#54| From High Income To Real Wealth For Physician Couples

We challenge the idea that a high income automatically creates wealth and talk about why autonomy matters more than a number on a paycheck. With Clay Jarrell, CFP, we map practical moves physician couples can take in residency and early attending years to build flexibility, reduce tax drag, and protect what they’re working for.

• redefining wealth as autonomy and life alignment
• starting residency conversations with loan strategy, PSLF tracking, and simple saving habits
• avoiding the “overhead becomes your boss” trap after the attending pay jump
• using tax-advantaged accounts and smarter asset location for tax efficiency
• green flags when hiring a financial advisor: fiduciary 100% of the time, CFP credentials, clear fee transparency
• viewing estate planning as risk defense and asset protection, not just end-of-life paperwork
• first priorities for residents versus attendings, including disability coverage and defining “the number”

If you would like to connect with Clay Jarrell or learn more about his services, you can reach out to him via email at cjarrell@linscombwealth.com or connect with him on LinkedIn. You can also visit the Linscomb Wealth website for more information. 

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love for you to subscribe and leave a review. Your support helps more of us to connect. Keep in mind this podcast is for you. So, let's keep this conversation going. 

Connect with me on Instagram or email me at amanda@abtnhomes.com with your thoughts, topic ideas, questions, or even guest suggestions.

Transcript

Welcome To Behind The White Coat

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there and welcome to Behind the White Coat. I'm Amanda Baron, your host, physician spouse, and your go-to friend for real talk about this medical life. If you're juggling long hours, solo parenting, or finances and feel overwhelmed, you are not alone. This podcast is your space for honest conversations, real advice, and the support I wish I had years ago. Some episodes will be just me sharing what I've learned. Other times I'll bring on guests to help navigate the challenges of being married to medicine. So grab your coffee or wine, get comfy, and let's dive in. Hello, guys, and welcome back to Behind the White Coat, Real Talk for Physician Spouses. And I'm excited for this episode because if you ever thought we make good money, but are we actually building wealth? This episode is for you. Today I am joined by Clay Jarrell, CFP wealth advisor at Linscombe Wealth here in Nashville. He is a Kentucky native who began his career at Goldman Sachs in their private wealth management practice before expanding his expertise as a lead consultant at a top national tax consulting firm. Today, he advises high net worth and ultra high net worth families at Linscombe Wealth, a planning focused registered investment advisory firm. He also leads the firm's Nashville office. And what makes this conversation especially meaningful for our community is Clay isn't just advising physician families. He's living it. His fiancee is currently an interventional radiology resident, so they are walking through the training years firsthand and at the same time planning for the future. When she matched in Nashville, that season of life actually became the catalyst for Linscombe Wealth expanding into Tennessee. Clay's favorite quote is wealth is the ability to fully experience life. And today we're going to unpack what that really looks like for physician couples, no matter if you're in residency, fellowship, or stepping into attending life. Clay, so happy to have you here.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Yeah, thanks for having me on, Amanda. That was uh quite an intro. I do understand, especially being uh a fiance of a resident, that I'm living the pager life right with a lot of these folks. So, you know, the last thing that a lot of these individuals want to hear when they come home after a 24-hour shift is about their 403B contributions or, you know, what the long-term projections look like. They just want to sleep. I understand that, but I'm living the life like right here with a lot of these folks.

Income Versus Autonomy

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Awesome. Well, we're so happy to have you here. So thank you. And um, I'd like to start with your favorite quote where wealth is the ability to fully experience life. And I love it because it shifts focus from income to intention. And so for physician families, especially those in residency or transitioning to attending life, how do you help them think beyond income and start building true wealth?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah, well, you know, with the income, it's it's really just a number. It could be on a W-2, it could be on a K1, but whatever way it hits your account, it doesn't really make you wealthy. And what makes you wealthy is more about the autonomy. You know, if you're making X amount of money per year that's higher than you could ever imagine, but you could be, you know, a prisoner to the hospital because your expenses are so high. You know, you're not really wealthy, you're just highly paid. So we want to try to shift that mindset from how much do I make to you know what I want my life to look like. And you know, physician, that occupation allows you to really plan that flexibility the way you like to, but having that plan in place allows you to be truly wealthy in the way you live your life.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Yeah, and I I want to just add something to that because I I'm sure you come across wealth means something different to everybody, right? And so figuring out what each person's wealth looks like, whether that is for the future, for your kids, for traveling, I'm sure that it's it's not super cookie cutter when you're talking to people either.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

It's it's different for everyone. It could be a huge home, it could be traveling X amount of times per year, it could be making sure your kids go to this top-tier private school you want. It could be a mix of all of those. But having a plan in place allows you to actually achieve that. And if if you're just kind of shooting from the hip a lot of the time, it makes it a lot harder, even with you know, all the years you put into training and all the money that you do make, you know, from from your role.

Residency Money Talks That Work

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Yeah, yeah. So you were talking about living this residency season right now with your fiance. So financial conversations I I know start, but but what should they actually look like for residents and their partners? Um, you know, what should they be talking about today? And even if it feels tight as far as income or um, you know, future income feels far away. I definitely can understand, you know, starting out as a residency income and then, you know, that attending income does seem far. So how should these conversations start?

SPEAKER_01 4:57

I think there's a few ways you could look at it. You know, you could look at more of through the quantitative lens and then also the qualitative aspect. So first, if you want to look at more from a a planning perspective, getting the debt strategy in place early on is the the biggest driver. There's the the public student loan forgiveness program, that's a 10-year track. So it's best to have those conversations early on to make sure you're on the right plan there. It's not for everyone, but at least figuring out what that strategy is going to be early on is is pretty key. Another strategy that most residents should be taking advantage of is just chipping away and kind of trying to contribute to the retirement plan that's offered to work. I understand income is pretty tight for most residents. It's hard to part with any extra money right now, but just building that behavioral habit of you know, setting aside a little bit right now, maybe watching it grow in the market over the next few years is gonna ingrain this early on. Because a lot of these folks, this is the first job a lot of them have ever had. You know, they've been training for 10, 12 years. Um, and so it's nice to see that money come in, but if they can build that habit early on, that's really important. Um I think the last thing for residents, this isn't worrying about the money or the numbers, but it's having those conversations of, you know, what do we want our future to look like? Is that staying where we are geographically from where our residency is based? You know, what kind of home do we want? Do we want to have kids? How often do we want to travel? Don't worry about the math. Just trying to have a good gauge on what does this future look like? And then we'll try to piece in, you know, all the steps needed to get there later on. But just having a good goal or a vision of the future is important to have early on in that residency because it goes quick. I know it's hard to think about now, but you know, big decisions will be needed shortly after, and having a good end zone in place is pretty key.

Attending Jump And Lifestyle Creep

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Yeah. And I I think you definitely touched base on it and said it best. It does go quick. It's hard to believe this year is 20th year anniversary of when my husband matched. And, you know, you blink and that's gone so fast. And I wish we had somebody advising us. We didn't um at at the time, and I think we would have done things a little bit differently if somebody kind of did sit down with us and talk about our goals, talk about our debt strategy. And even if it was, like you said,$10,$100, we didn't have a whole lot, but just that little something that we could get into that habit. Um, because you're right, that time goes by super quick. Um, so one of the biggest financial shifts in medicine is going from your residency income to attending income. What do you see are most common mistakes, you know, in these high-earning professionals making, you know, this big jump? And how can couples avoid sabotaging long-term wealth in those first few years?

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Yeah, I I think people in this in my industry talk about lifestyle creep like it's a sin and like it's the worst thing you could do. And I have a different, you know, view on that. You know, you've sacrificed so many years in your training. You should enjoy the fruits of your labor, buy the beautiful home, you know, go on the trip, upgrade the car, whatever it may be. My biggest rule is just don't let your overhead expenses become your boss. And so the mistake really isn't spending money, it's it's locking yourself into those massive fixed monthly costs shortly after finishing residency. You know, a lot of folks may see that that first attending job they sign is not the dream that they entailed, but if they have all those massive expen expenses that they purchased in those first few years after, they might not have you know the ability to get out of that bad call schedule because the monthly bills are too high. So, you know, we want you to build that that life that you always dream and dreamed about, and you usually will be able to do so, but let's just have a schedule in place, let's have a plan in place so we can check each box when it makes sense to do so. Because, you know, the last thing you want after a very structured medical school, a very structured residency is to have a very structured attending life because you're kind of burdened by everything that you purchased to celebrate. And so you can get what you want, let's just have a plan in place early on.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Yeah, good point. Because, you know, speaking for a lot of people that I talk with and my own personal experience with my husband is not only coming up with that plan, but being mindful of what those expenses look like because you are making up for lost time, right? Like you were talking about getting out of debt, we weren't able to put really any money away for retirement or um, you know, save any money or potentially save money for our kids. And so I feel like we were doing all of these buckets at the same time, but still wanting, like you said, to enjoy the fruits of your labor. And so it's it's a tough, tough balance in there.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

It is, yeah. And I uh you should be able to enjoy. I don't want people I've seen a lot of like headlines saying, you know, you want to live the residency life for a few years after. And if you're able to, obviously you'll be in a great place, but that's hard to do. And you should be able to enjoy a little bit of fruits of your labor. So let's be a little bit more realistic about this.

Taxes And Smarter Investing Placement

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Yeah, yeah. I I love that because I do think a lot of times people think they've got to be super strict and restrictive and they're still not able to reach their goals. So I love that you sit down and kind of come up with a plan for them to be able to enjoy, but still not overextend themselves. So okay, so you've worked in both private wealth management and national tax consulting, which I think gives you a really unique perspective. So, what should physician families be thinking about early when it comes to tax efficiency, investing strategy, and protecting wealth long term, especially as income scales quickly?

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Yeah. Well, you mentioned as income scales quickly. As soon as you become an attending, the IRS becomes your most expensive subscription service. It's it's hard to see. But usually the biggest lifetime expense instantly becomes taxes. And you know, from the tax background, I actually prefer to look at most clients' tax return before seeing what their current investment portfolio looks like because there might be some ways that we can save some right there on the front end. Um, you know, as it relates to folks earlier in their career, we we taxes and loans are typically tied together, especially with that public student loan forgiveness program. It's income-driven repayments. So if you're married, it might make sense sometimes in this example to file separately. You might get less tax deductions, but it might also lower your income, which would lower your loan calculations each year. So we're trying to see you know which leak in the bucket is smaller. That way we can help you keep more of your money. So that's like just one example there. You know, for higher earning attendings, BU2 income is a little bit harder to shield. So efficiency with everything else is what we're gonna try to focus on. You know, it's we want to maximize every tax advantaged bucket available. And that could be, you know, with backdoor Roth IRAs, it could be with health savings accounts, just really sort of any plan put in place by their employer is what we want to take a look at. Um another note there, with your investments, it could be where the investments you're holding are correct, you're just holding them in the wrong accounts. So essentially there are some investments that are a little bit more tax heavy. And so we'd want to put those in those retirement accounts that are shielded for the most part, and put the more tax-efficient investments in standard brokerage accounts. So a lot of this is about organizing things, you know, in the proper place to make sure you're able to squeeze out every last, you know, dollar and making sure everything is optimized. As you scale and you might get to where you're you're buying into private practices and you have a K1, you know, that there are more, there's more creative opportunities to do there as well. But there's steps you can take along the way from residency all the way to a practice owner to help optimize the bucket. So that's what we try to focus on from bottom to top there.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

I love that. And probably also trying to incorporate new habits and so forth, you know, like back in the day, I I can speak for my mother-in-law, for example, when she was having a little nest egg of money, it being like stuck in between mattresses, or, you know, like in some bizarre place that she probably would never remember. Or, you know, once we were able to get some savings, um, not necessarily that it was a a huge amount, but when we were able to put stuff into a savings account, the money wasn't working for us, but it was sitting in the savings account, right? So, like having these better habits and and learning from the experts like you of, okay, now that you've saved this up, how do we use it to your advantage? Or, you know, having these tax strategies in place. Um, I think it's so helpful being able to talk to you and kind of have somebody guide you.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

And it's it's also different for everyone. Like there might be the best answer on paper, but some people are less comfortable having the X amount of money invested. So we can accommodate to that. It's not there might be a right answer when it comes from a technical standpoint, but what's truly right is making sure folks sleep well at night. So it we can pull different levers and and tweak things to make sure everyone is comfortable at the end of the day. It's not just you have to do it this way or the highway, you know.

How To Pick A Financial Advisor

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Right. It's it's not just fitting within this box, but kind of around everybody's parameters and goals. I think that's a good point. So a lot of medical families reach a point where they need guidance on, you know, who to trust, how do they interview people and evaluating the whole process. And so what are some specific green flags they should look for to know that they are getting a true partner and not just somebody managing investments?

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Yeah, I I think this is a great question. When it comes to folks in the medical space or outside of the medical space, I try to explain maybe three steps to look for to try to help filter out a lot of the noise out there. Now, with medical professionals, you want to make sure someone understands the landscape. So it's important that I think they have some sort of tie to the industry. But even before you get to that point, there are a few things you can look for to help filter out all the of the players in the space. You know, first thing, and this is for not for medical folks only, it's for really anyone, in the sense that you want to make sure that you're working with a fiduciary, and that person is a fiduciary 100% of the time. So that is someone who has to is legally obligated to put your interest first in every single interaction. So if they they may act as a fiduciary sometimes when they give advice, but then they may switch to a broker if they sell you a product later on. It's typically not in your best interest. So that's when I say ask if they're one 100% of the time. The second point is as it relates to educational credentials. There is a little bit of alphabet soup in this industry where there's quite a few letters after a lot of advisors' names, and you might not know what they all mean. Some might sound good on paper, but which ones actually hold weight? So, you know, I think the best one as it relates to personal financial planning and an advisor is the CFP mark. So it stands for certified financial planner. I I think it's essentially like a board certification for personal advising. And it essentially means that they have trained to look at you know your entire financial life. So they've showed competency in tax planning, estate planning, insurance, retirement, and investments. So it's it makes your life easier when you have someone who is a holistic advisor as opposed to someone who's just really good at running a portfolio. Because sometimes the investment returns can be wiped away by the taxes on the back end. So making sure that they're able to, you know, manage all those together is is you know advantageous to folks.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

I think the last portion is it's just important to understand how they're getting paid. You know, fee transparency. If if it's like they're dancing around the subject when you ask, or if it doesn't quite make sense, that could be a red flag. But what we're trying to get out here is that there's any sort of conflict of interest to where if they were to, you know, maybe you do need a life insurance policy, or maybe you do want to invest in this mutual fund, and it's been your best interest. There could be a conflict if they're getting a kickback on the back end, and you might not be aware of that. So understanding that up front is really important. There's few a few different ways that you could classify how they're getting paid. I am I'm biased to fee only. It's really just like a flat fee or a percentage of the money that they manage. Um there's there's other models, and that's not saying those are wrong, but I think this is a cleanest, the cleanest structure to ensure that you know everything's very straightforward. There's no hidden agendas. And you know, if they advise you that you need this, it's truly in your best interest. There's no games being played on the back end. So I think those are some things that you can look for. Like I said, we could probably get on this top subject for an hour, but that might help at least begin your search. Yeah. And also to interview a few advisors. You want to talk to a few folks and not just land with the first one.

Estate Planning As Asset Defense

SPEAKER_00 16:58

No, I think that's super helpful. And especially, you know, the the fee portion of it, and that way you know not only how they're getting paid, but that there's no like hidden fees or something that that you don't know from the get-go. So I think those are are great points. So I think a lot of our listeners, myself included, was one of these people, feel like estate planning is almost like a phase two, phase three uh life task, you know, something you would do much later in your career. Is estate planning really a priority for young attending or families just starting out? And if so, what are the foundational pieces they should have in place early?

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Yeah, well, I think for most people, you hear estate planning, you hear about trust and wills, and it's like that's a conversation I'm gonna have when I retire way later on in life. And you know, for a lot of folks, it it might make sense to do that later on. But for physicians and really high performing executives, estate plan is not only just about death, but it's a lot about like defense. You're wanting to mitigate risk.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Because of your profession, do you you walk around with a little bit of a target on your back every day, especially in your in your workplace? You're exposed to a lot of risk. The very nature of your job is life or death sometimes. So having these structures in place can help protect you. God forbid one bad day happened in the office. You want to have these things in place to make sure that your home and your family is safe. So I tell a lot of folks to view it as in my mind, I always picture like a medieval castle. And then around that, you might have tall cobblestone walls and then a moat, and then maybe armed guards on the outside. There are all these steps to take to where we can have various lines of defense if that one bad day happens. And it can be as simple as, you know, how do we title your accounts? Is it is it titled in the way to where, you know, for example, here in Tennessee, there is a we can use tools like tenancy by the entirety. And it's a way to title your assets if you're married. And essentially that marriage unit holds the assets and not you individually. So if someone was to come after you, those assets would be safe. You know, and also depending on what type of physician they are and the risk they're exposed to, they might have to have, you know, higher walls or a larger moat. And in that case, it might make sense to have a larger umbrella insurance policy or put in place asset protection trust. Again, this is almost like the tax planning where it can go very small to where some of these steps are very free and easy to take, or it can go a lot more complex because there's a lot more risk you're exposed to. But the the biggest thing is just being aware of that early on because the last thing that we want is for a fire to happen and you had never bought the fire extinguisher. So you hope you never have to use it, but it's there when you need it and it's able to keep your family um safe and actually help you sleep soundly at night. It's it's hard to go too in-depth on this topic because it's very different for everyone. But you know, this is these are conversations you should have early in your career because you just want to make sure that you're mitigating some risk that could be a lot higher than you actually uh are aware of.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Yeah. So when you're talking about having it early in your career, would you say even as you know, first year resident, put this in place? And then as things change, you know, like you're talking about building the bigger walls, the bigger moat, as you have a family, as you get married, or as you have a bigger income, would you then just update it along the way but start early?

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Yeah. So for a first-year, if you're a first-year resident and you know, let's say you're a single resident and you're, you know, like most folks coming out with a lot of debt, there isn't a huge estate to protect on that front. Um, but as that grows, and let's say you have a spouse or a family, that's when I think you should start to set up some of those simpler structures.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

And then also as, you know, your home balance sheet grows, and then maybe as you shift to an attending and you it's really about protecting what you have to lose. So as that that loss bucket potentially grows bigger, that's when you want to at least be aware what those are. And even if you're early in the career and you have these conversations early on and say, hey, maybe this doesn't make sense now, but as our projections are going and in five years, we should actually start to set this this structure up, we can do so then. So it's not saying we have to throw the kitchen sink on it and residency first year. Um, and it's not to say wait till you're 50 either. It's it's like a sliding track and it it ever evolves as as your situation does.

Top Priorities For Residents And Attendings

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Perfect. No, that's super helpful. Thank you. So if if a physician couple sat down with you tomorrow and one um in residency or early attending years, what would be the first priorities you would focus on with them?

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Yeah, um, the resident and the attending, that is a tale of two different worlds. So the the priorities would look very different for them.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

So I guess if we spoke about a few for each. For the resident, we we've mentioned this, but the PSLF audit, we want to take a look at their loans, make sure that they're on track. That is a 10 year plan. So we want to make sure they don't get five years in and realize something was incorrect or that they weren't tracking them correctly. So want to make sure that's in place. Secondly, some physician families really leverage a lot on that individual going through residency. Uh, they might already be a stay at home spouse taking care of. One or two kids already. By any means, there's a lot of just leverage in terms of loans and stress on that individual to obtain that attending salary. So if that's the case, it could be advantageous to look at any sort of like disability insurance. It's not common, but if you're putting all your eggs in one basket, we want to make sure that that is actually going to pan out should something bad happen to them. And the last thing for residents, I mentioned this earlier too. It's about just building some of those saving habits, even if it's just$100 a month, just that cash flow automation of you know paying yourself first, put a little bit away and building that muscle memory. Those would probably be three of the bigger topics. And we would dive much deeper into that, but to keep it high level, that's that's probably where residency conversations would land. And then more for attendings. This is when we'd focus a little bit more on that estate planning conversation. So we'd want to make sure that they're you know their their fort is protected. Next, we'd also want to look look a lot more for tax efficiency because at this stage of the game, tax is a huge burden burden for them. So they're making sure that they're taking advantage of all of their uh you know benefits offered to them, and then maybe making efficiencies where they didn't see that they couldn't make those prior. I I think one point to note on this, and some folks might not realize it, but you know, some investments produce a lot of dividends or interest that and that creates taxable income each year. So if you hold those in a regular brokerage account, you'll have to pay tax on that annually. But if you hold those same investments in a K or an IRA, that dividend or interest can grow tax deferred. So you don't have to pay it until you pull it out way down the line. So that's what I mean by we have to take a look at where those investments are held. And then last item here we talk about with attendings quite a bit is we try to define the number. And it's it's not just how much is enough, but it's also like, you know, when is enough? What is a target age? Do we want to work till we're 60? Okay, but what if we worked till we were 55? How would the plan shape out then? So we want to have all these levers in place to where we can view a bunch of different options because if you're 40 years old, you might feel like you know the world's your oyster, you're getting up, happy to go to work each day. But by the time you're 58, 65, things might have changed. And you want to make sure when you get to that stage of the game, even if you don't walk away, that you're able to. And so we want to build those options and that freedom in place. And so with with attendings, we have a lot more creativity and planning to go down. But those are, you know, three of the more common conversations we like to have with folks.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

And and I love the aspect of protection and doing things from um a defensive kind of outlook as well, and not just the investments. And so I think that's a really good perspective to remind people when whenever you're talking about building wealth.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Yeah, I mean, uh investments is is the one that really has a lot of the the glitter and and the glam in this industry. It's it grows the money while you're not even there, and it's it's a lot of fun to see those returns. But you know, some of those returns are outside of your control in the sense that you don't necessarily know what macroeconomic picture is gonna look like. Some companies can can change ownership, uh, but what you can control is you know, what is you know, what is your tax planning look like? And saving a couple percent there would be the equivalent of netting a few more on an investment. So there's a few ways to look at it, yeah. Um, but it's all to to put you in your you know the best position possible.

Advice To My Younger Self

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And um super helpful, super insightful. And we are here at the end where I always ask my guests the same two questions. Um, so the first one is what advice would you offer your younger self?

SPEAKER_01 25:25

So I think growing up, I was I was very curious as a kid. And one thing I didn't realize till I was well into my working years was people are more open to having conversations with you if you just reach out and ask.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Um, and you you might see people's job titles or working in industries that you know, that's probably cool. I'd want to learn about that. But it's like I don't know them, I'll I'll never be able to have a conversation. And more times than not, if you come to people with an honest request and say, hey, I'm just interested in let's grab lunch or coffee, they're typically say yes. And if they say no, nothing changes in your life. So telling my younger self, just you know, be a little bit more proactive and actually reach out to folks because it could change your life, and you'll and people are nicer than you think. So that would that'd be one thing I tell myself.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

I think it's great advice. And I think sometimes, you know, getting uncomfortable sometimes and kind of stepping out of that comfort zone. And I'm I'm speaking for my 20-year-old kiddo right now who is looking into internships and going to career fairs, working on his LinkedIn, um, it's it's all hard. But you know, once you start doing it, it's like, yep, people are willing to talk to me, people are willing to share. And so he is definitely seeing that right now. So I think it's great advice.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Yeah, you just have to get over that uncomfortable burden. Um but as soon as you do, the world's your oysters.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

That's that's right, exactly. And then the second one's just for fun. That if your life were a reality TV show, what would the title be?

SPEAKER_01 26:46

I'd seen you ask this in other episodes, and I thought about it for a while because I'm not a huge reality TV guy. If you could have guessed it.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

I love it. I admit it.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

But I do hear, obviously, the the love reality shows are very popular, and then a lot of I see like medical shows, whether they're reality or not, like you have The Pit or Gray's Natavy and whatnot. Those always seem like big hits. So I guess ours would be like the Residence Plus One or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

So we could juggle her craziness in the hospital and then our my craziness on the complete other end of the spectrum, just juggling numbers all day. But that was the best crazy Yeah, the best title I could think of there. But uh it's a fun question.

How To Connect With Clay

SPEAKER_00 27:26

I think it's perfect. I love it. And Clay, if people want to connect with you, whether they have, you know, questions, whether it's where do I start, or they are ready to just jump right in and work with you, what is the best way for them to get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Yeah. Um I guess in the show notes here, I can leave you um my email signature if you want to reach out to me directly. Um, and maybe a link to our website for for Lynskum Wealth, Big Beauty Research. It doesn't always have to be where we have to formally engage, but with a lot of folks, especially with a lot of you know my fiance's friends right now, we're just being a helpful resource because this uh whole financial world, if you're not privy to it, can be a can it can be intimidating, it can be complicated. So happy to to help anybody kind of where they're at right now.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And I think the resource is gonna be huge for the listeners, not only because of your um background and your wealth of the knowledge, but that you're actually living it. And um, you know, you can give that perspective as well. So I think that's gonna speak volumes to the listeners. So thank you for being here. I really appreciate you and your time.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Yeah, thanks for having me on, Amanda.

Key Takeaways And Listener Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 28:34

I feel like this conversation was so helpful. And I think one of the biggest misconceptions in medicine is that if you earn a high income, everything just works itself out. But what we've talked about today makes it clear. Wealth doesn't happen by accident, it requires intention, strategy, and the right partners around you. And I love that you are not just advising physician families, but you personally are walking this season alongside with your fiance. And I think that perspective really matters to everyone listening. If this episode sparked even one question about your own financial plan, let that be your nudge. Start the conversation, review your strategy, make sure your estate documents are in place. And if you're interviewing advisors, look for the green flags we talked about today. Because wealth isn't just about numbers, it's about creating a life that feels secure, aligned, and fully experienced. Thanks so much for joining us today, and until next time. That's a wrap on this episode of Behind the White Coat. I hope today's conversation left you feeling more understood and supported. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another physician spouse. Your support helps more of us connect. This podcast is for you, so let's keep the conversation going. DM me on Instagram at Amanda Barron Realter with your thoughts, topic ideas, or guest suggestions. I would love to hear from you. Thanks for spending part of your day with me, and remember, you are never in this alone. Until next time.