How doctors can navigate the financial crisis

"Out of the blue, a new virus popped up, and ten weeks later, it is a pandemic. Within the last ten weeks, doctors have identified this new disease, figured out how it is transmitted, identified what body fluid we need to test to determine who has contracted the disease, developed a test for it, mass-produced that test, and distributed the tests all over the world. What an incredible response we have had from the medical community. I can't believe we could do all that so quickly. Hats off to the researchers who pulled off this incredible feat. Yet to hear it on the news, we haven't done anything to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Now we have been asked to use social distancing to help slow down the spread of this virus. Workers staying home from work is disrupting income all over the world. The entire travel industry has almost shut down. Cruise ships are suspending operations, professional and amateur sports have come to a halt, Broadway has shut down, even Las Vegas is putting away the red carpet. People are told to stay home. Businesses have shut down, including Disneyland. The economy has slowed to a standstill. This is even worse than the government shutdown. This pandemic highlights the need for an emergency fund."

Cory Fawcett is a general surgeon and can be reached at Financial Success MD. He is the author of The Doctors Guide to Starting Your Practice Right, The Doctors Guide to Eliminating Debt, and The Doctors Guide to Smart Career Alternatives and Retirement.

He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "This pandemic highlights the need for an emergency fund" (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/04/this-pandemic-highlights-the-need-for-an-emergency-fund.html) and his book, The Doctors Guide to Navigating a Financial Crisis. (https://amzn.to/2YeO5DV)