The Sunday Best (10/22/2017)

The Sunday Best
The Sunday Best is a collection of articles I’ve curated for your reading pleasure.

Expect most of the writing to be from recent weeks and consistent with the themes presented on this website: investing & taxes, financial independence, early retirement, and physician issues.

 

Presenting, this week’s Sunday Best:

 

It’s been some time since Stealth Wealth was featured here. In Stealth Wealth: Why This Millionaire Hides His Riches, Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You to be Rich profiles a certain “Dr. Erikson” you just might recognize.

 

A fellow anesthesiologist (not to be confused with anesthesiology fellow) and personal finance blogger declares FI. Passive Income MD shouts from the rooftops: I am Financially Free From Medicine.

 

While no numbers were shared, I’m confident the good Dr. PIMD has at least a couple million to claim FI in sunny California. Another multimillionaire, Brad of Maximize Your Money, shares How We Made Our Second Million.

 

Want to protect your millions? Or thousands? Hundreds? No matter. Follow Jim Wang’s advice @ Wallet Hacks and set up an go-between checking account. How to Build a Bank Account Firewall.

 

With your Paypal account protected, let’s move on to your children. The Financial Samurai expresses The Fear of Screwing Up Our Kids as FIRE Parents.

 

Here’s some rigorous data that makes me feel like less of a wuss when I fire up my electricified Fortified bike. From Paul @ Electric Bike Report, Riding an Electric Bike is NOT Cheating. Here’s the Data to Prove It.

 

I still drive a car quite often, but I’m well aware of the costs involved. So are Kiwi and Keweenaw. The Cost of Driving.

 

I don’t know the costs involved, but I do know that J.D. Roth, who once sold his site for 7-figure sum, has bought it back. From the newly improved Get Rich Slowly, I Bought Get Rich Slowly! (or The Return of J.D. Roth).

 

For the podcast fans, Jim @ Route to Retire shares what he feels are The 10 Best Financial Podcasts.

 

ESI Money has been pumping out the Millionaire Interviews.

 

Boston Meetup Monday Evening

 

I’m in Beantown for the largest anesthesiology meeting in the world, The American Society of Anesthesiologists Annual Meeting. I figure there must be a few of you who either live in and around Boston or are in town for the same reason as me. Or you may have just discovered this site after picking up a can koozie labeled with my site and logo that I left in select locations around the convention center.

Whoever you are, you’re welcome to join me tomorrow for a brewery tour of Harpoon Brewing, which is conveniently located a few blocks east of the meeting site. I’ll be there by 4:45 and will be wearing this cap.

 

schells beer hat

 

If anything is going to convince me not to retire early, it’s this meeting. Whenever I come, and I’ve probably been to at least half of them over the last 15 years, I map out a schedule and attend lectures and panels according to my interests all day long. I always leave with new information or a greater depth of knowledge on pertinent subjects, and often implement those ideas in some way in the work that I do.

This is the first Annual Meeting I’ve attended since achieving financial independence. With a likely retirement in the next couple years, one might expect me to tune out. Enjoy the city, watch some football, and show up enough to claim a few CME credits.

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I’m doing the exact opposite. I approach these lectures with a newfound vigor. In the past, my focus was quite narrow. What could I learn and directly apply to the patients I care for in my practice? I would pick up a few nuggets and alter my practice slightly, adding TAP blocks to my repertoire, giving decadron to prolong peripheral nerve blocks, or giving oral acetaminophen and gabapentin preoperatively.

This go-round, I have expanded my focus to include anything I find intriguing or inspiring. There are issues much bigger than patients that I care for a few at a time. The opioid crisis. Attempts to decrease mortality in anesthesia and surgery worldwide. Compassionate and appropriate end of life care and access to healthcare of any kind here in the United States.

My clinical career may be winding down, and I am eagerly looking forward to a break from work. The beauty of financial independence is that I can once again decide what I want to do when I grow up, and compensation no longer needs to play any significant role.

If a need to remain productive endures after I’ve left clinical medicine, I could use my education and background to continue helping people in an entirely different way than I do now. Perhaps I’ll find inspiration over the course of my five days here in Boston that will someday lead to an entirely different chapter in my life.

Or not. Time will tell. Either way, it’s a blessing to have an open slate.

 

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Boston Meetup Last Evening

 

I had the pleasure of getting to know a few other financial independence fans on Saturday evening. It’s always refreshing to be able to speak freely about these topics without feeling like I’m hiding something or holding back in some way.

I was joined by Liz of Chief Mom Officer, Laurie of The Three Year Experiment, the Actuary on FIRE, and Ron a.k.a. Enron. The five of us came from four different states to bond over expense ratios, exciting plans for the future, and some tasty appetizers and beverages.

It’s always fun to connect faces with blog and forum names and verify that these are good, normal people with goals similar to your own. This was my third or fouth group blogger meetup, and the people behind the monikers never fail to be more impressive in person than they are online.

On Wednesday this week, I leave this conference and join another in Dallas called FinCon where I expect to meet hundreds of other bloggers and others in the personal finance space. Judging by the people I’ve met thus far, I imagine I will be in great company. If you plan to join me in Dallas, I look forward to seeing you there!

 



 

Have a stupendous week!

-Physician on FIRE

 

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25 thoughts on “The Sunday Best (10/22/2017)”

  2. Thanks for your thoughts about the ASA conference, what you’ve incorporated into your practice and how you approach it differently now. I have never gone, as it is just SO big and hard to get the time off in my largely academic group (preference given to presenters). But your comments make me want to go next time, being FI and doing my job for the pure pleasure of it.

    Reply
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  4. Thanks for the shout out! And enjoy the Financial Bloggers conference.

    It was a blast in San Diego last year. And I’m sure it’ll be a blast again this year!

    I’m looking forward to the post conference write up!

    Sam

    Reply

    • I have heard / read nothing but good things about FinCon, and look forward to all aspects of the conference.

      People keep saying to rest up, but I am standing firm on my belief — which is based on experience — that nothing good happens after midnight.

      Cheers!
      -PoF

      Reply

  5. Enjoy FinCon, Doc! Congrats too on the Gophers win over IU. Too bad about the Wolverines, huh?

    Another great post I came across this past week was on Montana Money Adventures. Real nice piece on the 5 Money Friends We All Need.

    Cheers!

    Reply

    • Thanks, Cubert. I wasn’t able to watch, but it appeared to be an ugly win. Now, it’s Hate Week. Neither team has lived up to expectations in the Big Ten season, but a W at Kinnick would be a huge step forward for this program. And… I’ve jinxed it.

      I’ll have to check out Ms. Montana’s post. It’s tough to catch them all when you track a couple hundred and are on the road!

      Best,
      -PoF

      Reply

    • That article showed he worked just as hard on his commute. The e-bike just cut down on the length of that exercise, but not the intensity. To be honest, I found that surprising. I’m not saying I don’t feel like a wuss when I use mine, but maybe less of a wuss with this data.

      Since the fastest speed I’ve reached is 33 mph, and you can easily exceed that on a road bike, I’m comfortable with a standard bike helment. Over the winter, I might want a snowmobile helmet!

      Best,
      -PoF

      Reply

  7. Thanks for including me, I’m smiling from ear to ear! And your article has inspired us to get serious about our electric bike research!

    It’s great to hear that you are getting so much out of the conference! I’ve discovered I approach continuing ed in the same way now that we are working towards FIRE. I’m less narrow-minded and more open to creatively applying solutions across fields.

    Reply

  10. POF- weird to say (considering we have not met) but this is on of first posts I have read since the fire. In some ways it brings back my routine of waking up and reading blogs…So thanks.

    That guys in Sethi’s interview seems strange…must be an anesthesiologist or something!

    Anyway, we are at a whole new level of stealth wealth these days. It will be interesting to see if we go back to the old ways or recreate our lives….I suspect it will be the latter.

    Reply

  11. I also read the articles by Passive Income MD, J.D. Roth, and Financial Samurai and thought they were great. I was particularly excited that Passive Income MD now has the option of not working in the medical field full time although he’s still passionate about his career and wants to work part-time. Having options is just amazing!

    I’m glad you had a great time at the meetups. There have been a couple of PF meetups in DC. I haven’t been able to go to any yet, but I’m excited we all want to get together and chat! 😀

    Reply

    • I hope you can make it to one of those meetups. I’m sure you’ll have a good time.

      I’ll be getting together with PIMD and several other financially independent physicians in Dallas in a few days, and look forward to talking more about future plans.

      Cheers!
      -PoF

      Reply
  13. I've got my 2 acres of non-leveraged, crop-producing, cashflowing farmland via AcreTrader. Get yours.

  14. I am glad you are enjoying your new schedule. Sounds like a fun group blogger meeting. I am looking forward to the Park City Utah gathering.

    Reply

  15. Yes, I’m gladJ.D Roth is back at GRS. It looks like he has already pumped out 7 articles in 1 week, more than I pump out in a month. Shame on me ?.

    This week, I also enjoyed ESI, KiwiandKeweenaw, Financial Samurai and of course ALL your articles POF. Keep up the good work!

    Reply

  17. I think you’ll find some way, shape or form to stay involved in medicine. I worry about the same thing with engineering – what will I do when I hit FI? And what do I truly want to be when I grow up?

    When you hit FI, you have the ability to try out new things and I am really looking forward to having the ability to do so.

    Reply

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