Side Gigs in Residency

[gassyboi]

Anyone have good ideas on what we can reasonably do for some extra income on the side given our clinical commitments?

I'll be starting my residency in relatively high cost of living area and really wanted to start paying down my LOC earlier than later but unfortunately the PGY1 salary doesn't make much of a dent after all expenses and fees for the month are accounted for.

[bearded frog]

First and foremost, in the grand scheme of things, the extra income from a side gig and the small additional dent in your LOC is going to be a drop in the bucket compared to your first year of staff salary, and essentially negligible in the grand scheme of things. I would def prioritize your mental health/spending that time relaxing/recreational activities/etc. over working. Burnout is real and depending on your residency you may or may not find any extra hours requiring you to read up on subjects, research, presentations, etc.

That being said, if you find yourself bored, there's actual gig economy stuff like uber or food delivery, or more tailored to our skills in MCAT/medicine tutoring, advising, application prep, etc. Perhaps there are remote research/writing jobs for medicine related companies.

[shikimate]

Depends on your situation, but you could sublet part of your house/condo to visiting professional students, or you could be a second landlord to more permanent roommates and possibly reduce your housing cost that way. It's not 100% passive income but compared to other things it's relatively passive I'd say.

I wouldn't seriously consider other active income like uber, tutoring etc. It's very time/energy consuming and your marginal return is just not worth it. 

 

[The Ace of Spades]

As long as you are able to maintain your LOC without drawing from it too much more, you're in good shape during residency. You can start paying it back when you are staff. After one year as staff I finally became net worth positive (celebrated my "worthless" day just recently!).

Focus on your own mental health and reading about your specialty - residency is your opportunity to grow and learn and become proficient at your field, do not waste it by becoming too focused about finances as you are just starting out.

[JohnGrisham]

2 minutes ago, The Ace of Spades said:

As long as you are able to maintain your LOC without drawing from it too much more, you're in good shape during residency. You can start paying it back when you are staff. After one year as staff I finally became net worth positive (celebrated my "worthless" day just recently!).

Focus on your own mental health and reading about your specialty - residency is your opportunity to grow and learn and become proficient at your field, do not waste it by becoming too focused about finances as you are just starting out.

Exactly this. The more time you invest in yourself during residency, the more efficient you will be in clinical practice and thus make more. The worst is being slow at your bread and butter(thinking out patient practices), whereas if you were more proficient you'd be able to fit a few extra consults each clinic day and thus make way more than any side gigs you can get during residency.