Jake Murphy, FSCP - Financial Planner

A clinician making $200k could end up with $60k more by age 40 by saving an extra 5%…
Even if your investment return was cut in half.

That sounds wrong until you run the numbers.

Let’s say you start at age 31 with $0 invested.

By age 40:
Saving $20k/year at 8% = $269,731

Saving $30k/year at 4% = $330,183

That’s about a $60k difference.

Same income and timeline.

Worse return.
More money.

The portfolio return matters.

But if the account balance is still small, there just isn’t that much money available to compound yet.

The bigger lever is the amount of income you’re actually keeping and putting to work.

Especially for clinicians making $200k, $300k, $400k+.

Because the problem is that your income is getting pulled in 12 directions:
- Student loans
- Mortgage
- Taxes
- Kids
- Lifestyle

Cash sitting around with no clear job.
Retirement accounts getting funded randomly.

A good savings rate has to fit the rest of your life.

If you’re earning good money but aren’t sure whether your savings rate matches the freedom you’re trying to build, let's have that conversation before another year goes by.

3 years ago, I hit Executive Council at New York Life and felt like a complete fraud.

It was my first full year in the business, and that was the goal I had chased all year.

I qualified on the last possible day by less than 100 credits.

Then I got to the trip in D.C. and sat alone in my hotel room feeling nothing like I thought I would.

My income was still volatile. My business still felt shaky. Most of the advisors I met there had real, established practices.

I had the title. I just didn’t feel like I belonged with it.

So while I was there, I went to the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum because they were free.

I ate from the free work buffets and drank the free coffee.
Tried not to spend money I didn’t have.

When I got home, this card was sitting on my desk waiting for me.

The trip didn’t make me feel like I had made it.

Everything that was in that card did.

Mr. Krabs owned a successful business and still acted like spending a dollar might bankrupt him.

As a kid, I thought he was the smartest character on SpongeBob.

As an adult, he reminds me of some people I meet.

I've talked to CRNAs and other clinicians making $250,000+ with $80,000 sitting in cash, $400k in retirement accounts, and more financial momentum than they ever had earlier in their careers.

Yet they're still hesitant to book the vacation.

Still putting off the kitchen renovation.

Still wondering if they can afford to cut back from 5 shifts a week to 4.

Still asking themselves if they're "allowed" to spend the money they've spent years saving.

Mr. Krabs had a vault full of money and still hated spending it.

Was he actually wealthy?

Or was he just scared to use what he already had?

At 25, I got an email saying the 401(k) from my first job was being terminated.

There was about $2,300 in it.

A month later, I was going to Italy with Valerie's family.

The financially "correct" move was obvious. Roll it into another retirement account and let it keep growing. Instead, I cashed it out and used the money for the trip.

At the time, I was less than two years into my career. Cash flow was still tight, and setting up another account for a relatively small balance felt like one more thing on a very long list.

So I took the money and went to Italy.

Fast forward 40 years, assuming an 8% return, that $2,300 could have grown to almost $50,000.

I know some people will read that and cringe.

But here's the thing:

I still remember that trip.

We talk about it all the time.

And we already have plans to go back and recreate parts of it one day.

The $50,000 is hypothetical, but those memories aren't.

And I still wouldn’t trade the trip to Italy for the rollover I “should’ve” done.

A 35-year-old netting $187,000 a year has the potential to earn around $12,900,000 before retirement, yet the average American will only save around $300,000 of it for themselves.

That gap is insane, but traditional budgeting is a big reason why.

People hate budgeting because it feels restrictive. Nobody wants to track every coffee or feel guilty every time they spend money.

So without a real structure behind where the money is supposed to go, life starts spending it automatically.

A raise turns into a bigger mortgage. Bonuses disappear into trips, furniture, eating out, subscriptions, random Amazon purchases, and lifestyle upgrades that slowly become permanent.

Meanwhile investing gets whatever happens to be left over at the end of the month instead of getting funded intentionally first.

That’s why cash flow systems matter so much more than budgeting.

Someone automating $1,500/month starting at 35 instead of waiting until 45, assuming a 7% return, could end up with roughly $1,300,000 more by retirement.

That's how over $12,000,000 can pass through someone’s hands while only a fraction of it ever reaches the compounding stage early enough to matter.

We’re about to plan a $10k+ honeymoon for a fraction of the cost using credit card points.

Val and I are planning our December honeymoon, and instead of trying to figure out the points game on our own, we decided to work with an expert.

I’ve always known points can be powerful.

I’ve just never spent enough time learning how to really maximize them past my American Airlines Citi card getting me a few flights over the years.

So rather than pretend I’m an expert in one more thing, we''ve signed on with Joel Ang, who I met on LinkedIn, to help us do it right.

Now we just have to pick the destination.

We want somewhere warm in December, and Costa Rica is a heavy favorite right now.

If you’ve been, anywhere you would recommend?

Or is there somewhere else warm that time of year you’d put above it?

You can make $220,000 a year and still feel weird spending $6,000 on a vacation you’ve wanted for 3 years.

Why do we do that to ourselves?

It's because of hitting a point where the money is finally better but the wiring hasn’t caught up yet.

For years, the focus was survival.

Get through the early career years.
Cover the mortgage.
Keep up with daycare, groceries, car payments, and everything else that seems to hit at once.
Try not to swipe the card too hard after another expensive month.

Then income gets better.

Now the question isn’t,
“How do I make it to next Friday?”

It’s more like:
- Do I throw extra cash at the mortgage?
- Increase retirement contributions?
- Build up more cash?
- Help the kids with school?
- Renovate the kitchen?
- Book the Disney trip we keep talking about?
- Or finally let myself enjoy some of the money without feeling irresponsible?

When you’ve spent years associating money with pressure, it can feel uncomfortable when money finally starts creating options.

I’ve seen people doing really well on paper still hesitate over every bigger decision because they feel like every extra dollar has to be “optimized.”

But that mindset can keep someone stuck longer than they realize.

Being a landlord sounds great… until you inherit a tenant who’s threatening to kill her boyfriend who isn’t even supposed to be living there.

Our first property is a duplex, classic house hack style. Still a big fan of it.

The other unit came with a tenant I was told was “perfect.”
Never missed a payment. Her dad takes care of everything.

Amazing, right?

Two weeks into homeownership I find out I actually inherited:
an alcoholic, in a verbally (and sometimes physically) abusive relationship.

They were screaming at each other at all hours.

2pm… while I’m on a client call.
3am… while I’m trying to sleep.

She’d literally threaten to kill him… and then refuse to get rid of him.

The point is, no spreadsheet prepares you for that.

I told her clearly: this needs to stop and he needs to go or they’re both out.

They behaved for a week then went right back to it.

So I gave them a choice: leave now, or I start the eviction process.

Luckily, they left.

The unit was banged up (holes in the walls, carpets wrecked), but the security deposit covered it.

No big deal financially.

The real cost was four months of peace of mind… while we were also trying to move into a new home and settle into life.

Before you become a landlord, think hard about whether you’re ready for the unsexy side of it.

Because this is the part nobody puts on TikTok.

Anybody got a crazy landlord story?

A couple in their early 30s making $250k can get approved for a $750k home and still be setting themselves up for stress.

That’s the part people miss when they ask, “How much house can I afford?”

Because the internet will give you clean little rules:

“30% of income on housing”
“3x your salary”
“Whatever the lender approves you for”

But those numbers don’t know you've got:
- student loans you actually want gone
- retirement you’re trying to fund aggressively
- kids’ education on your radar
- and a desire to still enjoy your 30s without feeling house-poor

So here’s the framework I use instead.

A mortgage is “affordable” only if it still leaves room for:
1. 3-6 months of expenses in cash (so life doesn’t wreck you)
2. retirement contributions you can stick with
3. monthly breathing room (no credit cards just to feel normal)

If the payment forces you to sacrifice all three, that means you over stretched.

This is something I help clients map out all the time, using their goals, not a rule of thumb.

$70k salary. Full benefits. I had zero interest but I would've took it anyway.
I didn't get the job and it was the best thing that could've happened.

Yesterday, I passed by a truck for a company I applied for a job to fresh out of college.

Marketing job for a local equipment supplying company. Driving in that day, I knew this wasn't a job I had a passion for whatsoever.
I put on the act for the interview anyway because I wasn't just gonna bomb it.

I probably would've took it because it looked good on paper and made my parents proud because they wanted me to be safe and secure.

I got this email and was relieved. They made the choice for me.

I may have never known what it was like to have total control over what my days look like and the people I work with if I were to take that "safe" path.

Thank you, Megan.