Financial wellness for veterinary professionals

Finances can be a challenging and sometimes scary thing for veterinary professionals to tackle. Because of this, it can cause some professionals to fall into financial hardship or not properly budget/save for expenses, utilities, and also just some fun money.

To help make the conversation less challenging, our host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, and cofounders of Florida Veterinary Advisors Tom Seeko, CExP, and Cj Burnett discuss their new book, why finances may not be so confusing and scary, and the need for personalized financial planning.

Below is a partial transcript

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Because, CJ, I feel like financial planning can can be really confusing, and what do you believe people have the most control over within their finances?

Cj Burnett, CExP: Well, I think it's funny, because I think people really, generally speaking, are not true students of themselves, and I think that financial stuff and money, people think money works like math and it doesn't right? Money works like every other resource and so the more we learn about ourselves, the more we start to understand what we can control, what kind of boundaries we need to have within our own lives. And I think that extends into money. Like, what kind of boundaries do I need to have with money? How do I take control of my money in a way that doesn't feel bad?

Because I think a lot of the times, people are kind of shamed and guilted into not saving money and spending all their income, and it's like, well, you know, sometimes spending all of our income, that's a symptom right? Not saving money is a symptom, so what is the what is the cause of that? Why do I do that? And sometimes there are answers of, 'okay, it's because I haven't figured out how to manage it properly,' right? So let me go take some simple classes on how to manage finances. I think a lot of people avoid it too, because they think that it's too complicated. If you have DVM after your name, let's be honest, you're incredibly smart. Like, if you've been able to do that, you can't tell me that you're not smart enough to understand finances. You are way over-qualified to understand the financial stuff.