Financial Independence Archives - Physician on FIRE

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What’s Keeping You from Financial Freedom?

Havana Club Mojito

Dr. Peter Kim poses a simple question in today’s Saturday Selection. It’s a great question to ask, and an important question to ponder. If you’re not making good progress towards financial independence or financial freedom, what’s holding you back? Most people reading this website have the income to make it happen in a couple of decades or less. Live on half your takehome pay, use the rest to retire debts and invest, and you’ll be FI about 15 years after you were flat broke. Why then, is financial freedom such a foreign and seemingly unattainable concept for so many? Let’s […]

Financial Independence Should Be Part of the Medical Trainee’s Curriculum

Physician Ledger

What were you taught about money in school? How about after school? How did you learn about money? If you answered “next to nothing,” “next to nothing,” and “I learned from my own mistakes,” you’re in excellent company. That’s the route many of us have taken, and I think our financial education is in need of an overhaul. The Physician Philosopher agrees with me, and he goes a step further to state that not only financial literacy, but also financial independence should be part of the curriculum. I’ve expressed my opinion that FI can be useful in fighting burnout, but […]

Would You Quit Your Job as a Lottery Winner? How Financial Independence is Like Winning the Lottery

lottery winner

She watches with anticipation as the numbers pop up on the screen. 3. Her daughter’s age 12, 16. She was born on December 16th! 26. Her age when she graduated medical school and got married. 33. Her current age and the fifth of her lucky numbers. This is really happening. Just one number to go… 11! This one goes to eleven! She figured if she didn’t win the lottery, she could live on half her takehome pay and be financially independent in about 11 more years. But that won’t be necessary. She won the lottery! She really won!* A lottery […]

Ether to FI: “I hate it. I hate it. I hate it!” Learning from Those You Disagree With & a Net Worth Update

ETF9

We last heard from Ether to FI in December when he talked about having a frugal spouse makes early FI all the more likely. Today, he returns with his ninth installment more than a year and a half after he finished his anesthesia residency and introduced himself to the world. The initial plan was to reach FI with $3.3 Million within 10 years but continue working indefinitely. A few posts back, he and his wife were thinking more seriously about the RE aspects of FIRE. The goal posts have been moved once again, as you will see below. I think […]

Financial Freedom for Generation X

A week ago, I delved into a couple of great books penned by millennials, and largely for millennials, detailing the path the financial freedom. Today, I’d like to review a couple more financial freedom books. Today’s selections were written by a couple of my cohorts in Generation X, a generation loosely defined as being born between the early 1960s and early 1980s. I’m a Generation Xer. Many of your favorite FIRE bloggers are, too, like Mr. Money Mustache, Justin @ Root of Good, Vicki from Make Smarter Decisions, Joe from Retire by 40, Miss Mazuma, the Early Retirement Dude, Carl […]

Financial Freedom for Millennials

It’s a great time to be alive, and it’s a great time to become aware of the role your money will play in your life. The number of resources available to you is growing by the day. Today, I’ll be highlighting two excellent resources for millennials with an interest in financial freedom. The first is a playbook to guide you to financial independence from a millennial who has achieved it. The second is a play-by-play memoir from a millennial who discovered the concept and made drastic life changes to make financial freedom a realistic possibility. Personally, I’m a relatively young […]

Working Worldwide with the WoWs — Financial Independence and Volunteering

Today’s blog post comes from Mrs. Waffles on Wednesday, an occupational therapist with a penchant for travel and volunteering. In just a few years, she has found ways to venture into far-off places to offer help where it’s needed most. We heard about some of the adventures she and Mr. WoW have had when we cruised to Cuba together in the fall of 2018. I asked if she would be willing to write up a guest post that spoke to their future plans with medical missions and how they’re intertwined with the financial independence that they are rapidly approaching. Not […]

The FIRE Movement is Here to Stay

“I think we are at or near peak FIRE” – J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly He then postulated that when the next market crash comes, and we know it will (and we did see a drop of about 20% in the US stock market since then), a lot of people who thought they had achieved financial independence would realize they are not actually FI. J.D. was the moderator of FIRE panel at FinCon18 that included Pete of Mr. Money Mustache, Jillian from Montana Money Adventures, Carl a.k.a. Mr. 1500, and me. He asked us what we thought about “peak FIRE” […]

The Case for Giving on the Road to Financial Independence

Case for Giving

Today is “Give to the Max” day up north here in Minnesota, a perfect day to showcase a topic that is near and dear to my heart and the heart of my friend from ESI Money. I’ve talked before about wanting to build up a sizable giving fund before retiring early, even it means this last year or two of work is more for the benefit of others than for me. I also donate half of my profits from this site, a number that will eclipse six figures before we know it. Below, he’ll make a case for generosity, show […]

On Your Path to Financial Independence, Stop and Smell the Roses

Today’s guest post comes from the young man J.D. Roth likes to refer to as the “wonderkid” Cody from Fly to FI. At 21 (he’s now 22), I believe he was the youngest attendee at Camp FI Southeast the weekend we were all there. You may wonder how he earned that nickname. Simply, he knew all the financial independence lingo, had graduated college early, started a disc golf company, and could speak about it all more articulately than I could ever muster. When he was called upon during an on-site recording that became Choose FI Episode 057R, he nailed it, […]

Are You Moving Closer to or Further From Financial Independence?

closer to FI

This is a classic post from The White Coat Investor that addresses the fact that Financial Independence, and your progress towards achieving it, can be a fluid situation. Some people feel you should focus solely on your income, particularly if you’re a high-income professional. Dr. Jim Dahle looks at the flip side and the double impact of increasing or decreasing your annual spending as it relates to the amount of money you actually need to call yourself financially independent. This is an important concept to understand as you progress to becoming truly financially independent. As per usual, this post previously appeared […]

Ether to FI: Shifting Focus from the “FI” to the “RE” and a Net Worth Update

PoF: I’ll start today’s post with a quote from Ether to FI’s very first guest post. “Hello FIRE nation. I am E.T.F. You are probably wondering what happened to the missing “RE” in my name. That was not an accident. I will probably have many different occupations in my life, but I am on a mission to find work that I love. Charlie Munger working at 93 is my inspiration.” -Ether to FI It seems he may be having a change of heart. Interesting what the influence of a better half can do. I try not to plan […]

You’re Financially Independent. Now What?

Seller_at_Heart_Pub

Today’s guest post comes via Peter Koch who also shares his stories and thoughts with a growing readership on his popular blog, Seller at Heart. Peter is an international serial entrepreneur who has run a variety of businesses both online and offline. The father of two and huge basketball fan has now reached financial independence, and he often ponders what to do with his newfound freedom and time. What will you do? Let’s explore some options with someone who contemplates the question from a practical and very real standpoint. From the Seller at Heart: You’re Financially Independent. Now What? […]

Ten Ways to Feel Rich

Dahle Family Tubing

Today’s Saturday Selection from The White Coat Investor describes a number of ways for you to feel like a rich person, even if you’re one yet. Going through the list, I can check just about every box. I could probably add a few items, too. “Rich” means different things to different people, but in this case, the good doctor is referring to material wealth. Try a few of these tips to feel rich and eventually, you’ll probably end up actually being rich. This post was originally published on The White Coat Investor. As I write this (back in December […]

Rounding the Bases of Financial Independence

rounding_the_bases

Today’s Saturday Selection comes from Passive Income MD, and it will totally change what you think of as “getting to third base.” Baseball analogies are everywhere, as the good doctor points out, but we don’t have them for the FIRE community. Well, not until PIMD wrote about them, and now I’m sharing them with you. As always, this post originally appeared on Passive Income MD. Rounding the Bases of Financial Independence As a child, very little filled me with more joy than visiting the ballpark. It was a magical experience. I still remember the feeling of being out […]

House Hacking: A Lucrative Passive Income Stream for Young Professionals

Today’s post is a guest post from fellow Minnesotan Erik who runs the blog and podcast The Mastermind Within. On his site, he shares tips and strategies to unlock your full potential in the areas of personal finance, self-improvement, and entrepreneurship. He loves to help others, and uses his site as an outlet for this passion. In this post, Erik shares how he created a passive income stream of $15,000+ a year after finishing grad school and commanding a high salary, and how you can create passive rental income with house hacking. The timing couldn’t be better with college grads about […]

Chief Mom Officer: Overcoming Obstacles to Achieve Early Financial Independence

bad euchre hand

Hi all – I’m Liz, the Chief Mom Officer, and I’m so happy my friend Physician on FIRE has invited me over to the site today to talk all about one of my favorite topics – overcoming challenges on the way to Financial Independence (FI). In fact I like to say I’ve been pursuing it for 20 years now. I’ve been an avid fan of all things personal finance and investing since I was a teenager, reading The Wealthy Barber at my local library at sixteen. That may have given me some significant advantages in being financially smart, but […]

Ether to FI: Mrs. E.T.F., Are We on the Same Page?

Today, we have the fifth installment from our anonymous friend E.T.F., an anesthesiologist out there in the ether working his way to FI. His goal is $3.3 Million in ten years, and he’s been documenting his journey roughly every other month here on this site. Today, he invited Mrs. E.T.F. to answer some money questions to gauge how compatible their financial intentions are. How is it that I’ve written hundreds of blog posts and haven’t had my wife chime in yet? I may need to follow his lead and change that! The floor is yours, Ether to FI. Ether […]

How to Achieve Financial Independence Spending $200K Per Year

FI 200k

Today’s Saturday Selection is a bit of a jaw-dropper from Passive Income MD. I’ll be honest. It’s a lot easier to become financially independent when spending $60,000 to $80,000 per year than it is when your annual expenses are two to three times that! There are some reasons that PIMD’s numbers are much higher than mine. He lives in southern California; I live in Minnesota. He pays absurd southern CA prices for everything, including a mortgage and childcare. I own my home outright and my children are in elementary school. Most of our flights are practically free using travel rewards […]

Six Months of Part-Time Work. Or How I’ll Save $60,000 on Taxes in 2018.

Reykjavik Duck

Today is Tax Day. To commemorate the event, I’d like to share with you how I plan to slash this year’s tax bill by upwards of $60,000, or nearly double what my salary was 13 to 16 years ago when I worked about three times harder as a resident physician. Half a year ago, I executed a bold move based on a decision I couldn’t have imagined I’d be making in my early forties. I made an intentional choice to slash my income by 40% while showing up for work quite a bit less. I had been contemplating such a […]

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