The Sunday Best (06/14/2026)

2026 Is Half Over. Check the Instruments.

The math stopped me cold like a sponge count that comes up short at closure. June 3rd was the exact halfway point of 2026, which puts us officially closer to 2050 than to 2000. I sat with that between patient notes and felt the ambient dread you get when a lab value comes back worse than expected.

For most people that’s a passing curiosity. For physicians it hits differently, because our financial clocks run behind everyone else’s.

We started this race late. Residency consumed our late 20s, fellowship (if that was part of the deal) swallowed another one to three years on top of that, and the average physician doesn’t write their first real attending paycheck until age 30 or later. Our college roommates in finance or engineering had a decade of compounding head start. That gap doesn’t close by accident.

So, mid-year gut check: where should you actually be?

Early 30s, fresh attending: student loans need a concrete payoff or refinance plan, not just an autopayment you ignore. Disability insurance needs to be locked in while you’re still healthy and unrated. Max the 401(k) and execute the backdoor Roth IRA conversion before any taxable account gets a dollar.

By your 40s, net worth should be tracking toward one to two times your annual gross income. Your HSA, if you have access to one through a high-deductible plan, deserves to be invested rather than spent. At this stage, knowing your savings rate matters as much as knowing your RVUs. Most physicians who reach financial independence sustain a 20-25% savings rate for 15 to 20 years, and they stay consistent through the market’s worst runs.

Pushing 50, the math shifts. Tax positioning and sequence-of-returns risk deserve more attention than raw accumulation. Roth conversions start earning their keep. The problem, almost universally, is lifestyle creep: the second home, private school tuition, the upgraded car that arrived without a real conversation. Each one quietly absorbs income that could have compounded instead.

2050 is 24 years out. For many of us, that’s precisely when retirement lives. The halfway point of 2026 is a decent enough excuse to look at the instruments and see where the altitude actually is.

Thanks for stoppy by!

Jorge Sanchez, MD

Naples, Florida

The Sunday Best (06/14/2026)

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As we enter the Era of AI Overkill, are the cheaper and local models ready to answer the call? And going forward, does our personal AI morph into our professional AI, or do they stay fully separate?

Stock trading was once an exclusive endeavor for investment bankers and the wealthy; now, anyone with a smartphone can open a brokerage account and build a portfolio. “Fininfluencers” have changed the world of online finance, perhaps for the worse.

Speaking of stocks, for a generation saddled with student loans, inflation, and unaffordable housing, and extreme disillusionment with the economy, Gen Z sure likes stocks. The Wall Street Journal shows people under 30 are taking advantage of tax-deferred retirement accounts. 

If you’ve maxed your traditional retirement accounts, have stable practice income, and want to take a serious bite out of your current tax bill, there’s a tool the IRS allows that often gets overlooked: the Defined Benefit plan. In our year round tax planning work with independent physicians, it’s one of the highest leverage moves available and one of the least used.

U.S. households have never been more exposed to the stock market. Corporate equities now account for 47.1% of household financial assets, the highest level on record. That’s nearly 10 percentage points above the peak of the dot-com bubble, highlighting just how concentrated household wealth has become in equities.

Will you be the richest person in the graveyard, or are you willing to live with the stress that you might run out of money during retirement? Perhaps, something in the middle will save the regret of pre-retirement frugality. 

Don’t miss: How overworking can ruin your FIRE goals. 

All around the country, the U.S. housing supply gap widened to an estimated 4.03 million homes in 2025. Even with mortgage rates well off their lows, demand has stuck around. Popular towns where families want to live have the least amount of inventory. Sometimes, it’s better to just renovate what you’ve got, instead of buying bigger. 

As long as you don’t spiral into a meaningless vortex of depression and anxiety, it’s okay to not have a preconceived purpose when navigating the major life transition that is abandoning your long-suffered career, identity, or income. You don’t have to retire “to” something. 

With some planning, federal student loan borrowers can save on their monthly bills under the U.S. Department of Education’s new repayment plan, called the Repayment Assistance Plan, or RAP. RAP determines a borrower’s payment based on their adjusted gross income.

For the first time in the 21st century, the United States has approved a new sunscreen ingredient. It’s called bemotrizinol, also known as BEMT, and it’s been available in Europe and Asia for years. BEMT promises broad protection, a more aesthetically appealing application, and less risk of it permeating your skin. 

Also read: What new doctors should do with their first paycheck.