08/29/2022    Michael M. Rosenblatt, DPM

NC Podiatrist Owes $895K in Student Debt (Paul Kesselman DPM)

I would like to thank both Drs.’ Kesselman and
Kornfeld for responding to my letter comparing
various choices for profession, among them music,
with podiatry. A recent article decrying lower
Medicare payments to physicians just appeared on
Medscape. The article questions: “how low will it
drop?” So we are certainly not alone. The average
income for podiatrists in NV is 109,560. This is
certainly not as high as I would have hoped,
although the 75% percentile is quite a bit higher.
The average salary for cocktail pianists is about
$20,000, and that is difficult to reach, even for
Vegas.

I never looked at podiatry as my ONLY source for
retirement income. However, I did write an
accreditation manual and got my office certified as
a Medicare Certified ASC. I owned the building I
got certified in and built rental units on it. This
provided rental income and facility fees along with
my podiatry surgery. We purchased rental Real
Estate in other areas as well. I opened up a feeder
office for my ASC and purchased that building with
a Dentist. I tried to avoid paying rents as much as
possible.

We are now undergoing a massive Real Estate
devaluation which will result in the availability
of rental houses and even apartments at much lower
prices. Some years ago, I wrote several articles
for Podiatry Management on rental real estate and
investing for podiatrists. I examined one of them
recently and it has aged “very well.” Almost
nothing to change.

An investor can accumulate an estate by their
recognition that they have a “standing model” of
regular income that is not dependent upon the
investments they purchase. This encapsulates
podiatry perfectly. The amount you get regularly is
less important than the fact that it comes in
regularly. This forms the basis of a kind of ladder
for retirement planning.

Comparing this to music yet again, I see that the
model for making a living in music has shifted from
record/CD sales to a plethora of FREE music online,
which they don’t get paid for. Their “regular”
pattern of income is only available for creative
ownership of songs, and performances when they can
attract an audience. No music producer now makes
any effort to market their artists. You either
develop an audience by yourself or you get nothing.
Beautiful Yuja Wang has a stratospheric career and
plays every concerto. She wears VERY short dresses,
even in Carnegie Hall. She has the “assets” for it.
I don’t fault her for a second. Adapt. Adapt.
Adapt.

Michael M. Rosenblatt, DPM, Henderson, NV

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