¶ Introducing Dr. Brittany Halford
Yo , yo yo . What's up everybody . Welcome to another episode of Docs Outside the Box . This one is a special episode . We got Dr Brittany Halford , who is the co-host of the Wealth-Minded MD podcast , which is a new and upcoming podcast that y'all need to be looking at and listening to .
Very briefly , dr Brittany is an internal medicine doctor up in Boston , one of the worst places that I hate to hang out .
Why do you ?
you hated on her in her introduction Boston is whack and you know it . It's all good . Your streets are too small , it's too cold people do park .
However , they want front back sideways but Boston is whack .
You know it too . But Dr Brittany , she's like why is all this hate starting ?
it's her introduction . Good lord , ain't nobody coming ?
to the show ? No more . She is married to a psychiatrist , and not only is she dope right , she's an internal medicine doctor . She puts up with Boston . She's doing her thing , but yo check this , guys . She paid off $138,000 in two years and nine months .
Ooh , Alfred , give us a little confetti .
Woo-hoo , that months . Ooh , alfred , give us a little confetti .
Woohoo , yeah , that's a big deal , that's a lot of dedication , that's a lot of coins , that's a lot of you know cheese that you get and you're like , nah , I'm not going to spend on this , nah , I'm not going to save this , I'm just going to give this straight to whoever Sally Mae or whoever it was Nelnet , and that's it Yep . So that's what's up .
So , dr Brittany , welcome to Docs Outside the Box . We love you . So it's not . You know everything I said in the beginning is we just joking around ? But ?
welcome to the show . He really don't like bosses . Your boss is like
¶ Dr. Brittany's Journey to Boston
.
You know it too it has grown on me , so thank you for having me on the show . I'm super excited to have this conversation and I already feel the energy of how it's going to be , so I'm going to push back a little bit . I know this is your show , but you know you called me out in the introduction , so we're going to see what it is .
If you want to use your capital to defend Boston , go ahead . It's on you . It's on you , you know I don't .
It has grown on me and it offers a lot of great things and I can understand , like the historical racism segregation and some of that definitely plays into how it is perceived . But we are growing and choosing to love Boston .
There you go , there you go . So how did you , how did you , end up in Boston ? Tell us a little bit about your journey , from you know what med school you went to all the way to where you're at now .
Yeah , so I am originally from Flint Michigan , born and raised .
And yes , that is a whole nother conversation .
But you know , I went to the University of Michigan and Arbor , so go blue , I'm a Wolverine . And from there I went to Northwestern for medical school and I got my medical degree and MPH there as well . Then I matriculated to Wash U for residency in .
St Louis Love that .
Then I got married and we were doing long distance for a while . My husband went to Morehouse for his residency and in psychiatry .
And there was an opportunity for us to move to Boston Familiar . When did he graduate from Morehouse residency ?
So he completed his residency in 2018 , like the end of 2018 for residency .
I was gone by then . I was gone by then . You were long gone by then .
You don't know about me . Morehouse Yo , that was my spot , I owned yo .
He owned Morehouse .
Oh , morehouse , come on , that was my old stomping ground . Okay , but your legacy precedes you .
Because I was talking to my husband , he was like oh yeah , I've connected with him once or twice , yeah , so he maybe I shouldn't have said that I'm stroking egos over here .
Let me , let me , let me stop . My arm is hurting For those of you watching on video .
¶ From Residency to Chief Positions
Knee just hit me like five times .
The best surgery resident ever yo the best surgical resident yo , morehouse Grady , what , what , what . All right , anyway , keep going . I'm hyped so from there .
my husband is a psychiatrist and he wanted to do child psychiatry , and so he started at Boston Children's Hospital , and that's what led us to Boston .
That is tough .
Honestly , I thought we were going to go back to Atlanta . I loved it . I was an attending at Emory and while there no one questioned my authority , no one questioned my intellect , and when there was some disagreements between other staff members and my assessment or evaluation of the patient , we just hashed it out .
You know , we just like Dr Brittany what's going on and we talked about it and we did what was best for the patient . And when I moved to Boston that was something that I still had to kind of work through and establish .
And then my husband became the chief behavioral officer of the Boston Public Health Commission , which is an inaugural position , and he creates basically the mental health plan for the city of Boston . He works with the mayor's office and at that point in time I was like , okay , this is a Black man assuming a new role and I want him to do well .
So we decided to stay and we own two properties here , our baby's there in school , and so you're invested , we're invested , we're invested and it's been great . It's been great . We found a really great church home and created our community . So we're grateful for Boston .
Now , how long have you guys been attendings for ?
So I've been attending since 2016 . I graduated from residency and my husband . So he did the child psych fellow and fellowship and he did like a concurrent mix . I don't know , his pathway is not traditional so there's some overlaps . If I quote this wrong , I'm sorry babe . Um , because he did .
Isn't your husband with harvard ?
he is with harvard . Yeah , he doesn't dr simon , yeah , kevin , I was like wait , this is sounding way too familiar .
I know who that is .
So he did an addiction medicine fellowship in addition to his child psych fellowship . So I think he became an attending like 2021 , I think .
But my days might be off .
So I apologize if my dates are off .
Yeah , see , in our toxic household , whoever finished first would just be sunning the other person , right ?
That would be me finishing first .
She suns me all the time . I'm like wait hold on a second . I'm an attending too .
She's like Not before I was Okay , I'll grade you , I'll grade you , I'll grade you Anyway .
But
¶ Medical School Debt Breakdown
that's amazing . So you guys have been so roughly at least eight years on your end that you have been attending .
Yes , go ahead .
Now , do you remember how much your debt was when you graduated from med school ? Do you remember ?
how much it was ? So I had $131,000 when I graduated from medical school . Do you remember how much it was ? So I had 131 000 when I graduated from medical school okay , and then ?
by the time you finished residency . Was it 138 ?
or by the time I finished residency it was 135 . So basically from medical school you know we all do these exit interviews where we meet .
They read review your um debt profile , your student loan debt profile , and they're like okay , well , essentially what they told me at Northwestern is to enroll in the income driven repayment plan and sign up for public service loan forgiveness . So , taking that advice , that's what I did , but we all know that .
You know , with student loans , I don't know for me , I hated it Verifying my income and my employer every year for the public service loan forgiveness .
We know that sometimes who they put in positions as representatives and administrators in the Department of Education are sometimes not the most knowledgeable , and so I just kind of hated just this reliance on the government to forgive my student loans and at the time public service loan forgiveness actually had .
That's your point , that's my point . Renee talks about that all the time . She says like yo , like you have , like you spend your entire life trying to have major control over your career , how you study , the grades you get , and then all of a sudden you know literally a major portion of your paycheck .
You don't know if it's going to get forgiven at the end of 10 years Right , depending on who's in the government , so yeah , I can see that being a major issue for folks .
Yeah , you know , and honestly , it's like
¶ Rejecting Loan Forgiveness Strategy
when I talk to people about finances , it's all about control , it's all about strategy , it's all about understanding how your money is moving . And for me , that level of uncertainty I just really didn't agree with . So I started paying a little bit extra when I was in residency and once I graduated from residency , that's when I did a refinance .
The economic conditions were different then , but I was able to refinance my student loans from a 6.8% interest rate to a 3.5% interest rate over a five-year term . But I was like , okay , if I can pay this monthly fee and I'm maxing out a 401k and I'm still traveling and I got cash flow , let me just get this gone .
Um you know , just to be , just to be just to be clear . So in residency , on a resident salary , you were paying more than what your minimum payment was .
So I was yes I was paying more than what my minimum payment was , because at that point in time .
I had determined that I was no longer going to seek forgiveness , and so if I had additional cash flow that was just sitting now , retrospectively , I realized I could have been doing some other things with my money that probably would have afforded more returns , but at that time that was the one thing that I knew how to do and that was the one debt that I
knew would be a guaranteed return on investment . So it wouldn't be a set amount every single month . I didn't create a budget for the additional payments .
But when I realized that all of my bills had been paid and I still had money to travel to go see my husband who was at Morehouse and I had a little bit of money extra , then I would just throw the extra at the student loans .
Let me ask you so that was a pretty savvy move , right ? Because a lot of people who might get into medical school , get the loans to pay for medical school , graduate with a ton of debt , go through residency , might not necessarily be so savvy as to figure out that , well , I'm not going to do this loan repayment , I'm just going .
You know , I'm going to max out my 401k . I'm going to . Where did you learn to do all of that ? Was that something that your parents instilled
¶ Financial Knowledge Sources and Background
in you ? Was it podcasts ? Was it blogs Like ? Where did you learn all of that ?
And how did you not feel overwhelmed ? Because I'll piggyback on top of that ? Like , don't piggyback on my question , I'll piggyback on top of that .
Don't piggyback on my question . Don't Don't piggyback on my question .
You want me to just write it down ? Yeah , write it down .
It's David Filet . She will take questions at the end . Okay , I love it . How'd you learn all ?
of that . So , renee , to answer your question ? Right , your question ? No , I'm just kidding . Renee , to answer your question , right , your question ? No , I'm just kidding .
After I graduated from medical school and I had my exit interview and started making money , I had this revelation that I was the only doctor in my family at the time and that I would have a huge responsibility of managing a large sum of money . And having to do that .
Well , because there were still people in my family who I desire to support right , not only just financially by giving them money , but also helping them to facilitate better stewardship over their money . Right At that time and I think this is still existing , but I don't listen to it as frequently it was marketplace money on NPR .
I was like an avid consumer of marketplace money on NPR and they just taught essentially some of the basics . I also read the White Coat Investor book from James Daly , From James Daly and I really appreciate the knowledge that he shares about money and how physicians can be good stewards and good managers of their money .
And then you know , reflecting on just my history , I am grown from Flint , michigan , of low means . You know my mom's like don't say that .
But essentially we were , like I did , the retrospective , retroactive calculations of how much money my mother earned and how our household size , and I realized that we were actually living under the federal poverty line for a good portion growing up .
That's real yep . A lot of people don't think about it that way .
Yeah , they don't but you know , then , when I think about my mom made a lot out of what she had and she created these moments of joy out of little . So I didn't need to live in a nice area per se or live in like this um building . I know some of my co-residents .
They lived in a building with a gym and all of these like luxurious , luxurious amenities . I didn't do that . I lived in a neighborhood that was safe .
I shopped at Audis , I got all of my free meals through residency , I went to the gym that the residency paid for , that I got a discount for , and I lived pretty simply so that I could create cashflow that allowed me to achieve my goals .