Retirement Archives - Physician on FIRE

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Retired Not Retired

Retired not Retired

As my quote-unquote “retirement” approaches — I plan to leave my job as an anesthesiologist in August of 2019 — I’ve been thinking more about what my life will look like after that. I don’t think “retired” will be a great word to describe my existence as a husband, father, blogger, and traveler. I’ll be retired not retired. What do I mean by that? It’s kind of like when someone makes a phony public apology, a tactic known as saying “sorry not sorry.” It goes something like this. “I am sorry that you were offended when I referred to […]

Living the Good Life on a Small Budget in Mexico

I’ve written about stateside geographic arbitrage, the ability to earn more money while living in a lower cost of living area. It works quite well, particularly for physicians, who tend to command higher salaries in places where non-medical jobs don’t pay particularly well. Today’s guest author is taking advantage of a more global variety of geographic arbitrage. He left the life he had built north of the border for a more peaceful life south of the border. My family and I thoroughly enjoyed the three weeks we spent in Mexico last year, but unlike Shawn, we were nowhere near the beach. […]

Retired at 34. How One Physician Quit Her Job to Live Her Dream.

Lake Tjornin Dusk

Today’s guest post comes from a young physician who became disillusioned with medicine by the time she was able to practice independently. Through a combination of creativity, budgeting, investing, and adopting a minimalist mindset, she is now in a place where work is optional and she can travel extensively with her children. Although her husband chooses to continue working as a teacher, Eliza the dermatologist was clearly the main breadwinner of the family. Although she didn’t work more than a few years, the income she earned and the choices they made set them up for a sustainable lifestyle for many […]

Geographic Arbitrage in Retirement: Five American Cities for Budget Retirees

Texas Mural Austin

I sing the praises of geographic arbitrage for physicians during their working years. Doctors have the somewhat unique ability to earn more money in places with a lower cost-of-living. A true win-win. You don’t have to be a physician to take advantage of lower cost of living as a retiree. If you’re no longer working or holding down a job that’s location independent, you can live somewhere that costs less, has good access to healthcare, and meets the other criteria on your wish list. Henry Mackle wrote the following guest post featuring a handful of viable options for a quality […]

Early Retirement Doesn’t Have to Suck

Monkey typing

Allow me to introduce you to an early retiree with 13 years of early retirement experience. For perspective on that timeline, this Dude has been retired longer than I’ve been an anesthesiologist. And the Dude’s not even 50 years old. I could carry on with the introduction, but I don’t have nearly as broad a vocabulary or as keen a sense of wit, so I’ll let the author of today’s guest post complete the introduction. From the monkey-loving man with a whole lot of time on his hands: Early Retirement Dude was once clean-cut and corporate. But having retired at […]

Beyond Term Life Insurance: The Importance of a Legacy Binder

If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me? For I must be traveling on now… My guess is yes, you will remember me, at least for a little while, but will you remember how I manage our money? Will you still remember why we do the backdoor Roth in January and know how best to take distributions from my 457(b)? How to accesss our joint taxable account or how the bills get paid every month? Will you know where I want my body or ashes to be buried or spread? Or what I loved and will miss most […]

How Many Rental Properties Do You Need to Retire Early?

What a great question, Passive Income MD. How many doors should one have in a rental property portfolio in order to have enough passive (or somewhat passive depending on how you do it) to provide for all of your retirement needs? Now that I have enough money to call myself financially independent and then some, I’ve thought more about diversification. It would be nice to have some income-producing assets that don’t rely on the stock market to further “smooth the ride” beyond what my small bond allocation does. Thus far, I’ve mainly relied on crowdfunded real estate to do that […]

Retiring Early in Healthcare Without a Physician’s Income

Chimborazo Ecuador peak

I hope you caught my guest post over on Can I Retire Yet last week. If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out Leaving a Prestigious High-Paying Career in Your Early 40’s. When you’re done, please come back — I’ve got another great guest post for you to read. Today, Chris Mamula, one member of the tandem that also includes Darrow Kirkpatrick from Can I Retire Yet, is returning the favor. I met Chris briefly at Fincon last fall as he was in the midst of this career transition. He’s a a stand-up guy, and we clearly have much […]

A Retirement Checklist

West-Crack Yosemite

If you’re starting to think about either early or traditional retirement in the coming years, there are a number of issues to consider before pulling that trigger. Today’s Saturday Selection addresses a number of financial and emotional aspects that ought to be addressed prior to making that big leap to the next phase in life. From debt to spending to insurance to how you’ll spend your days, there’s a lot to think about. This post originally appeared on The White Coat Investor. A Retirement Checklist As doctors enter their 50s and 60s, many start dreaming about retirement; unfortunately, properly […]

43 Things to do with 86 Weekends in 2018

Vikings Super Bowl Winners

Today we have a fun post from an old friend, and I mean that in the most complimentary way. Our friend Vagabond MD has contributed a number of insightful guest posts including: Ten Reasons to Delay Your Early Retirement by Five to Ten Years Kids are Dynamite for Your Early Retirement Plans Top 5 Reasons This Physician Holds $500,000 in Cash The radiologist, who is about 52 years young, has decided to work less and enjoy life more. I’ve fantasized about 50 things I’d like to do when retired, but there’s plenty of fun to be had prior to retirement, […]

Smart Career Alternatives and Retirement for Physicians

smart career alternatives and retirement

It’s no secret that many physicians are looking to do something different with their careers and their lives. Burnout, resilience, and wellness are a growing focus as we realize that the status quo is untenable for many of today’s practicing physicians. Larger employers and institutions are appointing Chief Wellness Officers. The Physician Side Gigs Facebook group has over 13,000 verified physician members; my new Physicians on FIRE group has seen over 1,000 physicians join in its first week. Ideally, we’d like to see every doctor remain happily and gainfully engaged as a medical professional, but this isn’t a perfect world. […]

Cracking The Nest Egg – Decumulation Strategies in Retirement

sunset years

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Today, we’re going to learn about The Spending o’ the Green in retirement. This is a topic that I’ve covered in a post about my approach to a drawdown strategy, and that post led to about 20 physician and other bloggers writing on the same subject, all of which are linked at the end of the post. If you’d like to accumulate a large nest egg to draw from in retirement, The White Coat Investor’s course, Fire Your Financial Advisor, would be a wise investment. It’s on sale until the end of the day tomorrow, at […]

How Much Money Does a Doctor Need to Retire?

Short answer: It depends. Better answer: The number will vary from person to person depending on a wide variety of circumstances, but that shouldn’t stop us from coming up with an estimate for you. Truthfully, the number doesn’t actually vary based on profession alone. A doctor has no inherently different retirement needs than anyone else. At the same time, it’s hard not to ignore the fact that most doctors and other high-income individuals tend to spend more money than most, and thus need more money to retire. The variables that actually matter include current lifestyle, which influences your desired or […]

Early Retirement Bliss: Getting Your Partner on Board

cubert bike

Early retirement sounds amazing, but what if it doesn’t sound amazing to your partner? That makes things a bit challenging, to say the least. Cubert, an aspiring retiree who plans to abandon the cubicle in his mid-forties, provided today’s guest post in which he discusses strategies one can use to make the FIRE life sound like a winning proposition (and how not to approach it, as he did initially). Cubert and I have a fair amount in common, living in the same state while owning property in the same part of another (here’s his and here’s mine). We’re also husbands, […]

Top 5 Expenses That Could Go Up in Retirement

Playing with FIRE

A few weeks ago, I celebrated the Top 5 Expenses That Go Down in Retirement. Every dollar you don’t spend when retired is $25 to $33 you don’t need to set aside for retirement. Drop $10,000 in expenses and your required nest egg is at least a quarter million dollars smaller. Awesome! But… there’s a not-so-awesome part. Some expenses go down, sure. Others will remain roughly the same. Some spending categories, though, can unfortunately be expected to go up. Ay, there’s the rub. Every $1,000 you plan to spend per year requires roughly an extra $25,000 to $33,000 in savings […]

Ten Reasons to Delay Your Early Retirement by Five to Ten Years

dock of the bay

Prepare to be taken on a musical journey through Vagabond MD’s extended-play version of One More Year Syndrome. Today’s post borrows ideas from a wide variety of talented artists, so strap on your Beats and enjoy the ride. Our guest author is a financially independent interventional radiologist who will soon be working part-time. He is a frequent and thoughtful contributor to the White Coat Investor forum with over 1,100 posts to date. You may recall his previous guest posts, both of which generated much discussion. Kids are Dynamite for Your Early Retirement Plans Top 5 Reasons This Physician Holds $500,000 […]

Top 5 Expenses that Go Down in Retirement

boys fighting

In order to safely plan for a successful retirement, it’s imperative to have a general idea of what your spending needs will be when retired. We cannot calculate whether or not our anticipated withdrawal rate would be considered safe (in the range of 3% to 4%) without knowing the size of the annual withdrawal. That number can be difficult to pin down, as there are many variables. It can be informative to budget (we don’t) or track spending (we do), but this year’s spending might not look like last year’s, and could be entirely different than what we will end […]

Regret After Leaving a Medical Career Behind

villa at night

“Can I look at that book?” said the man next to me in an accent I would soon learn to be Pakistani. I had placed the book face down on the park bench intentionally. In a busy, public place, I didn’t want to broadcast that I was reading The Doctors Guide to Smart Career Alternatives and Retirement. The back cover contained enough information to pique the polite man’s interest. “Sure,” I said. I was genuinely curious as to why the guy, who has holding a baby boy on a Thursday afternoon in Nickelodeon Universe, would be interested in a book […]

Financial Implications of Leaving a Military Medicine Position

world war II museum

Today’s Saturday Selection from the White Coat Investor is a nod to current and former members of the military on Veteran’s Day. From both of us, thank you for all that you’ve done and continue to do to keep our nation safe and free! Dr. Jim Dahle, the author of this post, has experience as both a military and civilian physician, making him particularly qualified to explore this topic. This post originally appeared on The White Coat Investor in 2012, and has been partially updated for 2017. As noted by commenter Mike below, there have been additional changes in the last […]

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