Wealth On The Go

For Chris Galloway, staying on the move has meant staying in the money. Galloway, 41, is a radiation therapist and real estate investor. When he travels to hospitals, he uses highly technical equipment to deliver doses of ionizing radiation to treat patients with cancer and other diseases.
Galloway began his career at a Washington, D.C., radiation therapy firm in 1985, before graduating from Howard University with a degree in radiation therapy and physics in 1989. The firm was able to contract his services to radiology departments at hospitals in and around the Washington, D.C., area because he had fulfilled all of the certification requirements.

Galloway obtained certification in a highly specialized technology as early as possible. This achievement is an illustration of how he has used DOFE principle No. 9: to maximize my earning power through a commitment to career development, technological literacy, and professional excellence.

Galloway graduated from Howard and landed a job at the National Institutes of

Health (NIH), earning $22,000. He began saving money in low-interest savings accounts. “I wanted to get into investing in real estate, but I wanted to save enough money to execute my plans rather than be unsure about putting money into the stock market,” he says. He continued to do contract work after spending 18 months at NIH. Galloway traveled across the country to hospitals such as Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Johns Hopkins. Consequently, he gained exposure to state-of-the-art technology and cutting- edge research in radiation treatments. “If you stay in one place, you’ll never see the new equipment that comes out every year,” says Galloway.

In 1992, Galloway accepted a position with Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami. His salary increased to $42,000, and he decided to open a 401(k) account because the hospital matched his retirement contributions dollar-for-dollar. “That was a no-brainer,” he laughs. By 1995, he made his first real estate purchase. He placed a $16,000 down payment on a $129,000 home in Miami Shores.

Galloway decided to leverage his years of radiation therapy experience as a way to increase his earning potential. Miami was experiencing a shortage of radiation therapists. This gave him the idea of renegotiating his working arrangement with Mount Sinai. He quit the hospital and convinced management to hire him back as a contract worker with a base salary of $42,000 plus 3% of the total billings on all procedures he performed each year.

Galloway explains, “I conducted six procedures on each patient per day, and we had 40 patients every day.” That added about $25,000 to his annual salary.

Education is an ongoing part of career excellence in Galloway’s profession. He must complete between 12 and 14 credits every two years so that he can keep up with national standards. He also sees education as a way to increase income. In 1997, he began an 18-month M.B.A. program in international business at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. He funded it with an $18,000 student loan, of which he has $7,000 left to pay.

Experience with cutting-edge technology, his M.B.A., and his contract negotiation skills enabled Galloway to leave Mount Sinai in 1999 to do contract work exclusively. Currently, he works 2,080 hours, commanding $64 an hour, for a total of $133,000 annually. He also set aside time to establish Integrated Investment Services in 1999, a property management business that he funded by taking out a second mortgage for $50,000. He has earned about $94,000 selling renovated properties since starting the firm.

STUDY, STUDY, STUDY
“Education is the foundation for everything,” states Galloway, “but make sure you study what you love.” Following this concept made it easier for him to speed through the certification requirements that enabled him to work while he attended Howard. Frequent study also improved his negotiation skills, which ultimately raised his income.

FOLLOW NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Galloway kept up

with new technology in his profession by making an effort to do contract work, even if he had to travel across the country. He says he makes sure to negotiate contracts with hospitals that either have machines from 1 to 6 years old, or hospitals that have received new machines—this way he can gain the experience of operating the newest models.

HAVE SPECIFIC GOALS
Galloway says it’s important to plan short-term and long-term goals. “I have short-term goals, that I have to do within the next year, and I also have long-term goals that have to be done in five years.” He is actively working toward his long-term goal: retirement. He currently has about $50,000 in his 401(k).

KEEP CASH IN THE BANK
The money he saved in low-interest savings accounts came in handy when he started his own business. Galloway asserts, “Everybody’s more amenable to you when you have $100,000 of cash to work with.”