A deadline for millions of student loan borrowers to exit the SAVE plan is quickly approaching. Those who don’t switch to another affordable repayment plan in the coming weeks could see their bills double or even triple, consumer advocates warn. That’s because the Department of Education will automatically enroll borrowers in a standard repayment plan that includes fixed monthly payments.
If you listen to modern medical influencers, you’d think surviving the week requires a two-hour morning routine, involving intermittent fasting windows, the exact minute to get morning sunlight, maximizing VO2 max, and micro-managing gut microbiomes.
But 80% of your health comes from the painfully simple stuff. Chasing that last 20% of peak medical optimization takes a massive amount of energy. It’s the same with personal finance.
Most financial decisions entail some amount of uncertainty and are subject to judgment. Some choices, though, are closer than others to being obvious decisions. Here are six frequent ones you should know.
People hate paying taxes even more than they enjoy making money. Everyone does their best to minimize them when possible. A dollar saved on taxes feels multiple times better than a dollar earned from a paycheck. Yet when investing, paying taxes means you’ve won the game.
Withholding taxes from retirement withdrawals can simplify tax payments and help avoid penalties. Retirees should take advantage of lower tax rates in early retirement. The years before required minimum distributions are an ideal time for Roth conversions.
Social Security can’t go bankrupt or run out of money and that there is a different between SS’s ongoing revenue and the reserve trust. The trust can be depleted, but tax and other revenue would continue to pay (reduced) benefits. It makes no sense to claim benefits at 62 because you fear SS won’t be there.
Life has gotten a lot more expensive over the past few years. In 2012, raw steak cost about $6 a pound on average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Today, a pound of steak costs nearly $13 on average. Here’s what years of inflation have done to American prices.
By now you must have heard that CMS wants to cut your reimbursement for a same-day office visit by 50%. Let’s talk about what this means for you and the FIRE plan building on the basis of your physician income.
Retain is a platform bridging the gap between law firms and physicians looking to practice as expert witnesses without the hassle of finding cases, doing tons of paperwork, and even helps with billing. Without charging physicians a fee.
Physicians are no longer waiting to get old before they get out. But once the shifts, call rotations, and EHR telling you what to do before you’ve finished the next task is all over…you’ll have to make some plans.
Upcoming Event
Would You Sign a Discharge Without Reading the Labs?
On Tuesday, October 6, Tyler Farrelly and Jacob Maggy of Realberry join Physician on FIRE to unpack the property class system and walk through 2026 data showing office, multifamily and hospitality performance splitting by quality, plus what happens when it’s time to sell.
That split deserves your attention. Physicians get pitched real estate deals constantly, since a high income, very little free time and a soft spot for anything labeled “passive” make us a syndicator’s favorite audience. So we skim the deck, spot “Class A,” picture quartz countertops and jump to the projected returns. The letter grades the building. Whether the deal pencils out is a separate question.
The building sits behind every number in the offering. When a 1990s complex needs new roofs and a few hundred HVAC units, the cash comes from somewhere, and limited partners usually find out where when a quarterly distribution shows up lighter than promised. Age reaches your bank account eventually.
Resale gets trickier. Nobody unloads a slice of a syndication on Schwab at 2 a.m. after a brutal call night, so you wait for the sponsor to sell the whole property, and the buyers circling a tired Class C asset look very different from the institutions hunting top-tier ones. A deep buyer pool helps, though it won’t rescue anyone who overpaid going in.
Some sharp investors skip Class A deliberately for the yield. That can be a smart trade when you make it with your eyes open.
Save your free seat for “Class A, Decoded” on Tuesday, October 6 at 6:00 PM ET (3:00 PM PT).
It takes less time than your next prior auth.
