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:
Many of us keep working for the health care coverage. Dr. PIE & family of Plan Invest Escape are exploring their options for a family of four as they approach their early retirement date next summer. COBRAs and Elephants, Oh My! Navigating the Healthcare Zoo in Early Retirement.
Wanna get away? The Saverdinks did, and to one of my favorite places which has become quite affordable to get to thanks to competition between Icelandair and WOW air.
That was a quick trip to an expensive place. Jim from Route to Retire is planning on spending a whole lot more time with his family in a far more frugal place to live. The Cost of Living in Panama… Geoarbitrage at Work!
Do you want to become wealthy so you can retire early to Panama or vacation regularly in Iceland? Passive Income MD has a tip for you. Why Doctors Need to Understand the Cashflow Quadrant.
Wanna become wealthy? First, understand that you’re not entitled to wealth. From Nick Tru of Mapped Out Money, 4 Phrases That Show Why Being Entitled Makes You Poor.
Let’s talk family finances. Ryan Inman of Physician Wealth Services has spoken with numerous physician families and has compiled a number of their primary money concerns. 12 Spouses of Doctors Share Their Biggest Financial Challenges.
More family finance! From Theresa the DocWife of the Physician Finance Facebook Group:
- Story Part I: If I Knew Then What I Know Now
- Story Part II: If I Knew Then What I Know Now
You’ve gotten my take on lifestyle inflation. Let’s hear from some other docs.
- Live Free MD: Beware the Toxic Effects of Lifestyle Inflation
- Wealthy Doc: Beware of Lifestyle Inflation
- Smart Money MD: Lifestyle Creep and the 4% Rule
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From the “Did That Really Just Happen?” Department
We are two weeks into an amazing trip with one week to go. I hesitate to call it a vacation as we feel more like we are living here than vacationing. I guess we’ll compromise and call it traveling. Whatever it is, we are loving it.
On Thanksgiving evening, we had a potluck dinner with other students at the Spanish language school we’re attending as a family. We met a friendly couple younger than us who are here for a more extended stay. They told us they were trying out semi-retirement, which is pretty exciting, because we are, too! It’s places like this where you’re more likely to meet like-minded people.
When I told my new friend that I’m a part-time anesthesiologist, he seemed to already know. He said “Yeah, I think I follow your blog. Physician on FIRE, right?”
Right.
That made my night.
Follow Me on Twitter
The White Coat Investor tells me asking for Twitter followers is an effective way of growing a Twitter following. He used the tactic to top the 5,000 followers mark and I’ll do the same in an attempt to shoot past 6,000 followers to help spread the messages that I deliver here.
You can see my Twitter profile here.
I share my own posts, the posts that my readers may find interesting, and random fun stuff like this recent gem from my efforts on the Duolingo language app that I’ve been using to supplement my Spanish studies.
I also share fun facts like this one.
Find me on Facebook
If you’re not into Twitter, you can follow the Physician on FIRE Facebook Page. It’s another way to see when I’ve posted something new or have something to say.
I also have a blog-specific Facebook profile, which allows me to use Facebook as a person, which the Page does not. It’s not my real name, but if you’d like to befriend Milo Andersson, I’m sure he’ll approve.
Subscribe via Email
I do have a couple treats exclusively available to e-mail subscribers.
1. E-mail subscribers receive an Excel file with every calculator I’ve created for the site.
2. E-mail subscribers get to see how much revenue this site brings in on a quarterly basis to support the charitable mission.
Tienes una semana increíble!
-Physician on FIRE
I’m glad to hear you are learning Spanish. Me, too. I have been doing so for 4+ years, and made some progress. I got to spend more time on it. I just feel it’s hard to understand it, as people talk so fast. How do you learn about listening and speaking, Doc?
No comprendo mucho, Helen.
I think the best way to learn it is to be truly immersed in the language. Homestay, try to speak only in Spanish at certain times of day, etc… and we’re not exactly doing that just yet.
One tip we picked up is to watch movies you’re familar with and turn on Spanish subtitles or listen in Spanish with English subtitles. It’s going to take a lot of time.
Salud!
-PoF
Wow, people recognize you in other countries now? Obviously you’ve hit the big time!
Congrats! Seems like the language school is going well — you won’t go thirsty in a Spanish speaking country now (which is actually pretty important because many spanish speaking countries are in very warm locations).
Can I ask more details about the language school? Where is it?
Dude, thanks so much for featuring my article! It means a ton. I didn’t realize you were doing a Sunday Best round up of sorts. There’s some really good stuff here.
Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving of course 🙂
Thanks for the mention. One of our family goals is to immerse our kiddos for a month or two in a Spanish speaking country, so double kudos to you. Our biggest problem is the kids are not home-schooled(which we seriously considered). So going away for now has to be in the summer. I am curious to price it out in the off season versus the prime season. Again, nice post!
Good for you — I highly recommend it.
Our boys are enrolled in public schools. You may want to inquire before you assume it can’t be done during the school year. Remember that the schools are incentivized to keep you enrolled. Every student they lose to homeschooling or private school is a 5-figure sum lost in funding.
Our elementary school had no problem with us disappearing for 3 to 4 weeks per trimester.
Cheers!
-PoF
I’m glad that you guys don’t quite know what to call your experience since I have been struggling for the correct term too. I’ve been hesitant to say trip or vacation since it just doesn’t fit.
Love that you ran into a fan in the wild, must be such a cool experience! Enjoy the rest of your time there.
“in the wild.” There’s a good term. I was just standing there, in my natural habitat, minding my own business…
Nice collection of useful information, POF! Impressive that someone out of the blue knew who you were, guess that means you’ve “made it” in some ways!
Keep up the good work setting an example for us young-guns!
Thanks for the mention PoF. This list makes me jubilant!
The pics of Iceland from the SaverDinks are really something else!
Hope things are going well for you. That’s awesome you ran into a reader there in Spain!
Jubilation!
We’re not actually in Spain, but in a former Spanish colony learning the Spanish language. We’d love to spend some time in Spain, though, too.
Cheers!
-PoF
I woke up on a beautiful Sunday morning to find that I was featured on your Sunday Best post. Yay!! Life’s beautiful!
Thank you so much for the feature, Dr. POF! I always enjoy having a peak at all the great articles you’ve curated over the week. I didn’t know you were learning Spanish until now. It’s such a beautiful language. Best of luck with your language learning journey! ^.^
Happy to share your post — a good complement to my perspectives as part of a single-incomce household.
We’ve got a long ways to go with the language — my background until recently was two years in high school in the early 1990s and the aforementioned DuoLingo app.
Cheers!
-PoF
I’m thrilled to hear your travel experiment is proving addictive, and even putting you in touch with invisible friends from online. Look forward to reading more samples of your Spanish street cred once you are back and can safely reveal your whereabouts. Until then, here’s a toast worth learning and passing on: Salud, amor, dinero, y tiempo para gozarlos!
Physicians and pharmacists, Register with Incrowd for the opportunity to earn easy money with quick "microsurveys" tailored to your specialty.
I love your tweets about Duolingo! I’m using it to learn French right now, and it is hilarious at times. But also annoying. I do not want to learn how to say “Boys will be boys” in any language, and it makes me angry that all the doctors in the examples are male and all the nurses female.
I did a couple months worth of French on Duolingo before our trip to Paris. The main thing I learned is to not bother pronouncing the latter half of any word.
Sexist language doesn’t belong in any curriculum — I’m surprised and disappointed to hear you encountered that.
Best,
-PoF
Thanks so much for the mention PoF, much appreciated! I’m very much enjoying the comments on our Healthcare post. There’s so much accumulated wisdom and ideas out there for us to consider.
Healthcare remains a top concern of anyone contemplating an early retirement. Thanks for sharing what you’ve learned so far.
Cheers!
-PoF
Love reading these posts, PoF – there’s always something I missed throughout the week!
And of course, thanks for the shout-out!
— Jim
De nada.
Panama-ah-oh-oh-uh-oh. Paaaanama!
-PoF with apologies to David Lee Roth
I don’t think you owe him any apologies… your David Lee Roth writing voice is dead on! 😉
— Jim
Nice writeup! I look forward to seeing these posts come through on Sunday mornings!
I’m very curious about the Spanish immersion experience….our family is seriously considering Mexico as a potential retirement destination, and this sounds like a great way to test the waters while also learning something new at the same time. Very unique experience, I’d imagine. Can you share any details, or maybe do a post on the experience? Thanks in advance!
I will absolutely write a post on our experience — perhaps more than one. Look for an article the first Tuesday in December.
Cheers!
-PoF
That is awesome you ran into someone that knows your blog! Such a small world… also, a good time to be out of the country as the Gophers got embarrassed at home… I almost bought a ticket to the game and I am glad I didn’t!!
Mine sold on StubHub the day before. Probably to Badger fans — they got their money’s worth at about $3 per point in the margin of victory.
Gophers basketball still undefeated after a wacky game against a ranked Alabama team.
Cheers!
-PoF
So cool to get recognized when you’re out and about! 😀
It looks like asking people to follow you works, I just went to Twitter to double check to make sure I’ m following you. I will follow you on FB once I sort out our FB issues 🙂
And thanks again for curating all these good posts for us!
You bet — begging for followers hasn’t worked as well as I had hoped. But, like my Dad says, if you don’t ask, you don’t get!
Best,
-PoF
Good collection doc. You are getting famous enough to bump into people who’d heard of POF wherever you go. There is ultimately a price to be paid for this fame, like what celebrities pay – chartered jet, remote islands, oversized sunglasses and discreet travel assistant! ? You can afford it all, don’t worry but still I wonder what will happen to being “Jubilado”?!
There’s no way I’m that “famoso!” But in a place like this, it’s not shocking to meet others familiar with FIRE blogs. The Mad Fientist was his “gateway drug” and he had heard our recent recording.
We’re expecting our new friends to stop over in about an hour for cervezas.
I don’t know about all that celebrity stuff — I don’t look good at all in oversized sunglasses.
Cheers!
-PoF