By Eric Tait, M.D.
Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate this week. Half of you are celebrating. Half of you are worried. Both groups are about to make the same mistake.
Tuesday night was not close. Democrats took back the House and the Senate, flipping seats in states that went for the President by double digits two years ago. The House majority looks like it will land north of 250 seats. Commentators are calling it a wave. Some are calling it a tsunami.
By Wednesday morning my inbox looked like it always does after an election.
Some physicians wanted to know what to buy. Others wanted to know what to sell. A few wanted to know whether they should move everything to cash until the dust settles.
I understand the instinct. But I have watched a lot of elections come and go, and the pattern never changes. The people who react hardest to election results usually pay the most for it.
What Actually Changed
Let’s be precise about what happened.
Democrats now control the committees, the hearings, and the legislative calendar in both chambers. When the new Congress is sworn in this January, the bills that reach the floor will look very different from the ones that reached it over the last two years.
But the President still holds the veto pen. And Democrats are well short of the 67 Senate votes it takes to override one.
So what does that mean in plain terms? Expect a lot of noise. Hearings. Investigations. Spending fights. Budget standoffs. Bills that pass one end of Pennsylvania Avenue and die at the other.
In other words… expect friction. Two years of it, at minimum, through the end of this administration in January 2029. And depending on how the next presidential race goes, possibly more.
Why Friction Matters to Your Money
Markets can handle bad news. What they hate is uncertainty. And divided government produces uncertainty on a schedule.
A few areas worth watching:
Tax policy. Every tax provision that matters to a high earning physician is now a bargaining chip. Brackets, deductions, estate exemptions, pass-through rules. None of it is permanent. It never really was.
Healthcare policy. Medicare reimbursement, the physician fee schedule, insurer oversight, corporate ownership of practices. A new majority means new priorities, and some of those priorities land directly on your paycheck. Whether that helps or hurts depends on your specialty, your employer, and details nobody has written yet.
Government spending and debt. Federal funding runs out December 11. Shutdown threats and spending fights move interest rates. With the 30-year Treasury already above 5.5% and inflation still running at 3.7%, the bond market is not in a forgiving mood.
Volatility. Sectors rise and fall on headlines. Defense, energy, pharma, banks, healthcare services. One committee announcement can move a stock 10% in an afternoon.
None of this is a prediction that things get worse. Some of you believe this Congress will fix real problems. Some of you believe it will create new ones. You may both be partly right.
That is exactly the point. Your portfolio should not need you to be right about Washington.
The Mistake Both Sides Make
Here is what I see after every election.
The physician whose party won gets confident. Takes more risk. Assumes the good times are coming.
The physician whose party lost gets defensive. Pulls back. Sits in cash. Waits for things to “settle.”
Both are making the same mistake. They are letting the political calendar set their financial strategy.
Policy changes every two to four years. Majorities flip. Tax codes get rewritten and then rewritten again. If your plan only works when your side is in power, you do not have a plan. You have a bet. And you are going to lose it roughly half the time.
Build for Any Majority
The physicians I work with who sleep well after elections share one trait. A meaningful part of their wealth produces income that does not depend on who holds the gavel.
They are not trying to guess which sector Congress will favor next year. They own assets with contractual cash flows. Defined terms. Real collateral. Income that arrives on a schedule whether the headlines are celebrating or panicking.
That is not about being conservative or liberal. It is about being prepared.
Ask yourself three questions this week:
1. If tax rates went up, would my plan still work?
2. If markets swung 20% on political news, would I need to sell anything?
3. How much of my income depends on Washington staying the same?
If any of those answers make you uncomfortable, now is the time to adjust. Not after the next headline.
Where We Are Putting Capital to Work
This is exactly why Doc2Doc Income Fund was built. It was built for physicians who want fixed income from real lending with defined terms… income that is not tied to the outcome of the next vote or the mood of the stock market. The goal is simple: steady, contractual cash flow that keeps working through divided government, shutdown threats, and whatever comes out of the next Congress.
If you have been watching the news this week and thinking it is time to make your portfolio less dependent on Washington, I would welcome the conversation. You can review the Doc2Doc debt fund and reserve a call with our team at vernonville.com/doc2docincome. Elections will keep changing the rules. Your income does not have to change with them.
For accredited investors only. This article is for educational purposes and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Any offering is made only through definitive offering documents. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal.