Ep 48: Financial Liberation with Dr. Latifat Akintade

Money is often the limiting factor physicians cite in achieving our dreams.  Our relationship with money is more important than our current net worth. No matter the number, money can either trap us or liberate us.  How do we make money work for us?

💪 Be true to who we are, our feelings, our values, and our zest for life.

💪 No matter what background, believe we each have an amazing potential to master money.

💪 Look at money as a tool for freedom, to bring us back to the core of who we are.

I loved this profound conversation with Dr. Latifat Akintade, who is a GI doc, money coach, founder and CEO of MoneyFitMD, wife and mama to 3 girls, and who I admire as "a genius at life" because she is living in alignment with her core values and her dreams.

Listen to part 1 of the eye-opening interview on this week's episode of the Dare to Dream Physician Podcast!

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Dr. Latifat Akintade and MoneyFitMD Resources:

MoneyFitMD Website (The Money School, Podcast, Blog)

https://moneyfitmd.com

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https://www.facebook.com/MoneyfitMD

MoneyFitMD on Instagram

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Transcript

Dr. Gray, Host 0:00

Welcome back everybody to the dare, to dream physician podcast. I am so excited for the conversation that we're going to have today. And I, I, my guest today probably needs no introduction because many of you have probably already heard of her, but I'm going to let her know. Herself. Before I let her, I'm just going to tell you a little bit more about my impressions of her every time I'm, speaking with her, or I see her speaking in front of an audience, Dr. Latifa can Tati AK money fit MD has this amazing presence. She's so energetic and vibrant and, her zone of genius is on money. At least that's, what's she's most well known as, but I really see her as someone who is really just a genius at life because, she not only teaches women physicians on how to. Be a quote unquote, bad-ass at money. But she also just embodies someone who seems to just be living a really full life. someone who's really happy who is living in alignment with her dreams. And I actually haven't asked her if this is true, but this is my impression from observing her. And so I am going to let her introduce herself and, welcome. Welcome to the podcast.

Dr. Latifat Akintade, Guest 1:22

Well, you should have warned me that you were going to have me tear up at nine o'clock in the morning while we're doing this. But no, thank you so incredibly much for having me here. It's a pleasure. It's an honor to be here. Um, your intro was interesting and I thought it was. It was great. Cause it's your honest impression. I will say that I'm not happy all the time. I am real all the time. Right. And sometimes I'm happy. Sometimes I'm pissed. Like I was this week. I was. Based off about the stuff that was happening and it hasn't always been that way. I've, haven't always felt safe to be true to how I'm feeling. And if there is the biggest gift that I've given myself in the last few years, Understanding accepting and embracing the diversity that we all have, the differences that we all have and seeing that we were not meant to be the same. We're not meant to feed in who are meant to stand out. And for me, that is to express myself. Always kindly they've won a peace that's kindly. Right. And so that's, that's kind of, so it was an interesting intro. Thanks for saying that, but it just got me thinking about what am I really, what am I about? And my goal is just to be myself. With all my grumpiness and my joy and my truth and my kindness and my fun for life. And I truly believe that when all of us do that. So if you're listening, when you do that, whatever that means to you, it's a beautiful thing for the world. And that's what it's all about.

Dr. Gray, Host 3:01

That is such a beautiful description and, and you're right. When I said happy, I didn't mean like the, positive always, nothing is ever wrong. Type of happy. What I meant is it's, it's almost like a radiant. Like you, you look radiant and you sound radiant and your presence is radiant. And I think that comes from being real. That comes from. not holding back on how you feel, who you are, but at the same time, doing so with compassion and, and this is, this is what comes through. So, so yeah. Thank you for clarifying that.

Dr. Latifat Akintade, Guest 3:35

No. Thank you. You're so great with words, by the way, I'm like, I want to listen to every word that you say. Every word that you say. So thank you for speaking on Mike's. Thank you for getting words out there, but I do have to tell you that I want to listen to the words that you say. There's something about the way you say it. So good job and congratulations. And thanks.

Dr. Gray, Host 3:59

So tell us a little bit more about what you want our guests to know about you. They know you're a physician cause that's going to be on your title, but tell us a little bit more.

Dr. Latifat Akintade, Guest 4:08

Absolutely. So for those that I haven't met yet, I'm ductility fed. I'm a GI doc I'm based in California. I'm also the map. Three little ladies are ages four to nine. As I record this and they act like they are, it can add one in front of all their ages and that's how they act. They keep me alive. That keeps me alert. They keep me grounded and they bring joy and center to my life. I'm also in money coach, which is what I'm here to tell. Today I am the creator of the money feed MD podcast, where I talk about all things, money and mindset, and really helping women do well from the inside out. And I have the distinct honor and pleasure of being the leader, the host, the coach, the cheerleader for women physicians that want to take on. Of their money so that they can create the finances they have. And they want to really, without overworking without all the burnout and all those craziness that we've made to believe about money. So really my goal here in this season of my life is to empower women physicians by literally giving them the key to doing money so that they can do it well in a way that's authentic to themselves in a way that is kind, that is simple, that is effective. And honestly, I. I mean, if you look around the world, there's so much crap happening in the world and there's never going to be a time that crap isn't happening. There's always going to be some kind of crap. Right. Two years ago it was COVID and then it was this and that. And now we're hearing about like freaking monkey box. I'm like monkey. stay the heck out of our world. What do I need? All that BS right now, but there's never been a time that is more important and more essential for women physicians to take control of their finances because one burnt out crazy high, right? Crazy, crazy high. And I truly believe that heed your finances is not helping you combat, decrease, prevent, and come back from burnout. Then your finances is not where it needs to be. And it really doesn't matter how much money you have your net. What's.$10 million. And if your finances is not helping you create the liberation that you need, then there is definitely room for improvement. And that improvement may not just be on the numbers. Only. It may be how you view the numbers, how you relax and let the money actually be a tool that helps to leave the kind of life that you want to leave so that we can empower you to be well, to have money and to be the change in the world that we truly, truly want to see.

Dr. Gray, Host 6:39

That's so deep. I, I just, I love the way you talk about money. It is it's, it's so empowering and We're definitely going to dive deeper into that. But I first have a question and I, I know you shared your story publicly many times, as you sit here with me and you talk about money, I'm just like, wow, she's a master at it. I mean, she, she's got, the mindset and, the investments and. And what I want to know is, how did you become interested in money in the first place? It's not one of those things where people, all of a sudden step up in front of mikes and start talking about, cause it can be an uncomfortable subject. It can bring up a lot of discomfort, a lot of mixed feelings, right? Some people may be really proud of their money. Perhaps a little too attached to it. And then some people are really ashamed of it and the way that they think about all the time, but they don't talk about it. And so, tell us where you came from. How did you get to where you are now?

Dr. Latifat Akintade, Guest 7:37

Absolutely. And I'm glad you asked that question because it's really easy to. At an attending physician. If you're, especially if you're an intern or a med student and go, my God, they must have been born with this knowledge. Now none of that, I knew zero. Like zero. In fact, if you think you're horrible at money, we can do a match and see what sucks more was talked more about money. I suspect that I probably was worse than you until six years ago. Believe it or not. I knew nothing about money and the reason why wasn't, because I wasn't necessarily interested. I didn't even have the capacity to even think about money. So I moved to the United States when I was age 18, I moved with two of my siblings. Our parents lived primarily in Nigeria then. And so we knew nothing about the U S system. We do nothing about money. The entire education that I got about money was this, this is this amazing thing. It's called a credit card. You can buy whatever you want from it. You don't even need to have the money and just pay the minimum. That was the extent of the financial education that I had. And I went through undergrad. I fortunately didn't get student loans. I had scholarships and grants and undergrad, so I didn't have to borrow money. However, medical school, I did have to borrow money to become a physician. And I know that student loans get a lot of bad rep. And I do think that there's need for change in how student loans are being done. But without the student loan, I would not be a physician today. So I'm grateful that I at least had the option to be a physician by get an access to this money. Again, I do think that it's going out of control and then it should be changed. But I also think that when we're being taught to hate our student debt, it actually causes more strain and affects our money and life negatively. So I don't buy into that camp at all, but I got student loans and at that point I was. How am I supposed to pay the six figures in debt? And literally I was told you if she knew, figure it out. That's it. So I knew nothing and now have this multiple six figures in debt and I was going through residency I'm in med school residency, and then fellowship I in med school, my siblings and I lived together. So for us, even though I was a med student, I was the one with the most guaranteed source of income. So for me, I had to spend money. the lights were not turned off. I had to have money in case someone couldn't make their part of the rent. So I wasn't even splurging when it came to money, I was probably even leaving less than a lot of my colleagues. I wasn't traveling. I wasn't doing all that stuff that I wish I could have done. However, for me was like down to the essentials of just surviving as a family. And so part of my student loans really went to helping us and my credit card was helping us just survive. Eat. I mean, we, weren't not splurging grocery shopping at the 99 cent store, like talk about really but we, at that point there were five of us, my siblings and I, so we had to survive. And then I went into residency in New York. My youngest sister was living with me in New York. So here we are in Manhattan, we're sharing a bedroom. Because that's what I could afford, but it's not cheap to be a resident in New York city. And again, I wasn't even splurging. I was just surviving, but between my clinical responsibilities between my family responsibilities, I really didn't even have the space to even think about the student debt. So all I did was D fair for bear and whatever I could do to get it out of my face. Right. So I was literally surviving and then I did my fellowship here in California. And at that point I had two kids and, my goal was to be a GI doc. That was my only goal in life was to be amazing. Duke grit, be a master clinician. I want to be bad-ass and take care of my patients, be able to diagnose them from 50 feet away. That was all my choice. And I would have died happy. That was literally my trim. And then I had. I sat down and I looked around and I'm like, okay, here are my attendance that are some of the smartest humans that I knew that are bad-ass at clinical medicine and they're burning out there. Feel like they have no control in how the practice medicine. And I am like, I'm working quizzing number of hours as a physician. I had my baby, I was scoping the day that I went into labor with my second kid. Right. But I knew that if I did not get control of my finances, I knew that my path was clear. My path was going to be one where I still loved my patient. I still loved medicine, but maybe I would get irritated by medicine, but it was a one way trip to burn out. So for me, I realized that money was going to be a tool of empowerment. What was going to be a tool that helped me be free. To practice medicine on my terms, especially as someone that I'd admit the decision that I wanted to be an employed physician, I knew that that meant that I had potentially more options or more opportunities to have cuffs around my wrist. And I did not want to leave my life that way. That was the urgency in my spirit that forced me to now go, okay, I guess I got to get my finances together. Based my biggest fear. And that was the biggest thing for me. That was what motivated me to start. And it wasn't easy. It wasn't fun because every space that I looked into was like filled with shame and judgment, right. Because I already felt shame and judged myself. Like I already thought, how can I. Be trusted as a physician. What, I don't even know money and everybody in the world was sort of like amplifying that for me, it was like, how come you don't know that you don't know how to fall one K is, oh, well, I guess we'll tell you, you know, like all that crap. And then it was like, this was the only way to do money. You have to be great at math. You have to figure out the budget in. And it's like the perfect system of budgeting. And there were all giving me pop chats. Right. I'm like, I don't know how to do this thing the same way. I don't know how to do the stuff, with that's like cramming and judgment filled But I knew that I had to figure it out. So for me, it was really figuring out money in a way that was kinder. In a way that was more gentle in a way that was doable in a way that I let myself have the permission to not have to memorize the terminologies at first and be okay that even if I needed to learn 401k 10 times before I finally got it, that maybe that was okay. And what was more important was me actually taking the steps as opposed to me being like a master Bragga because. I think that I have to know how to speak this language so that I could finally look cool to the world. what gives a crap about what people think, right. The keys, I want to have money that helps me enhance my sense of freedom and hence my sense of liberation. I want to have money, not because I think money is going to make me more amazing because I honestly. Every human, whether I know you or not, I don't care what you think or believe about yourself. I believe you're amazing. I believe you here for a reason. I believe you have the natural gifts in your brain of what it takes to make money, but you'd been in this world. Poured layers of onion type stuff on you. And my key and my goal is this let's help you take those things off because you're actually in itself is someone that has the capacity to have money. So it's not about me teaching you like, I mean, yes, you will learn new things that you've never learned before, but for me, money is something that brings you back to your core of who you are, because where you are, is someone that was meant to have money and be H and in the world. So did I answer your question?

Dr. Gray, Host 15:18

Um, so, so good. There's so much in there. I love that. I, I want to go back a little bit when, you know,=you described, your, your experiences, especially as a medical student, as a resident, as a fellow, that's such a, it's such a powerful image where you. Hey, my family, my siblings, so many siblings that you have, I was supporting them. And even though I was living on loans as a medical student, I was thought of as the most stable person financially. That's so powerful. Cause you were, you were living on loans, but the money was there so that you could provide also for your siblings, for shelter, for food. And then fast forward, as a fellow, now you're close to becoming an attending cause that's so common, right? In training we're like, it's gonna get better. It's gonna get better. It's gonna, may take 10 years before it gets better, but it's going to get better. And here you are, seeing light at the end of the tunnel and you realize, wait a minute, there is not actually that much light at the end of the tunnel. And that's where you. You had that flip, you're like, Hey, I gotta do something different. Cause I don't want to go to darkness at the end of the tunnel. And, and so what we're, I'm so fascinated by is how did you make that flip when you observe how most people talk about money and then how you decided, wait a minute, I I'm going to approach money in a different way. And this is, I think. Your approach is so innovative, the way that you're approaching money is very innovative. And I think it speaks, especially, you're with your audience as women physicians, women physicians, we have, we have a heart to take care of and all physicians, not just women physicians, we have the heart to take care of patients. I don't think any. Signed up to go into medicine to be poor, but we didn't sign up to medicine to be rich either because there's actually, that's all we cared about. There's so many other things that we could do that would have gotten us there faster and with way less way less work hours. And so I think that this way that you sort of, you had this light bulb moment, you said I'm going to do the money in a gentle way. How, how did you get that? I mean, I think that's so amazing.

Dr. Latifat Akintade, Guest 17:27

It wasn't to be honest, it wasn't like I started out thinking I wanted to do money different. I just wanted to do money, but, and now will be, I will be real with you. If you look around in money. Unfortunately, there aren't too many people that look like.

Dr. Gray, Host 17:43

Mm.

Dr. Latifat Akintade, Guest 17:43

Right. And, and that is as a woman. And that is also as a woman of color as a black woman there aren't. And for us on the unfortunate truth is that a lot of our training in medicine as being that way, right. Even in undergrad, I went to UCLA. I was like, maybe like the two spots of. People in a class of hundreds of people. So for us, unfortunately, it's not rare for us to be the minority in a lot of spaces. And that's how I felt when it came to money. So there was a lot of things I was triggering about it. I felt like the minority, when it came to money, I also had stories in my head that maybe dad taught all those people how to do it. And maybe I missed a class in medical school that I wasn't invited to that talked about money. And I share that because there are people in your audience that may feel that way too. I mean, it may not be because it looked like me, but there's always something about us that we think is different from other people. And so for me, it was like, okay, this people. They're getting it, but I'm not getting it. And the SIM where that I had to figure out medical school in old language. The vibe to my soul. I had to figure out undergrad. My major in undergrad was we had the lowest GPA on campus, for those that are listening, if you went to UCLA, microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, it was a heck of a hard, right. But the point is that I had to, and I had some many atypical things about my life, been in medical school and having that financial responsibility in my family don't get me wrong. My siblings were doing their own part too, but I was the one that had the most solid, for lack of a better word. Income source, which was my student debt, my student loan. Right. So there are so many things in my life that I had to learn how to figure out even going back to community college. When I got here, I English respect, grit, English in Nigeria, but bringing me here and telling me to SS. What's the hardest things I think I had done in my life. I still have PTSD from sitting down in the bathroom crying because I'm like, I cannot do this. Like the great Gatsby. What the heck is that book? Right. So the things in my life. That where the challenge is that I had to overcome for me when it came to money, this was another challenge that I had to figure out for myself. So that was, that was the reason why I wasn't there to say, I want to do those differently. It was just like, okay, show me the tools and let me find a way to make you work for me. And so that's how I did it. And then people started asking me questions, like what chief had you grid at simplifying. You're great at explaining money. Can you explain how to do this? And I would explain it in English. So I explain it in English to people and he made sense because that's how it works to my brain. I love analogies. I don't like hating my wits to knowledge. I don't like, making myself feel like, oh, I make it work for me. Right. And so that was the main thing. And people were asking and ask it, and then I was helping and we'll see them change. I also realized that I wasn't an extremist. Oh. And that's like the story of my life. I'm not an extremist. I'm not one of those people that are going to hate debt. I'm not one of those people that are going to suck life. don't do anything joyful in life and spinning is horrible. You're not going to hear that with me. Right. And so that also resonated with people like me that are like, I want to have money and I want to enjoy my Disney land. I want to have money, but I want to enjoy the grid things in life. I want to. Bye, but not feel guilty about it. Right. And teaching them how to hack that, what you will still buy, but would just learn to redirect what you're buying to, that it creates wealth and enjoyment for you. Right. So that literally was it. And then the interesting thing was I was helping people do this and people were like, Latifa, can you help? Can you help? But, again, my goal was to be a great clinician at no point in that place was teaching about money or Money Fit MD in the. And then the pandemic happened. And the first month of the pandemic, nobody knew what was going on. We're all running around like chickens with our head cut off and people were worried about money. Even my colleagues, I do the same clinical work. We're worried about money. Nobody knew if the income was guaranteed and. I had zero worry about money zero, zero. And what luxury, what that privilege gave me was I was able to focus on things that were more important. Things like the safety of my family, how my kids were going to be safe. I didn't know how long this was going to go on for, but I knew it was going to have mental health consequences. So how am I going to take care of my kids from a mental health perspective and to create like balance with them so that they don't feel like the life has been dragged from out, beneath their feet, if they're no longer going to school. So there were all those things that I had the luxury of focusing on because I had my money together. And so for me, it became almost. Wrong to not help women on a bigger scale with this gift so that we can be prepared because it's not a matter of when or if an emergency is going to happen. It's when it happens and we don't have to wait until that point before we get it together. And that's a gift that I now have the privilege of sharing with women.

Dr. Gray, Host 23:05

It's beautiful. And, and right there, you, you describe your why. And I think a why that so many physicians can borrow, as why, why they want to. Master money, right? Which is having that freedom. And this, I love, I love how you, every time you talk about money, like in the same sentence, there's a word freedom or a synonym for freedom somewhere because it is. And I, I resonate with that because money was never something that I really. Found interesting growing up, and I think that that was a privilege. I mean, we weren't well off or anything, but I didn't have days where I remember oh, I don't, we're not going to have food on the table. Like we had enough money so that there was food on the table and there was shelter. It just became uninteresting to me. Cause I was like, well, I'm not that worried about money, but at the same time, I was much more interested in science for example. Like in medicine, well, medicine was a later, later after thought, in, in those types of things and, and so I love that you talk about money as this is freedom. And I think most of us as humans, freedom is so important to us and we don't necessarily realize, and you and I, we're, we're immigrants. I, I was born in China and immigrated when I was a younger child. And. We, I think in the us, as much as we have a lot of noise in the news and a lot of criticisms of our government, but in many ways we take so many of our freedoms for granted. And it's not until we don't have the freedom, in the case of maybe traveling to another country. And when you realize that that freedom doesn't exist or when. Uh, crisis hits right? In this case, the COVID pandemic and as physicians, we had this illusion that we were, employed physicians, that, that we, we have a freedom, we have a say we have, money security. And all of a sudden we realized that those freedoms were really illusions. And, this is so powerful, when, when you notice that your colleagues were, who were in the same profession, who are doing the same job, getting the same pay and maybe more pay and, and yet they didn't have that freedom at that time.

Dr. Latifat Akintade, Guest 25:11

Absolutely. You know, it's interest in freedom is so important to me. And I believe it's important for a lot of us. And sometimes we may pretend that it's. Important to us because it's feels more comfortable to avoid that. And freedom is different things for different people. In fact, I just am, well, I'm not sure where this is going to be going live, but I'm currently in the middle of a workshop that I'm doing financial liberation plan for women physicians. It's the best work of ever done in my entire money. Best hands down best, best, best, best. Right. And I always remind people that liberation is not just an external thing. It's also internal thing. Right? So there are many layers to that. It's liberating ourselves from the forces of patriarchy sexism, the systems that are. That excludes women, minorities, women of color, black women from things when you have your money. And it's not just about the cash, it's the money and the mindset because people that have a ton of cash can still not be free. So it's both. And that's why I was reminding people. It's both, you can be free at Andre, a thousand dollars. You can be free. 20 meal then, and you can be not free at a hundred million dollars. I don't want money. That's not going to help me be free. That's it? That's like a friend that I always see through. So when we're talking about freedom, it could be from those systems. It could be from the medical education system. I love my job. I love what I do. It's a privilege and an honor of my life to take care of the patient that I get to take care of. However, if things change, if the. Powers that be change. If the laws change. If I find out that the goal is not patient and physician wellness centered, I want to not have to be there. In fact, I had some crazy stuff happened to me last year. That for, if I did not have my money stuff together, I would have burnt out. the fact that I knew that I was there because I wanted to know, because I had to give them the luxury of making the decision from my eye level. Right. So the freedom may be from those factors as well. It could also be from family and generational trauma or generational lack or generational on wealthiness. Right. And again, I say that because it's not just about. You could be in a family that has money, but they're like scarcity mindset. They don't let it go. They don't really see, they're not doing things with it in the world. You may have family that money was like the cus of fight in them. Like you get to be liberated from that. And then there was also liberation from you from the past you're prior. So from 20 years ago, maybe the dreams and aspirations you had, maybe you dreamt of, being a physician that works a hundred percent of the time. And. Thoughts is actually keeping you limited money could be something that helps you relieve yourself and give yourself permission to create new dreams now. Right? So that's how I think about liberation. It's not just about the extra now, but it's also about the internet and it gives us the gift of being able to transform and understand that your life is in seasons your life. The fact that I'm here, I don't know how long I'm going to do money for them. D for the bottom line is I know I'm meant to be here right now. I'm meant to impact change right now in this way. And maybe 20 years from now. It may be something different and my money will always be the tool that is present there and let me live into whatever that future is going to be.

Dr. Gray, Host 28:26

Hmm. All right. I love that so much. And. That you made about how, you could have a hundred million dollars and, and be in prison by money. And I think that as a child, that's actually why I wasn't that interested in money because you would go in the news and you read stories about, Hollywood stars or whatever celebrities. You read about all their problems and, actually, they're, they're in massive debt too. It's just that their debt is way bigger than, the average American debt. And so you could, you could have a billion dollars and, and be more stressed about money every day. And that money wasn't really working for them and didn't bring them more peace and fulfillment and happiness. That internal work. Right? So, whether our net worth is in the negative or our net worth is in the 10 figures or more it's there's internal work to be. done. And that's actually where the liberation comes from. It's So. beautiful.

Dr. Latifat Akintade, Guest 29:26

Well said, well said, I love it. Love it.

Dr. Gray, Host 29:34

I absolutely am loving this conversation. We are just wrapping up part one of the interview and the gems don't stop. There's going to be so much more next week when we have part two with Dr. Latifa of money fit MD. You can find her on all the social media accounts, Facebook, Instagram, and you can also go to her website, money fit, md.com to connect with her. And I was very open and expressing my admiration for Dr. Latifa. What I appreciate the most about her is that she's an example of a physician that's living her dream and taking all of us with her. More to come next week.