Two weeks ago, while attending a financial independence conference in Australia, my wife and I received a phone call. It was a severe medical emergency involving my son. We immediately dropped everything and rushed back to the United States.
When a true crisis hits, the world stops spinning. You are entirely consumed by the situation at hand. You are sitting at a bedside, talking to doctors, and managing your own adrenaline. In those moments, the last thing you want to worry about is whether your loved one’s electricity bill is going to be paid or if someone can figure out how to log into their checking account.
As a physician, I have seen families navigate medical emergencies from every possible angle. Some are prepared, and some are completely blindsided. Drawing from both my professional experience in patient care and this recent personal emergency, I sat down to record a solo “10 Things” episode of Earn & Invest.
We often think of crisis preparation in purely medical terms, but it is just as much a financial and logistical challenge. Here are ten practical things you can do right now to prepare for a healthcare emergency—whether for yourself, your parents, your spouse, or your children.
Here are a few of the key takeaways we cover in the episode:
Maintain Clean Financial Records If you are suddenly incapacitated, someone else is going to have to step in and manage your life. Avoid tangled finances, complicated IOUs, or mixing business and personal accounts. If your financial ecosystem is a mess, the person trying to help you will spend weeks just trying to untangle it.
Designate Your Point People Do not assume things will simply work themselves out. You need to formally designate a “financial person” who understands your basic account locations and recurring bills. Separately, you need to designate a “medical person” (a healthcare proxy) and have frank conversations with them about your care preferences, so they do not have to guess what you would want during a trauma.
Keep Accessible Cash on Hand Crises create immediate friction costs. You have insurance deductibles, last-minute flights, caregiving help, hospital parking, and endless takeout meals. You may also face months of lost wages. You need a liquid cash reserve so you do not have to rely on high-interest credit card debt while trying to heal.
Automate Your Life Put your essential bills on autopay. If you are hospitalized for three weeks, or if you are sleeping in a chair next to your spouse’s hospital bed, your utilities and credit card minimums need to take care of themselves.
Accept Imperfection Crises are inherently chaotic. You are not going to handle everything perfectly. Instead of trying to maintain your normal standard of living, aim for a “minimum viable product.” Do just enough so that nothing essential falls through the cracks until the dust settles.
We also discuss why practicing Memento Mori is actually incredibly liberating, the importance of setting up calendar reminders as a backup paper trail, and why maintaining baseline physical health is your first line of defense.
P.S. If you stick around for the after-show segment, I respond to a listener letter about the reality of complicated family dynamics, and why “perfect is the enemy of good” when dealing with uncooperative aging parents.