Am I On Track

One of the questions our advisors get most frequently from clients is, “Am I on track?”  In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey Janoff and Rachelle Vanderzanden, walk through a few ways to evaluate progress toward your goals.

Steps to assess your progress:

• First, decide on what you are trying to achieve! Goals are different for everyone.
  • This can be retirement, college savings, debt repayment, and many other financial goals.
• For debt repayment, if you have a plan and an end date, you can see if you are on track!
  • Simple debt calculators can help with this.
  • Decide on a time frame you’d like the debt to be repaid, enter in the interest rate, principle amount, and time frame and you will know how much you need to pay each month.
  • Could be anything from paying off student loans in five years to repaying your mortgage before you retire at Age 60,
• For college saving, this can vary dramatically depending on your goals.
  • Simple calculators for this online as well, but must use many assumptions about the costs and investment returns.
  • A little more challenging!
• Can be very challenging to assess progress toward retirement goals.
  • Think about the lifestyle you’d like to have, when you may want to retire, and how much you are able to save. These are things you can control a bit, whereas you cannot control investment returns.
  • Don’t pay attention to benchmarks online. This is different for you based on your career trajectory.  Look at your individual situation.

Many young medical professionals are not “on track” based on common online metrics, because you are getting a late start!  Do your best to focus on these goals early in your attending career, and you should be able to make progress very quickly.  Then assess your progress over time.

For more financial planning tips from Corey and Rachelle, you can reach out to them at podcast@thefinitygroup.com. They would love to hear your questions and ideas for upcoming episodes.

Discussions in this show should not be construed as specific recommendations or investment advice. Always consult with your investment professional before making important investment decisions. Securities offered through Registered Representatives of Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., a broker-dealer, member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Adviser. Finity Group, LLC and Cambridge are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax or legal advice.