How to Work Less and Live Abroad as a Doctor with Dr. Kristine Goins

Mar 24

There are some conversations that hit deeper because they don’t just feel inspiring.They feel possible.

That’s exactly how I felt talking to Dr. Kristine Goins on the podcast.

She’s a board-certified psychiatrist who got burned out in academic medicine, realized her body was sounding the alarm, and made a decision most doctors only fantasize about.

She put in her notice.Booked a one-way ticket.And built a life where she could work less, live abroad, and still use her medical expertise on her own terms.

And no, she didn’t do that by abandoning medicine completely.

She did it by reimagining what practicing medicine could look like.

Burnout Wasn’t Just a Feeling. Her Body Was Keeping Score.

One of the things that stood out most to me in this conversation was how clear Dr. Goins was about the difference between a mental health diagnosis and a lifestyle crisis.

She was working across 10 different clinics and schools, teaching, serving in leadership, and still running her own private practice work on the side. She described having chest pain during the day, whole-body spasms, and reaching a point where her body simply would not let her ignore the truth anymore.

And then came the moment.

A neurologist asked her if she wanted Lexapro and basically implied that if she wasn’t going to quit her job, medication was the answer.

Her response?

“This is not a serotonin imbalance. This is a lifestyle imbalance.”

Whew.

That right there is the kind of clarity so many doctors need.

Because sometimes the issue is not that you need to cope better.It’s that the life you’re trying to cope with is not actually working for you.

She Didn’t Just Leave. She Built a Different Model.

What I love about Dr. Goins’ story is that this wasn’t random rebellion.

It was strategy.

She had already built a side practice and separate LLC while working her academic job. She was living off her academic income and not relying on the private practice money, which gave her more flexibility than most people realize.

When she finally made the leap, she didn’t move abroad and start over from scratch.

She kept serving patients in the U.S. through telemedicine and used what she calls geo-arbitrage: earning in U.S. dollars while living in places where her cost of living was significantly lower and her quality of life was significantly higher.

That meant:

Less time workingMore money available to save and investMore freedom to actually enjoy her life

At one point, she shared that she went from working 60 to 70+ hours per week to 20 hours or less, while keeping the same income and cutting her expenses down to about a third of what they had been in the U.S.

That’s not just inspiring.That’s a full redefinition of what’s possible.

This Is Bigger Than Travel

It would be easy to listen to this episode and think it’s just about moving abroad.

It’s not.

It’s about permission.

Permission to admit that the version of medicine you were handed may not be the version you actually want to live.

Permission to ask whether your body is paying the price for an identity you’ve outgrown.

Permission to believe that your expertise can be digitized, repackaged, and delivered in ways that give you more life back.

Dr. Goins now helps other physicians do exactly that through Nomads MD. She helps doctors create time- and location-independent businesses using telemedicine, consulting, coaching, writing, education, and other forms of digitized expertise.

And what I loved most is that she made it clear this isn’t just for one kind of doctor.

Some of her clients are early-career and trying to avoid burnout before it takes them out.Some are mid-career and trying to recover from years of overwork.Some are late-career and finally asking, “What if I could still do meaningful work, just not like this?”

That range matters.

Because a lot of doctors assume it’s “too late” or “too early” or “not practical.”

This conversation is proof that there are more options than the ones we were taught.

Financial Freedom Looks Different When You Stop Worshipping the Old Model

Another part of the conversation that really stayed with me was how she talks about money.

Not from a hustle angle.Not from a scarcity angle.

But from a freedom angle.

She talked about learning financial literacy, creating an emergency fund, spending based on what mattered to her instead of what mattered to everybody else, and using her expertise as the true source of income rather than tying her earning power to one physical location.

That’s such an important reframe for doctors.

Because for a lot of us, the job becomes the safety net.But the job is not the asset.

Your expertise is the asset.

And when you start thinking like that, your options expand.

That is exactly why this conversation belongs on Docs Get Money.

Because getting money is not just about making more.It’s about creating more choice.

If You’ve Been Dreaming About Something Different, Listen to This Episode

If you’ve been quietly wondering whether you could live abroad…If you’ve been fantasizing about working less without burning down your income…If you’ve been feeling the tension between what looks successful and what actually feels good…

This episode is for you.

Dr. Goins said something that I think a lot of doctors need to hear:

You’ve already done things in medicine that were harder than this.This next chapter is not impossible.It just requires a different kind of courage.

And honestly? I agree.