The Sunday Best (11/5/2017)

The Sunday Best is a collection of articles I’ve curated for your reading pleasure.

Expect most of the writing to be from recent weeks and consistent with the themes presented on this website: investing & taxes, financial independence, early retirement, and physician issues.

 

Presenting, this week’s Sunday Best:

 

FinCon17 wasn’t the only gathering of personal finance aficionados in recent weeks. Jonathan Clements of Humble Dollar reported on the annual Bogleheads conference in the cleverly titled We Know Jack.

 

While none of this may come to pass, I can’t not share this highly detailed look at the proposed tax reform. From Michael Kitces at Nerd’s Eye View: Evaluating the Proposed Individual Tax Reforms Under the House Republican Tax Plan.

 

Personally, I’ve already discovered the amazing secret to lower taxes: work less! Passive Income MD is in on the secret, too. He says I Love Being a Doctor, I Just Want To Do it Less.

 

Miss Mazuma gets a friend on board the FI train. Or is it plane? This flight attendant is expanding her tribe and  Spreading the FIRE.

 

She’s not the only one. Scott Rieckens visited FinCon to film scenes and interviews for a documentary he’s filming about this movement. One of those interviewees at the round table was Grant Sabatier of Millennial Money who wrote a piece on the Playing With FIRE Documentary.

 

Like me, the Wealthy Doc became FI by keeping much of his hard earned salary. How does the millionaire save money? Let him count the ways in Three Words that Saved me Six-Figures.

 

How do you keep your money once FI? Retirement researcher Wade Pfau knows a thing or two about it, and he recently did an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit. The FI subreddit moderator known as Early Retirement Dude shared the highlights in “Save Early and Often” — Dr. Wade Pfau, Guru of All Things FI/ER.

 

Of course, most who abide by the 4% safe withdrawal rule of thumb will end up with more money than they started with. Ten Factorial Rocks suggests you avoid such a calamity and Live it Up in Retirement!

 

The Biglaw Investor gets into behavioral finance and a common misconception as related to asset allocation and risk. I’ve touched on the value of money in different accounts, and our lawyer friend expands upon this idea in Asset Location in Tax-Protected Space.

 

Miss Bonnie MD has made $350,000 Worth of Financial Mistakes and she’s attempting to atone for them by leaving The Big City for a nearby Pretty Big City. We’re Moving! HCOL -> MCOL.

 

Master Minds

 

A term that I started seeing tossed around among the bloggers and podcasters I run with online is “mastermind.”

Coming from a non-business background, I had never heard the term, although I have been mentored by some I would consider masters in their fields with very sharp minds. But that’s not what they’re talking about.

They’re not referring to the 2016 Masterminds movie that had a few laughs but was largely forgettable. There’s a different movie, available here on Youtube, that got me on the right track. It’s a clip of Napoleon Hillm reciting from Think and Grow Rich, describing the mastermind principle.

The Success Alliance defines a mastermind group as offering “a combination of brainstorming, education, peer accountability and support in a group setting to sharpen your business and personal skills.”

Why am I suddenly interested in the concept of a mastermind group? I’ve been invited to be a part of a couple of them. A year ago, I would have shied away. I was fiercely anonymous, turning down podcast opportunities for fear my voice would be recognized.

Now, I’ve met hundreds of bloggers and readers in real life, lent my voice to numerous podcasts, and may have appeared in a picture or two that made the rounds on Twitter. My work colleagues know of my plans to move on eventually, and I’ll be appearing at The White Coat Investor’s Financial Literacy conference, giving a talk to some 300 attendees. Anonymity is fading fast.

So, of course, I said Yes to a mastermind group or two. Blogging is all about community, and from what I gather, a mastermind group is a small, synergistic community of people interesting in helping each other be more successful in reaching their goals, whatever those goals may be.

Now, I’m just hoping the first rule of mastermind club is that you do not talk about mastermind club. If so, my apologies.

I’m new to this.

 

 

Have an outstanding week!

-Physician on FIRE