Beyond ADHD A Physicians Perspective: Latifat Akintade (Gastroenterologist - Founder of MoneyFitMD)

Dr. Latifat Akintade: I like to remind people about the concept of seeds. Imagine it will look at an orange seed and we're like, it's small, it's too small. The chances too small. It's impossible. It's a small seed. How can you expect to have a juicy orange from something as tiny and dry as this. So maybe it is possible. So I like to remind people that whatever is in your hands, like, look at your hand, do you have seeds in your hands?

It may be the knowledge you already have. Maybe the resources you have access to. It may be the podcast you're on right now. Maybe the podcasts that I have or what I'm talking about money, like where is the seat? And what are you doing with the seed? Are you planting the seed? Are you sitting down thinking it's impossible?

The chances low. Thank God. The farmers don't think that at the beginning of the season, because if they do, we would all be screwed by now because how dare we think that it's possible to have like a big plant of corn that grows many corn from one seed of corn. So what seat do you have in your hand?

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Hi, welcome to Beyond ADHD, A Physician's Perspective podcast. I am your host, Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh. I'm a Family Medicine doc, with ADHD, practicing in a rural setting in Texas. I am a mother to two very energetic toddlers who are three and four years of age.

And in the past year, I have undergone radical transformation after discovering ADHD coaching, and life-coaching. For the past decade, my typical day consisted of having 300 charts backlog, a graveyard of unfinished projects, and a lack of time awareness. I didn't realize that I was not filling my own cup. I was running on fumes. The last year I figured out the secret; learn to stay in your lane. So now my mission is to help others develop systems that tap into their zone of genius. So they too can reclaim their personal lives back like I have.

Hello physicians. I want to invite you to go to my website, ADHD-lifecoach.com

This is the perfect time for you to realize that, June 20th is right around the corner.

That's when my 12 Week Physician Coaching class is going to start, it consists of 20 CME credits. Make sure you get on my waiting list and you can do that also by sending me an email on my website, you can contact me. You can get all the details. All right. Take care.

Awesome. This morning, I'm so excited. That's the word? Awesome. That's how I feel when I talked to Dr. Latifat. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I have an amazing treat for you guys. Dr. Latifat Akintade is a practicing gastroenterologist and she's the founder of money coaching school for bad-ass women physicians. She's also the host of the Money Fit MD podcast, and she combines her interest in personal finance.

Her training as a certified life coach and her passion for physician wellness. So her mission is to equipped every physician with the tools that they need to be financially liberated and find their purpose to live out their calling. So listen here, she's helping you guys live and practice medicine and your own terms.

So it's such an amazing, awesome experience that we're going to have today as we chat with her. So please pay attention, Dr. Latifat, would you mind telling us how you got here? This sounds so amazing.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to get to hang out with you finally right now. Thanks for having me here for those that I haven't met, I'm Dr. Latifat, I'm a GI doc like Diana mentioned, and I live in California. I'm the mother of three little ladies that are absolutely absolutely love, they drive me nuts. And it's great. And I have the distinct honor and pleasure of being the owner, the creator, the coach and the director, really all of my Money Fit MD Money School For Bad-Ass Women Physicians.

It's a community that's growing for women physicians. That want to be bad-ass at money. And the reason why that is important is, you know, it's interesting. People tell me that. I help women become bad-ass at money. And I have this thought and this belief that every woman, physician, every physician, actually, every human has what it takes to have money.

So people already have the inner, I think about them like an onion. They already have the core of bad-ass theory. And what I literally do is just help them remove the layers, like the onion skin, and then they shine and we add some knowledge. From financial education to that. And poof people do crazy stuff in the world, including have money live well, decrease burn out, change their own generation or direction and generational trees and really create the life that they want to have.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah, that's great. Now, were you somebody who was always good with his money situation or like the necessity get us here?

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Necessity is the mother of invention. It got me here. No, I knew nothing. Absolutely nothing about money. The only thing I knew about money was that to spend it. And it wasn't a way I wasn't even spending frivolously, but my centrals were probably at that point in my life more than a lot of people's essentials.

So I have financial responsibilities in my family. And even as a med student, as a resident, I needed to, I was the one with the more money out of my siblings. And we lived together, even though my source of income was literally student loans. But I didn't know anything about money though. I had debt.

I didn't know how much I owed. I didn't know who I owed. I know that I got, letters from auntie Sally. But I didn't know. She was the only person that I owed or not. I just knew that she was the auntie that was all up in my stuff, but I didn't really know how to address the money stuff. I was busy as a resident and then as a fellow, but the interesting thing was no one had also taught me.

So here it was, no one had taught me. I had, life was busy. I chose to ignore it. And so those two things together created me with the fear of what was going to happen to my life if I didn't get my money and stuff together. So, and that happened during fellowship. At that point, I had two kids and I remember sitting down one day looking at my daughter and thinking, if I did not get my money issue together, we were going to create a life that was me overworking, burn out, not having a choice in how I practice medicine, not having a choice to be the kind of mom that I want to be. And that scared me to pieces. And that was the only reason why I decided to get my money crap together. And that was literally six months ago, six years, not months, six years ago.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. So what I hear you say is you made the decision to understand money, even though nobody had ever taught it. So this is something that we can learn to do for ourselves.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Absolutely. I mean, no one, I taught me, I didn't know how to do it. And even when I started the language was really foreign to me.

Right. I was learning the same lingo, like 5 billion times. I mean, at some point I was like, wait a minute, what's going on? I'm a physician. I do crazy stuff. I learned all this amazing stuff yet. I can't even figure out what a 401k is. Right. Yeah. So you can realize that it's not about the actual knowledge and learning, because if it is every physician would be like a multi-billion a year, because we're incredibly smart.

But there are reasons why that information doesn't seep into us there's a reason why we don't retain it. And part of it is the way that it's been taught can seem really complicated, right? Can seem really. Just trained and really it's a lot of, money's also shameful judgment full, and those actual things makes it hard for it to attract us and makes it hard for us to sit down and learn it and assimilate it.

And so for me, even when, even though I was at one stage, I didn't know. But after I decided to, once I jumped into it, it wasn't happening for me because of those baggage. So I pretty much had to figure out how to make money into a language that I could understand. And then I finally started getting, I was like, oh, I don't have to do it that way.

I don't have to hate myself. I don't have to cheat people. I don't have to like, you know, be like negative talk myself. Like you mean I can act. Learn to do this in a way that is kind and the, where that is simple in a way that is loving in a way that's not judgemental. And that's how I had to learn it for myself when it came to money.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. You know, I think both of us have had this conversation, you know, when we've been in, in different places, I've been the, have the privilege to hang out with you in, in some conferences where, you know, we don't realize that we are carrying around. The beliefs of other people about money or about, you know, education or about whatever.

And that, like you said, we have some limiting beliefs that we never questioned because that's just what has been taught to us. And like, sometimes we are not even aware that " " money feels this way or that way or whatever. And that actually prevents us from really stepping into, you know, living the life that we want, because money is a neutral thing.

Like it's not good or bad, but most of us, because of whatever we're carrying around our, I don't want to say baggage because some things could be actually very helpful. Like when we, maybe we're thinking, okay, if I invest in education, then I'm going to have a better outcome. And I'm living proof of that.

Like my parents, my dad was a welder, right. My parents were immigrants. And so they knew that if they invested in my education, then I could, here I am, I'm a doctor. Right. They knew that some investment, like some loans are good. And then some things like maybe we go spend money on some things that maybe are not as best assets to us, but we don't know at that time.

That's the beauty of it, like understanding that when money comes, like, how can I take care of it? How can I use it towards me to help me and benefit me instead of like all of a sudden being like, well, I'm used to being stretching every quarter or in looking for coupons, because then we have all these other patterns that we don't realize that.

And so you, you know, that I have ADHD and, and the people who are listening here have ADHD. And because part of it is like, we want that dopamine high of like finding something cheap. We buy all this shit that we don't really need because we found it cheap. Right. And then we forgot. We have like 10 things of that because we bought it on sale.

And then, it's like this thing where you're like, really now you're spending $20 to host 25 cent items in there. And so it's this thing where you have to realize that sometimes getting things for cheap. You pay for it in the long run because all of a sudden you're hoarding stuff and all kinds of stuff, but at the same time, you, you didn't go and compare, oh, which medical school is the cheapest.

So I can go into that one. Like you were like, wherever they accept me, I'm going right. And so it's so interesting if we don't question our beliefs. And if we don't realize that money, if it's not aligned with our values can get us into trouble.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Absolutely. And I love that. I mean, I love the, so much, you said that I want to dig into and some people may go, oh, you know what?

The limiting beliefs I'm make it even more simple. Cause I love simple. I'm like, we can do complicated, but we don't have to. Why not? Right. And it's just like literally thinking about it, like the sentences in our brain. Right. And we'll have multiple sentences in our brain every day. Some more than others, some can be 6,000, some can be like tens of thousands.

Right. And just sort of like the sentences that are landing in our brain. And all of our sentences is a lot of times with tend to choose sentences that feel familiar. To us. Right. We feel like, okay, the ones that are familiar to us, it's like, oh, you know, you looking in this, it's like, you go to a buffet.

I'm Nigerian. I love Nigerian food. I like other foods as well. But if you put me at a buffet, the first thing I'm going to grab me and be like the Nigerian popup, because I'm like, okay, I know what this tastes like. Right. So what happens is we're getting all the sentences in our brain and we choose them, the ones that feel familiar. And the ones that feel familiar, that feel comfortable are the ones that we've lived in, right. Things that we've heard from our families, from the society, right. Things like, you know, women should be stay at home parents or, you know, guys should be the ones in charge of money or money's the root of evil.

We choose those thoughts that are familiar. And sometimes we don't question them. You know, I'm not going to say good or bad, I'm going to say, does it help you achieve what you want or not? So the thing is, if you're choosing sentences that feel familiar and it's creating the status quo, but you don't want the status quo, you want to create something else.

Then that means that you may have to choose something that may feel uncomfortable, not familiar, but you know, in your excellence that it's going to get you the result that you want. So if you've been thinking that money is hard, that could be a sentence. That's literally a sentence in your brain. That's come from generations.

And because. You know, again, we choose what feels familiar. You have evidence you're like money feels hard. And then you look around for evidence and like, oh yeah, there was that one time that I couldn't do 5099.29 plus 10,000 at 29.559. And they're like, see, money is hard. But that was the time that I heard my grandma say money was hard because she went out to the store and forgot her purse at home.

See, money's hard. Like we start to make ridiculous, crazy evidences just to support that comfortable sentence that would pick in. So in order to change, just like, you know, if you're going to the gym in order to like, get a different results, you have to work out and he may be a little uncomfortable.

And that is choosing new sentences that may feel uncomfortable, may feel different, but you know that if you continue on that line, it's gonna feel more familiar and you're going to get the muscle that you want. So that's where that I think about, when it comes to choosing those sentences in your brain, that's going to work well on may, help you produce the result that you want.

The other thing I wanted to address is with ADHD and also other people, like there's always something happening in this world that. Me reasons to distract you from creating what you want to create. Like there's life, that's always happening. There's never a perfect time when things are so together, right.

That you don't now it's like altogether. And what I like is I want my women to be able to have their kids. Right. So maybe your brain is one that is like newer divergent, and you have like 10,000 stimuli coming at the same time. You doing all this other amazing stuff. But the question now is because we know your brain is beautiful and there's nothing wrong with you and your brain is amazing.

In fact, I pay one of my coaches that I pay multiple five figures every year. I pay her for her brand and she's a neurodivergent brain. I love her. Right. So your brain is value. Your brain is an asset. However, what we'll want to do is how can we make it so that you are building your wealth, your net worth is growing even while your brain is braining and doing what it does.

Right. And that's how you. Create systems for yourself. You create automated system where it's like, okay, what decision am I making about where I want to invest? And every month it's scheduled to go automate into that. So while your brand is here, braining and doing what, your, whatever kind of brand you have, your net worth is still growing because you've already automated.

And so if you're like, I still want to go buy 20 things, which there, you know, of course that's what Dan is doing here to help you optimize your life and helps you grow the life you want with whatever kind of amazing, beautiful brain you have. And while you're doing that, you're networking can still be growing.

So it doesn't have to be. Either or, and what we don't want is for, you know, you've been a single mom, you've been a married person. You've been the primary breadwinner you with a newer divergent brain. You with your neuro-typical brain, we don't want whatever, but to be the reason why you don't have money, I want you to have money and also get to leave the full experience of the kind of amazing brain that you have.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah, so many amazing gems that you just pointed out. So like you said, sometimes the thought money is hard. People also associate that with, I have to work really hard to get the money, right? Like they, they put those two things almost side by side. And so, like you said, Some of us with neurodiversity brains, if it's too simple, sometimes we're like, that's boring, but if it's complicated, we're like, okay, sign me up.

But then somehow the money comes up and you're like, oh no, that's too hard and money. I don't understand. And then they walk away. Right. But like you just said, why can't you just look at those simple sentences that keep coming up and then focus, whether that sentence helps you or hinders you? Like, is it getting you closer or farther away from what you want?

And like we said, money is not good or bad. The more money you have, if you normally are doing your thing and have a high energy, and like you're investing, you're going to find more ways to make it work, to help yourself, your family, your community, right. Yeah. The more you have, the more you can invest in do stuff.

Right. And like she just said about automation, you know, it could go both ways. If you have your credit cards saved in your Amazon and you quickly go and purchase everything because it's so easy, then maybe that's not something you want to automate, but yeah. You know that if you have yourself, your credit card saved to pay your water bill to pay whatever it is, then you're not going to get the fee.

So that's where you want to automate. Right? But like she just mentioned, if you have it in your calendar, that this is how I'm going to build my wealth every single month so that when life happens, You don't look back and you're like, oh my God, 10 years just went by. I forgot to even fill out my w four or whatever form I had to do.

And I didn't even realize I never paid money into it. You'd be surprised how many people. Oh, I forgot to fill that form for the FSA or I didn't know. I had to use that money or dah, dah, dah, dah. And so again, it's so good to get to talk to physicians or to talk to anybody else who understands money. If it's not coaching financial advisors, bookkeepers.

This is the fastest way for you to get somewhere. When you yourself don't have a tool, like sure. You can figure it out by why do you, why can't you take a shortcut? There are some shortcuts, like Latifat had to learn it years of learning it, but now she can give it to us in like a cool package. that you can do it yourself.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Absolutely. And I think that part of it too is whatever that is. We all have our baggage for lack of a better term, right. We've learnt a lot of amazing stuff from our families. And we've also learned some things that may have served our families, but not serving us. And they did their best and taught us. What helped them survive, right? So maybe for you, you know, for you, maybe your family immigrated from somewhere and they have to hustle and work crazy and work day and night. And for them, that action was what led them to have the money, to be able to take care of you. They did the best that you can, but in my opinion, now they've ended the Baton to.

And we get to take that to a different level. If we keep doing it the same exact way, we keep creating the same exact cycle and we're going to create the same pathway for future generations, but we get to take what they've ended the Baton. Now we're going to take that with our M D R D O R M D BS degree, the access we have to internet the access

we have to coach it that maybe they did not have them. They may think coaching is a waste of money because they didn't have money to even take a break from anything, talk less. Right. And that's been the thing, honestly, when I find out, found out about all this like mindset mentality, I actually cried because I was like, wait a minute.

You mean, this is the key. And no one has been telling us this and we've been told to work harder and grind hard. And that really was not the key to this. And I literally cried. And that is why, like my goal and my mission in this season of my life is to give this like, to the ends of the earth, because I'm like with those tools, it doesn't have to be a hustle.

Like it was right. It doesn't mean that life is going to be perfect. We are humans. Life is never going to be perfect. But what gets to happen is as life is happening, we still get to elevate our generation. With to get to elevate and do it better and differently than the other, you know, the feed the past generation had, my parents wanted me, like, they encouraged me to be a physician as well.

And in fact, with, you know, business or all that stuff, That was unfortunately late right now. What I said that was a waste of time because for him, he thought that being a physician is the ticket to success. That having been a physician means you have secure finances. Being a physician means automatic.

Well, those were the sentences in his own brain. And so for me now it's not to now take the center. That it was in his brain and automatically wrapped myself in it. If that's not, what's going to help me. Right. It's me understanding that. Okay. What was the goal that he wanted? The goal was for his kids to have a good financial future.

And now I get to create the, how that may not be how he thought, because now I have resources that he did not have. And that is what I wish we would all do is learn about the mission. But the, how has. And that is about investing in ourselves. It's about automating, it's about learning the ABCs of the financial world.

It doesn't have to be complicated. I don't do complicated stuff. I can, but I just choose not to. And it doesn't have to be shame or judgment full.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yes. Or so many gems there. Yes. Like if you look back, everybody's always doing their best. Right. I don't think they wake up and they're like, how can I make this harder on myself?

How can I make this harder on my family? Right. Like, I think everybody's functioning from a place of, I'm just trying to do better, than my parents did and their parents did, and their parents did. And I always tell people, you know, the more, you know, more decisions you made, but then more comes up, right?

And so data comes in, you pivot data comes in, you pivot, right? And so this is the key, keeping it simple. Trying different thoughts, trying different systems and seeing which one is getting you closer. And like you said, sometimes it is a little bit uncomfortable or a lot uncomfortable, right. Because we're not used to.

However, this is a beautiful thing. If you know where you're going, if you can envision yourself being, and it doesn't necessarily, and wealth, yes, we're talking about money, but we're also talking about the wealth of your soul. We're talking about the wealth of the time of freedom, right? Like all kinds of wealth that you can get to, if you decide to.

And if you look around and see who has done that, are they walking the talk, you know, and can I talk to them? Can I get their advice and then knowing, okay, how can I personalize it for me? Right. Because everybody's way might not be your way, but if you're at least in the room, when you're seeing several people getting it, then it's a lot easier.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Absolutely. And I love that cause it's so we're also different and that's the beauty of it. I'm so pro diversity because I mean, I'm a black woman talking about money. I want every human to have money because I truly believe that we're not meant to fit together. We're all meant to be different and that's a beautiful thing.

Right. And so I'll give you an example, like in my money school, there was literally someone in there who had been. You know her challenge with money, she has been struggling with money, how to do it. It just fell hard. And I said, listen for you specifically, what gives you joy? What fuels your soul? What gives you joy?

And for her, it was like light and play. So her path to money, her path to money is play. So she started playing and her goal, her work was to find a way to play everyday. Do you know that when we chose to take that approach with her within a week, she had accomplished things that had taken her months.

She'd been stalling for months. We're all different. And the part of the problem is we think we have to do with the same way. We don't have to. It's a matter of figuring out the path that works with you and that's why it's so like, we cannot ignore the mindset part of it because the mindset, the way I think about. For those that are in healthcare, it is like our genotype, right? It's like the genotype and then the phenotype gets to be different. But when we get the genotype, right, then you have, you can change the condition and choose different actions and still be successful. It is so, so important for us to make sure we're not trying to do it exactly like someone else.

 Yes, they can be an example, but that example doesn't have to be just in the actions they're taking in the mentality that they have that is helped them succeed. And that is what we can learn from.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. So that, that brings me up the mindset of like fixed versus growth mindset. Right. And I hadn't really even learned about those concepts until this last two years.

And to me, like, I dunno when I make goals, I might not know how I'm going to get them done, but if they're so important, I know I'm going to try A through Z until it gets done. And, sometimes you don't realize that maybe that is a growth mindset, right? Because you have decided it doesn't matter that you will learn and you'll figure it out.

But somebody with a fixed mindset, they don't put themselves out there because they might be a little bit afraid that they might fear they might disappoint somebody or something. With a fixed mindset. It's really hard because you don't realize you're the one telling yourself, no, you have no awareness that you already, that nothing's going to ever change because you're not seeking the possibility of a change.

And so the best example I give, and I always talk to my patients about this now that I've realized, I said, you know, I tell them, you know, It's what you're thinking. And they look at me like I'm crazy and I said, no. If you had $10,000 in your bank account and you needed to buy a truck, you might think, oh, that truck is for 40,000.

I can't, I can't buy that. But that's your fixed mindset? Another person can think, well, I have 10,000, but I don't think I can spend all 10,000. Well, maybe I, I keep five there just in case. Okay. I just need 35. What can I do to find $35,000? Like that's a growth mindset. It's still the $10,000 in the bank and that hasn't changed.

Right. But if you're now thinking of possibilities to get that 35. You start thinking, oh, I might sell some tamales. I might have a raffle. I might buy some stuff to cut lawns. Or like you start to think, you're not just gonna be like, no, well, that's a good idea. I mean, but I can't afford that truck. I mean, nobody in my family can afford that truck and that's it.

Like they never leave that. Right. So this growth mindset and fixed mindset makes a big difference.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's very, so I love that analogy. I love that explanation. One that I like to share with people is it's it kind of fits into growth and scarcity mindset, right? Because growth mindset is also based on scarcity mindset.

It's ignoring the fact that there may be other options. It's like, you know, having a key that's like hugging like one toy and say, no, I'm never going to let go of this toy. You're like, it's fine. The toy is dirty and it's to be washed, like I'm never going to. So that is like fixed mindset and also scarcity mindset.

And I had a, one of my amazing friends. Her daughter was having some issues and I got to speak with her daughter and I said, it's literally like facing the wall, staring at the wall and saying, there is no door in this. There's no door. There's no door. There's no door. It's like you are literally staring at one space only.

Is it possible that there could be a door behind you? No, there is no door, right? That is a choice that we can choose. Or we can say, is it possible that they may be aware out of this room? Is there possible there's a window. And the only way you're going to do that is by one, acknowledging that maybe it's possible.

That maybe it is possible and be willing to take the chance I'd exploring that small chance of possibility. And then moving, doing something different, it takes a move in your body. It takes a changing your actions, it changing your mindset, which is uncomfortable because you move in your muscle. Right.

And then looking around, oh, actually that may be a door. Or maybe at first look, you don't see a door. Cause it's like wall filled with curtains and now you manage. That father and go move the carton out of the way and that same way it is going to help you grow your life. And it's going to help you grow your wealth because maybe you've made mistakes in the past.

And you're like, all investment is bad. All right. It's like, maybe is it possible that there's a human in this world? That's a good example of what money should look like. Is it possible? That's a way of investing that is ethical. Is it possible that you can learn money and help other people learn? Is it possible that, I mean, yes.

I know that your parents tried, they invested in stuff, but is it possible that you are the one in your family that's going to cause a change in the financial direction? Is it possible like, no, it's not possible. No, it's not possible. No, it's not possible. Maybe it is possible. Maybe there's a 1% chance.

Right. And the thing is this, I like to remind people about the concept of seeds. Imagine, imagine it will look at an orange seed and we're like, it's small, it's too small. The chances too small. It's impossible. It's a small seed. How can you expect to have a juicy orange from something as tiny and dry as this. Right? So maybe it is possible. So I like to remind people that whatever is in your hands, like, look at your hand to have seeds in your hands and you'll see maybe the clinical income you're earning. It may be the knowledge you already have. Maybe the resources you have access to. It may be the podcast you're on right now.

Maybe the podcasts that I have a what I'm talking about money, like where is the seed? And what are you doing with the seed? Are you planting the seed? Are you sitting down and thinking it's impossible? The chances low. Thank God. The farmers don't think that at the beginning of the season, because if they do, we would all be screwed by now because how dare we think that it's possible to have like a big plant of corn that grows many corn from one seed of corn.

So, what seat do you have in your hands? Are you going to plant it? Right? Are you gonna plant that seed? Are you going to water it? Are you going to take the actions? Are you going to invest your money? I ain't going to look at where your money is going. Are you going to do it on any emergency fund? Are you going to ask for more money at your job?

Are you going to stop billing appropriately? Are you going to rest? Are you going to take time off? Are you going to pay to have someone take care of your kids from one extra hour or two extra hours so that you can breathe. Those are all invested into your wellness, or are you going to stay stuck and say it is not possible.

This is the only way is it possible or there's another way. Yes, maybe it feels like 1% chance, but thank God for 1% chance then God for that one. Spot of corn that is now growing into this big tree that is going to be able to feed our family. Like, what if it's possible?

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. Like so many gems there, again, you know, that 1% chance brings up for me, I'm thinking of, atomic habits and how he, how James talks about that.

What have we just tried to improve ourselves 1% every day? Like what would it look like at the end of three months at the end of six months? 30 years, right? If every single day you're just trying to improve yourself 1% and not because we have to, because we need to be better, but we were always home. But what if it would just help us to become who we want to, who we're dreaming too? Right? What if 1% is all it takes and the 1% makes a big difference. We might think it doesn't. And I always share this analogy from that book too, he talks about like 1% could go both ways. So 1%. If you don't correct it. Like if you thinking today, doesn't matter, I'll start tomorrow. Today. I'll eat that extra cookie today I will skip exercise. Today, I won't close my notes that 1% compounds. And before you know it all, you have all of a sudden, you have systems that are not supporting you because of your routine that you're allowing 1% to build up. Right. But the opposite holds true. 1%. If you start saving your money, if you start closely, and if you start taking that self care time, like it compounds too.

And he explains like that an airplane can take off. And if the pilot does not correct that 1% diversion with the flight that it's moving, that the airplane that could make the difference between landing at New York or like Washington DC. And 1% does not seem like a lot but makes a big difference.

And so this 1%, like she said, could be like the little hinge that opens the big window, right. To get you to where you're going and the possibility of what if. Instead of, no, I can't. What if I could, what if there was a better way to make more money to exercise more, to get more rest, to go on that vacation, to have your charts close, to decide on purpose that you are in the right environment by that work or in your family or whatever.

Right. That 1% really does make a deal.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Completely agree 1% and the power of compounding, right? Because a lot of times, part of why we don't start is because it looks overwhelming and it looks like a huge fountain, but if you don't start walking up the mountain, you don't that climb. And it's always going to feel like that.

But everything compounds, you know, you may look up money and go, I've heard that I need, you know, 25 times what I spend per year to be financial independent, you know, that doesn't have to be just what you put in. Everything compounds, but if you don't start investing, it doesn't grow. Right. So that's a key and I need women physicians to be in the game.

I need minority women. I need women of color because we get to be an example of what's possible for those that are looking around and also saying there's no one in my family, that's done this. You get to be an example of what's possible. So when you just start right start where you are and nothing is too small to invest, you have a hundred, let's start. Do you have a thousand? Let's start. And before you know it, you get more excited cause it start seeing it builds. And suddenly you start investing more, your money grows, your knowledge grows, your life grows, and it's just the most beautiful thing. So one of the biggest fallacy that I hear is I don't have enough to start.

I can start. Right. Just start, just start because you don't, you will never succeed if you never start. And if you keep waiting for the perfect time, you just wasting time and we'll know the time in the market, when it comes to investment is the most important thing. So yes, absolutely. Love it. Love it.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Is there any like books or any resources? Of course, you're going to give us all where they can find you a little later, but is there anything that you think that they should start and granted, I know that there is a difference between reading and then again, having the network and the support to help you implement what you're reading. If we're planting that seed, like you said, where could they even start at least?

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I have a podcast where I talk about all things, money and mindset. You literally can go in there right now and go listen to it. It's a Money Fit MD podcast. I talk about building wealth from the inside, out where you start from otherwise in terms of books, depending on where the major challenge you have is because I have people that read and don't execute or take actions.

So there may be even a knowledge gap. The white coat investor has a good book that I think is good for the basics of that. Check it out. Absolutely recommend a rich dad poor dad also has a good book that talks a lot about the mindset stuff. I'm writing a book right now that is probably going to be released at the end of the year or early in 2023.

I know I'm excited about it and it's literally. Putting together, the things that I wish people had taught us when it comes to the foundations of money so that we can actually execute and create the work that we want. Because what I find is that many times the information we just taught is not helping us.

Right. We're taught, like cut all the expenses in the world. Listen, you're going to cut until you bleed. Right? The bottom line is that's not how people build wealth. Yes. You take your money and redirect. But it also has to like go in from being a consumer, to being an owner. It goes from like going from being a saver to being an investor, like closing your hands, but going from that to like opening your hands up, like there's certain principles of money that will not be.

The other thing I think is really important is our relationship with money is super duper important. And unfortunately, there aren't a lot of books that talk about that out there. So I think that all of that is going to be important when it comes to money. But if you asking, where can I start right now?

I would say, absolutely go check out my podcast that is free. I have a lot of free resources on my, you know, my website that you can take advantage of. And of course I have the money school as well for women physicians that are like, okay, I just don't want, I don't have all the time in the world. I'm busy, but I want to learn the essential information.

And I want to have the sort of like the mindset piece that I need. And I want the community of women that are going to normalize this experience so that we can grow wealth together. And that is what I've created in the money school that I've created for women physicians.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: And what I hear is it's simple so that, you know, don't make the excuse.

Oh, I have ADHD. I don't have any time to go do this. She is packaging it in a way that it's a chewable implementation and she'll hold you to it that you implement it, so that, at the end of the day, we've talked about this so much. Like there's no project out there, or course out there, or coach out there who is going to cost you or make you do the hard work.

You know, everything is hard work, but why not do it in a place where you're going to be supported? Why not do it? Knowing that you're in a relationship that is going to, that has your best interest in mind and that you're going to do it both ways. Right. So, yes, please check out all her stuff. We need to all get our wealth aligned because nobody's gonna be like, oh my God, do you want more money? Let me give it to you. So you have to decide if that's something you want, whether for you, for your family, for your generations to come. And if that's something that you do want go talk to Dr. Latifat so she can give you the short cuts.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, you still work, but for me, when it comes to money, my MOS simplified, I love things simple. I want it to be joyous. I want it to be effective and I want money, that's going to augment my life, not money that's going to grind me or burn me out, but money that's really going to be a reflection of what I want it to be.

And I truly believe that. And I don't care if you check out my program or not. The bottom line is if you're listening to this, I truly believe that you care about yourself and care about your life and you want the world to be a better place. And the way that I think about money is that money. Tool for that.

So whatever way you need to do in order to create that, I think you definitely should. And stop procrastinating. Just take one step because a lot of times we, like, we want to wit on two we're confident, but what we don't remember is that confidence comes through taking action, right? Because imagine every time you want to do the first time you deliver a baby, like, I want to be confident before I do my first week as a resident, we're never going to have any OB Docs.

So, what do we do? We learn the knowledge we take action. And the more of that confidence comes through taking action. You don't get confident. And then you take the action. Confidence comes, yes, you learn the truth because the OB docs, they had to learn the stuff, right. They had to learn, but you will tell, they would tell you that their confidence grows.

The more action they've taken. And that is why I want every single one of the guests who commit today to take an action. Any. I want to hear about it. Share with me, find me on social media. Let me know you took an action and I will high five you, because I'm truly, truly believe that women physicians are going to solve a lot of problems in this world and women in general.

And that's what it means when you have money in your hands. It's a great thing for the world. And I cannot wait to high-five you.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Awesome. So tell us, where can we find you on the social media?

Dr. Latifat Akintade: So you can find me on Instagram and also on Facebook Money Fit MD, or you can go on my website, moneyfitmd.com. And also you can go on my podcast, which is The Money Fit MD podcast.

And I will be in your ears talking to you about how we can help you have money from the inside out.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Awesome. Well, this has been an amazing, interview, and I'm just going to say this last part, which people laugh when I say this part, you know, because we have ADHD, sometimes we zone out. So let's say we just started paying attention right this moment. What do you want to tell them? So they can take this tool away.

Dr. Latifat Akintade: I want you to go find my podcasts, The Money Fit MD podcast. That's one. And I want you to take one action today that you've been avoiding taking, but you know, it's the exact direction you need to go with your money and don't forget to find me on social media Money Fit MD.

So I can high-five you, celebrate you, because the more we celebrate you, the more wins you're going to have. And I'm all about that.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Awesome. Well, thank you so much. You have. Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction. So get to it, have a blessed day.

As someone who understands that time is our most valuable asset. I am so honored that you have shared your time with me. Please click the subscribe button and join my Facebook group: Beyond ADHD, A Physician's Perspective so that you never missed an opportunity to create time at will. Do share this podcast with your friends they too can can learn to live life and stay in their own lane.

 

Link to my website to register for June 2022 Cohort:

Transformation Physician Group Coaching

Email: overachievewithadhd@gmail.com

Dr Latifat is a practicing Gastroenterologist and founder of The Money Coaching school for badass women physicians. She is also the host of The MoneyFitMD podcast. She combines her interest in personal finance, her training as a certified life coach and her passion for physician wellness. Her mission is to equip every physician with the tools they need to be financially liberated to find their purpose and live out their calling.

Website: https://www.moneyfitmd.com/

YouTube: MoneyFitMD

Podcast: MoneyFitMD

Instagram: @moneyfitmd