Stealth Assets to Pursue Early in Your Radiology Career

We’re having our third or fourth snowfall of the season as I write this. Upon waking, I saw a message from the guy who installed our heated driveway (which I wrote about last year). He has been attentive, asking after its performance and eager for pictures. I am only too happy to oblige. He is getting a strong online review from me.

Other folks plunking down the substantial coin necessary for such a project might tell you it’s worth it for the increased value of the property. I hope to never sell in part because I hate moving. My beneficiaries can reap the profits if they don’t decide to just live here.

Robert Kiyosaki (of Rich Dad Poor Dad fame) would not consider the driveway or even the property to be an asset. That flies in the face of popular wisdom. Many will tell you that your home is your greatest asset. His take is that something is only an asset if it is putting money in your pocket and, for most, a home does not do that. Instead, it costs you upkeep, taxes, mortgage interest, etc. It only becomes an asset if/when you sell it for a profit.

I differ from that when it comes to things such as the driveway. It is most definitely not putting money in my pocket. I would have to live through an insane number of snowfalls before the cost of its installation and electricity-usage was surpassed by the cost of having my landscaper come to plow the thing out. That is especially the case since I didn’t always call him. I used to enjoy digging it out myself when circumstances permitted. It was a break from my usual exercise routine.

The problem with that approach was that the landscaper couldn’t always come by at the drop of a hat, and I couldn’t always be on hand with my shovel. Sometimes we would wake up and want to drive out right away, but there had been a storm overnight. Alternately, accumulation would happen while I was unable to do anything about it, whether I was working, away from home, etc.

The automated melting system, meanwhile, takes care of things without depending on any human activity. It doesn’t directly put money in my pocket, but it provides reliability and saves me time. As you have probably heard more times than you needed, time = money.

I have come to think of such things as “stealth assets.” They pay you back in various ways, some of which you might be able to convert to a dollar value through mental gymnastics. Quality, even quantity of life, are the currencies I have found to be superior.

Emerging from med school and residency training, young radiologists are happy to see their financial situations blooming. Educational debt lingers, but it is a lot easier to live comfortably without budgeting from paycheck to paycheck. Some self-indulgence reasonably occurs. One hopefully soon comes to grips with the question of what to do with the newfound abundance.

There is plenty of relevant advice out there. Don’t go overboard. Live well within your means. Get in the habit of saving, putting away for retirement, buying extra insurance to protect yourself and your accumulating possessions. Maybe even buy some assets that would meet Mr. Kiyosaki’s definition. This may come in the form of some rental properties, or other things that will generate streams of income beyond your actual work as a rad.

Above and beyond all that, I would suggest getting some stealth assets for yourself. I sort of stumbled into mine, and there is plenty of room for individual variation. A lot of readers won’t, for instance, have any use for a heated driveway.

Probably my biggest stealth asset was a home gym. I have written about it before. The value of a fitness regimen should be old news to anybody with half a brain, let alone physicians. There are all sorts of reasons why folks fail to follow through on such knowledge for themselves, but logistics is a huge one. Getting to a gym or other such facility takes more time and trouble than it does to saunter over to a dedicated room in your house.

When I bought my home, I made sure it would have space for such a thing. As it happened, the one I picked already had equipment in it that the sellers didn’t want to take with them. I added a couple of pieces of my own, including a motorless treadmill when their motorized one gasped its last. Maybe you are more of a swimmer: I know someone who got a small “Endless Pool” that facilitates aquatic mileage without leaving the backyard.

The upshot is it costs substantially more upfront to have your own stuff at home than it would to maintain membership somewhere else, but you will be far more likely to adhere to your regimen. Your long-term well-being is the payoff.

Another “stealth asset” that pays you back in physical health (and looking better in the mirror as a bonus) is a better diet. It’s no secret that an awful lot of people eat poorly because it’s cheaper and more convenient. You can grab McDonald’s with a fraction of the time and cost it would take to gather and prep a home-cooked organic meal. That trade-off might make sense while you’re working long hours for relatively little pay in residency.

However, once you are out of training, you might not want to continue a steady stream of low-dose self-poisoning. Rather than finding out years later what damage that can wreak, why not invest some of your newly discretionary income and a bit of discipline as soon as you can? Like many assets, stealthy ones have the greatest chance to pay off when you give them more time to do so.

While you’re at it, if you haven’t already, get a quality bed so your sleep is as restorative as it can be, and ditto for whatever desk, chair, etc. that you will be occupying for your 40-plus hours of work each week. Anything that routinely impacts your physical and mental health is fertile ground for upgrading.