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Are you ready for retirement?

Practice Management. By Julie A. Jacob, amednews staff. Sept. 24, 2001.

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On an especially hectic day of practice, you might think to yourself: "I can't wait until I retire."

But will you be financially ready to retire? Most people nowadays can expect to live 20 years or more after they retire and lead healthy, active lives for most of that time.

That's why it's important to plan now for your retirement to make sure that you will have the money you need to maintain your lifestyle and pursue your interests after retirement. It's especially important for physicians to develop a good retirement planning strategy because they have less time to save for retirement than most other people, and they don't start saving until they have completed their training.

Usually physicians start accumulating for retirement a lot later than other professionals, and they often graduate from medical school with the privilege of having a couple hundred thousand dollars in loans, said Paul H. Sutherland, a certified financial planner and author of the AMA Press book Twelve Steps to a Carefree Retirement: How to Avoid Pre-Retirement Anxiety.

A. Patrice Burgess, MD, a family physician in Boise, Idaho, said young physicians aren't as aware of retirement planning as they should be. New doctors often have their hands full getting started in practice, she said, and postpone retirement planning until they are established.

"You come out of residency with quite a lot of debt; you have to buy a house, buy a car, start up a practice, start a family," said Dr. Burgess, chair-elect of the AMA's Young Physicians Section. "But the sooner you get started on retirement, the better off you're going to be," Dr. Burgess said. [...]