27 Years as a Physician: What I Wish I Knew Earlier | Dr. Shieva Ghofrany

After 27 years in medicine, Dr. Shieva Ghofrany has a different view of her career than she did when she finished residency. One thing she knows for sure: she doesn’t want to retire in the traditional sense.

In this episode of Doctors Eyes Only®, Vestia Partner and CEO Lauren Oschman talks with Dr. Shieva Ghofrany, a board-certified OB-GYN, about what she wishes she had known earlier in her career. They discuss private practice, physician finances, investing during residency, career decisions, the demands of practicing medicine, and how Dr. Shieva Ghofrany has changed the way she works over time.

Dr. Shieva Ghofrany grew up as the daughter of two immigrant physicians from Iran, but becoming a physician wasn’t always the plan. She switched majors four times in college before eventually completing her pre-med requirements, attending medical school in Tel Aviv, and returning to the United States for residency.

She went on to join an independent private practice with physicians she knew from residency. When Dr. Shieva Ghofrany thinks back to those early years, she remembers having a fairly traditional idea of what a physician career would look like: work, become a partner, contribute to a 401(k), save for her children’s college expenses, and eventually retire. As she tells Lauren, it wasn’t necessarily a plan she consciously chose. It was the default.

Today, her career looks different. Dr. Shieva Ghofrany stepped away from full-time office gynecology while continuing to practice obstetrics with her private practice group. She also has a separate telehealth practice focused primarily on perimenopause and menopause. This arrangement allows her more time while continuing to practice medicine. That leads to an important part of Lauren and Dr. Shieva Ghofrany’s conversation: the relationship between financial decisions and career decisions for physicians.

Dr. Shieva Ghofrany wishes she had understood more about investing earlier. During residency, no one explained to her that she could contribute to a 403(b). Looking back, she says she could have put away a small amount even on a resident’s salary. She also discusses financial concepts she learned later, including retirement accounts, 529 plans and considerations around 1099 income.

Their conversation also turns to lifestyle decisions after residency. After years of delayed earnings, a new attending salary can make it tempting to quickly increase spending on a house, car and other expenses. Dr. Shieva Ghofrany refers to the potential result as “golden handcuffs,” when maintaining a lifestyle begins influencing how much a physician feels they need to work.

Her point isn’t that physicians shouldn’t enjoy the money they earn. Dr. Shieva Ghofrany is clear that she does. Instead, she talks about the importance that financial flexibility has had as her own career and priorities have changed.

There is also a personal side to the conversation. Dr. Shieva Ghofrany discusses pregnancy loss, challenges involving her children’s health, and being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in her forties. Those experiences changed the way she thinks about the familiar phrase “life is short.”

Dr. Shieva Ghofrany’s reframe is: “Life is long.”

Rather than seeing that as a reason to work less, Dr. Shieva Ghofrany began thinking more intentionally about how she wanted work to fit into her life. At 56, she doesn’t see herself at the end of her career. She wants to continue working, but she also wants to have more control over what that work looks like.

For physicians at different stages of their careers, this episode is a conversation about what can change between finishing training and looking back decades later, and the things Dr. Shieva Ghofrany wishes she had understood sooner about medicine, money, work and time.
Learn more about Dr. Shieva Ghofrany at drshievag.com, follow @drshievag on Instagram, or contact Dr. Shieva Ghofrany and her team at info@drshievag.com.