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:
I feel like I’m approaching a similar junction with my half-hearted attempts at a more minimalistic existence. My Sons Father reports My Minimalism Journey Hits a Crossroad. I hear you, friend. As Bone Thugs-N-Harmony once said, I’ll see you at Tha Crossroads.
Speaking of travel, some people hop on big cruise ships to sail the Caribbean. Others, like Michelle of Making Sense of Cents, charter a small sailboat to visit the islands more intimately. Our 10-Day Sailing Charter Around The British Virgin Islands.
Freedom to travel more is one reason I long to retire early. A Canadian physician @ Table for One asks (and answers for herself), Why Are You Thinking About Retiring So Early?
Some dude named Ben retired early, and a couple of my friends chose to highlight him this last week.
- The Wealthy Doc reports: Early FIRE Blogger Retired at age 42.
- My Money Wizard promises: These Three Famous Early Retirees Will Surprise You.
Another dude named Mr. 1500 retired early. He chose to highlight himself this last week. In a guest post @ Budgets are Sexy with a Kubrickesque title, he describes How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Money and Quit My Job.
A Wall Street professional discusses life insurance. From Mama Fish Saves, Whole vs. Term Life Insurance: Let’s Do the Math. I heart math.
We’re a one-income household, so combined finances only makes sense. But that’s not necessarily the case in other households. In a guest post from The Luxe Strategist’s husband, he says, We Had Our Wedding: Does Our Money Have to Get Married, Too?
Drew Housman of The Simple Dollar offers a counterpoint: Married Millennials Merging Money: How and Why We’re Doing It.
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Back to School?
I’ve been enjoying summer with some time off in recent days, and my boys still have a couple weeks of summer left, but my social media feeds have already started to feature back to school photos!
Summer always seems to fly by, and this one was no exception. It seems like a few days ago that we loaded up the vehicles to the gills to spend the better part of the summer at the lake. Last night, I packed my car as full as I could, with bikes stacked precariously on the rack in the back for the long ride home.
While I never want summer to be over in the blink of an eye, I had a feeling that’s how it would go. It’s not all bad, though. When the summer started, I had four months of full time work remaining. Now, I’m down to six weeks.
While it is a bit of an adjustment, I know my boys miss their school friends, and the routine of school and the schedule has generally been good for them. I will also admit that the seven hours of school does give me some coveted free time on my days off. I can’t wait to have more days off — we just booked our first extended trip, a three-weeker in November. More on that at a later date.
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Have a great week!
-Physician on FIRE
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Great Sunday Best as always PoF!
Summer went by way too fast this year! It’s hard to believe kids are heading back to school already!
Can’t wait to hear where you’re headed in November! We’re headed to Japan for the month of October. Should be a kick in the pants!
Well, the kids may be going back to school, but take solace in the fact that you won’t be going back to work!
Best,
-PoF
Thanks for including my life insurance post POF! I also love math – will take any opportunity I can get to analyze something in Excel 🙂
Summer definitely flew by, but in some ways it feels like it is just starting for me. My work doesn’t get quiet until the second half of August so my family is at a lake house in Vermont for two whole weeks starting yesterday! It is my first two-week vacation ever and it is so great to get some family time. Good luck to your boys with back to school! And congrats on only having six weeks left until only part-time work!!
You’re very welcome, Chelsea.
Spreadsheets can be a woman’s best friend when that woman is a personal finance blogger. 🙂
Enjoy Vermont — sounds lovely! We spent a lot of time at the lake this summer, and with our latest property purchase, will have many more lakeside summers in our future.
Cheers!
-PoF
Love the term vs whole life article. I agree with separating investments from asset protection, or rather benefit to me/us vs benefit to someone else. I got out of my universal life policy because it was robbing us (my wife and I) of money that we could be using for us, affording us the ability to retire early and thus give us the most valuable thing of all – time. I wonder how many children or spouses would give up $1M of 30 year future value to spend more time with their loved one instead of having that loved one away working. I know I would. So the cash value to investment value is the most worthwhile comparison IMO. And the $1M benefit to someone else is likely overstated or unnecessary at that point in everyone’s lives, especially given the time argument above.
I listened to a recent podcast on asset protection, and I don’t recall life insurance being touted as a top method.
Best,
-PoF
Good podcast. But what is life/disability insurance if not a protection against the loss of future assets? Liability insurance and trusts protect against the loss of future assets, just from a different source of loss and (maybe) a different kind of asset. The main distinction is one of time, with liability protection safeguarding against realized balance sheet (and possibly income statement) losses and life/disability insurance protecting against income statement losses that flow to the balance sheet over multiple periods. Both equate to loss of wealth. I don’t know that a family would differentiate between the economic devastation of a loss of the present value of their breadwinner’s life insurance in their 401k because of a lawsuit and the future income stream losses of that same policy because of the breadwinner’s death. Both will be reflected in diminished future benefits just the same.
It’s a bummer that summer is already almost gone, but I did have a good summer.
Thanks for all the good curated content.
Thanks for including me in the Sunday Best!
Happy to oblige.
Cheers!
-PoF
Another great round up. Hard to believe summer is ending. We just spent the weekend in Tahoe and for me that feels like the end of the summer break….
Great articles. FIRE is one people’s minds and seems to continue to grow.