Wealth building or investing can often be broken down into 3 phases: accumulation, consolidation, and spending. The accumulation phase is the phase in which an investor begins to build or acquire assets to grow his or her net worth. For most people this occurs at a young age and it allows people to be much more tolerant to a higher risk both with their investments and career.
As it is with many professions with additional schooling, the academic path to physical therapy school is no different. After seven long years, I was finally released into the world with the ability to make a livable income at the ripe age of 25. This is well behind where many of my friends and family were at this point and I felt as though I was extremely behind. Although finances are a personal journey as noted in the name “personal finance”, I felt myself comparing my place in life to that of the people around me. Which is a very unhealthy practice but this drove me to make decisions to rapidly attempt to improve my positioning.
In my home state of Minnesota, the median starting income for a new grad physical therapist was around $68,000. (This is higher than many states I have since worked) This is a good income but when you account for the student debt burden of most students and do a comparison to other healthcare providers with similar lengths of schooling, this felt less than desired. As with any arrogant new grad, I felt as though I was worth more than this.
I began combing through physical therapy jobs in the metro area in which I was living. I had two criteria:
1. The job had to be open to hiring a new grad on a temporary license as I couldn’t sit for my boards until late July.
This was around 2 ½ months after I could begin working in May. However, many companies wouldn’t hire employees under a temporary license due to the hassle of extra documentation and supervision involved. But I was unwilling to miss out on 2.5 months of income, which was around roughly $11,500 after taxes on a median new grad income.
2. The income was more than the median average.
I eventually settled on a job working with strictly worker’s compensation patients which met both of my criteria. I started my accumulation phase at a salary of just over $71,000. This job turned out to be a great decision as I was allowed to build into my day a paid study time where I could study for my boards at work, while getting my full salary. Win-win!
This job however, didn’t last long as I began growing impatient with the lack of speed with my accumulation phase. I know, I know, I know… fire up the millennials joke and jabs.
Conclusion
I understood the accumulation phase of wealth building was a grind but I knew there had to be a better way. This is when traveling therapy entered my line of sight.
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