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What REALLY Causes FInancial Anxiety

What REALLY Causes FInancial Anxiety

I remember speaking with my patient Jean.  She had undergone a long and protracted treatment course for breast cancer–a bi-lateral mastectomy followed by a bone marrow transplant. We were celebrating five years later.  She was cancer-free!

I asked her, “Jean, what was the hardest part about getting breast cancer?”

Without thinking, she blurted out, “The waiting.  Waiting for the pathology report.  Waiting for the labs.  Waiting for the MRI. I can deal with just about anything.  I just need to KNOW what I’m dealing with.”

Your doctor prospects can face times of threatened financial health. Divorce. Losses from Dumb Doctor Deal gone south. The need to care for aging parents.  This can lead to financial stress.  

However, some of your prospects become immobilized by their worries. They are afraid to see where they really stand. They may leave their Fidelity envelopes unopened.

The true cause of money anxiety is the NOT KNOWING. Worried individuals often imagine a financial situation that’s far worse than the reality.

While financial stress can inspire prospects to reach out to you, financial anxiety can pose a barrier to taking the next step with you. Worried prospects may put off seeking professional financial help because they’re afraid of what they will discover.  Instead, they stay up at night worrying, “I’ll never be able to retire!  What will it be like taking call when I’m 70?”

As you well know, things are usually better than anxious people fear.

Think about how you can connect with doctors experiencing financial stress; this is a marketing opportunity.

Help doctors with financial anxiety take that next step. Tell stories about other doctors with money anxiety, and let prospects know that things are usually better than feared.

Once you help individuals gain clarity about where they stand, you can help them create a financial treatment plan to optimize their financial health.  

Then you can celebrate their financial health as they meet their goals!

© 2020. Vicki Rackner MD. All rights reserved.  You may reproduce this post with the following by-line:
Vicki Rackner MD is an author, speaker and consultant who offers a bridge between the world of medicine and the world of business.