209: Why the Landlord Life Isn't In My $16M Retirement Strategy

Whenever I talk about being on track for a $16M retirement, one of the first questions I get is: “Is this based on real estate investments?”   No.   In this week’s podcast, I’m talking about my decision around real estate—and why investment properties aren’t part of my retirement strategy.   This is NOT an anti-real-estate episode. If real estate is creating wealth, joy and freedom, I love that for you.   And we don’t have to choose between real estate and the stock market. Stock market investments can fund real estate purchases. Real estate income can fund stock market investments. They can work together beautifully.   This conversation is meant to round out what can sometimes feel like peer pressure in the physician community to become a landlord so you pick the wealth building strategy that works best for you.    Inside the episode: Why the GOAL isn’t real estate—or the stock market. It’s building enough wealth to leave Medicine without leaving our physician paycheck. The question I think every physician should ask BEFORE choosing a wealth-building strategy. Why I personally don’t consider investment properties passive income—and what passive means to me. What I actually AGREE with the real estate gurus about. Why there are multiple roads to the same destination—and the best strategy is the one that actually creates the life we want.   This is the kind of work we do inside of Next Level Freedom, my lifetime coaching program only for physician women. Inside I teach women physicians how to create a $100,000 raise on part-time hours to supercharge your wealth portfolio and retire even EARLIER.  Go to link in bio to join the email list and be the first to snag your seat at my free live Leave Medicine without Leaving Your Physician Paycheck Masterclass in October.   Can’t wait to join Next Level Freedom? Book your free sales call HERE: https://app.squarespacescheduling.com/schedule/bd3b6a3c/appointment/33598962/calendar/5849920.   Write me back with your nosiest questions! Christina   P.S. My plan is to have my wealth portfolio replace my physician salary so I can leave Medicine without leaving my physician paycheck. If this is the work you want to do, join Next Level Freedom. Book your free sales call HERE: https://app.squarespacescheduling.com/schedule/bd3b6a3c/appointment/33598962/calendar/5849920.   *I am not a certified financial expert. Make sure to do your own math and make well-informed decisions with your certified financial advisor. My results are not necessarily your results. Results are not guaranteed.

Everyone told us: Never go to bed angry. Talk it out. Stay up all night if you have to.   TERRIBLE advice for us. 😂   We’d stay up trying to fix the problem. The next day, we still had the original problem. Plus now we were deeply hurt AND exhausted.   After 27 years of a wonderful relationship, we created a whole system of how to prevent fighting over money.    The beauty of this system is that it is designed for two people who have very different approaches to money. I have a lot of money ptsd and am super sensitive. If it works for me (and it does!), it will work for you too.   This week on the podcast, I’m sharing it all:   💎The exact rules we use to stop a money disagreement from becoming a marriage problem 💎Why location is ESSENTIAL for healthy money conversations 💎Signs that the money conversation needs a time out 💎Scripts you can say so you can get your timeout without the other person feeling abandoned 💎Exactly how WE set up our finances + my personal take on joint accounts, separate accounts, prenups and postnups   This is the kind of work we do inside of Next Level Freedom, my lifetime coaching program only for physician women. Inside I teach women physicians how to create a $100,000 raise on part-time hours to supercharge your wealth portfolio and retire even EARLIER.  Go to link in bio to join the email list and be the first to snag your seat at my free live Leave Medicine without Leaving Your Physician Paycheck Masterclass Oct 22. Can’t wait to join Next Level Freedom? Book your free sales call HERE.   Write me back with your nosiest questions! Christina   P.S. My plan is to have my wealth portfolio replace my physician salary so I can leave Medicine without leaving my physician paycheck. If this is the work you want to do, join Next Level Freedom. Book your free sales call HERE.   *I am not a certified financial expert. Make sure to do your own math and make well-informed decisions with your certified financial advisor. My results are not necessarily your results. Results are not guaranteed.  

My first money breakthrough came from this realization: Our relationship with money is like any other relationship. OMG. If money were my child, CPS would have been called.  If money were my spouse, we would have divorced years ago. I neglected it. Avoided it. Criticized it for never being enough. Panicked when it left. No wonder our relationship was terrible. 😂 This week on the podcast, I’m sharing one of the earliest breakthroughs behind my $16 million retirement strategy:  Treat money like a relationship I actually want to keep. Inside: 💎The marriage test that exposes your relationship with money FAST. 💎My old money story that kept me terrified even with a physician salary and feeling broke 24/7. 💎How I turned “I’m bad with money” into a $16M wealth strategy. 💎Why you need to give money a job. And next week: how NOT to fight with your spouse about money. After 27 years together, I have some thoughts. 😂   This is the kind of work we do inside of Next Level Freedom, my lifetime coaching program only for physician women. Inside I teach women physicians how to create a $100,000 raise on part-time hours to supercharge your wealth portfolio and retire even EARLIER.  Go to link in bio to join the email list and be the first to snag your seat at my free live Leave Medicine without Leaving Your Physician Paycheck Masterclass Oct 22. Can’t wait to join Next Level Freedom? Book your free sales call HERE.   Write me back with your nosiest questions! Christina   P.S. My plan is to have my wealth portfolio replace my physician salary so I can leave Medicine without leaving my physician paycheck. If this is the work you want to do, join Next Level Freedom. Book your free sales call HERE.   *I am not a certified financial expert. Make sure to do your own math and make well-informed decisions with your certified financial advisor. My results are not necessarily your results. Results are not guaranteed.  

I used to think the stock market was scary. Risky. Dangerous. Plus, my money ptsd convinced me I was bad with money. Hated math. Avoided my finances. I really could have used the financial literacy version of the birds and the bees talk. 😂 So this week on the podcast, I’m giving it. 10 Things I Wish Someone Told Me About Investing in the Stock Market. Including: 💎The ridiculously simple calculation I used to determine exactly how much we need invested to leave Medicine WITHOUT leaving our physician paycheck 💎How investments can make your babies work-optional 💎How to start investing when we’re BROKE in residency (I started while supporting two babies + a med-student husband on $50K) 💎What to do during a stock market crash—and why I don’t panic anymore 💎Apple? Amazon? Tesla? How the heck are we supposed to know which companies will win?  💎Why I stopped automatically believing a SAVINGS ACCOUNT was the safest place for my long-term money when I found out what my bank does with my savings. OMG! 💎What to do if we’re 50 with almost NOTHING invested for retirement—and why it’s absolutely not too late to start   This is the kind of work we do inside of Next Level Freedom, my lifetime coaching program only for physician women. Inside I teach women physicians how to create a $100,000 raise on part-time hours to supercharge your wealth portfolio and retire even EARLIER.  Go to link in bio to join the email list and be the first to snag your seat at my free live Leave Medicine without Leaving Your Physician Paycheck Masterclass in October. Can’t wait to join Next Level Freedom? Book your free sales call HERE: https://app.squarespacescheduling.com/schedule/bd3b6a3c/appointment/33598962/calendar/5849920. Write me back with your nosiest questions! Christina   P.S. My plan is to have my wealth portfolio replace my physician salary so I can leave Medicine without leaving my physician paycheck. If this is the work you want to do, join Next Level Freedom. Book your free sales call HERE: https://app.squarespacescheduling.com/schedule/bd3b6a3c/appointment/33598962/calendar/5849920.   *I am not a certified financial expert. Make sure to do your own math and make well-informed decisions with your certified financial advisor. My results are not necessarily your results. Results are not guaranteed.  

She told me she can’t afford to retire.  She took out $120,000 in student loans, did everything to pay them back aggressively, and didn’t prioritize retirement. Her plan is to work until she can’t. Because there is no retirement. This breaks my heart.  And I've heard this story many times. From many extraordinary physicians. Because we aren’t taught about how to have an exit plan from Medicine. We’re taught to work forever. In this week's episode, I walk you through how one decision I made in residency has us on track for a $16 million retirement portfolio. So we can retire from medicine and have our portfolio replace our physician salaries.  Leave Medicine without leaving your physician paycheck. Here's what I get into: 💎Why you’re probably further along than you think and a tool to prove it! 💎4 simple steps you can do TODAY to be on track for your own $16M retirement plan 💎The exact dollar amount I started investing as a resident and what it’s worth today 💎The UNHINGED strategy that created $289,000 💎The impact of the 2008 housing crisis and pandemic on our wealth strategy   This is the kind of work we do inside of Next Level Freedom. Inside NLF I teach women physicians how to cut back their hours, create a $100K raise, and build the multi-million dollar exit plan that replaces your physician salary without one more RVU. Book your free sales call HERE.   Write me back with your nosiest questions! Christina   P.S. My plan is to have my wealth portfolio replace my physician salary so I can leave Medicine without leaving my physician pay check. If this is the work you want to do, join Next Level Freedom. Inside NLF I teach women physicians how to cut back their hours, create a $100K raise, and build the multi-million dollar exit plan that replaces your physician salary without one more RVU. Book your free sales call HERE.   *I am not a certified financial expert. Make sure to do your own math and make well-informed decisions with your certified financial advisor.

When we graduated college, our friends got gorgeous salaries, condos, nice cars, and started having babies.   We didn't.   It was four years of med school, four years of residency, three years of fellowship. We scoured campus for free meals, made a 20 year old car go a little further, shared a one bathroom apartment with four other med students.   That's 11+ years of being told: have the baby later, buy the house later, live your life later.   What I did looked reckless from the outside. I got married in med school. Had two babies before fellowship. Bought a house right before the 2008 housing crisis and had to sell it three years later.   My husband and I were living like attendings while we were residents.   It wasn't a mistake. It was the strategy.   Here's what you get in this week's episode: The one piece of advice from a stranger that made me decide med school was the time to have baby #1 The financial math that made living like an attending as a resident a smart move The one question to ask yourself to be on track for a $16M retirement account What I'd say to every physician who did live like a resident instead, because that strategy works too   Write me back with your nosiest questions! Christina   P.S. If building your family without missing your life milestones is a priority, and you want a plan to eventually leave medicine without losing your physician paycheck, book a free sales call for Next Level Freedom. Inside NLF I teach women physicians how to cut back their hours, create a $100K raise, and build the multi-million dollar exit plan that replaces your physician salary without one more RVU. Book your free sales call HERE.

Because we physicians are high earners, it’s easy to think “I’m going to be financially okay forever.” But there’s one gigantic problem with a physician salary: It only pays us while we can keep working. Unless your retirement plan is to work forever, never get sick, hope no one you love ever dies or gets sick…we NEED a better plan. A physician salary made us high earners. In this episode, we talk how to be replace your physician paycheck so your lifestyle doesn’t depend on hospital shifts or RVUs. You’ll learn: 💎The surprising reason your physician salary may be the least important number in your retirement plan 💎Why you're making more money than you ever have and you still feel broke, living paycheck to paycheck. 💎T. Rowe Price research shows retirees can see a 20 percent jump in spending at retirement; thinking you'll just need less later is a dangerous plan. 💎The three moments that can end a physician paycheck overnight, and how you'll never have to choose between being there for a loved one and keeping your house. 💎How to give yourself your biggest Million dollar raise….except this one comes from your investments instead of RVUs 🎧 Listen to the episode here. This is the work we do inside Next Level Freedom. If you’re ready to start building your $16 million retirement portfolio, book your free sales call HERE. Write me back with your NOSIEST questions! Christina P.S. Please share this episode with a woman physician in your world who news a $16Million retirement portfolio.

I haven’t contributed one penny to my retirement account since leaving medicine three years ago. And we’re still on track for $16 million. Trust fund baby? Nope. I inherited debt, not wealth. Huge physician salary? I was an academic pathologist. In physician terms: BROKE.  Perfect financial plan? Absolutely not. I forgot the 529. Saved nothing for son’s college. And yet...$16 million. Welcome to my Unhinged $16 Million Retirement Series. I’m opening the books and sharing the unconventional, unpopular and controversial decisions that got us here. This is what no one else will tell you. Here’s what you get in this episode: 💎 Why I stopped contributing to my retirement account at 45 and don't plan to start again 💎 How to build wealth by NOT  skipping the handbag, European vacation or first-class seat 💎 Why the financial "mistakes" you think you've made area actually part of your smartest strategy yet This is the work we do in Next Level Freedom. If you’re ready to build your $16 million wealth portfolio, book a free sales call to join Next Level Freedom today HERE.   Write back with your nosiest questions! Christina   P.S. You don’t need a time machine to fix what you didn’t do 20 years ago. You need a strategy for the money you have today. Get started by booking your free sales call for Next Level Freedom HERE.

Dr. Cigdem Himmetoglu-Ussakli is a GI and Molecular subspecialized pathologist in academics. She came to the United States as an international medical graduate after training in Turkey. She’s built a successful career, expanded her interests in advocacy, leadership, and coaching, while also being a wife and mom. She is also one of the very first OGs to join Next Level Freedom! Hear her very special journey in this episode! In this episode you get: ◆ Her very own framework for managing workplace conflict while protecting relationships, honoring values, and doing good work ◆ How to overcome the unique loneliness of starting her career over as an IMG in the US ◆ Now that she has more energy and time, how she incorporated time for her passion projects of advocacy, leadership, and coaching ◆ The sweetest Christmas gift her husband gave her and her connection to Supreme Court Justices! For these exact frameworks, make sure to join Next Level Freedom. We only open once a year. Miss this and the next chance is summer 2027. Your $100K raise. Your part-time schedule. Your son's soccer games. Don't miss out! Sign up now here to cut back to part-time hours at your full-time doctor salary in under 90 days. JOIN HERE NOW: https://christinaarnoldcoaching.com/next-level-freedom    Reply back and tell me everything, Christina PS. Make sure to connect with Cigdem here! https://www.linkedin.com/in/cigdemussakli/

Recruiters told Dr. Reyhan Ertekin the same thing. As a fellow with no experience and an IMG, just take the first job that comes to you. Do not ask for anything. Be grateful you have a job at all. She came to me. Inside of Next Level Freedom we created customized scripts for her. We supported her through the in person interviews, the emails, the salary discussions. She created TEN dream job offers. A raise of over $100,000 over what the recruited predicted. That’s millions more for her family. As a breadwinner that mattered.  And she still gets home by 5PM. Excellent work done. Patient care focused. And hours to be with family, go for 4 walks a week, run around the yard with her adorable 2 year old. In This Episode You Get: ◆ How she turned her family's non-negotiables into actual terms in her job offer  ◆ How she created 10 dream job offers instead of settling for the first one a recruiter handed her, even as a fellow ◆ How she created a raise of over $100,000+ of what the recruiters predicted. As a breadwinner this matters. ◆ How she structures her schedule to be home by 5PM, even as a fellow, even as the newest hire   For these exact frameworks, join my free, live masterclass series July 28th, July 29th, and July 30th where you get the exact process of cutting back to part-time hours at your full-time doctor salary in under 90 days. [REGISTER HERE] https://christinaarnoldcoaching.com/live-masterclass    Reply back and tell me everything, Christina P.S.  At the live masterclass, doors open to Next Level Freedom with an unprecedented 72-hour bonus bundle. Next Level Freedom is for women physicians done sacrificing their families for their careers. We only opens once a year. Miss this and the next chance is summer 2027. Your $100K raise. Your part-time schedule. Your son's soccer games. Don't miss out! Sign up for the free live masterclass now! [REGISTER HERE] https://christinaarnoldcoaching.com/live-masterclass