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!
This week’s Sunday Best was compiled by Dr. Jorge Sanchez.
Why get left behind? Take some time to learn this shift and capture new opportunities with AI investing. Investing In The AI Revolution: Are You Ready?
Is early retirement something you have thought about as you leave late from work one night? FI Physician looks at early retirement and discusses a framework to navigate such a decision.

Our readers aren’t choosing between a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA. Their income excludes them from having the ability to make a tax-deferred contribution, so when it comes to IRA, it’s backdoor Roth vs. more taxable investing. Life and My Finances discuss the downside of investing in a Roth IRA. Why The Roth IRA Is A Bad Investment
If you want to dig deeper into the decision between Roth and Traditional 401(k) contributions:
Solo 401(k)s could be the ultimate retirement account, blending the finest features of other tax-protected options. The White Coat Investor. Solo (Individual) 401(k)s — What You Need to Know
Marc Turner from Origin Investments discusses how the global pandemic sparked a remarkable shift in the U.S. housing landscape. Interestingly, many higher-income renters prefer to rent for the sake of flexibility and reduced responsibilities. Market Monitor: How Build-to-Rent Communities Adapt to Current Housing Demand
Picture this: investment allocation is your personal financial pizza, and how you slice it up depends entirely on your tastes, dietary needs, and hunger level. There’s no one-size-fits-all pizza recipe, right? Similarly, your allocation should be as unique as you, factoring in your long-term financial goals, risk tolerance, savings rate, and investment horizon. Our friends at 37th Parallel: Real Estate Investment Allocation.
So, we’re seeing the U.S. stock market in a bit of a “down sideways” slump, right? It’s dropped, it’s stagnating, and investors are feeling kinda meh about it. But here’s the kicker – history shows us that these slumps often lead to a big bounce back. So, are you ready and prepared to capitalize on these potential future gains? Of Dollars and Data explains in Why Down Sideways Markets are Bullish.
Curious about the best index funds to start your investment journey? Wallet Hacks give us a nice review of why these are so enticing. Best Index Funds for Beginners.
In 7 Financial Considerations of Pursuing a Fellowship, The Prudent Plastic Surgeon offers the advantages and disadvantages of entering a fellowship after residency.
If you own a target retirement fund, you probably own a decent chunk of international stocks. Nevertheless, with the sustained superior performance of US stocks over their international counterparts, advocating for international stocks in portfolio construction has become less common, a topic interestingly discussed in My Money Blog in the article Why Your Portfolio Should Contain (At Least Some) International Stocks.
Have an outstanding week!
-Physician on FIRE
6 thoughts on “The Sunday Best (06/04/2023)”
The articles on Traditional vs. Roth completely disregard the federal child tax credit, and having children can make Roth accounts more beneficial for many parents. Unfortunately, you can’t comment directly on those articles to mention this. 🙁
They also seem to conflate 401(k)s and IRAs — as does the intro language here for the supplemental article to “dig deeper.”
Apologies — this has now been fixed on our end. -PoF
Please explain how the child federal tax credit changes things in regards to this article. Honest question for my edification.
The federal child tax credit is $2,000 per kid currently. I have 3 kids, so my first $6,000 in federal taxes owed each year is wiped out by the credit, thus lowering my current effective tax rate substantially. As is typical, my kids will be grown when I draw down IRAs and 401ks in retirement, so I won’t get the tax credit at that time. So Roths can be more beneficial for you than the article represents if you have young kids and your income qualifies you for the child tax credit.
The phaseout range is $40,000 per child, so you can get a partial tax credit if you’re in the phaseout range ($400,000 to $520,000 MAGI if you have three kids under the age of 17). Effectively, your marginal tax rate is 5% higher than it would be otherwise because you lose $50 worth of tax credit for every $1,000 of additional income) within that phaseout range.
To me, that makes traditional, tax-deferred dollars more valuable if your income falls within the phaseout range because the tax deduction allows you to claim a higher percentage of the child tax credit.
I hope that makes sense!
-PoF