  Well put.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's awesome. Well, thank you  the frugal physician. Let's talk about that. So really cool. What you've created and what you've done and how many folks you've impacted. How did the Frugal physician come to be and how have you seen that grow over time?

Dr. Disha Spath: Yeah, so the Frugal Physician was a moniker that I adopted, but it was kind of like a  aspirational.  Moniker because I, you know,  I am actually, so just to give a little background, I was born into a very well-to-do family a politician's family in India.  My grandfather was the, the finance officer of the large, I  think it's two, 3 million people, town that we're,  that we were in.  So so he was very financially savvy and they were well off and we  had a, well, we lived a very comfortable life.  And then we moved here after my father passed away, and, and my mom brought us here as a single mother and she had no assets to her name.

 And then we were incredibly poor  for the next half of my life my young life.  And so I've seen both sides of it.  And, you know, it got a taste of the nice things and then went through a period of extreme scarcity.  And so  I like nice things and I, it's very easy for me to spend and overspend.

I also have though that scarcity mentality in there from the second part of my childhood.  So so anyway, it came about because I realized my, I realized my tendency to overspend. But I aspire to be a frugal physician. And as we were paying off my student loan debt and then frugally down again I, you know, I really got into optimizing spending and value-based spending and life hacks, you know, things that make life better and save you money.

 And I felt like. I wanted to create a platform to share those hacks, share  you know, things that would make my life better and other people's lives better and, and,  and save them money.  So that's why I created the platform, the Frugal physician.  And that's  when I first got started writing and  we had just literally just paid off a hundred thousand dollars of my student loan debt in six months.

 That's, and we realized, okay, holy cow, like it's been six months and we paid off a hundred thousand dollars.  And I'm a primary care physician, you know so. I was like, how did this happen? And so I sat down and wrote out what, what happened. And I, you know, it was just a document. And I was like,  Josh, my husband asked Josh like, what should I do with this?

 And he goes, you know, why don't you just put it out there in a blog? And so, so that's how the frugal position came about. He is like, okay, let's see.  This is how you buy a domain and this is how you set up a blog. And we just like, set up a very basic website.  And and I published it.  And it went,  it went viral.

And so the frugal physician took off and then,  and I was like, now what do I do?  And Josh goes, well,  Josh is our IT guy.  And so Josh is like  you know, now you have to keep it up. Just keep producing content.  So he is like,  let's make you a schedule.  He is a project manager, so he helped me, you know, make a schedule and define things I needed to do and.

 I started doing it and I started writing. There's so many fun things to write about, you know, and so many like hacks we were discovering, trying out. And  and  so I just started sharing our Jo journey and that's how the frugal physician got started.  And since then, it's been a really wonderful, exciting, and somewhat overwhelming journey at times.

You know,  with,  collaborations growth and writing for major media platforms like CNBC and for a finance column for Practice Link Magazine.  And then I had a brief stand at the White  Code investor and,  and now I have my own podcast. So it's just been a really fun journey of like e exploring and learning and and sharing.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That is so cool. Well, I'm grateful for Josh for, for giving you that push and and it's been cool  to see you stick with it and, and see the growth and, and it is awesome.  How has the frugal physician things that you learned, how has that given you a more balanced life,  reinvigorated your love for medicine?

How has it changed how  you've practiced?  What does that look like for you?

Dr. Disha Spath: Well, the one good thing about sharing all of your journey is that people give you feedback.  And so,  and I get to talk to a lot of people about these really, you know, somewhat complicated concepts and person you know, and, and I get free coaching along the way as I talk to financial coaches. And  so they're telling, you know, so  it has helped me.

Really get out of my scarcity mindset into a more abundance mindset, set up my finances. Not just finances, but also psychology. You know,  it, it, it has helped me work,  work through a lot of the blocks in my head.  And it helped me realize that, you know. Number one that we had reached Coast Coast Fi, which means we don't have to do anything else more than what we're doing  already.

And we, we'll, we're gonna be fine. Right?  That whole, you're gonna be fine. Thing is not natural to me. So to realize that now I don't have to earn, I don't have to work. Full-time, I can take some time back and spend it with my family. So I was able to cut back from five days a week to three days a week and you, you know, spend time with my kids and, and help and that help make room for the growth of the frugal physician as well.

So I could do, you know, my side hobby on the side with more time and didn't. Didn't feel like I was working two full-time jobs, you know, so just helped balance out my life by helping me stop exchanging time for money and helping me realize I had enough, you know, that we were doing okay and then I could, now I'm using some of that financial wellness to help launch  my own  direct primary care practice,  knowing that, you know, we'll, we'll be okay.

That  We've got it managed and also the frugal physician has taught me a lot of valuable skills that I can use as a physician entrepreneur in my site. Like, like social media and marketing skills as well as you know, SEO  and just general business management. You know, I feel like I got an MBA on the go trying to learn how to run a business  and, you know,  so hopefully, hopefully it works out.

 But it's been a very  positive force in my life.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's amazing. I love that. You know, and how cool is it that it's Wednesday at  1126 Mountain Time and we're recording a podcast

Dr. Disha Spath: Right, right.

Dr. Alex Schloe: So, so it just shows that the, the work and the effort does pay off.  That is awesome. Well I wanted to hit direct Primary Care real quick before we wrap things up.  What do you love about Direct Primary Care? Why have you decided to make the pivot into DPC practice?

Dr. Disha Spath: I went into medicine because I love medicine and I still love medicine. I love dealing with patients, and I love going to the, you know, into a pa clinical care setting and just like losing myself and serving others and making them feel better.  But there is so much that's toxic in the healthcare workplace right now from,  you know, administrators pushing you to do things too fast and too quickly, and  things you might be uncomfortable with to, you know just the loss of autonomy when it comes to scheduling your own time.

 And.  When  during my,  during the last year, I had a  surgery and then a convalescence period afterwards, and I was really doing a lot of soul searching because I, on one hand I could, you know, go into the finance world more and get my certified financial planner certification and just do finance or.

I could continue to practice medicine the way I am, and or I could start my own thing, you know, try to see if I can make medicine work for me in a better way. And when I really looked at what my purpose was in life, I, it  came down to like, I, I, I would feel very. Disappointed in myself if I wasn't like that primary care doc for people, you know, that person that knows them, that they can call  that when they're sick, you know, and then knows everything about them and can advocate for them.

And that's really who I wanna be. So, so that's the  DPC is a means to end for that because the. Primary care in the traditional model I've done,  I've done it in in a more fq FQHC type setting to  neither one of them worked for me. It was trying to see too many patients in too little time.  And so I decided I'm gonna,  I'm gonna try to start the DPC because it's something I've been thinking about for a long time.

 I'm looking for sustainability in this career so that I can, you know, continue to,  to provide the service I wanna provide.  And hopefully DPCI see as a way to further the longevity in my career so I can continue to serve more people.

Dr. Alex Schloe: I agree. I love DPC. That's, that's where I'm headed  next after, you know, taking some time off. And I just absolutely love  the model. I mean, it's really kind of taken medicine back down to its roots, back to that community relationship. Based kind of removing all the extra barriers and just providing really good access for care with an emphasis on relationships.

And, and that's what

Dr. Disha Spath: Right.

Dr. Alex Schloe: right? Like,  hey, how can we as primary care docs build relationships with our patients and their families  to transform their health? Right? And, and it gives you that time and availability to  dive deep into some of these social determinants of health that you.  That are so impactful  to,  to care and so impactful to the patient's health that we just don't have the capability to do.

When you're  seeing 20 plus patients and you know, you're always running late and you're running around like your hair's on fire and it just  not a good model of care. And I think as a.  Country we have to sit back and take a look at like, Hey, where do we want the healthcare system to go? Because I don't think anyone would say that  healthcare in America right now is headed in the right direction and that we provide really good care.

 Right.

a lot of amazing doctors out there and there's a lot of amazing things that we can do. But  until primary care becomes the cornerstone of healthcare in America I think we're just gonna continue overspending and under delivering good patient outcomes. And so  I'll just leave it at that 'cause otherwise I'll go on a huge tangent.

But, but I do think that there's a lot of change that's needed, and I think direct primary care is a great model that takes enormous leaps into the right direction of where healthcare needs to be.

Dr. Disha Spath: I agree, and there's a lot of important legislation out there right now. While I have this platform, I'd like to mention the primary care en  enhancement Act that's been proposed. It's in committee right now, but  if you get a chance, I. Look into this. The, this is an important bill for DPC because currently HSA usability for DPCs, a health savings account  is somewhat.

 It's not exactly allowed by IRS. In fact  the IRS still qualifies DPC plans as a secondary insurance, which it's certainly not.  But that's how it's qualifying. DPCs currently under the current code, which would actually.  Might make people ineligible to even contribute to an HSA  if they have, have a high deductible plan and sign up for A DPC, which is obviously really bad for people and for DPC docs.

So  what the Primary Care Enhancement Act is doing is trying to redefine the HSAs excuse me, redefine DPCs as a primary care arrangement, not a health insurance plan, so that people don't get disqualified. From contributing to their HSA and then hopefully can actually use those HSA funds to pay for their DPC fees, which would make sense.

 So you know  so  we, this is an important legislation that needs to go through. It's been proposed several times and has been dropped because I think just because of lack of people knowing about it or calling  their senators about it.  So if you get a chance, please call your senator and ask them to vote yes on this bill.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That is awesome. Yeah. Thanks for hitting that. I think legislation and, and sticking up for ourselves is, is Really, really important.

 Yeah.

out the Primary Care Enhancement Act. That would be huge if, if that kind of stipulation came off of HSA and would make things so much easier for folks and for people to get the full benefit of an HSA account to, to pay for DPC.

So super, super important going forward.  So that is awesome. Well, you are working on a lot of things, that's for sure.  How can folks reach out to you  if they want to know more, if they want to  just follow your journey? What's the best way to contact you?

Dr. Disha Spath: Absolutely. I'm available at the Frugal physician@gmail.com.  If you wanna check out my website and podcast, it's at the frugal physician.com  and I'm on most social media platforms as well.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's awesome, and we'll include those  links in the show notes so folks can give you a follow  and, and check out the website. It's amazing what you're doing,  Dr. Bath bath. I'm so excited for what's coming next for you for direct primary care and everything else. So thank you for taking the time today.

Dr. Disha Spath: Thank you so much for having me on.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Awesome. With that, it has been the Frugal Physician, Dr. Dish Justice Path, and Dr. Alex Low with another episode of the Physicians and Properties Podcast signing off.

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