 Hey guys, my name is Boris. I'm a physician assistant and today's video is going to be about Money so the last video I posted called physician assistant versus MD doctor Which one gets rich the fastest did pretty well people seem to like these money topics And it's definitely something that I'm very passionate about personal finance And I mean we do what we do because we're passionate about the work We want to be healers. We want to be medical providers. We love medicine But of course money makes the world go around so you have to have money in order to provide for your lifestyle your family You know keep a roof over your head put food in your mouth if you have kids put food in their mouths Take care of your pets take care of your kids take care of your parents take care of your friends do what you got to do Money makes the world go around so it would actually be Irresponsible to think about a career without thinking about how much the career pays And if you're be able to provide the kind of lifestyle that you truly see yourself wanting to do for you on your family When you're considering a career right so people watch this channel for information on how to become a physician assistant on Living the life of a physician assistant about medicine about health. So if you're passionate about these things I think that money plays into a lot of these things and so let's go the topic of this video is living on a average physician assistant salary in 2022 which according to the AAPA annual salary report is a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars per year now that is average That's 50th percentile across all specialties across all experience levels So if you're working as a physician assistant, you know that your salary, you know year one just after school Usually is a whole lot lower than it might be after year even to especially after year five and especially after you've been practicing in the Same specialty for five ten years. You've built up a base of patience. You're much more efficient at your job You're much more knowledgeable your you don't have to bother your supervising positions as much you're much more independent You're much more profitable. So usually salaries tend to go up and sometimes way up as you get more experienced But that being said the average salary is still about a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars according to the salary report So that is what I'm going to go off of when I make this video So I'm just going to share my screen And we'll take it from here. Okay So check this out. So first off. I wanted to show you the the AAPA salary report if you're an AAPA member you have access to this thing and any Contract as a physician assistant should include membership to AAPA. They should pay for this thing So when you're negotiating for a salary, it's the most useful Also, if you're thinking about changing specialties thinking about living in a different part of the country just to see if you're paid fairly just to help you negotiate the AAPA annual salary report is a tremendously important tool So using this tool we see right here Nationwide in 2022 we have We have 50th percentile, which is average a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars 25th percentile. So bottom quarter is about a hundred and two thousand dollars 75th percentile So top 25 percent about a hundred and thirty two thousand dollars and then the people at the very top the top 10 percent The 90th percentile is making about a hundred and fifty seven so about close to 160 grand a year not too too bad And I think this is all compensation. Nope never mind scratch that it's not all compensation It's just salary. So if you see under here under nationwide that salary under there is also nationwide bonus So a lot of physician assistant contracts come with a base salary You know you make that no matter what and they also come with a bonus structure So if you happen to hit certain goals of productivity, you happen to bill You know above a certain threshold you get a certain percentage of that so basically I'm not going to give you an example, especially from my contract, but let's say, you know, I Don't know let's say they expect you to make $50,000 a month in billing and then let's say, you know anything over that they'll give you like 10% right? So let's say you make $60,000 a month for your practice that month then you get 10% of that extra 10 grand Which is going to be a thousand dollars. So that's a thousand dollars that month that you made in bonus That's usually how bonuses work the proportions, of course the numbers are totally fudged totally case-dependent You know specialty primary care compensation works wildly differently in a lot of different factors Well, I'm just giving you a good example of you know If you meet a threshold you get a certain percentage of whatever you bill above that threshold And of course I can go into way more detail about that, but that's just the basics of the bonus structure So basically here we have you know 50th percentile average base salary was about a hundred and fifteen thousand If you look just below that 50th percentile so average Bonus was five thousand dollars Annually so that means that the average physician assistant in 2022 made a total of a hundred and twenty two thousand dollars. Sorry a hundred and twenty thousand dollars per year These guys at the very very top hundred and fifty seven thousand dollar a year salary about twenty four thousand dollar a year bonus So that actually puts them up to just below a hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year all things included So that's actually quite good isn't it especially for a physician assistant? That's very very good And then here bringing up the rear these poor folks in the tenth percentile Probably working in a and assuming this is all full-time. None of this is part-time. This is all assuming full-time work So, you know forty fifty hours a week or so So these people working in probably one of the lower paid specialties like pediatrics tends to bring up the rear in most cases Unfortunately, you know, you're taking care of kids. It's super important But for whatever reason pediatrics does not make a whole lot of money a lot of time same with primary care You know, that's why I'm in it right now. I definitely feel that and I'm also getting out actually More to come on that. I don't think I've told anybody on YouTube, but yeah I'm actually changing specialties pretty shortly, but more to come on that later So basically these people at the bottom 10 percent Bottom 10th percentile here make about 92 grand a year plus, you know, this minimal bonus of like 700 bucks So even the physician assistants working full-time kind of at the bottom of the ladder are still making, you know Over 90 93 94 thousand dollars a year so not too too bad honestly not a bad career when the bottom 10 percent is making just over 90 grand, you know So yeah, and these are a lot of times probably just like new grads. Maybe they're doing fellowships where the pay is quite low This kind of a thing so yeah, so that's the average So this video is going to be on living on the average salary, which is a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars a year Plus the bonus making it about a hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year How easy is it to live on a hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year as a physician assistant? Okay, so that is what we are going to do. I'm going to use actually Just kind of an average us city. So I'm living in Syracuse, New York currently may not be here forever. Also, you heard it here first I might be moving Raleigh, North Carolina might be calling my name or possibly Tampa, Florida or possibly Cleveland, Ohio Those are my top three right now kind of heavily leading towards Raleigh, but we'll see what happens either way So Syracuse is a pretty low to average cost a living city. This website right here living cost org They have a lot of really good information. So for instance You know the average price of lunch the average price of dinner the average price of a cappuccino The average price of an apartment all this I see as pretty accurate having lived here Some things are not super accurate, but there are total calculations here for an actual monthly budget I think are total dog crap like They think that your transportation is gonna cost 60 bucks a month How how even if you have an electric car like no way absolutely not What are you doing writing a scooter to work or like a unicycle or something? Absolutely not not possible And so their average monthly salary here is 28 grand. I think that's actually pretty accurate. That's about 50 grand a year 50 55 60 grand a year. So that's pretty accurate for a single person But I think that this whole budget of 17 1800 bucks a month is absolutely impossible even in Syracuse So we're actually gonna build our own budget if you can see my screen, but we'll get to that in just a moment Also here Syracuse cost of living. It's about 11% lower than the national average, which is I'd say probably pretty accurate. Some places are much more expensive. Some places are much less expensive housing Kind of is less expensive if you buy a house housing prices here are quite low However rent prices are not that low and taxes are pretty high. So Either way, I'm just saying I'm using Syracuse as my experience because I've been living here the last few years So I know what it costs to live here. Okay, so that is what we're doing with that Okay, so first things first let's figure out and just like my last money video I'm gonna do this all in real time so you can see my thought process that I'm gonna build the spreadsheet in real time In case you need help building your own budget spreadsheet I'm gonna show you exactly how I do that how I do The calculations the totals and exactly how you can stay on budget because it's tremendously important that you do Manage your money well and not to come to lifestyle creep so First things first you need to figure out how much you're making per month, right 120, right? That's what we said hundred and twenty thousand dollars total between salary and bonus. Let's say you're the national average physician assistant, so We're going to do a hundred and twenty if you see that Hundred and twenty thousand dollars per year now the problem with this is most people are paid on a Bi-weekly basis so every two weeks which means twice a year you actually get an extra paycheck Which you know if you're smart you just kind of live on two paychecks a month And then those extra ones you use as a travel budget as a boost in your savings x y and z whatever you want to do But for the purposes of this video, I think it's a lot easier instead of calculating bi-weekly like most people are paid I think it would actually be much more beneficial to Con to um What am I trying to say brain freeze? Sorry, it's 458 P.m. And I've worked a very long day Monthly that's the word I'm looking for It's much more beneficial for the purposes of this video to just calculate monthly pay even though that's not what most people experience Okay, so monthly pay if you can use this calculator right here And this is again in Syracuse, New York Calculated with the New York State taxes which are quite absurdly high I personally don't pay any local taxes because I live in the city But like if you live in a suburb your taxes will be even higher, but this is just you know Calculated based on living in the city of Syracuse making a hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year your estimated monthly take-home pay is $6,500 a month Here's how this is calculated. Here's your tax bill right FICA state Federal taxes plus. I also this is one big assumption here, but this is something you should obviously do I assumed a pre-tax deduction of five percent because most contracts will have a IRA or retirement fund with match and usually you have to put in five percent of your take-home pay Or sorry five percent of your pre-tax pay in order to get that match So it's actually really stupid not to do that because it's just a lot of free money that you're leaving on the table for your retirement So I'm assuming that you're a physician assistant If you're a physician assistant, you're pretty smart And if you're pretty smart you better be putting away five percent of your pre-tax salary in your companies for 401k because you want to get that match and you want to save for retirement because you don't want to be old and poor You want to be old and rich at least I do Anyway, so those are my assumptions that you're living in Syracuse, New York with the crazy state taxes that we pay Plus the federal tax rate of whatever it may be here Plus you're putting away five percent of your pre-tax income into a 401k These are my assumptions with these assumptions in place. You see that your monthly take-home pay is about $6,500 per month pretty damn good. I would say especially in this area So knowing that $6,500 a month, let's go to our sample budget in our total monthly money Then is gonna be $6,500 per month. Okay I'm assuming you're not working any part-time jobs. I'm assuming you don't have like an annuity You don't have any other income of any sort I know a lot of people do but we're just assuming that you're living on this national average of $120,000 a year which equates to after Syracuse taxes and National taxes federal taxes and also putting away 5% of your pre-tax income into a 401k equates to about $6,500 a month. Okay Now These are all the line items on my personal budget and I think it's pretty comprehensive Obviously if you got kids you got daycare you got other expenses You know you might have line items that are different from mine, but I'm gonna do this pretty basic I think I cover what most people spend their money on at the very least most single people like myself, right? Oh, and actually that actually reminds me so here I am doing this as a single person you see marital status single if you click married your tax rate changes, of course And then other things get a little bit more complicated. You might have your spouse's income in there So it's just much easier to calculate these things and live in general as a single person You know people who are married obviously get tax benefits and things are different and their spouse might make money So that might make your household budget totally different also probably changes your household expenses So I'm gonna say as a single person. This is much much easier not to talk down to married people I'm sure sooner or later I'm gonna you know give in and join the ranks of you guys sometime down the line But that is not today or anytime soon, but anyway, so another assumption I forgot is we're doing this as a single person making 120 grand Which basically means the government's gonna be like, oh, yeah, give me that money because we're gonna text it from crap out of you Which uh, yeah, you can obviously tell how I feel about that Okay, so all those assumptions aside We are gonna say monthly income of $6,500 a month now when you're making your budget I say savings and sinking funds Those should be the last things you calculate because you need to know how much you're actually living off of first so the very first thing I'm going to put in here is Mortgage or rent right so that website that I just showed you they said that the average rent is like a thousand bucks for a one-bedroom That's kind of on the low side. You're not gonna live in a great part of town My mortgage is about 1,300 a month plus I pay extra obviously towards principal So let's just say for 1,500 a month You can definitely have a decent apartment or mortgage in a decent part of town where you're safe, right? You're professional you make good money You can definitely afford to live in a safe area and you should this is also assuming you don't have roommates You're living like an adult, you know So yeah, I'm gonna say $1,500 a month on rent also this website said something about utilities being like For the heck did it say oh that's rent and utilities for a thousand bucks. Yeah, no way fat chance. There's absolutely no way I'm gonna say utilities realistically for a small house even is like Maybe about 200 bucks a month Maybe and that's if you keep it pretty cool in the winter and pretty warm in the summer So yeah, I'm gonna say 200 minimum for utilities food Depending on how extravagant your budget is whether you shop at Aldi's or whether you shop at Wegmans, you know Or Costco for food, I think for a single person especially in 2022 with inflation as crazy as it is I think 400 is kind of a Decent amount if you eat like canned tuna canned beans and like Frickin can fruit never buy anything raw never buy anything Never buy anything fresh never really get good quality food Yeah, you could probably do it for like two to three hundred bucks a month, but you're just I don't know That's a very unsatisfying way to eat. You're not gonna be healthy I think 400 is a pretty decent amount kind of low to normal for spending on healthy food for one person every single month Going out entertainment again as a single person kind of important I'm going to say a bear minimum of like 200, but I mean think about it You take one person out to dinner even if it's not an expensive dinner You get a glass of wine and appetizer and like an entree each you're gonna be out 70 bucks even in Syracuse easy You know, you do that three or four times a month suddenly. That's like three $350 so I'm going to say people might like laugh at this figure But if you actually calculate your money and figure out how much you're actually living off of how much you actually spend on going out at The bars at the restaurants, whatever you may do buying lunches buying coffee in the morning buying breakfast I'm thinking you probably spend at least 300 realistically probably closer to 400, but let's say you're frugal Let's say you're going out entertainment budget is like 300 a month, which is actually pretty sparse honestly Health let's say you have a gym membership. Maybe you do some sort of a dance class Maybe you do some sort of a curricular extra curricular activity. That's active. Maybe you have some memberships Maybe you have a personal trainer. I personally pay for two gym memberships and a masseuse I get a deep tissue massage every month. So Somebody on average on their health should at the very least probably spend about a hundred bucks a month I'm gonna say, you know a massage here and there a gym membership Supplements, whatever it is, you know, if this is totally inaccurate for you cool Then you're a hundred dollars richer per month than I am But my health budget is actually quite a bit higher than this because I really care about my health Miscellaneous you should always have a little wiggle room. I'm gonna say 200 bucks You never know when you get a freaking parking ticket. You have to buy something random You know, I'm gonna say just a little wiggle room every month For gas and car expenses. This wildly varies on if you have a car payment or not I'm lucky enough to where I do not Granted my car is 200,000 miles on it and it's a total piece of crap So I might very well have a car payment soon But let's just assume you do not and then with gas as high as it is unless you have like a Tesla or something I'm gonna say like my my expense my budget here is about three hundred dollars a month If it's only gas I usually never hit that unless I take road trips But with insurance with random expenses with changing your oil, you know tires stuff comes up little repairs here and there I think 300 bucks a month Without a car payment is actually quite realistic phone bill. I think my phone bill is like 120 bucks But I get a veteran's discount and I pay for actually three lines. So I think a hundred bucks is probably pretty average for a phone bill Generosity charity You should definitely I mean, I'm not like a big Bible thumper or anything I'm actually Jewish, but I think the tithe, you know a tenth of your take-home pay is a very respectable amount to give Now granted with taxes as high as they are and so many of our taxes going to philanthropic things Maybe that tithe is kind of an old number a tenth of your income is might be I don't know Probably a little bit on the high side But still it makes you feel way better spending money on yourself and taking nice vacations and going out to a nice dinner When you know that 10% of your income you're actually giving to other people So maybe that would be just leaving a fat tip at a restaurant. I consider that generosity charity Maybe you pay for like a monthly contribution to charities that you believe in which I definitely do a few of them actually a few different things my Monthly donations are spread across three different charities that I very very very strongly believe in New York bully crew brothers for life and Vera house Are fantastic charities and definitely causes that I very very strongly believe in and want to champion So of course I put my money where my mouth is and I you know I give money every single month without even thinking about it to those charities And also I leave a little wiggle room in the generosity charity budget just to like I said give a really big tip Like if your waiters obviously having a bad day Give them a freaking hundred percent tip give them like 20 bucks give them 50 bucks Whatever you spent on the meal, you know on your overpriced food give that to an actual person You know they don't make that much money. They're obviously You know in some sort of transition part of their life if they're waiting tables so freakin give them some money All right, like you don't need it give it to them And it just makes you feel better as a human being that you're contributing every single month and also Dave Ramsey says this the money guy He says that generous people are just more attractive and it I don't know if that's necessarily true like directly But it just it makes you just feel better about life when you're contributing to other people instead of just me me Me what can I buy? What can I eat? What can I wear? What can I just give myself? It's just freakin like it's just better to Make sure that it's a line item on your budget to give to other people. Okay, so I'm going to say I don't know Maybe a little less than 10% let's say 500 bucks, right? Let's say 500 bucks a month. You are giving to other people if you're not I don't know Little bit of judgment past your way if you're making this kind of money you should freakin give some of it away Okay, okay All right student loans So I'm lucky enough to where I only have one student loan left at this point I had it's only a hundred bucks a month and it's interest free So mine is a hundred bucks a month more than likely if you're a new physician assistant Or even not so new more than likely you got you know at least 300 usually 500 or more a month coming out for student loans So since this video is for most people now for me I'm going to say 400 a month on student loans because that's actually quite realistic and might even be on the low side depending on how much you owe Yeah, all right. So now Before we do our savings and our sinking funds. Let's do this. So right now We are going to do How much we have left at the end of the month? So this is going to be equals and pay attention if you want to build one of these yourself equals this total monthly money minus open parentheses All of this select all these close parentheses What is happening? Why is this not working? Equals D3 Minus oh That's why okay So D3 or total monthly money minus the sum of all those Values There we go. Now we got a number. Okay. So basically what this is is our total monthly money Minus all these expenses that we came up with of course if you have other expenses if you have you know child care Like I said could be super expensive You got a car payment your student loan is different or you don't have student loans, you know Whatever expenses you have to add or subtract you do all of that you take it away from your total monthly money And that gives you $2,500 total leftover So that means that is going to be what you're going to do savings and or sinking funds and or adjust some of these as needed so let's say You know you want to save $2,000 a month and let's say you want to Put $500 a month into sinking funds sinking funds are just stuff that you're saving for Savings is to like build up your savings your emergency fund. Maybe you're saving for a house whatever that may be So for instance like my sinking funds are for a phone because I have an old iPhone 10 That's about to die For my computer because I have this ancient computer. I've been using since frickin before PA school. That's about to die So I'm just putting money away patiently every single month suffering with these crappy devices until I have enough saved In those sinking funds in order to replace the devices, you know I don't just swipe my credit card and buy crap and pay it off later. That's a stupid way to go I contribute every month into my sinking funds and patiently wait until I have enough to buy what I want to buy All right, so that's basically your savings for whatever you're saving for your savings in general is you got to pay yourself first Even on top of the 401k contribution that we're making you got to pay yourself first build your fortune build your emergency fund So that way when your roof caves in you get in a car accident you get fired You know, you got to live on something for a while you have money and it's more of an inconvenience than a tragedy Whatever it is that happened to you, right? So always always save money always always save up for things that you're doing and so now you see here at the end We're at zero. We're zeroed out, right? So every single dollar we make is accounted for And you know, I think this is a pretty respectable budget if you know, let's say you go out a lot You know, maybe your entertainment budget is gonna be like 500 a month, which seems laughable But honestly try calculating how much you spend on restaurants bars coffee and breakfast and lunches every month I bet you it's actually probably in excess of $500 a month if you make decent money, right? And then of course because that's now 500 now we're 200 in the hole. So now savings is probably gonna be less, right? 1800 so that's how that works anyway guys so This turned into a budgeting exercise But basically the title of this video was living on an average physician assistant salary in 2022, which is a hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year In a pretty average kind of low to average cost of living city Of course in Manhattan. This would be a whole different beast. Your your mortgage or rent would be like thirty five hundred four thousand dollars Which basically leaves you almost nothing for anything else. So in one of those cities, you know $120,000 just simply does not go a long way in a city like Syracuse Pittsburgh Cleveland Detroit, you know places that nobody kind of wants to live The unspoken truth, you know, $120,000 a year is actually a very very good salary as you can tell you can live Very very well and still have tons of money left over to save and invest and do everything that you're gonna do, right? So that's the video guys. Let me know what you think and I'll see you in the next video