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
What’s the first thing you need to do when seeking financial independence? From Business Insider, The first step to early retirement is the same for everyone, says a man who left work at 43. Who could that be?
It’s the same guy that donates to the classroom rather than have his kids nag his friends, family, and neighbors to buy overpriced pizza, popocorn, and cookie dough. That nonsense is like MLM Jr. The Frugal Engineers and I are on the same page. How to Start Saying No to School Fundraisers.
The Drs. Darko are going to have to navigate quite a few of those school fundraisers in the coming years, as Nii and Renee welcome a baby boy, their second. New addition: Financing a family of 4! Keeping up with the Darkos just became a bit more challenging!
You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but don’t pick individual stocks and sectors, says The White Coat Investor. Actually, don’t pick your nose, either. It’s gross. Why Talking About Individual Stocks (and Sectors) Makes You Look Dumb.
Jacob Lund Fisker of Early Retirement Extreme fame was an O.G. FIRE blogger. He famously lived on less than $10,000 a year in the San Francisco bay area. What has the theoretical physicist done since he stopped blogging in 2011? Well, he moved to Chicago, took a job as a quant, and continues to live fascinatingly frugally. He shared an extensive update with his friend J.D. Roth at Get Rich Slowly. Early Retirement Extreme: The ten-year update.
JLF of ERE did not succumb to lifestyle inflation. In some ways, Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation has. He explores the idea in a guest post on Budgets are Sexy. Lifestyle Creep… Isn’t That Kind of the Point?
How do you choose how to spend or how to invest? Framing can play a huge role. The Physician Philosopher teamed up with Ryan Inman of Financial Residency for the first of what will be a weekly podcast. How Framing Can Affect Your Financial Future. Subscribe to the podcast here!
Let’s keep the multimedia rolling, this time with video! Smart Money Simple Life shares 7 TED Talks on Money That’ll Help You Get Ahead Financially. I’ve watched several of them, and they are compelling.
Getting a late start on your financial independence journey? You’re not alone and it’s not too late. Think You’re Too Old to Reach Financial Independence? Think Again, says FI after 50.
I don’t believe there ever has been, and there will quite likely never be another FinCon roundup as robust as this one from Dollar Revolution. The Ultimate FinCon 2019 Recap Roundup.
We’re doing our best to raise fiscally responsible children. It’s an ongoing effort. Learn some of our methods in Teach Your Kids About Money with the Bank of Mom and Dad.
Dr. Dawn Baker of Practice Balance and the Stealth Wealth Family worked two days a week before taking a 9-month sabbatical. She’s more than qualified to show you How To Ask For What You Want At Work… And Get It
Passive Income MD shares how a variety of doctors wanted passive income and figured out how to get it. How Are These Physicians Creatively Generating Passive Income?
A Featured Financial Advisor
For those of you who would rather not DIY, I maintain a list of recommended financial advisors. Among the good guys and gals who work frequently with physicians, only the lowest cost, fee-only fiduciary advisors were invited to be on this short list. Among them is FPL.
FPL Capital Management
FPL Capital Management Vetting Application
FPL Capital Management is a Fee-Only RIA that offers a unique fee structure, which is based on charging clients a flat annual fee for services provided. Fees range from $1,000 to $5,000 per year for Portfolio Management. They utilize low-cost funds from Vanguard, Dimensional, iShares, WisdomTree, and AQR. They have custodial relationships with Schwab, Fidelity, and TD Ameritrade. They offer an Institutional Platform that provides clients access to private debt and private equity funds. FPL also offers Wealth Management and ERISA Fiduciary services. Their focus is medical practices with fewer than 100 employees. They offer this service utilizing DC Platforms of Vanguard and DFA.
Fees:
Annual Advisory Fees range between $1,000 and $5,000, depending on the level of service selected.
Contact Info:
3525 North Causeway Blvd.
Suite 633
Metairie, LA 70002
800-835-1969
[email protected]
Have an outstanding week!
-Physician on FIRE
Thanks for putting this Sunday best together, as usual. An oldie, but a goodie. I love how picking individual stocks is compared to picking my nose haha.
I love those posts because the temptation to pick individual stocks is very high for me, and I almost need to read those every day to keep me from doing something silly with my money.
Or maybe I should get a tattoo that says “don’t pick stocks” on my forearms or something so I can look at it everyday.
Great Sunday Best as always PoF, but I need to strongly disagree with your post about “asking for what you want at work.”
You say, “You’re not going to get fired – from your work or from your family – by asking for what you want; they need you more than you think.”
But that’s *exactly* what happened to me. I got fired for asking for a raise… and it isn’t like I didn’t deserve one either! I’d been promoted twice with only small cost of living increases each time.
So I asked for a raise, and then got fired a week later. True story.
I have to disagree — asking has consequences. Major ones! Nearly everyone is replaceable, even the best employees.
Mr. Tako, See my response on the original post. I do agree with you that there is no loyalty anymore, and everyone is replaceable. However, I do feel that the majority of the time, physician employers recognize how difficult it is to replace someone in their group and thus will want to work with requests. You have to make moves to do what’s right for you, and you can’t expect them to like it.
Thank you PoF for getting to the point with school fundraisers – donate directly to the school!