Doctors, bankruptcy and alcoholism
A journalist asks about the financial and investment decisions causing physicians to file for bankruptcy. How could highly educated doctors succumb to such financial devastation?
My first book, “Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse”, details story after story of financial abuse by alcohol and other-drug addicts. I’m well qualified to have analyzed such stories, since I’m an Enrolled Agent (tax pro), Certified Financial Planner and addiction researcher. I found that almost every instance of financial disarray in my clients’ lives over the years resulted from alcohol/other-drug addiction either in the client or in a person who financially abused my client.
Unfortunately, most doctors seem to think they need a CPA to do their tax work, so I’ve had very few if any doctors as clients over my almost 30 years of practice, even though 100% of Enrolled Agents are tax pro’s and only about 15% of CPAs specialize in personal income tax returns. Therefore, I have no stories precisely on point. However, I’ll wager that four of five cases of financial disaster, regardless of occupation, financial status or intelligence, involve an addict (you do have to dig deep and ask the right questions), even if most don’t think the abuser was an addict. Usually, the victim never even asked the question and few have made the connection where to the addiction-aware it would be obvious.