Retirement Archives - Physician on FIRE

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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 […]

Look Mortality in the Eye Without Flinching: Simple Estate Planning

courthouse city hall

Our latest guest post comes courtesy of Mrs. BITA of Bayalis is the Answer. What is Bayalis, you say? The answer is 42 in Hindi, or the age at which Mrs. BITA plans to be financially independent. Mrs. BITA and her husband are raising a family in one of the highest cost of living areas in this great nation, and are managing to get far ahead in spite of the high rent district. They are also planning for a future beyond their FIRE timeline, as you will learn from today’s article. I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. BITA a […]

Lessons Learned at a Physician’s Retirement Planning Workshop

retirement planning workshop

When I saw these words in the ASA Annual Meeting schedule, I knew I had to check it out: Successful Retirement Planning: Accumulating and Utilizing Your Well-Earned Savings in Retirement! It was a three-hour tour, guided by pediatric anesthesiologist Jonathan D. Griswold, MD. I didn’t sign up to learn how to plan for retirement; I’ve got a pretty good handle on how I’m doing that. Curiosity drove me to add the item to my itinerary. I had questions. What would be covered? Would concepts of financial independence and early retirement be addressed? How many would attend? What would […]

An Actuary’s Take on Longevity and Early Retirement

longevity feature

Today’s guest comes someone who loves numbers even more than I do. As an actuary, the guy practically bathes in numbers. He also spends a lot of time contemplating heartwarming topics like life expectancy and the factors that alter it. The Actuary on FIRE (clever name!) is not to be confused with actually on fire; but instead is an actuary with a family on the east coast and he’s revving up his game after a recent financially indolent interlude. So, how does an actuary approach early retirement? Death. When life has slipped through your fingers like so many grains […]

The Rollercoaster Ride of Retirement: How to Survive Market Meltdowns

Today’s post is a guest post from The Wall Street Physician, a former Wall Street trader turned physician who blogs on investing topics pertinent to physicians and high-income professionals like us. Regular readers of this site should be familiar with the good doctor, as his writings have been featured a number of times in The Sunday Best. His posts have also appeared on KevinMD and The White Coat Investor, and I’m honored to share a post of his here with you today. Let WSP take you through the scenarios, and stick around for my comments at the end! Physician […]

Don’t Retire To Something. Retire On Something.

hobie blue sky

Retire On something. And With something. And From something. And Under something. And Before something. And In something. And For something. If you’ve read any advice related to early or standard retirement, you have encountered the following mantra: “Don’t retire From something. Retire To something.” Retire To Something is great advice and I’m not here to dismiss or disparage it. I could have just as easily written this post with the quote as the title, but where’s the fun in rehashing advice that appears on the pages of hundreds of other articles and forum threads on the subject? So […]

The Ultimate Hedge Against Future Uncertainty

Navy Pier Ride

Dr. Curious was kind enough to submit today’s guest post on a topic that is near and dear to me and my readers. The good doctor is a radiologist married to a pediatrician. They’ve got two young human children and another of the canine variety. He started a blog of his own several months ago to explore his curiosities on life, money, and more in a two-physician household. If you enjoy this post, be sure to check out more thoughtful and curious posts at his site My Curiosity Lab. Dr. Curious, tell us more about this ultimate hedge against future uncertainty. […]

How To Punch Out of Medicine in 10 Years

wakeboard boat powell lake

Today’s Saturday Selection from The White Coat Investor is a guide to moving on from medicine in about as little time as possible. Personally, I didn’t punch out after 10 years, but I did realize I was in a pretty darned good position to do so in my tenth year out of residency. I didn’t follow this plan exactly, but whatever I lost in silly mistakes and departures from the prescription, I made up for with extra work and income. This post originally appeared just over a year ago on The White Coat Investor, and has been updated with some […]

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