Whether you are hovering around what is traditionally considered “retirement age” or just a few years out of a dermatology fellowship, it’s never too late or too early to set the wheels in motion for a seamless transition from full-time clinical or academic practice to whatever you foresee being the next stage of your life.
According to the dermatologists interviewed for this article, 3 key steps to an effective transition and fulfilling post-practice life include: having the funds to live comfortably once your practice income ceases; having a hobby, avocation or job that you are passionate about and coming to terms with the ego and identity issues that inevitably arise when one surrenders the role of physician. [Read Part 1 of this series, Best Case Retirement Scenarios here].
Funding Your Retirement
Bellville, NJ-based dermatologist and dermatology practice management expert Joseph Eastern, MD, says, “Many doctors have a false sense of security about their money; most of us save too little. We either miscalculate or underestimate how much we’ll need to last through retirement. We tend to live longer than planned, and as such we run the risk of outliving our savings, and we don’t face facts about long-term care. Not nearly enough of us have long-term care insurance, or the means to self-fund an extended long-term care situation.”
Dr. Eastern, who frequently writes and lectures about retirement, says, “Many physicians lack a clear idea of where their retirement income will come from, and even when they do, they don’t know how to manage their savings correctly. Doctors in particular are notorious for not understanding investments. Many attempt to manage their practice’s retirement plans with inadequate knowledge of how the investments within their plans work.”
He stresses that “having enough money squirreled away to last the rest of your life” is key. To arrive at any sort of reliable ballpark figure, says Dr. Eastern, who is the 2-time past-president of the Dermatological Society of New Jersey, you’ll need to know 3 things: how much you realistically expect to spend annually after retirement; how much principal you’ll need to generate that annual income and how far your present savings are from that target figure.
“An oft-quoted rule of thumb is that in retirement you should plan to spend about 70% of what you are spending now,” says Dr. Eastern, adding that, “In my opinion, that’s nonsense. While a few significant expenses, such as disability and malpractice insurance premiums, will be eliminated, other expenses, such as travel, recreation and medical care — including long-term care insurance, which no one should be without — will increase. My wife and I are assuming we will spend about the same in retirement as we spend now.”
He says, once you know how much money you’ll spend per year, you can calculate how much money — in interest- and dividend-producing assets — will be needed to generate that amount. “Ideally, you’ll want to spend only the interest and dividends; by leaving the principal untouched you’ll never run short, even if you retire at an unusually young age or longevity runs in your family or both,” says Dr. Eastern.
Most financial advisors use the 5% rule, according to Dr. Eastern, meaning, you can safely assume a minimum average 5% annual return on your nest egg. So if you want to spend $100,000 per year, you’ll need $2 million in assets; for $200,000, you’ll need $4 million.
If your present savings are a long way from your target figure, Dr. Eastern points out, retirement may not be a realistic option at this time. He says it’s better, though, to make that discovery now, rather than face the frightening prospect of running out of money at an advanced age. He warns, “Don’t be tempted to close a wide gap in a hurry with high-return/high-risk investments, which often backfire, leaving you further than ever from retirement.”
Another caveat per Dr. Eastern, “Debt can destroy the best-laid retirement plans. If you carry significant debt, pay it off as soon as possible, and certainly before you retire. Even if you have no plans to retire in the immediate future, it’s never too soon to think about retirement. Young physicians often defer contributing to their retirement plans because they want to save for a new house or college for their children. But there are tangible tax benefits that you get now because your contributions usually reduce your taxable income, and your investment grows tax-free until you take it out.”
What’s Next?
Springfield, IL-based dermatology professor and clinician Stephen Stone, MD, left private practice after 25 years and transitioned into academics, but still sees patients 5 days a week. In an interview with The Dermatologist, he says, he sees no reason to retire yet, but knows that when he does it won’t be to relax on a rocker and stare into space. He is passionate about Jewish community affairs at the local and national level, as well as about his hometown’s Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, which he is eager to be affiliated with as a volunteer.
“You have to develop an outside interest, it can be a side business or golf or tennis — as long as it’s something that makes you excited about waking up in the morning,” says Dr. Stone. “There is a group of physicians in my town who are retired and they play tennis every day indoors or out — and they’re well into their 80s.”
Dr. Stone says he’ll probably start to reduce the number of days a week he works within the next 5 years. “I think an effective transition into retirement is all about being active and engaged. For me that will mean lots of travel, volunteer work in some of my national organizational positions and volunteer work locally at the Abraham Lincoln President Museum.”
University of Massachusetts dermatologic surgeon Mary Maloney, MD, echoes Dr. Stone’s recommendations. “I think a lot of us type A personality physicians wouldn’t quite know what to do with ourselves if we retired without having something else lined up. I think it’s crucial to have some hobbies and interests and things that you are committed to if you’re going to retire and be happy,” she says. “I suspect I’m going to be one of those people who wants enough structure in my life so that I will continue to be active in some way, whether it’s teaching residents or teaching medical students or having a part-time practice where I can be useful, where I can work a day or two a week — something along those lines.”
Dr. Maloney believes she won’t be alone in that paradigm. “I think a lot of us are probably going to do that, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Actually, in this horrible doctor shortage, we all need to think about how we can help out and not just go play golf, because there are a lot of people out there who don’t have access to care.”
She says, if she sticks to the financial retirement funding plan that she and her husband set up, she’ll be able to have a solid enough income after leaving her practice “to work for a small amount of money or no money and still feel like I’m contributing, which I think is what many older people — physicians or not — want to feel. They want to feel that they’re still contributing on some level.”
Figure 1: Volunteering in the community helps establish an identity outside of a dermatology practice.
Photo courtesy of the Melanoma Research Foundation
The MD Identity
Dr. Maloney says one of the complications when physicians retire is that their identity is invariably all about being a physician. “We’re called ‘Doctor,’ and it has some social and professional status, so to walk away from that can be a little bit frightening, because we are caught up in our identity. So one has to kind of cope with that right from the very beginning,” says Dr. Maloney.
She says this identity “crisis” of sorts makes it even more crucial to have another area of expertise — even if it’s in a hobby. “I think it’s important to make sure that you have other interests where you have some expertise to help maintain your sense of identity when you retire,” she adds.
Former dermatologist Steven Shama, MD, cautions: “Don’t define yourself by what you do, because when you retire you’ll no longer be doing that. If you define yourself solely as a dermatologist, then when you stop practicing you risk seeing yourself as nothing.”
He says, “Even when I was still in practice, I would meet people socially who would ask what I did and I would always say, ‘I’m an incidental dermatologist,’ and they would ask what that meant and I would explain that it meant ‘It’s what I do, it’s not who I am.’”
Dr. Shama stresses whether you are in practice or retired there’s more to you than your curriculum vitae no matter how hard you worked for your credentials or how much prestige they carry. “Your children think of you as a loving, generous father or mother, they don’t think of you as a dermatologist — there’s more to you than your professional label,” he says.
Dr. Shama transitioned out of his dermatology practice into a life as a motivational speaker. He was able to turn a part-time sideline — giving talks to physicians at medical meetings — into a full-time profession. “I do not make a living giving motivational talks,” he says, “I make a life giving these talks.”
He recommends making a life doing something you love, and says, “and when you stop loving it — do something else.”
Las Vegas dermatologist Lucius Blanchard, MD, started out with a couple other dermatologists in 1 little office and now his group practice has grown into about 25 offices in California and Arizona, as well as Nevada. He says, “At 72, I still work five-and-a half days a week. The reason for that is because I love being a dermatologist. Maybe eventually I’ll cut down to working 3 weeks a month. I’m fortunate to be in perfect health and there’s no reason for me not to work.”
His views on retirement and identity are summed up in this brief anecdote about a physician colleague who retired. “He was in my office and I asked him how he liked retirement. He said, ‘It’s terrible. I used to be somebody. Now I’m just another old man.’”
Careful financial planning and a lifelong process of curating your interests and community connections can help make retirement a rich and rewarding time of your life.
Sidebar:
Retirement Tips from AAD President
American Academy of Dermatology President Brett Coldiron, MD, has several recommendations for young dermatologists who will one day consider retirement:
1. Set yourself up financially:
• Start a Roth IRA and contribute early and as much as you can, without fail, every month. The best investments for beginners are no-load, low overhead index funds.
• Match employer contributions as high as they will go.
• Defer buying the big house until loans are paid off. Plan your projected income and budget accordingly.
Figure 2: Dermatologists can continue mission work after retirement.
Photo couresty of American Academy of Dermatology
2. Give charitably — this pays off in your professional life:
Be involved in organized medicine and hospital committees on a professional level.
•Get involved in local, state and federal politics.
• Do charity work and serve on the local health department or school board.
• Volunteer for medical missions, which are rejuvenating and meaningful on several levels.
• Find a problem and fix it, there are plenty, don’t worry, some will find you.
• Continue mission work, organized medicine and political activity long into retirement.
3. Personally, plan your family carefully:
• Pick your partner carefully — the wrong choice can be incredibly expensive and painful.
• Consider marrying someone within the medical field so that there’s an appreciation for your work and schedule.
• Plan your family carefully with costs in mind. A child born in 2013 will cost a middle-income American family an average of $245,340 until he or she becomes an adult, with families living in the Northeast taking on a greater burden, according to the Agriculture Department’s recent Expenditures on Children and Families report.
Whether you are hovering around what is traditionally considered “retirement age” or just a few years out of a dermatology fellowship, it’s never too late or too early to set the wheels in motion for a seamless transition from full-time clinical or academic practice to whatever you foresee being the next stage of your life.
According to the dermatologists interviewed for this article, 3 key steps to an effective transition and fulfilling post-practice life include: having the funds to live comfortably once your practice income ceases; having a hobby, avocation or job that you are passionate about and coming to terms with the ego and identity issues that inevitably arise when one surrenders the role of physician. [Read Part 1 of this series, Best Case Retirement Scenarios here].
Funding Your Retirement
Bellville, NJ-based dermatologist and dermatology practice management expert Joseph Eastern, MD, says, “Many doctors have a false sense of security about their money; most of us save too little. We either miscalculate or underestimate how much we’ll need to last through retirement. We tend to live longer than planned, and as such we run the risk of outliving our savings, and we don’t face facts about long-term care. Not nearly enough of us have long-term care insurance, or the means to self-fund an extended long-term care situation.”
Dr. Eastern, who frequently writes and lectures about retirement, says, “Many physicians lack a clear idea of where their retirement income will come from, and even when they do, they don’t know how to manage their savings correctly. Doctors in particular are notorious for not understanding investments. Many attempt to manage their practice’s retirement plans with inadequate knowledge of how the investments within their plans work.”
He stresses that “having enough money squirreled away to last the rest of your life” is key. To arrive at any sort of reliable ballpark figure, says Dr. Eastern, who is the 2-time past-president of the Dermatological Society of New Jersey, you’ll need to know 3 things: how much you realistically expect to spend annually after retirement; how much principal you’ll need to generate that annual income and how far your present savings are from that target figure.
“An oft-quoted rule of thumb is that in retirement you should plan to spend about 70% of what you are spending now,” says Dr. Eastern, adding that, “In my opinion, that’s nonsense. While a few significant expenses, such as disability and malpractice insurance premiums, will be eliminated, other expenses, such as travel, recreation and medical care — including long-term care insurance, which no one should be without — will increase. My wife and I are assuming we will spend about the same in retirement as we spend now.”
He says, once you know how much money you’ll spend per year, you can calculate how much money — in interest- and dividend-producing assets — will be needed to generate that amount. “Ideally, you’ll want to spend only the interest and dividends; by leaving the principal untouched you’ll never run short, even if you retire at an unusually young age or longevity runs in your family or both,” says Dr. Eastern.
Most financial advisors use the 5% rule, according to Dr. Eastern, meaning, you can safely assume a minimum average 5% annual return on your nest egg. So if you want to spend $100,000 per year, you’ll need $2 million in assets; for $200,000, you’ll need $4 million.
If your present savings are a long way from your target figure, Dr. Eastern points out, retirement may not be a realistic option at this time. He says it’s better, though, to make that discovery now, rather than face the frightening prospect of running out of money at an advanced age. He warns, “Don’t be tempted to close a wide gap in a hurry with high-return/high-risk investments, which often backfire, leaving you further than ever from retirement.”
Another caveat per Dr. Eastern, “Debt can destroy the best-laid retirement plans. If you carry significant debt, pay it off as soon as possible, and certainly before you retire. Even if you have no plans to retire in the immediate future, it’s never too soon to think about retirement. Young physicians often defer contributing to their retirement plans because they want to save for a new house or college for their children. But there are tangible tax benefits that you get now because your contributions usually reduce your taxable income, and your investment grows tax-free until you take it out.”
What’s Next?
Springfield, IL-based dermatology professor and clinician Stephen Stone, MD, left private practice after 25 years and transitioned into academics, but still sees patients 5 days a week. In an interview with The Dermatologist, he says, he sees no reason to retire yet, but knows that when he does it won’t be to relax on a rocker and stare into space. He is passionate about Jewish community affairs at the local and national level, as well as about his hometown’s Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, which he is eager to be affiliated with as a volunteer.
“You have to develop an outside interest, it can be a side business or golf or tennis — as long as it’s something that makes you excited about waking up in the morning,” says Dr. Stone. “There is a group of physicians in my town who are retired and they play tennis every day indoors or out — and they’re well into their 80s.”
Dr. Stone says he’ll probably start to reduce the number of days a week he works within the next 5 years. “I think an effective transition into retirement is all about being active and engaged. For me that will mean lots of travel, volunteer work in some of my national organizational positions and volunteer work locally at the Abraham Lincoln President Museum.”
University of Massachusetts dermatologic surgeon Mary Maloney, MD, echoes Dr. Stone’s recommendations. “I think a lot of us type A personality physicians wouldn’t quite know what to do with ourselves if we retired without having something else lined up. I think it’s crucial to have some hobbies and interests and things that you are committed to if you’re going to retire and be happy,” she says. “I suspect I’m going to be one of those people who wants enough structure in my life so that I will continue to be active in some way, whether it’s teaching residents or teaching medical students or having a part-time practice where I can be useful, where I can work a day or two a week — something along those lines.”
Dr. Maloney believes she won’t be alone in that paradigm. “I think a lot of us are probably going to do that, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Actually, in this horrible doctor shortage, we all need to think about how we can help out and not just go play golf, because there are a lot of people out there who don’t have access to care.”
She says, if she sticks to the financial retirement funding plan that she and her husband set up, she’ll be able to have a solid enough income after leaving her practice “to work for a small amount of money or no money and still feel like I’m contributing, which I think is what many older people — physicians or not — want to feel. They want to feel that they’re still contributing on some level.”
Figure 1: Volunteering in the community helps establish an identity outside of a dermatology practice.
Photo courtesy of the Melanoma Research Foundation
The MD Identity
Dr. Maloney says one of the complications when physicians retire is that their identity is invariably all about being a physician. “We’re called ‘Doctor,’ and it has some social and professional status, so to walk away from that can be a little bit frightening, because we are caught up in our identity. So one has to kind of cope with that right from the very beginning,” says Dr. Maloney.
She says this identity “crisis” of sorts makes it even more crucial to have another area of expertise — even if it’s in a hobby. “I think it’s important to make sure that you have other interests where you have some expertise to help maintain your sense of identity when you retire,” she adds.
Former dermatologist Steven Shama, MD, cautions: “Don’t define yourself by what you do, because when you retire you’ll no longer be doing that. If you define yourself solely as a dermatologist, then when you stop practicing you risk seeing yourself as nothing.”
He says, “Even when I was still in practice, I would meet people socially who would ask what I did and I would always say, ‘I’m an incidental dermatologist,’ and they would ask what that meant and I would explain that it meant ‘It’s what I do, it’s not who I am.’”
Dr. Shama stresses whether you are in practice or retired there’s more to you than your curriculum vitae no matter how hard you worked for your credentials or how much prestige they carry. “Your children think of you as a loving, generous father or mother, they don’t think of you as a dermatologist — there’s more to you than your professional label,” he says.
Dr. Shama transitioned out of his dermatology practice into a life as a motivational speaker. He was able to turn a part-time sideline — giving talks to physicians at medical meetings — into a full-time profession. “I do not make a living giving motivational talks,” he says, “I make a life giving these talks.”
He recommends making a life doing something you love, and says, “and when you stop loving it — do something else.”
Las Vegas dermatologist Lucius Blanchard, MD, started out with a couple other dermatologists in 1 little office and now his group practice has grown into about 25 offices in California and Arizona, as well as Nevada. He says, “At 72, I still work five-and-a half days a week. The reason for that is because I love being a dermatologist. Maybe eventually I’ll cut down to working 3 weeks a month. I’m fortunate to be in perfect health and there’s no reason for me not to work.”
His views on retirement and identity are summed up in this brief anecdote about a physician colleague who retired. “He was in my office and I asked him how he liked retirement. He said, ‘It’s terrible. I used to be somebody. Now I’m just another old man.’”
Careful financial planning and a lifelong process of curating your interests and community connections can help make retirement a rich and rewarding time of your life.
Sidebar:
Retirement Tips from AAD President
American Academy of Dermatology President Brett Coldiron, MD, has several recommendations for young dermatologists who will one day consider retirement:
1. Set yourself up financially:
• Start a Roth IRA and contribute early and as much as you can, without fail, every month. The best investments for beginners are no-load, low overhead index funds.
• Match employer contributions as high as they will go.
• Defer buying the big house until loans are paid off. Plan your projected income and budget accordingly.
Figure 2: Dermatologists can continue mission work after retirement.
Photo couresty of American Academy of Dermatology
2. Give charitably — this pays off in your professional life:
Be involved in organized medicine and hospital committees on a professional level.
•Get involved in local, state and federal politics.
• Do charity work and serve on the local health department or school board.
• Volunteer for medical missions, which are rejuvenating and meaningful on several levels.
• Find a problem and fix it, there are plenty, don’t worry, some will find you.
• Continue mission work, organized medicine and political activity long into retirement.
3. Personally, plan your family carefully:
• Pick your partner carefully — the wrong choice can be incredibly expensive and painful.
• Consider marrying someone within the medical field so that there’s an appreciation for your work and schedule.
• Plan your family carefully with costs in mind. A child born in 2013 will cost a middle-income American family an average of $245,340 until he or she becomes an adult, with families living in the Northeast taking on a greater burden, according to the Agriculture Department’s recent Expenditures on Children and Families report.
Whether you are hovering around what is traditionally considered “retirement age” or just a few years out of a dermatology fellowship, it’s never too late or too early to set the wheels in motion for a seamless transition from full-time clinical or academic practice to whatever you foresee being the next stage of your life.
According to the dermatologists interviewed for this article, 3 key steps to an effective transition and fulfilling post-practice life include: having the funds to live comfortably once your practice income ceases; having a hobby, avocation or job that you are passionate about and coming to terms with the ego and identity issues that inevitably arise when one surrenders the role of physician. [Read Part 1 of this series, Best Case Retirement Scenarios here].
Funding Your Retirement
Bellville, NJ-based dermatologist and dermatology practice management expert Joseph Eastern, MD, says, “Many doctors have a false sense of security about their money; most of us save too little. We either miscalculate or underestimate how much we’ll need to last through retirement. We tend to live longer than planned, and as such we run the risk of outliving our savings, and we don’t face facts about long-term care. Not nearly enough of us have long-term care insurance, or the means to self-fund an extended long-term care situation.”
Dr. Eastern, who frequently writes and lectures about retirement, says, “Many physicians lack a clear idea of where their retirement income will come from, and even when they do, they don’t know how to manage their savings correctly. Doctors in particular are notorious for not understanding investments. Many attempt to manage their practice’s retirement plans with inadequate knowledge of how the investments within their plans work.”
He stresses that “having enough money squirreled away to last the rest of your life” is key. To arrive at any sort of reliable ballpark figure, says Dr. Eastern, who is the 2-time past-president of the Dermatological Society of New Jersey, you’ll need to know 3 things: how much you realistically expect to spend annually after retirement; how much principal you’ll need to generate that annual income and how far your present savings are from that target figure.
“An oft-quoted rule of thumb is that in retirement you should plan to spend about 70% of what you are spending now,” says Dr. Eastern, adding that, “In my opinion, that’s nonsense. While a few significant expenses, such as disability and malpractice insurance premiums, will be eliminated, other expenses, such as travel, recreation and medical care — including long-term care insurance, which no one should be without — will increase. My wife and I are assuming we will spend about the same in retirement as we spend now.”
He says, once you know how much money you’ll spend per year, you can calculate how much money — in interest- and dividend-producing assets — will be needed to generate that amount. “Ideally, you’ll want to spend only the interest and dividends; by leaving the principal untouched you’ll never run short, even if you retire at an unusually young age or longevity runs in your family or both,” says Dr. Eastern.
Most financial advisors use the 5% rule, according to Dr. Eastern, meaning, you can safely assume a minimum average 5% annual return on your nest egg. So if you want to spend $100,000 per year, you’ll need $2 million in assets; for $200,000, you’ll need $4 million.
If your present savings are a long way from your target figure, Dr. Eastern points out, retirement may not be a realistic option at this time. He says it’s better, though, to make that discovery now, rather than face the frightening prospect of running out of money at an advanced age. He warns, “Don’t be tempted to close a wide gap in a hurry with high-return/high-risk investments, which often backfire, leaving you further than ever from retirement.”
Another caveat per Dr. Eastern, “Debt can destroy the best-laid retirement plans. If you carry significant debt, pay it off as soon as possible, and certainly before you retire. Even if you have no plans to retire in the immediate future, it’s never too soon to think about retirement. Young physicians often defer contributing to their retirement plans because they want to save for a new house or college for their children. But there are tangible tax benefits that you get now because your contributions usually reduce your taxable income, and your investment grows tax-free until you take it out.”
What’s Next?
Springfield, IL-based dermatology professor and clinician Stephen Stone, MD, left private practice after 25 years and transitioned into academics, but still sees patients 5 days a week. In an interview with The Dermatologist, he says, he sees no reason to retire yet, but knows that when he does it won’t be to relax on a rocker and stare into space. He is passionate about Jewish community affairs at the local and national level, as well as about his hometown’s Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, which he is eager to be affiliated with as a volunteer.
“You have to develop an outside interest, it can be a side business or golf or tennis — as long as it’s something that makes you excited about waking up in the morning,” says Dr. Stone. “There is a group of physicians in my town who are retired and they play tennis every day indoors or out — and they’re well into their 80s.”
Dr. Stone says he’ll probably start to reduce the number of days a week he works within the next 5 years. “I think an effective transition into retirement is all about being active and engaged. For me that will mean lots of travel, volunteer work in some of my national organizational positions and volunteer work locally at the Abraham Lincoln President Museum.”
University of Massachusetts dermatologic surgeon Mary Maloney, MD, echoes Dr. Stone’s recommendations. “I think a lot of us type A personality physicians wouldn’t quite know what to do with ourselves if we retired without having something else lined up. I think it’s crucial to have some hobbies and interests and things that you are committed to if you’re going to retire and be happy,” she says. “I suspect I’m going to be one of those people who wants enough structure in my life so that I will continue to be active in some way, whether it’s teaching residents or teaching medical students or having a part-time practice where I can be useful, where I can work a day or two a week — something along those lines.”
Dr. Maloney believes she won’t be alone in that paradigm. “I think a lot of us are probably going to do that, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Actually, in this horrible doctor shortage, we all need to think about how we can help out and not just go play golf, because there are a lot of people out there who don’t have access to care.”
She says, if she sticks to the financial retirement funding plan that she and her husband set up, she’ll be able to have a solid enough income after leaving her practice “to work for a small amount of money or no money and still feel like I’m contributing, which I think is what many older people — physicians or not — want to feel. They want to feel that they’re still contributing on some level.”
Figure 1: Volunteering in the community helps establish an identity outside of a dermatology practice.
Photo courtesy of the Melanoma Research Foundation
The MD Identity
Dr. Maloney says one of the complications when physicians retire is that their identity is invariably all about being a physician. “We’re called ‘Doctor,’ and it has some social and professional status, so to walk away from that can be a little bit frightening, because we are caught up in our identity. So one has to kind of cope with that right from the very beginning,” says Dr. Maloney.
She says this identity “crisis” of sorts makes it even more crucial to have another area of expertise — even if it’s in a hobby. “I think it’s important to make sure that you have other interests where you have some expertise to help maintain your sense of identity when you retire,” she adds.
Former dermatologist Steven Shama, MD, cautions: “Don’t define yourself by what you do, because when you retire you’ll no longer be doing that. If you define yourself solely as a dermatologist, then when you stop practicing you risk seeing yourself as nothing.”
He says, “Even when I was still in practice, I would meet people socially who would ask what I did and I would always say, ‘I’m an incidental dermatologist,’ and they would ask what that meant and I would explain that it meant ‘It’s what I do, it’s not who I am.’”
Dr. Shama stresses whether you are in practice or retired there’s more to you than your curriculum vitae no matter how hard you worked for your credentials or how much prestige they carry. “Your children think of you as a loving, generous father or mother, they don’t think of you as a dermatologist — there’s more to you than your professional label,” he says.
Dr. Shama transitioned out of his dermatology practice into a life as a motivational speaker. He was able to turn a part-time sideline — giving talks to physicians at medical meetings — into a full-time profession. “I do not make a living giving motivational talks,” he says, “I make a life giving these talks.”
He recommends making a life doing something you love, and says, “and when you stop loving it — do something else.”
Las Vegas dermatologist Lucius Blanchard, MD, started out with a couple other dermatologists in 1 little office and now his group practice has grown into about 25 offices in California and Arizona, as well as Nevada. He says, “At 72, I still work five-and-a half days a week. The reason for that is because I love being a dermatologist. Maybe eventually I’ll cut down to working 3 weeks a month. I’m fortunate to be in perfect health and there’s no reason for me not to work.”
His views on retirement and identity are summed up in this brief anecdote about a physician colleague who retired. “He was in my office and I asked him how he liked retirement. He said, ‘It’s terrible. I used to be somebody. Now I’m just another old man.’”
Careful financial planning and a lifelong process of curating your interests and community connections can help make retirement a rich and rewarding time of your life.
Sidebar:
Retirement Tips from AAD President
American Academy of Dermatology President Brett Coldiron, MD, has several recommendations for young dermatologists who will one day consider retirement:
1. Set yourself up financially:
• Start a Roth IRA and contribute early and as much as you can, without fail, every month. The best investments for beginners are no-load, low overhead index funds.
• Match employer contributions as high as they will go.
• Defer buying the big house until loans are paid off. Plan your projected income and budget accordingly.
Figure 2: Dermatologists can continue mission work after retirement.
Photo couresty of American Academy of Dermatology
2. Give charitably — this pays off in your professional life:
Be involved in organized medicine and hospital committees on a professional level.
•Get involved in local, state and federal politics.
• Do charity work and serve on the local health department or school board.
• Volunteer for medical missions, which are rejuvenating and meaningful on several levels.
• Find a problem and fix it, there are plenty, don’t worry, some will find you.
• Continue mission work, organized medicine and political activity long into retirement.
3. Personally, plan your family carefully:
• Pick your partner carefully — the wrong choice can be incredibly expensive and painful.
• Consider marrying someone within the medical field so that there’s an appreciation for your work and schedule.
• Plan your family carefully with costs in mind. A child born in 2013 will cost a middle-income American family an average of $245,340 until he or she becomes an adult, with families living in the Northeast taking on a greater burden, according to the Agriculture Department’s recent Expenditures on Children and Families report.
