Episode Notes

In this episode of the Physician Empowerment Podcast, Dr. Kevin Mailo engages in an insightful conversation with Christian Wigmore, a medical student at UBC and the mastermind behind Budget Your MD. Together, they illuminate the critical role of financial literacy within the realm of medical education and practice. The discussion spans pivotal topics such as navigating student debt, management of lines of credit, and the influence of interest rates.

Christian introduces his business, Budget Your MD, a debt projection tool and visual aid that empowers medical students to foresee their financial trajectory across various scenarios. The discourse places a strong emphasis on cultivating balanced financial habits that harmonize with professional ambitions, family life and personal dreams. 

Christian envisions a future where financial education seamlessly integrates into medical curricula, fostering a supportive community for open financial discourse within the medical community. Such an initiative, he believes, will play a pivotal role in alleviating burnout issues among physicians, ensuring a brighter, more empowered future for the medical profession as a whole. By melding financial wisdom with medical expertise, Christian and Dr. Kevin Mailo discuss how physicians can work toward a more prosperous and balanced lifestyle in the world of healthcare.

About Christian Wigmore 

During Christian's first year at UBC Medical School, he noticed the lack of financial education integrated into the curriculum. Recently completing his double degree in Business and Biology, the importance of financial literacy heading into medical school was top of mind. He thought… we will be running small businesses and managing our personal finances in 6 years. Understanding the basics of finance is crucial to ensure we don’t A) get taken advantage of by financial institutions and B) don’t end up losing all the money we make in the process. 

All this, and much more, led Christian to start Budget Your MD. He tends to think of it as a passion project that he is slowly building as he progresses through medical school. Noticing the topics and problems his colleagues are interested in at each stage in the game. Christian hopes to one day play an integral role in changing how finance is discussed in the medical field. To not avoid these conversations, but rather dig deep to help one another live our best financial lives as physicians (because if we’re being honest, our finances play a role in our health and wellness).

--

Physician Empowerment: website | facebook | linkedin

Christian Wigmore/Budget Your MD: website | instagram | email |

--

Transcript 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 00:01

Hi, I'm Dr. Kevin Mailo, one of the CO hosts of the Physician Empowerment Podcast. At physician empowerment, we're dedicated to improving the lives of Canadian physicians, personally, professionally, and financially. If you're loving what you're listening to, let us know we always want to hear your feedback. Connect with us. If you want to go further, we've got outstanding programming, both in-person and online. So, look us up. But regardless, we hope you really enjoyed this episode.

Dr. Kevin Mailo 00:34

Hi, I'm Dr. Kevin Mailo, one of the CO hosts of the Physician Empowerment Podcast. And I have today with me, our guest on the pod, Christian Wigmore. And I'm not introducing him yet as Dr. Christian Wigmore, because Christian is a medical student at UBC. And he founded a very interesting venture called Budget Your MD, and I wanted to share it because Christian connected with me over social media, we got talking, we had one of those great phone calls that I think was supposed to be probably five or 10 minutes. And it wound up being like an hour or two talking life, talking dreams, talking finance, talking career. And then of course, Christian joined us at our conference in 2023, and it was amazing to meet him in person. And we've stayed in touch ever since. So, I'm very glad to have you here, Christian. I love your passion. I love what you're trying to do for your fellow learners but I think there's a lot of wisdom here for us going through our careers, like I'm a mid-career physician, and I love your message. So, tell us a little bit about like your background. Tell us a little bit about what you were doing before medical school. And what you did you know, once you entered medical school? 

Christian Wigmore 01:41

Okay, well, first off, super glad to be here. I can think back to when I messaged you first on, I think it was LinkedIn. And I think I might have messaged like six or seven other people, no answers, but you answered me right away, and then we get on that phone call. And then off we go to the conference in May. It's been cool to get to know you. It's so yeah, super glad to be here. So yeah, my name is Christian. I'm a fourth-year medical student at UBC. My journey has been pretty centred around medicine to start. I knew kind of in high school, I wanted to do medicine, you go to university, you do the sciences. But funny enough, like if you are UBC grad or you know how UBC medical school works, you get to drop your worst year. And I met my wife in second year and got like the worst grades.

Dr. Kevin Mailo 02:27

Was it worth it?

Christian Wigmore 02:31

Oh, well, I'm still married to her, right? So, I got the worst grades that year and I knew I needed to have a little bit extra time before that bad year can be dropped before getting into medical school. So I was like, What am I going to do? I grad with a science degree, that's going to leave me doing what? I know I don't really have an interest in something outside of medicine with a science degree. So, why not start taking some business courses, right? So I started doing business courses, and I realized, wow, I kind of liked this stuff. And you know, that wheel starts turning and I realized, okay, maybe if I start doing summer courses and push a little harder, I can grad with a science and a business degree. And so that ended up taking me five years. And after that, I found a small little internship in the midst of COVID with a financial advisor and kind of was able to be his associate and just watch the way he ran his business. And it wasn't only finance, but it was kind of more of like the operation side and entrepreneurship that really started to make me realize that there's that world out there. Like they don't teach any of that in science, you don't really learn any of it in high school. And so that got me excited. But that year I got into medical school, right? And that's the golden ticket everyone's waiting for is they think about medicine. And so after medical school, I went, but I guess over that time, the business mind was still kind of ticking at times. 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 03:46

So, when calls that the white coat, black suit mentality, right? Do you wear the white coat when you're in your clinical work and the black business suit when you're managing your finances or your practice? So yeah, keep going, keep going. 

Christian Wigmore 04:01

Totally. So like, I think originally, I was always believing that I would kind of wear that black coat, I guess like in my own personal finances, thinking about the ways that I'll eventually run a corporation through my medical practice or something like that. But what I started to notice is just the lack of any financial topics, discussion, or education at medical school. And then I realized I have friends around me that didn't necessarily have that same mind. And I said, Well, why don't we start talking about this stuff more? What? Why is this something that's never spoken of? The preceptors we work with don't really talk about it. And sure it maybe doesn't apply to us immediately as a first-year medical student, but eventually it will. So, when will this part of our education come into play? And I speak to people higher up than me, doesn't really seem like it's ever happening. And then I said well, you know, between studying and doing other things I kind of like finance and I probably know enough that I can make a few Instagram posts, so I start Budget Your MD is the name that I call it, right? And start to make little infographic posts and see how it goes. And at that time, it's still slow growing, and students are slowly finding out about it. But what I find is, as I go through each year of medical school, I'm able to see the questions, and topics and interests that students would have at that time. Like, I'll give an example in first year, it's the line of credit, like, what does that mean? I all of a sudden have been given sorry, $350,000 from a bank. What does that look like for me as a medical student? What is interest? How does interest even work? And you know, which bank offers the best package? And so that's kind of what I've used as an area to at least keep people interested on things that they're currently going through. And as now I go into fourth year, I realized disability insurance questions like that. Things that come up that are these decisions that require a little bit of financial savviness to understand, are being put on people's plates, right?

Dr. Kevin Mailo 05:58

I love that and so, you know, what are some of the big issues that and let's go a little bit beyond medical students to, you know, residents to fellows, people in early year practice. What are some of the struggles that people face in these early years? Because I think the big one for medical students is blowing through that line of credit, right? I remember, when I went through, it was low, ultra-low interest rates following the financial crisis, right? And so it was like how wasn't that bad, but interest rates have gone up massively, right? And so we have learners that are struggling with the thought of this interest piling up. But we also have a lot of physicians who have personal lines of credit used for consumer purchases, and it went from being tolerable to being very painful. If you think of it this way, and there's just little thing, and then we'll get back to the interview. But if you have a personal line of credit that you used for whatever home renovations or consumer purchases, whatever it is, and that line of credit is $1,000 a month of service, it's like $2,000, having earned because you have to pay personal tax on the money that you're going to use to service your line of credit. So, that's a really big hit. That's like working, you know, a whole long, busy clinic day, at a minimum, just to service that line of credit without even paying down the balance, right? So people are starting to feel the pinch of interest rates. But let's go back a little ways. And just talk me about what it is some of the issues that you see in you know, people that are now going through residency, although there's a little bit of income coming in, but there's a little bit of tax planning that has to start to begin. And also like in those early years of practice? 

Christian Wigmore 07:40

Yeah. It actually reminds me of, I spoke with, I think it was the residence of doctors of BC when I think one of their whether it's the president or not, he showed me a presentation, at one point about the debt levels that residents have, when they start residency, this might just be BC specific, and when they end. And my thought had always been well, it would go down, right, like they finally started. Like you should be able to kind of work it down a little bit. 50% of it goes up, but of the students, 50% of residents will have more debt when they finish residency. And so things that mean, you have always talked about, but like, let's think it's got to be something rather than actually needing the fancy car or needing something. It's a mindset, potentially that's causing people to do this. Now, we always have to, like put in disclaimers, there's family circumstances, things that are out of–

Dr. Kevin Mailo 08:33

Yeah, I mean, when you're like in my household, when we were both going through medical school, we paid the nanny more than I made. Because we were both working like 80 hours a week and we had young kids and she was hitting overtime by Wednesday afternoons. So, yeah, you're right there, family circumstances, totally. And personal circumstances. 

Christian Wigmore 08:51

There's potentially a mindset, right? And I have this funny little line that I heard from a physician at one point, and it goes, “If you spend like as a doctor, when you're a student, you'll live like a student when you're a doctor.” And that one hit me right away, right? Because it's that thought that if you blow up the line of credit through medical school, and you finally get into practice, and you think that pearly white income that you'll eventually earn will pay it all off, you start to realize that all that spending you did as a student, basically wrecks any of the beauty of having a higher income, I guess, as a doctor, eventually. 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 09:26

And there's a huge tax penalty now, right? Like, that's the other reflection I have, you know, in your generation compared to mine, like, I mean, and it was even better years ago. But, you know, I graduated like 15 some years ago, it have been 10 years in practice. So, what am I, totally getting my numbers wrong. It'd been 10 years in practice, but like I was, you know, at a place where like, we could pay down the line of credit relatively easy with income splitting through the PC, and dividends to spouse. Personal Tax rates were lower and now it's different. And the cost of living has gone up, right? So, your base cost for food, clothing, shelter, transportation has gone up. So, there's less and less margin to pay off personal debt, right? Between taxes and the cost of living. And you're right, it's so critical to get this right in the early years of practice. 

Christian Wigmore 10:20

Yeah, and I feel like what we're talking about here is just it's like, it's personal financial management. Like we're, there's kind of like, there's personal finance, and there's like your corporation management, all that fun, financial things that like we could all learn as doctors, but it's the personal side, the personal financial management that's so important. That could begin right as they get into medical school as they go through medical school, into residency, and then into practice. That is honestly the saving grace that appears like these days to save you from some of the hardships of feeling like you have to go to clinic every single day, or work that extra call shifts to pay for all the luxuries that have kind of built up over time, right? And so that's what I think of as like the end game in a sense when I see myself and I see the students around me of thinking about what do the decisions that we make right now as students and kind of the habits in a sense too that we make right now as students and the expectations that we make about what it'll be like when we start to make money. How that will actually impact our career, and how we can still be as healthy as possible as doctors in not only our lives as physicians serving our patients, but also in our financial lives, right? 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 11:35

I couldn't agree more and it's so important to get that alignment right. Between what are your career goals and your personal goals, right? Because if you say, you know, I want to be healthy, I don't want to work in excessive number of hours, I want to minimize the number of call or night shifts I'm doing or whatever, or clinic days I'm doing in a month. Well, you have to have financial goals that align with that. Because if you don't, well, you know, I mean, your mortgage company doesn't care. You know, what, how many hours you want to work in a week that mortgage comes due every month, right, or the grocery bill or whatever else you're facing. And so it's again, it's being holistic in our lives, and looking across and seeing Okay, well, what do I really want? And then what financial decisions am I making that align with it? Especially the big ones, right, like mortgage and those kinds of things, like the big permanent purchases. 

Christian Wigmore 12:30

Yep. Yeah. It's interesting and I think it like it ties in to, you know, we are offered this $350,000, when we've never had money before, there's like that aspect of like, quickly, your life-changing in the financial world. But then I assume, you know, I'm still like, early in the game, but I assume the moment I start making an income that is substantial enough, the bank's gonna come to me and say, Hey, here's this fancy mortgage, you can have it and but this million dollar house, and they make you feel like you can afford it. Because, in a sense, if you're willing to sell your life, you can, right? And it's those trip falls are like the traps that I think are just so important to be educated on as we're going through, to be aware and know the implications, right? 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 13:13

And this is also another thing that we teach us at the conference. And I alluded to this, you know, when you were there as well Christian, is the notion of an hourly rate. Every one of us has an hourly rate, what we're worth per hour what we can bill. Remember that there's a tax penalty associated with that, right? So, if you're, you know, if you're billing $300 an hour, your after-tax income on that is actually going to be substantially less. So, when you say, how many 1000s of dollars do I have to pay on a mortgage every month and property taxes, and utilities, and maintenance, and repairs, and vehicle payments? Well, now you can actually calculate and, you know, I'm happy to show anyone that's interested, how many hours in a month you're gonna have to work just to maintain those big expenditures, right? And then how many hours are left for fun? And the bigger one is, how many hours are left to save for retirement? Which again, the sooner we start, the sooner we are better off. But if we if you know, we're struggling for 5 or 10 years to pay off a line of credit, then we've already really short in the compound growth curve, which is so vitally important not to do. 

Christian Wigmore 14:25

Yeah, and something that like, is underrated and not maybe spoken about as much is student loans nowadays, like the government has announced that they're not charging interest on those. So, we already have it easier than the previous like, the generations before us, right? Like my student loans right now, if things don't change, I don't pay interest on it ever. Like I just have to make the minimum payment and it doesn't go up over time. Like that is a huge advantage. 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 14:50

That’s a good deal. 

Christian Wigmore 14:51

I know, yeah, pretty sweet. Yeah, almost say thanks to the guys over the line that did it first and then Canada felt like they had to follow suit, but like, yeah, the only interest-bearing debt that we're going to have coming out of is the line of credit. And you have to jump into that a little bit to pay tuition, the student loans never cover it fully. But it is still a variable cost in my mind of kind of your lifestyle and things like that, that really push that number up. 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 15:18

It totally. And I mean, I'm sympathetic to it as well. I mean, you know, when you consider, you know, broader, you know, sort of North American or Canadian society, there are very few people that are forced to delay gratification the way doctors are. Like, some of us go a decade or longer in school. In fact, it's actually much longer some of us regularly go like 15 years from undergrad to practice. Like that is a very long road, right? And it's natural to want the nice things in life. Right? You actually do deserve them, right? The message here isn't, you know, that you've got to live this extremely austere existence, that it's craft dinner and ramen noodles every night. No, it's, there's just got to be some balance, right? Because there's a very real cost to that lifestyle creep and remembering that if we're 10 years behind the average adult in entering, practicing and earning in our prime, it's also 10 years that we've lost on the compound growth curve. Again, it's another big impact.

Christian Wigmore 16:25

Yeah, I've used the example sometimes with students, as we kind of talked about our debt of what would it look like if you just became a red seal electrician right off the bat, and you saved 15% of your income over time? The amount of time it would take us as physicians, who are thought to have made/make so much more money than a red seal electrician to catch up to that person is incredible. I don't know the math in my mind, I'm not that much of a whiz. But like, it would take so long to catch up to that person for the compounding that they would achieve over those years that we're studying. Yeah. It blows my mind sometimes. But that just only solidifies the point of just good, sound, basic financial knowledge, just for basic, like, you know, your own finances, things like that. 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 17:10

And the other reflection is, you know, again, another observation about younger generations coming through, they don't want to work the 70-80 hour workweeks that older generations of physicians have worked. And I actually think that's a wonderful thing. I think that's an example to the entire profession, that we should all be working fewer hours. The job is stressful, we deal in people's lives, and more should be spread, more duty should be spread across a larger group of physicians. Absolutely, right? It shouldn't be two rural physicians holding up a town, you know, in a remote part of Canada. It should be four, do you know what I mean? And this applies everywhere across our healthcare system. But again, if we're going to cut back those hours, our finances have to align with that broader goal. And so it's about like being mindful and intentional. And reflecting on what do we really want our ideal work week to look like? Because yours was actually very interesting. I really liked yours. You don't have to share it. But it was great. It was really balanced. 

Christian Wigmore 18:14

Yeah, I'm happy to share like my dream in the future. Like, I think, first and foremost, for myself, like this is getting a little bit more personal into how I feel. I'm like a family man first. I've always been that way. Like, my dream is to be able to go to my daughter's soccer–

Dr. Kevin Mailo 18:27

I love it. Trust me, do it all.

Christian Wigmore 18:29

–basketball game. Like that’s–

Dr. Kevin Mailo 18:27

That's wonderful. Don’t miss any of those moments. Sorry, I’m going on and on. 

Christian Wigmore 18:34

–I want to be able to drive my son and his buddies to the basketball game and hear them get hyped up to some Eminem or something on the way to the game. Like I want to be there for those moments, right? And so I think like, if I could work clinic two-three days a week, and then have two or three days a week that are more flexible, that they could be, you know, those moments with my kids, or be moments where I'm getting to pursue Budget Your MD and kind of push those things forward.

Dr. Kevin Mailo 18:58

A passion.

Christian Wigmore 19:00

Yeah, exactly. That gives me the balance, right? That allows me to really be the doctor, I want to be on those two to three days. And then be the dad I want to be hopefully, be the husband I want to be, and then still kind of use that other part of my brain that sometimes has to be shut off at times. Right? 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 19:15

I absolutely love it. What an inspiring message. So okay, let's tell us a little bit more about Budget MD. We touched on and then we went on on all these tangents. Tell me a little bit more like what what do you do right now with it?

Christian Wigmore 19:31

So, the thing that I would say we provide or I provide the most value on is something I call the debt projection tool and I know of honestly centers around everything we talked about today. And I made it originally for myself, I was just interested, okay, if I have this much debt currently, and say I want to go into family practice, which is what I want to go into, or what if I want to do internal med or ER. What would those differing incomes look like in terms of eventually being able to pay off my line of credits, my student loans? Like how long would it take me to get to financial independence and if I want to save a little bit along the way? And so I took some Excel courses through my business degree and know three or four formulas. So, it's not the cleanest Excel spreadsheet in the world, but it works. And what I allow myself to do is to plug in, okay, this is my age, this is the specialty I might think of doing. And I even have like the house I may want to buy it some age, the interest rate that approximately it could be at at that time, and the downpayment, I could approximately have, and I even have in there, how many kids I would want to have. I just do an average, I think it's like just under $14,000 a year for a kid from the age of like, zero to 18. I've never been a parent before, so, I have no idea. That's what I found on the internet, right? So, maybe it skews a little bit more expensive into the later years as you're paying for universities and stuff if that's something you want to do versus the beginning. But you can correct me if I'm wrong there. But basically, the goal of this tool is to help what I find to be two groups of students. And this is what I get passionate about, there's students that are, A. super worried about their finances, like I've met a few that like, I have so much debt, I'm never gonna be able to pay it off. 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 21:09

That was me. 

Christian Wigmore 21:10

It's hurting their ability to learn. And I'm like, you're gonna be fine. Like, you actually need to be told that, like you're doing a great job, and like be able to move on with just learning and know that things are going to be okay, that's one group. And then the other group is the, oh, I'm going to be a doctor one day, it's completely fine. Yeah, I do DoorDash every single night because like, you know, we'll make a good income at some point and pay it off. And so it's those two groups that fill up this debt projection that I have, and kind of give their example scenarios. And I can show them well, okay, person A, that's worried about their life, you're going to be okay. You're like this is kind of your projection, approximately, like none of this is exact, but it gives them an idea that the debt will eventually get paid off and kind of eases some of their worries. Group two sees on their projection that with their current debt and spending, the curve only just continues to go up, it's almost like, you're not going to be able to pay all this off. And coincidentally, they're the people that say they want to buy a $3 million house, and then that mortgage payment really causes the curve to continue up as well. But it, my goal with that is to just start the conversation, right, is to get that part of there, get the light switch moment to go and realize that, okay, the current habits and mindset I have, are maybe a little bit off from what I need to currently be doing to make sure I'm setting myself up to succeed, not only as a physician, but in my own independent financial life. 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 22:39

I love it. 

Christian Wigmore 22:40

So, that's my big like, that's the one I really have fun with because I kind of like Excel, and they send over the projection, I do it completely for free, and I send it to them. And then I offer them 30 minutes to chat about it too if they want to. And so, that's been super fun. It's kind of an extra thing I'll do in the mornings or the evenings, I'll fill those out for people. It's not AI-generated at all, at this point. So, I'm still collecting some things together on my own computer, but I'm one of those rare breeds that likes to see an Excel spreadsheet. So

Dr. Kevin Mailo 23:10

Yeah, I love it. So, where do you want to go with it? Right? Because obviously, we're gonna hear more about it. You're in the early stages. Where do you want to go with it? Like, what's your dream, in terms of the profession? 

Christian Wigmore 23:22

Yeah. So, my dream, in terms of the profession would be to like, almost not solve but help in the world of, you're gonna get my mind going too fast here, Kevin, when you ask me what my dreams for this thing like, it's so like–

Dr. Kevin Mailo 23:41

No, no. Like, I just did a podcast episode on dreams. It'll come out before this one. I'm a very big believer in being open about our dreams. So, talk about your scope. 

Christian Wigmore 23:55

So, like a broad dream would be to change the way that financial education is brought into the medical programs across Canada. Like let's start Canada first, we don't need to go worldwide. I don't need to dream that big. Like if we could somehow incorporate financial education into the undergraduate medical degree, and whether that just be evenings or a lunchtime money talk or something to not only help students become aware of the pitfalls as they transition into residency and practice. But also just to be aware of kind of the habits that we've been speaking to a lot over the past, I don't know how long we’ve been–

Dr. Kevin Mailo 24:37 

I love it. Yeah.

Christian Wigmore 24:40

So I mean, that's the number one goal, right? And then after that, like, I hope that that could evolve into like a better community in medicine that is willing and I think Physician Empowerments already absolutely spearheading this, but a community where doctors feel more safe to talk about this stuff, right? Like, it's rare, like as a student, have I ever had a preceptor bring up, you know, billing or how they're like clinic rents and stuff like that? No, I haven't. And if there could be a community where students can ask about this stuff, where people further down the line can give advice about these are the some of the mistakes I made as a student. And that doesn't have to be like physician to student that can be, you know, 20 years experience position to first five years practicing physician, just the space like that would be awesome. Just to provide that advice and care almost for the future generation of physicians. And I think in general, the dream, like, macro of all of that, is that that could then some, in some way help aid like the issues that we see in medicine as a whole right now, like the burnout issues, like that's the big word. 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 25:48 

Oh, without question. 

Christian Wigmore 25:50

And I think me and you align on this that, like if personal finance, can be focused on more and physicians understand how that binds them, I think we can, hopefully, turn the dial a little down on the burnout rates. And that's the goal, right? Like, that's the hot word these days. And in medicine, practicing physicians is burnout, right? 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 26:10 

Yeah, I'll just go on, I'll go climb on my, you know, pedestal on this one and go. I teach wellness, right, that's one of the things we teach at Physician Empowerment, and I've done CME events for it. And I'm going to be blunt. I mean, you can do all of the mandated wellness modules online, that the system tells you to do. You can do yoga, you can journal, you can meditate, I do all of those things, you can do all of that. But if you are unhealthy, working 70 hours a week, no amount of extra stuff you do is going to make that better. If you're healthy number of hours a week is 40, then you just have to come down, the only way to come down is to be financially secure. Financial Security underpins all wellness, in our profession, in my opinion. The other big one, and we sort of touched on this before we started recording, was leadership. When we want to transform the system and make it better for our patients, better for us, better for our allied health colleagues, we need to be involved. We need to be able to sit on those committees, we need to advocate, we need to be a voice, we need to be present, truly present. That will only happen when we're cutting down on 70-hour work weeks, and we have a little bit more balance to get involved. Again, truly believe that and again, that is underpinned by financial security. 

Christian Wigmore 27:37

Yeah, and, you know, it almost feels odd as a student right now talking to a physician who's current practicing to like speak about this financial stuff, because it almost feels weird, to be honest. Like we're doctors. And I think at the conference, Wing spoke about this, about where there's this altruistic mindset that's kind of ingrained in us that we're supposed to just work like crazy and not think about the finances, because we're serving, and I 100%, like, have that heart to serve. But I think it's gotten to a point these days where like, you have to start to think about that weird financial pit in your stomach because it has all these implications we've been speaking to, right? 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 28:16 

You will do your best care when you are not burnt out, when you are not exhausted, and when you're not overbooked and worrying about the overhead. That is what your patients deserve. A rested physician who is in control of her/his schedule, that's what's so powerful. And that's what will lead to better patient care. So, to serve, it means to serve ourselves first or to be to be our healthiest first is in my opinion. 

Christian Wigmore 28:42

Yeah. And like, honestly, Kevin, I appreciate you saying all that. Because I think that some of the mindsets I've come to I would never be able to come to just as a fourth-year medical student, you know, learning–

Dr. Kevin Mailo 28:54

It's hard to talk. 

Christian Wigmore 28:55

Yeah, it is. And like, No, there's no medical student out there that's thinking about these things. We only hear of it from people like you and Wing and all these other physicians that are starting to talk about this stuff that we can begin to create some of these ideas of important topics and frameworks that it will matter later down the road. But what's so awesome about this conversation is that hearing them then allows you to have the advantage of applying them early. I think that's the key that I get excited about. Because talking about them, you know 10 years into practice is awesome and super important, has a role but there's such an advantage to thinking about it or like–

Dr. Kevin Mailo 29:32

I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. 

Christian Wigmore 29:35

Because you're making lifetime decisions. Even the specialty you go into like that's bigger than the house you end up buying, the house you end up buying it's high up there too, but the specialty end up choosing, like think about this stuff like it. That's your life like you're signing, we're all in medicine to–

Dr. Kevin Mailo 29:50

It's very hard to retrain.

Christian Wigmore 29:51

Think about your life to go do that, like be ready. You know what I mean? 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 29:52

Very hard to retrain. I'm envious of our nursing colleagues who are able to cycle through different aspects of nursing over the course of their career in health care. Because we really struggle with that in medicine, it's very hard to retrain, and understandably so I mean that there has to be a lot of technical proficiency. So, I thought this is absolutely amazing. I would encourage listeners to check out Budget Your MD. I know more is coming from you, Christian. That's why we want to bring you on the show because this is going to be a lot more than just medical students and residents, right? I think all of us should be going through this exercise. So, get building those spreadsheets, no I’m just bugging you. No, we look forward to the other offerings that are coming. And you do so much education as well. I know over Instagram and other other places. So, I again, encourage people to check it out because it's the what you teach is so true. And it's been great connecting, and great having you on the show. So, we'll we'll definitely have you on again. 

Christian Wigmore 30:49

I appreciate your mentorship. Thanks for having me on. It's been so good to chat about some of these things. 

Dr. Kevin Mailo 30:54

Wonderful. 

Dr. Kevin Mailo  30:56

Thank you so much for listening to the Physician Empowerment podcast. If you're ready to take those next steps in transforming your practice, finances, or personal well-being, then come and join us at PhysEmpowerment.ca - P H Y S Empowerment dot ca - to learn more about how we can help. If today's episode resonated with you, I'd really appreciate it if you would share our podcast with a colleague or friend and head over to Apple Podcasts to give us a five-star rating and review. If you've got feedback, questions or suggestions for future episode topics, we'd love to hear from you. If you want to join us and be interviewed and share some of your story, we'd absolutely love that as well. Please send me an email at [email protected]. Thank you again for listening. Bye.