Managing your affairs as a med student (please no legal advice)

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I'm not naive, but I will concede there are a lot of things I don't know. First, when I retain an attorney and he puts x dollars in an escrow account on which he intends to draw per hour of work, how should I ensure that he legitimately bills for work done? I hope this post does not violate TOS. I can see utility in posting about affairs involving $$ (the unutterable), especially for us green med students. Also, do most med schools offer free legal advice to their students? (I'm curious, though I think you get what you pay for )

tl;dr

it's really HARD. But let me give you some advice.

1. Stick to one affair. Medical school will keep you so busy that most people can only manage their wife + one mistress successfully. Any more is asking for trouble
2. Hired guns (call girls/gold diggers/other women having affairs/etc) are easier to deal with compared to naive/unpredictable college girls
3. Don't mix work and play. Your job will be to succeed in your coursework. Do not have an affair with a classmate.

Following these principles and some common sense will prevent the need for legal advice

Basically if you do retain someone there is no way to honestly know if they are billing you fairly. You will get a breakdown each month of the time they spent with you on the phone, doing paperwork, making calls, etc. But you can really only know how long he/she was physically talking to you, all the paperwork stuff can add up quickly if needed. The only real way to get a "good" one is to read reviews and shop around to find one that doesn't seem like they would take excessive advantage of you.

If you're seeking advice on money, however, a lawyer really isn't the way to go. Financial advisers are the way to go especially if you can find ones that work on a fee-based system (no incentive to sell you company product).

There is some truth to the post about “affairs” above. My job as a medical student is to be undistracted and to do the best possible in my coursework.

OK, now I’m asking for advice. “So sad, too bad,” I know.

Here’s my situation briefly. My dad recently got very sick. He earned a lot of money over the course of his life, but was not very good at financial planning. My mom is calling me her “little lawyer”. I have to liaise between my mother and lawyers and financial advisors. My dad has a PhD and JD. I could not know I would be “left” with my mother who only has a bachelor’s degree. I love my mother dearly, but she isn’t very worldly-wise. I am finding this is really exhausting (taking notes at lawyer consultations, finding and collecting documents, estimating a budget etc) and my number one priority is med school. That said, I would like to decouple myself from her, but I care about how my parents end up and I have an investment in the situation. My father also expressed recently that he would like to help me either pay for medical school or pay off medical school loans. There was likely enough to do this. The best the lawyers have said is sort of a “we’ll see how much your parents can help you.” I have been told I could get my own legal representation, but the issues seem to be that, it would cause great rifts between my mother and me, and I’m not sure what the cost of such representation to me would be. I’m relatively young, by the way.

1) So,I guess, what advice do you have for me?

2) Insome way I view this as a financial education. Not that I would have the time to read anything other than med school books, but can you recommend books/articles/etc that have been helpful in your financial education? How is FA for Finance?

3) Maybe to get a financial education you just have to “pay to play.” I know money matters are usually ineffable, but I suppose if I have it, there would be advisor who could “teach” me. My dad was known to say, “they’d be happy to take your money.”



I’d really like to post this as a new post, but I’ll wait and see.



Thanks.