Losing money in investments seems to be easy, but sometimes lots of effort and good intentions are involved before taking a big financial hit.
Medscape's 2019 Physician Compensation survey asked doctors if they had made any investment mistakes in the past year. More than a third (36%) said yes. Others lost money but in prior years, such as when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000 or the real estate market sank from 2006 to 2012.
Of the doctors who had investing losses last year, 30% of losses came from stocks, 14% came from real estate, and 19% came from other types of investments. Other doctors said they lost money due to a divorce, legal issues, or financial troubles from declining revenues or taking a less well-paying job.
"The big issue is that many people make investments on a whim or emotional groupthink, and they don't do enough due diligence," says Ram Kolluri, CFP, TEP, financial planner with Global Wealth Management in Princeton, New Jersey. "I know doctors who made large investments based on a brief conversation they had in the doctors' lounge because another physician said he made a lot of money on something."
Medscape's survey respondents described their biggest investing mistakes.
