How to Get Money for Moving Expenses

It’s late spring. This means lots of med students and physicians are preparing to start new jobs or hoping to advance forward in their current one. This is an exciting time, but it can be stressful as well, especially when it comes to finances. Gathering money for moving expenses, housing costs, as well as basic living expenses can be quite daunting. As someone who is moving across the country to start a fellowship myself, I completely understand the sentiment. When people ask me about ways to get money for all these expenses here are the 4 things I tell them:

1.     Moonlighting. As a physician one of the things we know how to do is work. Moonlighting is when we as doctors work extra shifts for added pay. Some people work in the hospital, others work in the urgent care, some even take call from home. Each employer has their own set of rules or stipulations regarding moonlighting but if your program allows it, working a little extra to cover the cost of moving expenses can be a great way to earn extra cash. 

2.     Uber/Lyft/Doordash/Amazon. Some folks, especially med students may not have the credentials to moonlight or work extra shifts. If that’s the case for you, there are other options to consider. You can try driving for Uber or Lyft or even sign up for food and package delivery services like Amazon and Doordash. While these jobs may not be the highest paying, the flexible hours may be a great fit for your busy schedule. 

3.     Monetize your talents. I’m a huge fan of having multiple income streams and encourage all young professionals to do so as well. Perhaps there’s a skill you have that other people would pay you to learn? For example, some of my friends are good at tennis and charge others for tennis lessons. I also have friends who are great at cooking and charge their friends for meal preps or who are great at photography and charge others for headshots. Can you think of a skill you have that you can monetize? If so, let your med school classmates or co-residents know and get started!

4.     Get a side hustle. Side hustles can be great. They are jobs that we do for others or passion projects that we make money from. For example, some people have started a blog or podcast and charged companies for ads. Other people do some consulting on the side. Some folks make money from social media or act as ambassadors for other companies. Think of ways to leverage what you know or who you know in order to bring in some extra cash.

5.     Personal Loans. When all else fails and you need some money quickly, you can always consider a loan. I’m not a huge fan of taking out debt you don’t need, but even I had to borrow money at some point, especially when I was waiting on my first residency paycheck. Moving can be expensive and trying to get money for housing and living expenses can require cash that you may not have on hand. As long as you don’t take out more than you need, getting a personal loan at a low interest rate can be quite beneficial. While there are several companies that may offer relocation loans, Doc2Doc is a company for physicians by physicians that offers loans at low interest rates to graduating med students and physicians. If you have a pressing need for cash, these types of personal loans can be a great option as well.

The Benefits of Having an Emergency Fund

If you’ve ever listened to Dave Ramsey or ventured along the journey of personal finance, you’ll hear a lot of people talking about the importance of an emergency fund. An emergency fund is money that you have readily available, usually in a savings account, in case you incur some type of emergency or unexpected expense. If the air goes out in your home, your car breaks down, or heaven forbid you lose your job, you can quickly access money in your emergency fund to cover expenses.

Many folks have found emergency funds to be quite useful. We can’t always predict when we will incur various expenses but most of us know that they will inevitably occur. Emergency funds help lessen the shock. If the brakes need to be replaced on your car or your iphone stops working, yes you may be annoyed and inconvenienced, but with an emergency fund, the expense itself stings a little bit less. When you know you have money to cover the costs, you tend to be less stressed or bothered by these unexpected expenses.

Is an emergency fund necessary?

For those of us who are still building wealth or who may be 1 or 2 paychecks away from being unable to pay our bills, then yes. An emergency fund is necessary. If we are going to build wealth or at least become financially stable, we have to minimize our need to take out high-interest consumer debt, like credit cards, when expenses arise. One way to do that is to save money in advance, via an emergency fund.

How much do you need?

Like a lot of things in finance, it depends. How much money do you already have saved or invested? How reliant are you on your paycheck to pay your bills? How stable is your job? How consistent is your income? Do you spend most of your paycheck or do you frequently have money left over?

The general rule of thumb for young professionals is to start with $1,000. $1,000 is usually enough to cover minor car repairs, a new phone, a laptop, or a last-minute flight home. As prices have risen lately, perhaps $2,000 is a more accurate number. Regardless, the point is to start off with a reasonable amount to cover expenses and unexpected costs.

The next step, and where most people land, is to save up 3 to 6 months’ worth of expenses. Notice I said months of expenses, not full paychecks. You need enough to cover you in case you lose your job unexpectedly, have to quit, or get laid off. The importance of having this type of emergency fund was ever so present in March of 2020 when the world shut down from the COVID pandemic and even folks with stable jobs, like doctors, were forced to take pay cuts or close their clinics for months at a time. Having money that you can tap into during unexpected times like this is key. The exact amount is up to you.

How do you save up this money?

Unless you have an extremely high income, it may take time to save up this emergency fund. And that’s okay. Most people have to save money from several months’ paychecks in order to reach their desired amount. When I first started my emergency fund, I wasn’t making much money and I was always tempted to spend that money on something else. In order to prevent that from happening. I had a certain amount from each paycheck deposited into an entirely different checking account. I used some of the money in that separate account to pay down debt and left the rest of the money in the account to build over time as my emergency fund. Before I knew it, I had saved $1,000. It increased even more from there.

To summarize, emergency funds can be quite useful, especially when you are starting out in your career. Having money to use in emergencies prevents you from having to take out high interest credit cards when expenses occur unexpectedly. Tell me, have you started saving for an emergency fund?