As a physician myself, I know we can be very risk averse. I think this comes from the fact that it takes so long for us to start earning a half decent salary. In other words, nothing comes easy to us!

Your fears are definitely valid, however, they shouldn’t stop you. When I started investing in real estate I faced all these fears and I learned a lot from this experience.

1. Educate Yourself and Join a Community 

As medical professionals, it’s hard for us to start learning something new. Depending on your age, it’s likely been years since the last time you were completely lost and had to ask for help.

More often than not, we’ll have to swallow our pride and ask a lot of basic questions but it’ll definitely be worth it. In addition, being part of a community is essential to gaining confidence when you’re investing and it can help you reduce anxiety by becoming more familiar with your peers.

2. Set Goals

Firstly, you can’t get anywhere unless you know where you’re going. Ask yourself where you want to be financially in one, five, or 10 years. Secondly, set target dates and financial goals.

Setting these goals for yourself allows you to overpower fear with determination. Once you know what you want, you put yourself in an exciting and motivational place. As a result, you have laid out a timeline for your financial journey.

3. Block time in your Calendar

There are things you can do to stop worrying about time. For instance, I make a list of things I have to do every day, week and month. It includes everything from working in the hospital to some other things that I enjoy doing like having coffee with a friend or practicing crossfit.

In other words, I block time for those things and hold myself accountable to it. Basically, I take out the decision making process at the moment of time. Highly recommend it!

4. Look at the Big Picture

Perspective is important. Take a step back and re-evaluate your goals and what you’re doing to achieve them. For most people, investing is a marathon, not a sprint to the finish.

5. Don’t Become Discouraged

More often than not, things do not go as planned. When I started house hacking I couldn’t possibly have the slightest idea about the many challenges I would face.

Ceilings collapsing, contractors running away, water leaks and skyrocketing bills just to name a few. As much as I tried to be prepared, a lot of it was learning as I was going along the process.

I wasn’t alone though. I had my mentors and an amazing community helping me out. Which circles back to our first point. Being part of a community is very important!