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The Sunday Best is a collection of articles I’ve curated from the furthest reaches of the internet for your reading pleasure.
Every week, I scan hundreds of headlines, read dozens of posts, and bring you the best of the best to save you time and mental energy.
Financial Independence (FI) is a primary focus, but it’s an awfully broad topic. I tend to approach FI and early retirement from a fatFIRE perspective and through the lens of a physician, so expect to see those biases in the selected articles.
Related topics that have become recurrent themes include early retirement, selective frugality, tax issues, travel, physician issues, and of course, investing.
For more great articles, take a peek at The Sunday Best Archives. Now let’s get to the best… The Sunday Best!
Can you make a New Year’s Resolution a full week after New Year’s Day? You can and you should, especially if you don’t have implemented a money-related resolution yet. 14 Financial New Year’s Resolutions for a Better 2023.
I gave you one for every month with a couple of bonus ideas, but the Motivated MD motivates you further with one way to improve your finances for every week of the year! The 52 Best Ways to Improve Your Personal Finances.
Planning to retire soon? Don’t believe everything that you read or hear. Richard Quinn with Humble Dollar shares Nine Retirement Myths.
O.G. FIRE blogger Joe Udo with Retire by 40 opens up the books to show us his spending, net worth, retirement income, happiness levels, and more in his 2022 FIRE Wrap-Up! But wait… there’s more! My Secret FIRE Charts From 2022.
Here’s another “secret.” Not everyone needs life insurance, and FIRE types typically need less, especially as time goes on. Save a boatload of money while still protecting your family by using The FIRE-Minded Approach to Life Insurance.
G.C.C., another O.G. FIRE blogger, got himself a J.O.B. Why Jeremy with Go Curry Cracker might have delivered your holiday Amazon purchases in Failing at Early Retirement.
They haven’t been retired long enough to fail, but these recent empty-nesters are loving their new life down the street from Disney. Post FI Notes 023: Freshly FIREd at Fifty-Seven.
Carl, yet another O.G. FIRE blogger at 1500 Days, explains how his family’s net worth went from $586,000 when he started blogging to $5,000,000 fairly recently to about $3,000,000 today. 10 Years of 1500 Days.
The Fioneers prefer to talk in terms of goals and percentages rather than hard numbers, but they don’t need to be FI to live the way they want. An update on their finances in 2022: Building our Ideal Life NOW, which was published just days ago in 2023, despite the title seemingly indicating otherwise.
Kristy and Bryce of Millennial Revolution also reflect on the year that was and the impact it had on their investment portfolio’s value and asset allocation. Our 2022 Portfolio, which for some reason makes me think of that Dr. Pepper commercial. “Derek, you’re oversharing.” But I love it when money bloggers overshare!
Sometimes bloggers share something that rubs people the wrong way, and WCI is certainly no exception. Josh Katzowitz and Dr. Jim Dahle reflect on The White Coat Investor’s Most Controversial Articles Revisited: Looking Back at Our Biggest Fights.
J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly fame is done sharing his thoughts on money. A true O.G. blogger who was blogging in the 1990s explains why he’s moving on from financial writing at his personal blog, folded space. New Year, New Me.
A Bright Spot in 2022
Like the bloggers lamented in the posts above, I had many losing investments last year. Stocks took a hit, as did public REITs. Even bonds failed to zig when the stock market zagged.
But there were bright spots, and among the brightest for me was my investment in site sponsor Origin Investment’s IncomePlus Fund, which now holds about 6% of my family’s net worth (up from 5% despite collecting monthly cash distributions and making no new contributions).
In the 28 months I’ve been an investor, I’ve personally seen an annualized, after-fees IRR of 13.5%. In 2022, I saw a total return of about 10%, or 30% better than the S&P 500.
To learn more about this fund and others and how they’re navigating potentially challenging times, visit Origin Investments and take in one of their upcoming informational webinars.
Seven Years of Physician on FIRE
Tomorrow, year eight of Physician on FIRE commences, and it’s been quite a ride. I’ve written some “blogiversary” posts in the past, but over time, I’ve tried to redirect the focus away from myself and this blog, choosing rather to celebrate the successes of readers like you and your colleagues.
I want you to set and reach goals and I’ve made it my job to give you the knowledge and tools to make that happen.
Last year, we began several interview series, and we’ve now featured the stories of sixty-some readers. If you can’t relate to me or the life I’ve led, I’m sure some of our FIRE starters, FIRE Crossroads, or Post-FI Notes interviewees share more common ground.
I hope you’ll consider participating in one of these series. Many find great clarity or satisfaction from going through the exercise of answering the questions, and the feedback from fellow readers is almost uniformly encouraging. If you’re game, please reach out, and I’ll hook you up with the info you need!
I don’t plan to publish a detailed blog stats post, but I will share that the site has now seen more than 15 million pageviews with the vast majority of those coming from the United States, unsurprisingly. Google Analytics has recorded pageviews from 235 sovereignties, but still none from North Korea. I have a feeling that may never change.
As year eight begins, I raise a glass to YOU, for without you and your improving financial situation (well, maybe not in 2022), there would be no Physician on FIRE. 🍻
Term Life Insurance: Cheap Stuff!
Like I said above, not everyone needs it, but if anyone else is dependent upon your income and you’re not yet FI, term life insurance is super-important. In the widget below, you can find out just how little it will cost you. Some streaming services charge more!
Learn how to better manage your student loan debt, and explore refinancing to a lower rate with cash back offers up to $1,000!
Honorary Yoopers
A tentative plan to do some skiing to start the New Year looked to be dead in the water — rainwater, that is — but the forecast shifted to the cool side for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and so my boys and I spent the last six days on the slopes of several downhill ski resorts.
We’ve now redeemed our Indy Passes for ten days of skiing at five “mountains” in the U.P. this season, which might make us temporary “Yooopers.”
It has made us more confident skiers, and I’m so glad we picked up this hobby after a nearly thirty-year hiatus for yours truly. With another 15-20 days of skiing planned in the next 6 weeks, I’m sad to think that this is very likely the last year we’ll be able to spend so much time road-tripping around and skiing together.
Have an outstanding week!
-Physician on FIRE
3 thoughts on “The Sunday Best (01/08/2023)”
Agree with you on Origin Income Plus Fund. They have been a solid performer. Another excellent real estate sponsor is MLG Capital.
Glad to hear you’ve also had a good experience with Origin. I have heard good things about MLG, as well. Passive Income MD has had them on his podcast.
Cheers!
-PoF
Congrats on the start of year 8, and best wishes for many more years to come. Thank you for all you do to educate us on all things FIRE, and a host of other important topics as well. I read a lot of investment and retirement-related materials from day to day, but nothing else I’ve found is as consistently well-written and useful as Physician on FIRE. Keep up the great work!