Jeff Brown, MD

We are living in a culture of headlong, head-over-heels disruption. The future may be uncertain, but it certainly will contain wonders. All hail disruptors!

There's a yardstick to measure how much net worth you should have amassed at certain ages; new female doctors are still paid significantly less than male counterparts; and other medical and financial tidbits.

Airing out grievances can be productive, especially if it improves communication and service to patients. And the number one on the list is something that bothers both physicians and patients.

There were very few health care companies on Fortune Magazine's Best Places to Work list. This is unfortunate since patients can sense if your office is an unhappy place.

Since it is hard to measure success many doctors find additional ways to find meaning or satisfaction, such as focusing on making money, reducing the scope of their practice and finding other outlets outside and inside medicine.

Most folks who go into medicine have some overt and/or covert altruism in their minds and hearts. And they assume that they will do good and well in their careers in a way that they can identify; however, feedback is often irregular and unpredictable.

Various interesting and useful medical and financial information including where health care money goes, business awareness in medical training and changes in the IRS code.

As we get deeper into election year frenzy, Jeff Brown is reminded that not only is all not well in health care, but also that people outside, and especially inside, of medicine are not paying attention.

Because of the arcane nature of the tax code, it's ever changing provisions and our own barely suppressed emotions concerning one of our national civic duties, most of us beyond the simple W-2 and short form turn to a tax expert for advice and solace.

Rather than rehash the year or make foolish predictions about next year, Jeff Brown is cutting to the useful stuff that you can use to start out the new year.

The second part of an interview with the principle of a prominent San Francisco-based private equity firm.

An interview with a principle at a San Francisco private equity investing firm helps to explain what exactly these firms do.

If retirement is really about managing transitions, the most important decision we have to make is what lifestyle will I pursue? People who planned ahead, not just financially, make the transition the easiest and end up the happiest.

This Thanksgiving Americans might need to be reminded that they still have a lot to be thankful for. Here's what Jeff Brown has been contemplating.

If day trading, commodities or puts and calls are not arcane enough investing for you, I have three ideas that might intrigue. They are - in order of decreasing risk - investing in pending lawsuits, viatical or death bond investments, and factored structured payouts.

Depending upon your age, investment fortunes and inheritance status, your medical license is far and away the biggest asset that most doctors have.

Why are lawyers in every survey since the profession started always viewed so negatively? All of our major life events - birth, marriage and death - are enmeshed in a legal network.

"A doctor who treats himself has a fool for a patient." Something like that in personal financial affairs works too.

Financial affairs have become increasingly complicated and many doctors know to turn to a specialist who has the knowledge and experience in an area that they do not.

Everything we do in life depends somewhat upon a prediction that is often made unconsciously. Most financial affairs, however, should be conscious decisions, based upon experience and what knowledge we can gather

If you take care of the small things, the big things tend to take care of themselves. But, for some of us, if you become focused upon details to the exclusion of awareness of the overall picture, you may end up missing the point.

Mark Twain said that there are "Lies, damn lies and then there are statistics." But sometimes careful ferreting can produce numbers that are surprising, interesting and even useful.

We sometimes end up spending our hard-earned managed care dollars inappropriately, excessively and all too often without thoughtful planning.

Everyone should have two financial bucket lists: one that covers all the basic necessities and a second the covers discretionary spending.

One of the (many) areas that I had to confront the hard way was the sometimes sudden realization that all patients are not nice, compliant, honest, or even able to be helped. What do you do?

Everything from gold's climbing price to websites helpful websites.

The issue of VIP treatment gets sticky when doctors consciously, or unconsciously, change their manner and behavior when confronted with such a personality. Because fair or not, a VIP's opinion matter more and can impact a doctor's reputation.

There is a rising sense that consumer-oriented service, rather than physician-oriented service, is important for the success of a doctor's business. This change is overdue for the health care industry.

Typically people don't like to joke about their finances, but here are some you might be able to get a laugh from.

The concierge model has very high risk and rewards. On the one hand your new practice can be a cash cow, and on the other you might alienate all of your patients and lose money.