The Sunday Best is a collection of a handful of posts I share with you each week. With so many informative and inspirational writers out there, I have no trouble coming up with a number of worthwhile reads each week.
Every featured post should be of interest to any physician seeking financial independence. Some will be written by your physician colleagues; others will be written by our friends and patients who share common goals and interests.
Presenting, this week’s Sunday Best:
J.D. Roth @ Money Boss shares half of his personal philosophy in one big awesome post. How to Be Happy and Lead a Meaningful Life.
Financial goals and athletic pursuits have numerous commonalities. A couple bloggers recently shared some impressive feats. The Happy Philosopher discusses The Power of Incremental Change and Fritz @ Retirement Manifesto tells us I Achieved a Dream Last Week.
What is money to you? To Grant @ Millenial Money, Money is Freedom. I like his take on emergency funds, not asking should you have it, but should you invest it? Investing Your Emergency Fund.
Some of our physician friends shared their Gratitude this week.
- Dads Dollars and Debts is Grateful on Thanksgiving.
- Life of a Med Student lists Things this Resident is Thankful For.
- Passive Income MD shares Great Advice I’m Extremely Thankful For.
- The Vital Physician Executive shares Regrets and Nostalgia on Thanksgiving Day.
In an oldie but goodie, the Frugalwoods share a holiday secret. “While everyone else eats turkey, you can go to Turkey” and more advice in Travel Cheap by Being a Thanksgiving Weirdo.
I had a few sips of the good stuff over this holiday weekend. Mr. Tako of Mr. Tako Escapes speaks of tacos and other creature comforts in Sipping Lightly from the Bottle of Comfort. No, not Southern Comfort.
Mr. Money Mustache, who, like me, donated $100,000.00 this fall, is back with a little more philosophy for you. Efficiency is the Highest Form of Beauty.
I’ve written about a hypothetical sabbatical scenario, but Ms. Montana and her family of seven are living one. Read her Answers from Taking a Gap Year.
Black Friday came and went without a whole lot excitement here in the Northland. The only time I stepped foot into a retail store was to return the carts that the little old ladies took out to their cars in The Walgrees parking lot. My boys did a stellar job ringing the bell for the Salvation Army and wore the apron like a couple of champs.
I’m not going to pretend we didn’t shop at all this weekend. It was a good time to pick up some bargain priced gifts. Although we didn’t join the lines or mad rushes, we did hit a couple local stores after the frenzy had subsided. We wrapped up our Christmas shopping list, and put up the tree to put the wrapped gifts underneath.
I also treated myself to a late birthday gift, using a gift certificate to partially fund my purchase of the Amazon Tap. It’s a portable, rechargeable version of the Amazon Echo, which my parents own and we have found to be quite useful and entertaining. The one I got is not voice activated, and so I won’t have to endure any 6 or 8-year old voices yelling “Alexa, tell me a joke!” which happens several dozen times at my folks’ house until she starts repeating the same jokes. Both are $40 off through Cyber Monday.
I really enjoyed having a four day weekend off. I’ll make up for it by working a 4-day weekend over Christmas this year. Such is life with a full time hospital job. I’m fairly certain this is the last time I’ll be working at the most wonderful time of the year, so rather than lamenting those workdays, I’ll cherish the fact that I’m in a position to make these Christmas workdays my last Christmas workdays.
As always, I will also appreciate the fact that while I may not be having a great holiday, at least mine doesn’t involve an emergency surgery for myself or a family member. Whenever I have a bad day, I can be thankful that I am once again on the delivering end of the anesthesia.
Have a great week!
-Physician on FIRE
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Amen to being on the delivering end of anesthesia! So glad you had a 4-day weekend and got some relaxation in. Your boys are adorable! I’m sure they did much better attracting donations than the guys by our supermarkets – everyone tries to duck behind them as they’re a bit too over-zealous.
Thanks for the great collection of posts. I have a little catching up to do.
Happy cyber Monday! You are going to love that Amazon echo. I have the regular echo and one of the dots. I could definitely see myself getting another dot or two for around the house. They are super useful.
Thanks, Mr. Fire Station!
I look forward to playing around with it and finding what features are most useful and fun. The Dot is $40 now; will probably only go down from there.
Cheers!
-PoF
Thanks for the mention PoF!!
One thing I didn’t mention in my “Thankful for” post was blogging. While I never considered myself the artistic type or much of a “do good wit fancy words” writer, it’s been a fun ride – especially getting to interact with people like yourself which I would have never had the chance otherwise.
Hope your Holidays were great – I was also off Thurs-Sun and had a hard time not double checking my schedule daily!
Best,
LoaMS
That’s a good one! Like you, I had little writing experience — save for transcribing medication lists from one page to another — before starting the blog. I have met so many great people online, and a few in real life, as a result of this blog. I’ve also learned a ton. Researching topics for posts, reading others’ writing, and doing some introspection has taught me so much.
Thank you all!
-PoF
Thank you for the articles! I always enjoy the collection of the Sunday Best – even when you accidently made it the “Saturday best”, lol :)))
I totally agree with you – no matter how bad we feel about having to work an occasional weekend or holiday, we have to remember to keep things in perspective as we are not the ones who are ill. Something to always be thankful for, and to always have compassion for our patients’ and their families.
Also also – I cannot wait until I’m on your shoes and looking at my last Christmas that I will be on call – as I am just starting my career, I know I still have a long road to get to where you are, with many holidays spent at work. I sometimes get so caught up in the idea of FI and RE, that I have to remind myself that it’s the road that matters, and not the final destination.
I hear DrMT. That morning when I woke up to a half-started Best on a Saturday sent me in to a bit of a panic. I made the best of it, though.
I am Thankful that I wasn’t familiar with FIRE concepts back when I was just getting started. If I had focused on the goal from day one, I might have reached it a little sooner, but it would have felt like a much longer slog.
Best,
-PoF
Thanks for the mention and as always, thanks for introducing me to some awesome sites out there. Not having to work the holidays sounds like a dream. Yes hopefully this will be your last and hopefully soon I’ll be able to join you in saying that as well.
It has been a relaxing holiday weekend. The only traveling we did was a one hour round trip for Thanksgiving dinner with family.
I do hope you get to join me soon, PIMD.
Cheers!
-PoF
Happy Holidays, PoF! I got quite a chuckle at the idea of kids with a voice-activated ‘friend.’ What was your favorite joke?
Why did the banker quit his job?
He lost interest.
Happy Holidays to you, CBL!
-PoF
Those are some cute kids you’ve got there PoF. I bet they raked in those donations.
Alexa is a fun toy. Hook up IFTTT to Alexa and let the fun times roll.
Oh, yeah, Mrs. BITA. They were working the crowd. I coached them on eye contact, smiling, wishing shoppers a Merry Christmas, and always saying “Thank You.” A majority of people who went in and out the doors gave something. I’ll bet their “conversion rate” will be among the best in all the land.
IFTTT: I Fight The Two Toddlers? It’s Fun To Tackle Teenagers?
I guess it’s this. What do you do with IFTTT?
Best,
-PoF
I would be certain to lose if I actually fought two toddlers, so I’m glad that that is not it.
The IFTTT recipe I use most often with Alexa is to have it find my phone. My phone is constantly sneaking off on me and hiding in various nooks and crannies, so I use this a lot.
I also use it to set the temperature on my Nest thermostat and to send my shopping list to an app of my choice. If you have ‘smart’ devices in your home (apart from the Nest, I do not), you can do a lot more.
Great coaching! I used to go canning for the Penn State Dance Marathon, and smiling (plus dancing around on street corners and outside of storefronts) always solicited far more donations per capita for my team than standing around did for others!
Thanks for the shout out. I think it’s hard to find honest, relatable info about taking a sabbatical then going back to work for people over 25. So I am excited to put this 4 part series out there.
Your boys looks so cute. I bet they pulled in extra cash! Kids doing volunteer work has a way of making extra cash fall out of my wallet.
Yeah, they were superstars!
Keep us posted on the sabbatical. I’ll be following.
Cheers!
-PoF
Thanks for the honor of being included as one of the “best”, Doc! An honor to be in the same post with your boys! (Good looking young men, and learning about charitable acts at a young age!). Good collection of posts, as always! Thanks again!
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Thanks for the roundup-love the picture of your boys ringing the bell! I hope they raked in the cash.
I liked the idea from Mr. Tako on being sure you’re using luxuries as occasional treats vs. participating in lifestyle inflation by doing them all the time. I agree and feel it helps make those small treats even more special.
The one on investing your emergency fund made me feel queasy though. Since you’re an anesthesiologist I’m sure you’ve seen people (young people) in surgery that never intended to be there. It’s a topic I’m particularly sensitive to – when I was 31 my husband almost died of septic shock (abdominal sepsis) following a surgery. When that happened I was very, very grateful that emergency funds were not one of the many things I had to worry about.
Thanks for the mention Pof! Lots of great posts to read this week!