The Sunday Best is a collection of a handful of posts I share with you each week. With so many informative and inspirational writers out there, I have no trouble coming up with a number of worthwhile reads each week.
Every featured post should be of interest to any physician seeking financial independence. Some will be written by your physician colleagues; others will be written by our friends and patients who share common goals and interests.
Presenting, this week’s Sunday Best:
A radiologist who lives nextdoor to WCI and now has a website of his own gives us a positive spin on a morbid topic. From The First Habit, If You’re Reading This, You’ll Be Dead Soon.
Sadly, this next post relates to the first. A resident completing training in Australia discusses the death of two colleagues in There is Something Rotten Inside the Medical Profession @ KevinMD.
Let’s get back to investing. As much as I liked how one post segued into the next, money is supposed to be prominently featured here. Future Proof MD poses a simple question in Investing 101: To DRiP or Not to DRiP?
In an oldie but goodie, The White Coat Investor posts to KevinMD on a topic near and dear to my heart. 5 Tips For Physicians to Achieve Financial Freedom.
He’s only a month into his early retirement, but he’s been planning it for years. Steve @ Think Save Retire shares The Best Advice I Can Give About Retiring Early.
You can also learn from someone giving advice to a younger version of himself. The Senior Resident, who is actually an attending neuroradiologist, shares his advice in Talking to Med Student Me.
If spending is a competition, Grant blew me away last year — $210,000 to $62,000. Does that make the Millennial Money blogger a winner? Read his take in A Return to Frugality.
- Part 3: Safe withdrawal rates in different equity valuation regimes
- Part 4: The impact of Social Security benefits
- Part 5: Changing the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) assumptions
- Part 6: A case study: 2000-2016
- Part 7: A DIY withdrawal rate toolbox (via Google Sheets)
Last week I reposted one of my more popular articles on Sermo, which led to an interesting discussion about early retirement. More on that below, but first I’d like to highlight some of the services offered by one of my Silver Sponsors, PKA Insurance.
Like other sponsors, PKA is among the good guys. Their primary focus is on disability insurance (request a disability quote here) and term life insurance (compare instant life quotes here). Additionally, you can get quotes for Ex-Pat Medical, Travel Medical, Trip Cancellation, Vision & Dental Insurance.
Their site has additional resources, including a blog, a life insurance needs worksheet, and several videos detailing life, disability, and long term care insurance.
The post I shared on Sermo was Who Are the Physicians Who Retire Early? For those who are not familiar, Sermo is an online social network for physicians. If you have an account, you can see the post I shared on Sermo here.
Alongside the post, I asked a poll question. “Would you retire by 45 if you had the financial means to continue your current lifestyle indefinitely.” Basically, would you do what I intend to do?
While 36% said yes, only 26% said no. I allowed users to add their own answers, which is where the other 38% of the answers landed.
Most of those said they would work less, or would have if 45 hadn’t already passed them by. 3% said “you would be a fool to say no!” which is another way of saying “yes.”
The post itself received 144 comments, which blows away the most comments I’ve received on a post here. If you have a minute, they’re worth a read.
I don’t spend a whole lot of time on Sermo, but I’ve been visiting a bit more frequently lately. Another forum I like to visit is the relatively new Rockstar Finance forum. There are a lot of bloggers on there, but all are welcome. Among the physician bloggers, I’ve seen The Happy Philosopher, EJ from Dad’s Dollars & Debts, Miss Bonnie MD, and Some Random Guy Online there. If you’d like to see what we’re talking about, introduce yourself and browse the forum.
Another new and exciting development comes from The White Coat Investor, Dr. Jim Dahle. I’ve been an active participant in his forum since inception, and now he has his very own podcast, which includes a little ranting, some education, and a Q&A based on e-mails, comments, and forum discussions. He unleashed five episodes at once, and they’re worth a binge listen if you’ve got the time. I listened here at overcast.fm, and they’re also available on iTunes.
Have a great week!
-Physician on FIRE
22 thoughts on “The Sunday Best (1/29/2017)”
I’m with you, PoF. It’s hard to decide whether it’s funny or sad that there are a number of physician FIRE bloggers. I’m gonna go with 🙁
Great collection as always. Thanks for including FPMD and for introducing me to Sermo. I had thought Doximity was the only game in town.
And to Millenial Money – ???
I think Martdoc makes a really good point – – achieving FI doesn’t mean you have to retire or stop working (sometimes this gets lost in the FIRE conversation), what it does is give you a choice – FI lets you dictate your days, not the job – – simply having this choice is the root of happiness (IMO).
Absolutely, FIscovery.
To me, the FI part is more important the the RE. I actually don’t want lots of physicians to retire early. I’d rather they be happy in their jobs.
FI gives you leverage to create the job you want, and the ability to go without if necessary.
Nice use of the bold feature, by the way, and thank you for the aggregator you’ve put together. I noticed a few clicks from FIscovery this week.
Cheers!
-PoF
almost to the point where you need FI to achieve RE, so at a minimum you need FI, whether you want to RE well that is your choice (can’t have RE without FI, but you can have FI without RE).
and i agree, i think most folks would be happier in their jobs if they weren’t so dependent on them – FI changes the relationship with work which is so important.
thanks for the kind words regarding FIscovery – – it really has made such a difference for me to be able to quickly see (and read) the latest posts across the sites i visit – – glad others as well are finding it useful. 🙂
I’ve been meaning to check out the forums over at Rockstar Finance. Thanks for the reminder PoF!
Thanks for sharing, PoF!
I just joined the forums early last week, it’s been pretty cool to read all of the threads!
Thanks for including me! Let’s see who wins the spending competition this year. 🙂
You’re very welcome! And I think we need to set some ground rules for this competition first, Grant.
Your spending at $210,000 was quite impressive, but I’ll bet I know dozens of docs who “outperformed” you in the spending department last year.
I sometimes get to experience the finer things on someone else’s dime and I’ve never been impressed enough to want to spend my own money on those things. A glass of wine from a $200 bottle of Opus One, 5 star hotel, first class seats, etc… Yes, they’re nice, but I’m perfectly content with my IPA, 3 star hotel, and coach seats for the handful of flights I take in a year.
Cheers!
-PoF
Thank you for the great variety you pull together. I found WCI this past year and devoured his posts. The different posts from so many different sources you provide make great Sunday reading and a continuing financial education.
As a military physician, my situation is a bit different than many other docs, we are the few folks left who can include a pension that is part of the retirement income. That said, many of the lessons here still apply.
For me, FI is just reaching the point that I continue to work because I want to, not because I have to. That is about 4-6 years away if my family keeps the same standard of living. The frugality posts are interesting, but I continue to balance enjoying sharing fun adventures and life experiences with our kids, while investing to reach FI.
Keep up the good work, and thank you for the posts.
I appreciate your service and your kind words, Martdoc.
A governmental pension is a great reward, but I know you earn it in the military.
With spending (and so many things), finding balance is key. Interestingly, we haven’t become frugal in order to be able to retire early. We’ve always been relatively frugal and were essentially FI at the time when I first encountered the concept a couple years ago. It wasn’t until I realized that retiring very early was an option that I became interested.
Cheers!
-PoF
Thanks for the endorsement, PoF! Very honored to be included in a great list of awesome reads this week! It’s another Sunday “on steroids” again!
Cheers!
You’ve ERNed it, Big ERN.
Skål!
-PoF
Thanks for the shout out, PoF, and appreciate the hook up on these other blogs. And yup, 144 comments is impressive! Well done, sir.
Who better to teach us about early retirement than a man who has done it? And that would be you. I don’t get nearly 144 comments around here, but I did send you more than 200 readers today, which is pretty great, I think.
Cheers to that!
-PoF
Physicians and pharmacists, Register with Incrowd for the opportunity to earn easy money with quick "microsurveys" tailored to your specialty.
Thanks for sharing these. Some different takes on some old topics that prove to be interesting reads this cold Sunday…
Woop, thanks for sharing these! It’s funny how many FIRE bloggers are physicians. 😉
Yes, I’m trying to decide if it’s funny or sad. Too many are looking for a way out… it would be a lot better for society if we all wanted to remain in the profession.
Best,
-PoF
Who doesn’t love a good survey? Especially w/ such a fun topic.
Thanks again for the roundup this week. These are some new sites for me, and I’m looking forward to reading them after work today.
Thanks, Julie!
And who works on a Sunday? Oh, yeah… doctors do.
Cheers!
-PoF
Thanks for the links to Sermo and Rockstar Finance, PoF. I actually just started a new series on my blog where I roundup some of my favorite topics on the personal finance forums (http://www.wallstreetphysician.com/forum-mailbag-dow-20000-financially-savvy-physicians-ethical-index-fund-investing/). Right now, I include topics from Reddit, WCI, MMM, and Bogleheads, but I’ll need to add Sermo and Rockstar Finance to my rotation.
That’s a great idea, WaSP!
You can learn a ton hanging around those forums. I know I have.
Cheers!
-PoF