Get $125 from Equifax Data Breach Settlement and Finance Friday Articles
If you want to find out if your personal info was affected by the Equifax Data Breach, you can go to this website:
https://eligibility.equifaxbreachsettlement.com/en/eligibility
Further info is available here:
https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/refunds/equifax-data-breach-settlement
At a minimum, you can get $125 or free credit monitoring if you were affected. It takes a minute to file a claim if you were affected.
Here are this week’s articles:
4 Ways Your Fear of Loss Impacts Your Finances
Balancing the Need to Take Risk
Different Ways to Make Five Million Dollars in Real Estate
Financial Freedom in Ten Reliable Steps
How Time-Consuming is Investing in Real Estate?
Life Goal: To Lose a Million Dollars
Pay to Play – Divide Your Wealth Into Physical and Social Wealth Components
Should We Employ Our Own Kids? (and How Much to Pay Them)
The Financial Benefits of Residential Solar
The Problem With FIREing At 4% And The Need For Flexible Spending Rules
The Tale of Two Doctors: The First Paycheck
The Work Required to Behave in the Markets
We Are Often Frugal, But Rarely Cheap
What is the Best Asset Allocation for Retirement?
What You Need to Know about Fundrise and DiversyFund
Which Assets Should You Spend First in Retirement?
Who Should Go For PSLF As An Attending Physician?
Why A Physician Should Work Full-Time
Why military retirees may no longer have to wait 180 days to start a job at DoD
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – Could a Master’s Degree Get You Promoted?
When discussing why they failed to promote, one of the more common reasons that officers give is that they were unable to get a leadership position. When I ask them how they prepared themselves for these positions and what they did to improve their chances of getting one, they often don’t have much to say. Frankly, they didn’t do anything “extra” or above and beyond their normal duties to prepare for and get a leadership position.
Don’t be one of those officers.
The recipe for promotion is fairly simple. Superior performance in leadership positions leads to early promote (EP) fitreps, which leads to promotion. As promotion gets more difficult, the competition for leadership positions is likely to increase, and officers need to find a way to differentiate themselves from the crowd, increasing the chance they’ll get leadership positions. Obtaining a master’s degree can be one of the things that will distinguish you from other physicians and can dramatically increase the chances that you are competitive for career advancing positions.
What Kind of Degree Should You Consider Getting?
This depends on your career goals. If you want to become a leader in research or global health engagement, an area of increased focus in the Navy, you probably want to get a Master in Public Health (MPH) or similar degree. If you want to become a residency or fellowship director, a master’s degree in adult or medical education would fit the bill. If you want to become an operational leader, attending a war college would make sense. And if you want to become a clinical administrator or pursue executive medicine, obtaining a management degree, such as a Master in Business Administration (MBA), Master in Medical Management (MMM), or Master in Healthcare Administration (MHA), would make sense to me.
How Can You Get a Master’s Degree While on Active Duty?
There are many ways you can do this, but the most common include:
- Complete a fellowship that includes a master’s degree. Some fellowships either include or have the option of obtaining a MPH, such as the Global Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response Fellowship. I also know of multiple officers who asked the Graduate Medical Education Selection Board for an additional year of fellowship to obtain a degree or simply for permission to obtain a degree alone. What are the chances this will be granted? Well I’m sure the chances change from year to year, but they are zero if you don’t ask.
- Complete the distance learning Executive MBA from the Naval Postgraduate School. This is how I got my MBA for the cost of books alone, and I think the program is excellent. You have to go to Monterey for 1 week at the beginning of the 2-year program, but after that all classes are held on-line.
- Apply for the Navy Career Intermission Program and take time off to get a degree.
- Attend a war college. Intermediate colleges are for officers who are O4 or below, while senior college is for O5 and above. If you’re interested, contact your Detailer.
- USUHS offers a Master in Health Professions Education.
- Pay for it yourself and do it in your free time on-line or in person. One program to look into is offered by the American Association for Physician Leadership (https://www.physicianleaders.org/education/physicians/masters). By taking some CME you can then enroll in various patient safety and management degrees that are all physician focused. The on-line University of Massachusetts healthcare focused MBA that they offer is the most reasonably priced MBA that I could find that is accredited by the top business school accreditation body. If you want a fast MBA (but pricey), look into the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA program (http://pemba.utk.edu).
While committing to a master’s degree program will take major time and effort, that is the point. It is a well-recognized way to demonstrate to the Navy that you’ve made a serious commitment to your professional development and could go a long way toward giving your next interview for a leadership position.
Interested in Becoming a Military Medicine Ambassador?
Are you or do you know someone who might be interested in becoming a Military Medicine Ambassador?
The Uniformed Services University has recently established a Military Medicine Ambassador (MMA) Program. The mission of this program is to make known and communicate the opportunities available to practice medicine as a uniformed physician trained through the Health Professions Scholarship Program or the Uniformed Services University.
Military Medicine Ambassadors (MMAs) are “field” representatives of military medicine who provide information to interested pre-medical students and medical school applicants about medical school officer accession programs and the Uniformed Services University. MMAs will have the opportunity to visit their alma maters and/or universities near their hometowns, duty stations, or current medical practices.
Although many MMAs will be HPSP graduates, USU alumni, active duty service members, retirees, or separated service members; prior military service is not a requirement or pre-requisite for assignment. Anyone who has a sincere interest in military medicine, to include pre-medical and medical students, may be enrolled within this program.
One of the goals of this program is for MMAs to develop relationships with pre-medical programs, pre-health advisors, military recruiters, and interested applicants by sharing their personal experiences and knowledge about life as a uniformed physician. Volunteers will be able to participate as their schedules permit, and they will be provided with all the information and training necessary to participate in these activities. MMAs will also be able to utilize this work for their professional resume or curriculum vitae in support of academic promotions at USU.
If you are interested in learning more about this program, you can register at the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/K9LZ6JY or contact Commander Robert Liotta directly, whose contact info is in this flyer about the program.
Great GI Bill Summary Post
If you need to learn everything about the Post 9/11 GI Bill and how it works, read this article:
A Few MOAA Posts About Military Medicine Changes
The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) had a few posts that mentioned all the changes underway in military medicine. Here they are:
Questions Remain as DoD Gets Ready to Cut 18,000 Medical Personnel
Retired Military Surgeons General to Congress: Intervene on Medical Billets
Widows Tax Repeal, 3.1% Pay Raise, and More Move Forward as House Passes Defense Bill
Finance Friday Articles
Here are this week’s articles:
A Lesson in Portfolio Correlations
A Primer on Socially Responsible Investing
Bid for a higher military pay raise fizzles amid partisan fighting in Congress
Capital gains are a good thing
Don’t Retire To Something. Retire On Something.
Focusing on earning more, rather than spending less, is a mistake
Global equity investing: The benefits of diversification and sizing your allocation
How a Taxable Brokerage Account Can Be as Good or Better Than a Roth IRA
How To Negotiate Lower Advisory Fees
How young troops could be getting hosed on their military education benefits
Humanitarian Medical Mission — A Cure For Burnout?
Live Now or Save for Later: The Now or Later Fallacy
Our Real Life Experience with Real Estate Investments
Partial FIRE: The Solution to Your Problems?
The Financial Burden of a Rare Cancer
VA Announces Yellow Ribbon Schools for 2019-2020 Academic Year
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – Tips to Get Selected for GME
I’ve participated in the last four Graduate Medical Education Selection Boards (GMESBs) and would like to offer tips for people looking to match for GME in the future. We’ll cover general tips and those specific for internship and residency/fellowship:
General Tips
- Money is getting tight for permanent change of station (PCS) moves at BUPERS. I think you can increase your chances of matching in GME by being local, or at least on the same coast, as the GME program where you want to train. Keep this in mind when you are picking your Flight Surgery (FS), Undersea Medical Officer (UMO), General Medical Officer (GMO), or post-residency assignments.
- If you want to give yourself the best chance of matching, you need multiple peer-reviewed publications. Any publications or scholarly activity have the chance to help, but having multiple peer-reviewed publications is the goal you should be trying to reach. Anything that is peer-reviewed counts, including case studies in Military Medicine which are, in general, pretty easy to get accepted for publication.
- Be realistic about your chances of matching. If you are applying to a competitive specialty and you’ve failed a board exam or had to repeat a year in medical school, you are probably not going to match in that specialty. There are some specialties where you can overcome a major blight on your record, but there are some where you can’t. If this is applicable to you, the residency director or specialty leader should be able to give you some idea of your chances. Will they be honest and direct with you? I’m not sure, but it can’t hurt to ask.
- If you are having trouble matching in the Navy for GME, you may have a better chance as a civilian. By the time you pay back your commitment to the Navy, you are a wiser, more mature applicant that some civilian residency programs might prefer over an inexperienced medical student. You’ll also find some fairly patriotic residency programs, usually with faculty who are prior military, that may take you despite your academic struggles.
Tips for Medical Students Applying for Internship
- Do everything you can to do a rotation with the GME program you want to match at. You want them to know who you are.
- When you are applying for internship, make sure your 2nd choice is not a popular internship (Emergency Medicine, Orthopedics, etc.). If you don’t match in your 1st choice and your 2nd choice is a popular internship, then it will likely have filled during the initial match. This means you get put in the “intern scramble” and you’ll likely wind up in an internship you didn’t even list on your application.
- Your backup plan if you don’t match should be an alternative program at the same site where you eventually want to match for residency. For example, in my specialty (Emergency Medicine or EM) we only have residencies at NMCP and NMCSD. If someone doesn’t match for an EM internship at NMCP or NMCSD, they will have a better chance of eventually matching for EM residency if they do an internship locally, like a transitional internship. Internships at Walter Reed or any other hospital without an EM program are quality programs, but it is much easier to pledge the fraternity if you are physically present and can get to know people, attending conferences and journal clubs when you can.
- You need to think about what you will do in your worst-case scenario, a 1-year civilian deferment for internship. Many of the medical students I interview do not have a plan if they get a 1-year deferment. I think every medical student needs to do one of two things. Either they should pick 10-15 civilian transitional year internships (or whatever internship they want) and apply to those just in case they get a 1-year deferment, or they should just plan to apply to internships late or scramble if this unlikely event happens to you. Most medical students do not grasp the concept that this could happen to them and have no plan to deal with it if it does. It is an unlikely event, especially if you are a strong applicant, and you can always just scramble at the last minute, but this is an issue that every medical student should think through. If you are going to just scramble at the last minute, that is fine, but it should be an informed choice.
Tips for Officers Applying for Residency or Fellowship
- You should show up whenever you can for conferences and journal clubs. Again, you want them to know who you are and by attending these events when you can you demonstrate your commitment to the specialty and their program.
- Always get a warfare device (if one is available) during your FS, UMO, or GMO tour. Not having it is a red flag.
PCS Move Improvements
I know no one wants to read a NAVADMIN, but this one details some pretty good changes for those PCSing:
UNCLASSIFIED//
ROUTINE
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INFO CNO WASHINGTON DC
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NAVADMIN 161/19
PASS TO OFFICE CODES:
FM CNO WASHINGTON DC//N1//
INFO CNO WASHINGTON DC//N1//
MSGID/GENADMIN/CNO WASHINGTON DC/N1/JUL//
SUBJ/PERMANENT CHANGE OF STATION MOVE IMPROVEMENTS//
RMKS/1. This NAVADMIN provides Sailors and their families with information
to assist in planning and executing their Permanent Change of Station (PCS)
moves and provides information regarding upcoming improvements to the PCS
process and introduction of new tools.
2. Sailors can reduce out-of-pocket expenses during a PCS move by taking
advantage of the travel entitlements available to them in advance of their
move. Travel advances are designed to assist Sailors with PCS travel
expenses. This includes funding assistance for mileage, meals and lodging.
If you are about to make a PCS move, talk to your Command Pay and Personnel
Administrator (CPPA) to help you decide if a travel advance is the right
thing for you and your family. Special consideration should be given to
those moving to an overseas duty station or to a location with a higher than
average cost of living.
3. Spouse Licensure Reimbursement allows spouses to have certain employment
licenses or certification costs reimbursed up to $500 when necessary as a
result of a PCS move. See NAVADMIN 134/19 for more information.
4. Additional PCS move improvements are coming in three phases:
a. Phase One (July 2019).
(1) MyPCS Mobile is a mobile-enabled website accessible on personal
and work mobile devices, tablets, laptops and desktops.
Available now, this tool provides additional flexibility and access to a
personalized checklist tailored for an individual Sailors PCS move as well as
the ability to opt-in and immediately get on the waitlist for government
housing and childcare services at their new duty station for those Sailors
under Active Duty PCS orders.
Sailors can generate their checklist online at any time and tasks are listed
chronologically to improve the overall experience for Sailors and their
dependents. If a Sailor does not have a set of Active Duty PCS orders
presently, they can still explore the functionality of the checklist through
an on-line demonstration of the capability on MyPCS Mobile.
(2) Sailors will be able to login to MyPCS Mobile at any time through
the Navy App Locker at https://www.applocker.navy.mil or MyNavy Portal (MNP)
website at https://my.navy.mil. MNP will have quick links available on the
homepage Sailors can use to login to MyPCS Mobile and save the website as a
favorite on the browser of their choice. By downloading the Navy App Locker
for either Android or Apple devices, Sailors can quickly access the MyPCS
Mobile and other Navy-sponsored content. Sailors can access the MyPCS Mobile
website without a Common Access Card (CAC), using commercial grade Multi-
Factor Authentication (MFA) credentials for security.
(3) To set up CAC-free access, log into MNP on a CAC-enabled machine.
Your name should appear at the top of the page. Click on your name, select
my account, then select the instructions for CAC- free setup. Follow the
steps for either Apple iOS or Google Android to authenticate your identity
under the instructions tab. NOTE:
This is a one-time event and allows the user to establish their secure MFA
account to log into the CAC-less applications or websites. The mobile device
of the user must have access to either WiFi or cellular data services to
complete the process.
(4) PCS Entitlements Calculator is a tool to assist Sailors budget
for travel-related PCS expenses and it will be available on MNP with a
release date outlined in an upcoming NAVADMIN.
b. Phase Two (August 2019)
(1) A new format for PCS orders called lean orders will be released
in early August and available in MyPCS Mobile and on MNP for Sailors on
Active Duty PCS orders. This is a streamlined, simplified and plain language
orders format, providing Sailors and their families everything they need to
know to execute a move on a few screens on a mobile device. The full text
orders will also be available.
(2) In early August, some Sailors who have a government travel charge
card (GTCC) will have the option to participate in a pilot program to use the
GTCC for all PCS related travel expenses (in lieu of obtaining a travel
advance). Specifics on this new option will be outlined in an upcoming
NAVADMIN.
c. Phase Three (September 2019). Sailors will be able to complete a
fully electronic travel voucher using MyPCS Mobile on their mobile device.
Sailors will be able to upload receipts, complete a voucher that has been
prepopulated with basic information, electronically sign and provide it to
their CPPA for final processing.
5. These initiatives are just the beginning to Navy fielding a modernized
PCS move process that makes the overall customer experience better for
Sailors and their families.
6. Contact MyNavy Career Center at 833-330-MNCC/6622 or via e-mail at
askMNCC(at)navy.mil with any issues or to provide feedback.
7. Released by Vice Admiral John B. Nowell, Jr, N1.//
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Two Free Military Books – Fundamentals of Military Medicine & Emergency War Surgery
Here are the links where you can get them:
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 