 So how much money do you make in residency? Is it enough? What's your budget like? Do I save? Do I invest? Lots of questions, but guys in this episode of the TMJ show, episode number three, whether you're listening to this on a podcast or YouTube, we're going to answer each and every one of those questions and we'll give you my full numbers, complete honesty. So let's get into it. All right guys, what is going on? Luxury of an empty journey helping you succeed on your medical journey with less stress. Now, if you're new to this platform, if you're new to the podcast, welcome. I am currently an internal medicine resident and I really have had one mission and one goal in mind since starting an empty journey, almost three plus years ago. And that's to help people through my own experiences, learn how to do well through my successes and failures while avoiding access and unnecessary stress. That's my whole platform. So if you enjoy that message, make sure that you subscribe and download the weekly podcast episodes. If you're watching this on YouTube, make sure you hit that subscribe button as well as the like button. And finally, I need your help with two more things before we get started today. And that is if you're listening on podcast and make sure after this episode, if you enjoy the content that you go ahead and find your favorite platform, whether that be Spotify, iTunes, you name it, and leave an honest feedback. It doesn't have to be five stars by any means, although that's very appreciated. And one that obviously helps me grow the podcast and reach more individuals. But two, I also want to thank you for providing feedback so the end of every week, we're selecting one lesson winner to be selected to win either an e-book or a training course, video course of their choice. So make sure you leave your feedback to be selected and entered for that weekly giveaway. But let's get into today's episode, which is all about numbers, money, and residency. How much do I make? How much do I save? We're going to talk about all of that and more. Now, the first thing is obviously how much do I make? Now, I'm a first year internal Madison resident currently as I'm making up this episode in the state of Texas, the United States. So obviously if you live elsewhere or if you're further along your training or further behind, you're going to make a different amount. So I currently make right around $59,000, which is typical for somebody living in this area. If you go more towards the northeast or the west coast, your salary may be higher, but your cost of living may also be higher. So it's a little bit of a cat and mouse game when you look at salaries. Now, it's important to mention that that $59,000 is before tax. So each paycheck, obviously a little bit of social security and the rest of the federal taxes are taken. I live in the state of Texas, so there are no state taxes, but for some of you that is something to consider. But once you take the taxes as well as my monthly insurance that I pay for my wife and I, our monthly income comes out to a little over $3,200. So that's basically how much we have to spend every single month. So the next question that most people want to ask is, is that enough money? Is $3,200 enough? And obviously this will depend on a few things. One, your cost of living. So how expensive is the city or area you're living in? Two, your own lifestyle choices. You know, what is your expenses like? Three, it's also, you know, how many people are dependent on you for a salary. So I live in a low cost of living with my wife and I in an area that's relatively pretty affordable with a very good salary. So we're able to take that $3,200 much further than somebody, one of my peers may be in New York and California. So just keep that in mind. But to help you understand what budget looks like and how much I can stress that $3,200 when you include my rent and add in utilities, internet, electricity and all of that, that comes to about $1,500, maybe a little bit less, a little bit more on certain months. And then when you throw in groceries and gas and other expenses that are typical for a month to month basis, all of that ends up coming out to a little less than $24 to $2,500 per month. So if you do that math, that means I'm making $3,200 and I'm saving about $1,000. In fact, my wife and I make sure that before we start using our money on expenses, we throw in $500 every paycheck or $1,000 every month to our emergency fund or a savings account to make sure that we're always constantly saving. Now just keep in mind that that number of $1,000 may or may not be doable for all of you. Obviously, you're going to have different lifestyle situations. You may have kids, you may have a significant other who's in school or other expenses that you may have to make or maybe even more doable because you have two incomes in the household where you can throw even more money at debt as well as saving. But just keep that in mind. There's many different factors that will play a role into how much money you end up keeping and saving. Now the next few questions that people like to ask are things like, do you like to invest or are you paying off your loans or do you have enough money to splurge on things? So answering question number one, do I invest currently? The answer is no. Have I done it in the past? Absolutely. And those portfolios are not being touched. But the reason I'm not investing currently is that I'm more prioritized on creating a cash reserve because this is my first-ever job and my medical profession because when you're a medical student, obviously you're not going to be paid. So now my job is to do one thing and that's to create enough cash reserve for a rainy day fund, you could say. So if my car was to break down, I wouldn't have to pay month to month. Instead, I could just pay a new car or a used car with cash and feel comfortable about it. And then as soon as that cash reserve reaches a certain threshold, then I will start to make some smart investments and tax deferred accounts like IRAs as well as starting to pay off my debt. So that's basically my plan and I can obviously make more episodes about that in the future. But that's a long-winded way of saying currently working on building the cash reserve and going to reach that goal pretty quickly and then as soon as I'm able to do that, then I'll decide whether I want to do a little bit of investing as well as paying off my loans at the same time. Now the last question is do we splurge? And the answer is within our means. Do we live on rice and beans kind of budget? Absolutely not. They're obviously financial gurus, Mr. Ramsey that say this and you know, it may work for certain people, but knowing how hard you have worked so far, you know, it's okay ever so often to treat yourself to go out to eat or to buy each other the gifts for my wife and I. As long as obviously it's in the budget. If there is something that we can't afford, we just don't buy it as simple as that. If there's money in the savings account that it makes sense and it's something that we actually need versus something that we want, then we'll buy it. If it's something that we want, then we'll consider you know, what we're willing to sacrifice, whether that's monthly expenses or saving a little bit over time to have that want to just keep that in mind. Obviously you don't have to be living on a penny and a paycheck to paycheck kind of budget, but you do need to be smart with your money because it helps you do two things. One is it teaches you the proper habits that you can then take with you when you become an attending and have a much higher salary and two and make sure that you're always grounded in understanding what's valuable versus just wanting tangible things to make you feel happier. But that guys in a nutshell is basically all the numbers and money in the math that goes into a resident salary. If you guys have more questions, then go ahead and let me know in the show notes down below, the description down below in the YouTube channel. And as like I said, if you have watched it this far and you're watching it on YouTube, then make sure first of all, obviously hit that like button, subscribe to this channel. And finally, if you're listening to this on a podcast, make sure you don't forget to go ahead and find your favorite platform for podcasts, whether that be iTunes or Spotify and leave an honest review each and every week. We'll go ahead selecting one lucky winner to go ahead and then a free video course and book of their choice. So make sure you enter that drawing. And if you're watching this on YouTube, like I mentioned, go ahead and hit that like button and subscribe to this channel. And lastly, I want to mention that today's episode of the TMJ show was brought to you by my level up your studying course, which is a three week course to teach you how to do one thing. And that's completely transformed your study system to become perfect for you. So go ahead and check out in the description, the show notes down below to see the different types of transformations our previous students have had and assess if it's going to work for you. I'm going to definitely check that out. But that's going to be it for today's episode guys. Thank you so much for attending. I'm going to hope to see you guys in the future. Take care, my friends.