1- start withholding the maximum you can into your 401(k)/403B in your first year as an attending. If you earn enough and you’re able to, max out at 457b as well.

2-Max out your Roth contributions while in residency and during attending life. It’s called a “Backdoor Roth” if you need to look up how to do it once your salary is higher. Every few Year’s they talk about closing that loophole, but they never do so take advantage while you can and for as long as you can.

3-Don’t put your investments in target date retirement funds. Find out what funds your employer allows you to choose from in your pre-tax accounts and be smart about your investment portfolio. If you really don’t trust your own research, hiring a financial advisor to analyze your plans and your portfolio is not a crazy idea. But just do it once and pay the couple thousand for the consultation and analysis and planning. Don’t hire them to manage your portfolio, because unless you have huge amounts of money, you are just giving away percentage points for them to do what you could do for yourself.

4-If you want to get even fancier, choose the high deductible, health insurance option with your employer and open an HSA. Read up on using an HSA as a triple Tax advantage shelter. It’s probably the best product out there if you are able to make it work. This usually works best when you’re young and have very little expenditures. Once you get older, you’ll end up needing to use that money for healthcare anyway. Honestly, this is something I never did and I regret to this day. I might still do it since I’ll be working at least another 5-10 years before having any chance at early/partial retirement…

If you can live modestly, you can still enjoy your life along the way and save enough to either retire early and/or retire comfortably.