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!
The Sunday Best
Did you take advantage of the latest market crash? Or were you just trying to get by as we plunged into a recession? The Banker on Wheels has a detailed guide. Epic Stock Market Crashes – How much can you lose? How long will it take to recover? Guide on how to take advantage of a recession.
You should take advantage of the free money offered by the bankers offering credit cards. A new Mastercard from Chase and Visa card from US Bank make this year’s list of top cards that give you cold, hard cash back. In some cases, the rewards are good for 2% or more on everything you buy. The Best Cash Back Credit Cards in 2020.
Are you accumulating points instead of cash back? CardRatings has created user guides to two of the most popular and valuable points programs out there.
Now that you know how to optimally manage your credit card rewards, it’s time to learn more about the risks of investing and how to manage them. How To Manage Investing Risk from the Female Money Doctor.
How much risk is added with a non-compete clause in your contract? That depends, but ContractRx shares one excellent way to mitigate that risk. Telemedicine: How to Defeat the Non-Compete.
Working for free is an even bigger career risk. That’s what happened to the Investing Doc in this nightmare of a story. How A Bad Biller Can Almost Bankrupt Your Practice.
The Darwinian Doctor is far from bankrupt. He’s got more assets than this semi-retired physician, and with two incomes, I’m guessing they’re well on their way to eclipsing our net worth. The Darwinian Doctor’s Net Worth.
What does the average American have set aside for retirement? How about the median and those in the 99th percentile? Don’t Quit Your Day Job has the stats. American Retirement Savings by Age: Averages, Medians and Percentiles
One thing that holds many Americans back from prosperity is a four-letter word called debt. Yes, it can be used to achieve prosperity, but only when used the right way. Most fail to do so, according to The White Coat Investor. The Wrong Way to Think About Debt.
Some people, and that cohort might include me, also go about retirement savings all wrong. From Tony Isola’s Teachable Moment, Are You a Toxic Retirement Saver?
If there was a compliation of the most toxic insurance products, long-term care insurance would be high on that list. The FI Physician explains why and discusses Alternatives to and Pitfalls of Long-Term Care Insurance. Bonus points to Dr. Graham for including the Pitfall arcade graphic. Classic.
Big ERN, Ph.D. at Early Retirement Now has added two more posts to his outstanding safe withdrawal rate series. I found the second one to be particularly enlightening.
- How often should we rebalance our portfolio? – SWR Series Part 39
- Should we preserve our capital and only consume the dividends in retirement? – SWR Series Part 40
Wait a minute… he’s retired early and he’s putting in all this time to create these graphs, tables, and blog posts for us? The Internet Retirement Police are calling shenanigans! But should they? The Financial Mechanic reasons that we need to Abolish the Internet Retirement Police.
You’re not earning passive income if you’re actively managing rental properties? Can you call yourself retired if you do so? Passive Income MD probably doesn’t care what you call it. He tells us the pros and cons in Should You Manage Your Own Rental Properties?
Can I get a witness? How ’bout an expert witness? If you’re a physician, you are an expert. Learn how that expertise can be applied to the law in Dr. Gretchen Green’s Expert Witness Startup School. The doors will remain open now through next Monday, October 25th.

Physicians and pharmacists, Register with Incrowd for the opportunity to earn easy money with quick "microsurveys" tailored to your specialty.
Pandemic, Month 8
I’m back this weekend in our little “cabin” where I spent two full weeks in isolation at the beginning of this pandemic exactly seven months ago. It’s amazing that this virus has been propagating among us for nearly a year now, and yet it feels like the finish line a long, long way off.
Covid-19 has drastically changed my immediate family’s plans in the near-term, but we are lucky to be in a position where we’re unlikely to suffer any long-term harm from this. Many others will not be so fortunate.
Of course, none of us have had the disease, either, so I really should be cautious in speaking too soon. So far I’ve had a negative antibody test a few months after a known exposure, a negative PCR brain biopsy nasal swab test when asymptomatic as part of a public health screening drive-through test. Most recently, my son tested negative several days into a febrile illness with URI symptoms.
If you had told me a year ago that we’d be wearing masks everywhere we go, the NBA Finals would just be wrapping up, we’d be forbidden from traveling to most countries, and that B1G Ten Football would not have started at this point, I’d have ordered you up a strait jacket. That’s crazy talk! But here we are.
There’s a chance of snow here up north tonight, and we’re itching to go somewhere. Anywhere. Even Kentucky… so that’s the plan. I’m looking forward to learning if they call it Mammoth Cave because of the wooly mammoth or just because it’s really friggin’ big.
A week from today, we’ll be setting up camp in a state park not far from there, ready to enjoy the great outdoors and see some possibly massive stalactites and stalagmites.
Alpha Group Coaching Experience
Our friend Dr. James Turner, a.k.a. The Physician Philosopher has several free live webinars coming up, and he’s offering freebies to those who hear him out.
Discover How Today’s Top Physicians Actually Defeat Burnout…Without Leaving Medicine In his FREE Live training you’ll learn:
- How to improve your happiness and satisfaction
- An effective way to balance all your responsibilities
- The 2-part system to become more efficient
Register for 1 of 3 Dates: 10/27, 10/30, 11/1 @8:30pm Eastern / 5:30pm Pacific. Attendees will receive an additional free group coaching call & an opportunity for complimentary enrollment in Dr. Turner’s $647 course, Medical Degree to Financially Free!
A Recommended Insurance Agent
Commonwealth Financial Group
Commonwealth Financial Group is honored to serve the medical community. One of the biggest risks medical professionals face is losing their ability to earn their specialty specific income from an injury or illness. We take a disciplined approach to assessing your risks in evaluating the right coverage of Life and Disability insurance. We are an independent firm and can source Life and Disability insurance (including own-occupation) from any trusted insurance provider. We have access to Disability insurance discounts for most of the large physician employers across the country. Click here to request a quote or to contact us. You can also call us at (843) 884-4545 ext 35.
Commonwealth Vetting Application
Have an outstanding week!
-Physician on FIRE
2 thoughts on “The Sunday Best (10/18/2020)”
The sports schedule has totally messed with my internal body calendar! Enjoyed the roundup as usual, and glad to hear you and your family are in good health!
Right?
Now that the NBA Finals are over, we should be looking forward to a glorious summer, no?
Meanwhile, it’s 40 degrees out and getting colder by the day.
Best,
-PoF