Personal Finance Essentials for Fellows with Jeff Steiner
Jeff Steiner, DO, MBA, is a pediatric anesthesiologist and medical educator who retired early from clinical medicine after a career at University of Texas Southwestern. During his time at UTSW, he served as an associate professor, program director of the Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship, and director of clinical operations for the Division of Anesthesia at UTSW. He is now the founder and financial planner at Second Opinion Financial, a fee-only fiduciary firm focused on helping physicians navigate student loans, investing, retirement planning, insurance, and other major financial decisions. He is also the author of several books on physician personal finance, training, and career development.
Learning Objective:
By the end of this episode, listeners will be able to develop a practical framework for prioritizing essential personal finance decisions during fellowship and preparing for the transition to independent practice.
References:
- Second Opinion Financial — Dr. Jeff Steiner’s financial planning firm, helping physicians navigate personal finances, student loans, investments, and retirement planning.
- Physician Personal Finance Made Easy: The Review Book for the Course You Never Had in Medical School — Jeff Steiner, DO, MBA. A practical, outline-style guide to the personal finance topics physicians often receive little formal training in.
- The White Coat Investor — Physician-focused financial education founded by emergency physician Dr. Jim Dahle, including articles, books, podcasts, and resources on debt, investing, insurance, and retirement.
- Physician Cents Podcast — Hosts Tyler Olson and Chad Chubb discuss financial decisions facing medical students, residents, fellows, and practicing physicians.
- Anesthesiology residents’ medical school debt influence on moonlighting activities, work environment choice, and debt repayment programs: a nationwide survey — Steiner JW, et al. Anesthesia & Analgesia. 2012;115(1):170–175. Jeff’s study of anesthesiology interns, residents, and fellows examined how educational debt relates to interest in moonlighting, academic careers, and employer debt repayment programs.
- Can financial literacy be a solution for physician burnout? — Ogunkua OT, et al., with Jeffrey W. Steiner as senior author. Journal of Clinical Anesthesia. 2022;77:110594. A publication exploring financial literacy as a potential component of addressing physician burnout.
- Relationships of Educational Debt With Hours Worked and Burnout Symptoms Among Early-Career Family Physicians — Seehusen DA, Fleischer S, Peterson L. Annals of Family Medicine. 2025;23(5):427–433. Among 4,905 early-career family physicians, higher educational debt was associated with longer work hours; debt of at least $250,000 and longer work hours were independently associated with burnout symptoms.
- Effect of medical student debt on mental health, academic performance and specialty choice: a systematic review — Pisaniello MS, et al. BMJ Open. 2019;9:e029980. A review of 52 studies examining associations between educational debt, psychological well-being, academic performance, and specialty choice.
- https://brokercheck.finra.org/
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Please remember that all content during this episode is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be used as medical advice. The views expressed during this episode by hosts and our guests are their own and do not reflect the official position of their institutions. If you have any comments, suggestions, or feedback-you can email us at pedscritpodcast@gmail.com. You can also check out our website at http://www.pedscrit.com. Thank you for listening to this episode of PedsCrit!
