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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!
From full-time engineering to part-time librarian after a period of pure downtime, Canadian Dream Free at 45 celebrates Five Years of FIRE and 15 years of blogging.
The Millionaire Before 50 watches the portfolio shrink, but the multimillionaire isn’t sweating it. Net Worth Update: Six Years Later.
Do you know the difference between hedonic happiness and eudaimonic happiness? Jonathan Clements with Humble Dollar explains the difference and which to primarily pursue in Choosing Happiness.
You’ve no doubt heard this advice before, but have you seen the data behind it? ESI Money believes you’ll Be Happier by Buying Experiences Over Things.
The Investing Doc, who owns his own medical practice, would be happier if his employees would stop working the system. Quiet Quitting And Time Theft Issues With Employees.
Only [parts of] the internet top the physician lounge in terms of dispensing bad financial advice, says The Plastic Surgeon. Debunking 7 Financial Myths Overheard in the Doctors’ Lounge.
Following the wrong advice can make you a HENRY — High Earner Not Rich Yet. Steve Adcock discusses such individuals using the example of a physician in What is High-Income Poverty?
When you do become rich and retire early, you’ll want to understand Tax Rate Arbitrage and Roth Planning to best maintain your wealthy status. The FI Physician shows us the way.
Ben Carlson with A Wealth of Common Sense shows us How the Fed Screwed Up the Housing Market, which is odd considering [inside joke alert] he works for the Fed.
The title says it’s coming, but it may have already arrived. All numbers point to The Coming Housing Market Downturn.
A downturn is not a crash, and with limited inventory, demand remains high. Passive Income MD reminds us of 7 Great Tax Benefits of Investing in Real Estate.
There are many ways to invest in real estate, and Dr. Pranay Parikh with site sponsor Ascent Equity tells us which he prefers and why. Five Reasons Real Estate Syndications Are A Better Investment than Rental Properties.
- A word from our sponsor: Ascent Equity Group was founded by doctors and provides an avenue for the medical community to passively invest in real estate through multi-family syndications. We have 600 investors who have purchased nearly 7000 units in the multi-family space valuing $1.21 billion around the country.
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Boosted
On Wednesday, I walked up to the bartender and asked for two shots. The bartender was a pharmacist and he hit me with an influenza shot on the left and the Omicron-specific COVID booster on the right. I woke up in the wee hours feeling a little feverish and restless, and I took acetaminophen, but by the time I got up mid-morning, the only symptom I had was a sore arm.
My wife and older son got their shots last week while I was away at FinCon, and my younger son will get his when it’s approved for 11-year olds or when he turns 12 in a few weeks, whichever comes first. We’ll enter the fall with all of the artificial immunity we can get and perhaps a touch of natural immunity leftover from mild to asymptomatic cases we had last spring.
Next month, we go back to Europe for a 5-week trip, the first half of which will be on land, and the latter half will be a cruise that takes us back to the States from England after stops in France, Spain, and Portugal. The pandemic was raging when we went to Europe to kick off 2022; I expect a much different experience this time around!
FinCon Fun
After a three-year hiatus and two years of virtual attendance, I was able to attend FinCon, the conference for personal finance content creators, in person once again. While there is a lot one can learn, it’s always been more about the people and interactions than the talks for me, so it was great to be present among my peers this time around.
When I did attend the sessions, I gravitated towards talks on things I haven’t done, like writing a book or starting a podcast. I also enjoy going to the Big Stage talks where Big Names share Big Ideas. They’re more inspirational than educational, but absolutely worth seeing.
Highlights included sitting down with the other three physicians I knew that were attending, Mr. 1500‘s pink flamingo beer koozies, a Wednesday happy hour and Friday dinner with my friends from AcreTrader, borrowing the nametag of Dylin from Retire by 45 to gain access to a Thursday evening shindig, and catching up with countless blogging and podcasting friends that I’ve made over the last 6+ years.
If you’re itching to get to an in-person event to improve your financial situation, head west to Los Angeles next weekend for PIMDCON 2022!
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House Taking Shape
While I was away for 2+ weeks, many walls and rafters went up across the street in what will be our new home sometime next spring or summer. Things are progressing quickly at this stage!
We’re building a modified version of Truoba 519, which really takes advantage of the lake views.
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Still Running
Congrats to my lovely wife who ran her second half marathon in a month yesterday, and her first since turning 40!
I managed to keep up my training while traveling, even running outdoors in Orlando, which is all kinds of awful. I got in my longest run ever to kick off the month, and with a 20-miler under my belt, I should be good to go for my first full marathon a month from now.
I had toyed with the idea of running the Fox Cities Marathon in Wisconsin today, but that would have kept me away from home for another week, and I was more than ready to come home. If anyone plans to run the Grand Rapids Marathon, perhaps I’ll see you there!
Spotted in the Wild
It doesn’t happen often, but it’s always fun to be recognized by a reader when out and about. It’s especially fun when it happens at a brewery and the reader buys me a beer. 🍻
I returned the favor, buying a round for Dr. Fox and a local physician I happened to run into.
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Have an outstanding week!
-Physician on FIRE
11 thoughts on “The Sunday Best (09/18/2022)”
A housing downturn? Not that I’ve seen yet. Although I’m starting to see a few listings dropping their prices.
We’ve been house shopping for a couple of months now, and are still looking for the “right” house. Inventory is still very limited IMHO, and this will probably keep prices higher in my zip code.
Cheers for a great Sunday Best as usual!
Patience may pay off in your case. I know you’re in the Tucson area, but I’m hearing that Phoenix is seeing the beginnings of a downturn.
Good luck with your continued housing hunt!
Cheers!
-PoF
The house is looking great! I said “ooh wow” out loud when I saw it haha. It’s good to have fans too.
I say that every day when I look across the street. 😉
Good luck in Grand Rapids!
Only run in the southeast when the upper midwest has more than a foot of snow on the ground. 😉
Thanks for the sensible advice, Michael! You’ll always be my running hero.
Cheers!
-PoF
I used to horseback ride year round in Florida, but gave that up a couple decades ago. I’ll start back up late September or early October. Bicycling isn’t as bad as long as you keep moving! Running in our summer heat would be a hard no, unless one starts at the crack of dawn and keeps it limited to short distances.
Ha, I was coming to comment on the same thing. Running outside in FL is the only way I can run outside 🙂 About to head out for 6 which is a lot less daunting than 20. Pro tip: train for spring marathons here, not fall. Long runs in the summer = not the best!
I hope your six-miler went well! I didn’t mean to imply that I ran 20 miles in Florida. I’m not that masochistic. I did run in Florida, and I did run 20 miles this month, but that run was in northern Minnesota, which is a much better place to be in September, IMHO, especially when training for a marathon!
I’ve got another 20-miler coming up on Thursday, and 26.2 on 10/16 if all goes well between now and then.
Cheers!
-PoF
Yes, running in Florida is a special kind of awful. Those of us who live here and run outside are crazy 😉 Glad the house is coming along. So excited for you all for your trip!
Yes, you are crazy. Although mid-October through February can provide some nice running weather.