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Pediatric gastroenterologist Michele Cho-Dorado discusses her article, “Empowering our children with financial literacy: Raising bold thought leaders and compassionate changemakers.” In this episode, Michele draws from her experience as a physician to highlight the financial struggles many doctors face—student debt, lifestyle inflation, and a lack of money management skills—despite years of sacrifice. She argues that teaching children financial literacy can break this cycle, equipping them with the tools to earn, save, invest, and give wisely. Beyond personal finance, Michele emphasizes integrating value creation, empathy, and leadership into financial education. She encourages parents to teach kids to solve problems and serve others, fostering entrepreneurial thinking and social responsibility. Listeners will discover actionable strategies to raise confident, compassionate children who use money as a tool for positive impact, preparing them to be the innovative leaders of tomorrow.
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Transcript
Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show. Subscribe at KevinMD.com/podcast. Today, we welcome back Michele Cho-Dorado. She’s a pediatric gastroenterologist. And today’s KevinMD article is “Empowering our children with financial literacy, raising bold thought leaders and compassionate change makers.” Michelle, welcome back to the show.
Michele Cho-Dorado: Thank you so much again for having me.
Kevin Pho: All right, tell us what your latest article is about.
Michele Cho-Dorado: Yeah, so, well, I have a strong passion for teaching kids about financial literacy. And this really stems from my own lack of financial education, which I realized much later in life. And so, what started out as me wanting to teach my own kids— I have two little kids myself—wanting to teach them these concepts early, just kind of grew into something, you know, a bigger passion, I would say.
And I, I think just, you know, as I’ve been going down this journey with my own kids, I just realized that teaching kids about money goes far beyond just money lessons. I really believe that it teaches kids about building leadership and having confidence, and I think a lot of vital life skills that, you know, kids really benefit from and take with them into adulthood.
So that’s kind of the precipitous behind the article.
Kevin Pho: So tell us about your passion behind financial literacy. You’re a pediatric gastroenterologist, and there’s a stereotype, as you know, that physicians aren’t the most financially savvy individuals. So tell us the genesis of your passion for financial literacy.
Michele Cho-Dorado: Yeah, so like I was just sharing, I personally went through all of med school, residency, fellowship. I was almost a decade into practice before I realized that I had received very little financial education myself. I mean, I didn’t even know what a Roth IRA was, and this was me getting into marriage and having little kids at that point.
And so I think it was just a bunch of lightbulbs going off after I started educating myself, getting plugged into some other physician groups where I realized that I was not alone in this. And just having those realizations made me say, you know what? I want my kids to learn this stuff early. I just wasn’t exposed to it at home, and, you know, as you know, it’s not taught to us in school. So if kids aren’t learning it at school, then you have to teach them at home; otherwise, you’ll be like me, you know, near 40 before I even heard about what a Roth IRA was, and I think that’s just unacceptable.
Kevin Pho: So, what are some of the lessons that you could share with kids, and then how old do these lessons get taught, and what are some of the ways that you teach them?
Michele Cho-Dorado: Yeah. So, I mean, first of all, when my kids were one and three is when I first had these realizations. And I don’t know if we’ll talk about it, but I ended up publishing children’s books, you know, for my kids. And so my thought was that, even at that young age, they don’t fully understand—you can’t have a discussion with them about money—but if you can read them books or expose them to the words and the concepts, I just think that the more they hear the words, the more they’ll understand sooner, and they’ll be maybe more ready to take it in. Kids are like sponges. So if you’re talking about these things openly at home, then they hear it, they’re more familiar with it, and then they learn it sooner.
I would say that’s one of the first important lessons—just to start early. I don’t think it’s ever too young. And second, you know, kids’ habits form early. So if you’re teaching them concepts about budgeting, for example—every time they get money from their grandparents, you teach them to put aside a certain amount into savings, put aside a certain amount into giving, and, you know, budget your money and bucket them—then these habits start early. Habits form by the age of seven. So I think that teaching them these things early, modeling at home, and just being transparent with them, eventually pays off.
Kevin Pho: Now, do you sit down with them and just have specific talks about financial literacy? Do you sprinkle it throughout the day and, like you said, model it? Give us some examples of how you interact with your kids regarding financial literacy.
Michele Cho-Dorado: Yeah, my husband and I are just very open about everything. We don’t shy away from talking about money. I don’t know about you, but for myself growing up, I grew up in an Asian household and my parents were immigrant parents, and they just didn’t talk about money. I think they shielded us from it because they were working so hard and they didn’t want us to feel like we had to worry about it. In effect, they just never talked about it.
Because of that, I wasn’t exposed to concepts like investing. Aside from saving, money just wasn’t discussed. That’s something we do very differently in our home—we talk about everything. We talk about what things cost. When we’re spending money or saving money for a vacation or whatever it may be, we’re just very open about it with our kids. Transparency is very important.
It’s not like we sit them down and lecture them about what it means to save or give. We just talk about everything that we’re doing day to day, and I think that’s probably one of the most important things you can do, because kids will do and model what they see, not just what they’re told.
Kevin Pho: Now tell us about that lack of financial literacy, especially during medical education. Like you said, you didn’t know a lot of physicians who simply weren’t exposed to that. Comment on that lack of financial literacy among physicians.
Michele Cho-Dorado: Yeah, I mean, I think if, again, you’re not learning it in school, then for myself, I didn’t know to ask about it or seek that knowledge out. I think I had this belief that because I didn’t really know much about money and wasn’t exposed to it, I thought I wasn’t good at managing it. That was a story I told myself, a limiting belief of mine. So I just didn’t bother to try. It was out of sight, out of mind.
Also, you know, during training, you don’t have much money anyway, right? So it’s not like I felt I needed to understand what to do with any excess money. That didn’t exist. But in hindsight, I wish I had sought out information back then so I was prepared for when I graduated and started making an attending salary. I would have known how to better handle that and manage where to put money aside.
Kevin Pho: You make the connection between financial literacy and becoming a leader or changemaker. So talk more about that connection.
Michele Cho-Dorado: Yeah. I mean, I think that when you have a solid foundation in financial education, it allows kids (and adults) to be more confident in their decision-making. When you’re teaching concepts around, for example, investing, you’re teaching how to weigh risks and rewards, encouraging critical thinking. When you’re teaching about giving, you’re teaching kids empathy and how to be more compassionate. When you’re doing budgeting, you’re building good habits, which leads to productivity.
All of those skills extend beyond financial education. Once you become more confident in making decisions about money, you can be more confident in other areas of life. I think that leads to leadership, entrepreneurship, curiosity, solving problems—there’s just a lot that extends beyond the financial realm.
Kevin Pho: So that of course applies to what we do as physicians as well, because one of the biggest ways that physicians feel that they’re burned out is because they’re trapped, right? Hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt can keep them in a position they may not like. One of the biggest ways to combat burnout is to be financially independent, and that requires, of course, financial literacy.
Michele Cho-Dorado: Yeah, yeah. And to that point, medicine is such a narrow path. Most doctors aren’t encouraged to think outside the box. School teaches kids how to follow rules and do what they’re told, which I think can stifle creativity and curiosity. That’s definitely how I lived the first couple decades of my life—being that typical type A good student who never asked questions.
Only now can I see that was a disservice to myself. I wish I had asked more questions and tried things that weren’t expected of me. You asked what else we teach our kids: We teach them that it’s OK to ask questions and think a little differently. It’s OK—you don’t have to follow exactly what everyone else does. You can still be respectful and follow certain rules at school, but it’s also fine to challenge norms.
Kevin Pho: Now, was there a triggering event for you to think outside the box? You clearly are an expert in financial literacy—you wrote children’s books, you’re very passionate about this—and obviously you’re still a pediatric gastroenterologist. So what was the inciting event for you to think outside that traditional narrow path of medicine?
Michele Cho-Dorado: Yeah, so honestly, it was when I started surrounding myself with other physicians who were doing things outside of medicine. That was the first time I was exposed to that, and it made me think, “Wow, look at these other people doing things differently.” It was never on my radar before.
Once I learned more about what other people were doing—this is a topic for another time, but I started learning about real estate investing—it opened up my mind to new opportunities. It made me look at my identity as a physician, how I defined myself only as a doctor, and realize I could be a doctor and also do other things. I can be a real estate investor, an entrepreneur, an author. That was a process in itself, but that’s probably what started everything.
Kevin Pho: One of the things that you talked about in your article is the concept of value creation. So talk more about that and its connection with financial literacy.
Michele Cho-Dorado: Yeah, so I think that this is a concept I really love because when you’re talking about teaching kids about money, it’s not just about accumulating money or hoarding it because money will make you happy, or if you make a certain amount you’ve “made it.” We know that’s not the case—money doesn’t buy happiness. I think it’s important to teach kids not to tie money to self-worth, to disassociate those two concepts, and to understand that money is a tool, not a goal.
If you can use money to make an impact, that’s really the important thing. I think one way to do that is by tying money to value. Where value is created, money follows. Again, we emphasize to our kids that it’s not just about making money to buy material things or get a big house. It’s about good stewardship of money and using it to create or add value.
Kevin Pho: We’re talking to Michelle Cho-Dorado. She’s a pediatric gastroenterologist, and today’s KevinMD article is “Empowering our children with financial literacy, raising bold thought leaders and compassionate change makers.” So give us some examples in terms of how financial literacy can change not just kids, but physicians as well. You’re around a lot of physician entrepreneurs. Tell us about how that financial literacy can really propel them into being leaders and changemakers.
Michele Cho-Dorado: Well, I think that money itself is such a source of conflict and fear for many people. We know it’s one of the top sources of stress and divorce among couples. If you can be open about money topics with your partner, with your family, that sets you up for healthy communication, which obviously makes you happier.
When we’re talking about families, we hear about generational wealth and family legacy. If you look at families that successfully transfer wealth across generations, one of the things they do well is talk about money and teach their kids about it. Teaching value creation, how to have healthy struggles, how to be resilient, and transferring your values to your kids sets them up for success—not just individually, but also so they can pass that on.
We as parents want to set our kids up, and we always say we’ll pass on an inheritance to them, or we save money to pass on. But what good is it if we’re not transferring our values, and they get all this money and just squander it? That’s what the statistics show, you know, that 90 percent of wealth in wealthy families is gone by the third generation. One of the things you can do to prevent that is talk about money, teach them, and transfer your values.
Kevin Pho: Now before physicians are comfortable talking about financial literacy with their kids, they themselves have to learn it. So tell us some resources where they can get started.
Michele Cho-Dorado: Yeah. I mean, some of the early books that I read were The Psychology of Money, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and The Simple Path to Wealth. Those are kind of high-yield in terms of understanding the stock market, for instance—something I didn’t even know about initially. They also break down concepts and make them easy to understand.
Honestly, a lot of it is mindset. I think having a growth mindset is helpful, because even when it comes to money, you want to understand that there’s abundance—someone else having more doesn’t prevent you from having more. Those are important things to keep in mind. But yeah, those first few books definitely got me started, and there are so many more out there.
Kevin Pho: And we’ll end with some take-home messages that you want to leave with the KevinMD audience.
Michele Cho-Dorado: Yeah, I would say, number one, start early. It’s never too young. On the flip side, it’s never too late. Sometimes parents have teenagers and think, “Oh shoot, I haven’t talked to them about this stuff,” or they worry about kids feeling entitled. It’s never too late to start. You can still incorporate these lessons and model behavior at home. So definitely start early.
Second, be transparent. Model the behavior you want your kids to learn because they will learn from what they see, not just what they hear.
And finally, teach gratitude. I think that’s really important. If you teach your kids to be thankful for what they have, they’re less likely to focus on what they don’t have, and then they’re also more likely to see that they can help others.
Kevin Pho: Michelle, thank you so much for sharing your perspective and insight. Thanks again for coming back on the show.
Michele Cho-Dorado: Thank you so much for having me.
