When you graduate you will embark on a new chapter in your professional life. You’ll be starting a new job – with new responsibilities, working with new colleagues, maybe even moving into a new home and starting a family.

Before you graduate, however, we want to remind you about the benefits that come with your TMA membership – some of which, you may not even be aware are available to you. This could be a good time to review those benefits, as they can be very valuable, particularly when you transition to the next phase of your career.

Physicians are feeling pressure due to rising student loans burdens, lower compensation expectations and shrinking health care reimbursements. These factors can distract from their primary motivations for pursuing a career in medicine – helping others, contributing to advancements in the medical field, and promoting health in their communities.

Insurance. If you’re a Millennial, the word probably evokes yawns and shrugs. But insurance is needed for many reasons in our lives. We purchase travel policies when we book a vacation. We insure our cars. But what happens when that car gets smashed by another car, sending you sideways into the landscape? Or the plane falls out of the sky? Or you get sick.

These are dramatic images, but they can happen. To anyone. At any age.

No one likes to consider their own mortality.  But if you have a family or spouse who relies on your income as a Texas physician, set those feelings aside. Realizing the need for life insurance is an important first step, while qualifying for it is much more involved, as insurers evaluate each application based on a number of criteria, including age, lifestyle, profession, and health. If you're considering applying for life insurance in Texas, be aware that these health conditions listed below may affect your application, resulting in higher premiums or denial.

Life insurance policies are a critical element of a family’s financial plan. Selecting the right policy ensures your family’s well-being should the unexpected take place.

An ideal mortgage loan candidate has low debt and a sizable income. Low debt is not often the case, however, for new physicians leaving residency. On average, physicians start their careers with $166,750 in debt. Leaving residency with large debts and career opportunities still on the horizon, new medical practitioners have many of the characteristics banks often try to avoid.

Graduating residents are tired of hearing it by now, but despite a good chance of having a greater income in the near future, this probably isn’t the time to trade in your used car for the keys to an expensive late-model vehicle. You want to be responsible, and that means thinking about how to spend wisely after residency.

As a new physician, how you manage your income is crucial in order to have a solid financial plan that is working for you. Decades ago, being a physician was much simpler; today, new physicians have to take on the rising costs of operating a practice plus the decreasing amounts of reimbursements from health insurance companies. So, how can you make the most of the income you are earning and avoid financial mistakes? Financial security starts by avoiding these five common financial pitfalls. Let us take a closer look at each one and the solution to circumvent it.