So you are interested in personal finance (ok, you LOVE personal finance). It has become more than just a hobby for you. You spend a lot of time reading personal finance books and consuming podcasts like Money Meets Medicine, but it is because you truly have a passion for educating yourself on money. 

Then slowly, your friends and family began to ask you questions about personal finance. Specifically, your fellow residents and, eventually doctors began to see you as the go-to person when it came to an understanding of personal finance for doctors. 

That is how it happened for Lisha and me. We started out having a personal interest in money and started consuming different books and podcasts to educate ourselves on personal finance. As that passion grew, our friends and family would begin to ask us (what we felt) were basic personal finance questions. And, of course, we would share, okay, maybe overshare, what we knew. 

From there, we decided to get into formally teaching personal finance to doctors. We decided to create the podcast Money Meets Medicine, I teach a 10-week personal finance curriculum to the 4th year medical students at Wake Forest, and we created and run the personal finance curriculum for doctors called Medical Degree Financial University (MDFU). And it is the reason that we both have blogged about money for doctors for years. 

Because of our journey, I know that there are medical professionals out there who want to provide personal finance lectures to others around them or maybe even create a personal finance curriculum if they are in academics. All of that is to say you are likely still reading this because you are interested in creating a personal finance curriculum for doctors yourself. You know you (1) know the personal finance information and (2) have a passion for sharing it with other residents and physicians. 

All of this begs one big question for those interested in teaching others about personal finance… If you were to travel back to your training days (medical school, PA school, dental school, anesthesia school, etc), what would you have wanted someone to teach you about money?

Teaching Friends and Family About Personal Finance 

The likely place you are going to start is teaching your friends and family about personal finance (they may or may not be residents or doctors). There are some key points I want to really highlight here if this is where you currently are or want to start. 

First, don’t force it! No one wants an education about something they aren’t interested in. Actually, you may turn them off to personal finance altogether if you force the information on them. This could look like gifting a book to a family member as a hint, sending unwanted emails, or even talking ONLY about personal finance when you are with them. Does this sound like something you are doing? Stop. I promise you will find people that truly are interested and will naturally begin to ask you questions. 

Second, get people on the same page… you can teach one person about personal finance. Still, if they are in a committed relationship, their partner or spouse is going to have a significant impact on their financial decisions. I experience this personally with my wife Kristen. She could care less about Roth IRAs or 401B plans, but she does care about our future and family. So the way that we work together on this is that she gives me her wants and thoughts on what our future looks like (it’s a dialogue between us), and then I help set up the money to make that happen. Yes, I will let her know when things are changing and why, but I don’t need her to know all of the details on how a Roth IRA works or how I file our taxes. 

So if you have someone naturally very interested in personal finance for themselves, try to work with them to get other significant people on the same page. Help them find that common ground (end results usually) with that person so they support the money moves you recommend making. 

How to Create A Personal Finance Curriculum for Doctors 

So earlier, I talked about how between myself and Lisha have more formal ways that we teach doctors about money (the podcast Money Meets Medicine, a 10-week personal finance curriculum at Wake Forest, Medical Degree Financial University (MDFU), and blogs). This might be a path you are interested in pursuing as well, so I wanted to expand on some different ways to do that. 

Start with getting buy-in from the institution you want to design a finance curriculum for.  When I started to design a curriculum for 4th-year medical students at Wake Forest, I used a design team of students at Wake to help understand the best way to design the course. I learned what they really needed to know and wanted to know. What would help move the needle for them in terms of understanding their loans, how to invest during residency and after, and what to do when they get a huge jump in salary? 

The main takeaway here is to create a design team from your target audience (these are also sometimes called focus groups). That way you know you are creating something your target audience really wants and needs. 

You also want to consider including topics that expand a little bit outside of just personal finance for doctors. For example, my friend Jason Mizell at the University of Arkansas educates students on the business of medicine so they can understand more deeply why the system works the way it does and how that affects them as residents and doctors. Or maybe you just focus strictly on personal finance topics like student loans, investing, asset protection, etc? Some of this information will come out of the design team if you choose to utilize that idea. 

Consider in your curriculum who gives the lectures. Will it be the faculty, financial industry representatives, or only you? Remember that if it is other faculty members you will also need materials for them on what to teach what weeks, how, key points, exercises, and ensure they are confident in teaching the information. 

If you choose to have financial industry representatives come in please ensure you vet them. Unfortunately, there are people in the financial industry that are in it for the commission and are not going to give your students the best education. 

I mentioned this above when teaching personal finance to family and friends, but I want to bring it in again here because it is a key part of helping someone actually create a healthy personal finance life – their partners. If this is a formal curriculum (maybe through a university or a business venture you start), who will you invite? Just the learners or their partners and spouses too? 

 Finally, please make sure you are somehow compensated for your time, especially if this is important to you. Some ways I have seen this done (and done this myself) is a reduction in FTE hours, actually getting paid additional income for the lectures and a royalty for the curriculum. It is so important to make sure you are not people pleasing here and you ensure you are compensated for your knowledge and time. 

So there you have it! Everything I tell doctors that come to me asking, “How do I teach other doctors about personal finance? How do I create a personal finance curriculum for doctors?” I often get emails on these specific questions, so I hope this helps you share your personal finance knowledge in a way you want with others. 

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