Well, Sharon, you know, there's a lot of benefits to being 1099 on the CRNA. I agree. It took me a long time to find that out. You found it out as you transition. Let's see, you've been 1099 now for what, two years? Two and a half years. Two and a half years. Yeah, and we've stepped through some ideas. But we'll elaborate on this throughout this section. But today, we're just talking about the why of going 1099. What are your goals? What are your objectives? So what do you want out of life? You know, I say this a lot to CRNAs. What is important to you? Why are you looking at doing this transition? Back to that psychological side we always talk about, Sharon. But you know, when you transitioned to 1099, why? Why did you want to do that? I wanted flexibility with my schedule. And I could work anywhere. My daughters were looking at potentially having children. They live in another state. I didn't want to be, I didn't want to have to be at one particular place all the time. My husband and I wanted to travel. So when am I going to be able to get four weeks off straight anywhere that I work? That was the biggest things for me, flexible schedule and being in control. And after having spent a life giving anesthesia, being told where I had to go, now I tell people, if you see me here, it's because I want to be here to work. And if I don't like the culture or the environment, I will not be back. And I have that option to say that now. Yeah, yeah. And everything you said are the reasonings that we hear all the time for CRNAs transitioning. Another reason is, obviously, you can earn more money being 1099 as well. Well, for me, I just wanted to work less. Right. I didn't earn the same amount of money that I felt like I needed to have. Well, that's another reason. If I can work 25 hours a week and make the same thing that I do as 40, that gives me more work-life balance, more flexibility. And I'll tell you, Sharon, the generation coming up now, it is so much more important to them to have work-life balance. And a lot of them are going 1099 very early in their career. And I say more power to them because I would not have had the nerve to do that. So good for them. Well, you know, even though you're going 1099, it doesn't mean that you're going to be in a place by yourself without any help or no other means. And I think that's the reason that a lot of younger CRNAs or SRNAs when they graduate feel a little more comfortable doing that these days. And I think we're seeing that become not a norm, but definitely a lot more than it used to be. Exactly. And then for them, having that flexibility and earning more money. I mean, Sharon, we transitioned to the doctorate level. And now these students are coming out with three years under their belt in school and a lot more debt. We're seeing on average $200,000 to $250,000 in student loan debt. And working 1099 gives you the opportunity to pay that back a whole lot quicker. And we'll go through some of that stuff later in the presentation as well. Another reason I see people transition is to save more for retirement. Patients got behind the eight ball earlier in your career. You would be shocked how many CRNAs are behind the eight ball for retirement. Unfortunately, I am not. I have very close friends who are in that realm. Yeah, and as it gets closer, it gets more real. And a lot of times I find that that group of people typically stick their head in the sand and don't pay attention to it. And then one day they realize, oh, you know what? I'm getting ready to turn 55. And I think I got a problem because I don't want to work till I'm 80. And then going 1099 allows you the opportunity to save a whole lot more in retirement than you can as a W-2 employee. And we'll go through some examples of that as well a little later. You know, another reason are business expenses and tax deductions. Sharon, do you like paying taxes? No, but I like the things that taxes give me, like roads and public education. But everybody wants to pay less taxes. How about that? Totally agree. You know, everybody would love to pay less taxes, but we all still love the benefits that are associated with those taxes. But when you're W-2, especially right now under the tax system that we're in, there are not a lot of tax advantages that you can take and put into place in your particular situation. Being a business owner, the tax code really is set up for business owners to be able to take advantage of some of these tax deductions. And we're really going to delve into that throughout this presentation, into tax deductions and things that CRNAs need to think about throughout their working career as being 1099. Because there are a lot of them, and it really does add some sizzle to be in 1099 for sure. Another thing is paying off debt. I alluded to the younger generation coming out with student loans. Typically, if we've got a CRNA and it graduates and they come out, our goal for them is for them within three to five years to pay off that student loan debt. Doing 1099, they can definitely do that. I mean, you can't graduate and live in the million dollar house and drive the $100,000 car. But you can live and devote a few years to paying off this debt. And then once you're done with that, you can move on to other things. And it builds more discipline as well. Yes. Sharon, children education. Woo-wee. You know what you don't have on here? They tell you to save for the children's education. But if you've got girls, they don't tell you to save for the weddings. And those things will knock you for a loop. Put that on here. If I've got daughters, save for the wedding. Yes, yes. And as far as education goes, I mean, right now, you're looking at costs over $100,000 for four years of college, if they get out in four years. Well, and it could be if you decide to go back and give Yale $120,000. So you had to help me navigate through that when I went back to get my DMP. Absolutely. I mean, college is expensive. And if you haven't saved along the way, and then you get to the point your children are going to college, what are you going to do? You're going to get student loans and help them. They're going to get student loans. Or you're going to try and pay it as you go. And I see a lot of CRNAs pay as they go, go back, work $10.99 because they're making a whole lot more money. And then they can afford to pay for college education for their children. Well, I had three in college at the same time. Goodness. That was not fun. That is not fun, no. You know, the other thing is that very flexible schedule that we keep mentioning. You said that at the very onset about flexible schedule. You work when you want to, or you work when you have to, to pay those bills. That's right. I like that. It's very true, right? Well, that's true. After I've been gone for four weeks, I come back and I work five days a week for just a little bit. And then I'll drop back to my normal four days a week after that till I catch back up. Yeah, absolutely. And I've got other CRNAs out there that work in different locations. Some travel around in RVs, and we'll have a module talking about how to do that later on. But flexible locations, I really like the coast. I haven't been able to spend much time there. I'm going to go there and work two or three days a week and then live there for the other three days and maybe come home one day a week or something. Or you can take that assignment for a month or two and then come back and regroup and then go back and work somewhere else. I think that is a really good primer. And I've got test driving on here. Because what I see a lot of times is people think they want to be somewhere, they go there, and then they really don't like it. So this is a way to test drive. I took an assignment for six weeks, thought I was really going to like the coast of North Carolina, and I absolutely hated it. I'm going to try the mountains next time or another state. So you're test driving that as well. That's a good idea. Yeah, and then the other thing is being in control. That word again. That word again. You'll see it a lot. Because I think that CRNAs love to be in control. And this is one way to control your own destiny. You can make more money, save more for retirement, pay off debt earlier, work less, travel more. It really depends on what you want out of this life. You can design this 1099 to work for you. So you've seen these statistics before, but I wanted to give you a general idea. And this is from the ANA's Compensation Benefits Study. And I really think these figures are low, because right now we're seeing W-2s somewhere in that 2 to 220. And the majority of the CRNAs doing 1099 are upwards of 300,000, some even close to 450, 500 right now. So obviously, it is a good time to be transitioning 1099. We will go through some of that in a later presentation as well. But making a lot more money, and then you're adding some of the tax benefits associated with it and things you can do. And this just makes a great time to be transitioning or looking to transition to 1099. But there are some trade-offs, Sharon. Everything is not perfect. It's not perfect. There are some associated costs. Sometimes, unemployment insurance, some places will make you carry workers' compensation depending upon where you work. That's me. You've got to get your own health insurance, which can be very expensive. We'll talk about that in a later presentation about how to obtain that, what the options are for that. You've got to get your own disability insurance. And you always want to have it because you know what you are, Sharon? Old? No, you're the goose that laid the golden egg. You've got to insure the goose that laid the golden egg. That was a better answer. Your own malpractice insurance, again, A&A Insurance Services does a great job of that. It's a lack of job stability, Sharon. I remember in 2008 when everybody was scrambling. The economy tanked. 1099 dried up. Everybody wanted the W-2 position back. And typically, this industry ebbs and flows. And there is some stability issues if you're 1099. You've got to be able to wear that in your own particular situation. Even during COVID, I had CRNAs who were making $400,000 plus a year but had to take time off for COVID and didn't want to go three or four weeks without getting paid. That's part of the game when you're 1099. Again, no employer provided benefits unless you provide them yourself. You do have additional responsibilities. You are a business owner. There are things that you have to do. And some of it you're not going to like to do. Some of it you can outsource to an accountant or a financial advisor or someone to help you along the way. But there is going to be some things that you just absolutely have to do. Your taxes become more complex because now, instead of it just being a straight 1040, depending upon how you're set up, you might have to do a business tax return. You might have to pay business taxes. You might have to pay additional taxes in the state where you work because you're a business owner. There's a lot that goes into that. And one big thing that we hear a lot is CRNAs or new SRNAs graduating want to qualify for the public service loan forgiveness. And it basically means you've got to work at the same place, a nonprofit entity, for 10 years. And if you do that and meet a couple other qualifications, they forgive your student loan debt. But if you're due in 1099, you are giving that up. That is a trade-off because you cannot qualify for a PSLF if you are 1099. So good, bad. We want everybody to understand everything. And then we'll continue to paint the picture of what they need to be thinking about and how they need to get there.

CRNA

1099 status

flexibility

earnings

tax implications