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

 

I retired (from medicine) at 43. Eliza (mostly) retired from medicine at 34. She talks about her life, minimalism, family travel and more with the effervescent Dr. Carrie Reynolds on the Hippocratic Hustle. Eliza Minimal MD — The Minimalist MD.

 

Adam from Minafi pulled the plug at 36. As a wiser, elder FIRE statesman carrying the weight of 37 years on this planet, he reflects on the past year. A Look Back at My First Year of FIRE.

 

Mr. Landshark is 40 and hasn’t even retired yet. Can you imagine?!? [sarcasm] Mr. Stop(ped) Ironing Shirts takes a very detailed look at his family’s finances and more to help them determine if they’re ready to jump into the FIRE. Case Study: Can the Landshark Family Retire?

 

The White Coat Investor has some advice for Landshark and his family of terrestrial cartilaginous carnivores. 9 Financial Considerations as You Approach the End of Your Career.

 

 

Why retire? Is that what any of us youngsters are really doing? Doc G of DiverseFI has lived through 34, 36, 40, 43, and is still going strong, although he no longer practices as an internist. What is he doing, exactly? Podcasting and writing powerful essays as part of a Continuous Reinvention.

 

Do you have your Christmas shopping done yet? Me, neither. I’m excited to see what The Physician Philosopher got me, though. He’s got a solid list of the 10 Best Gifts for Doctors.

 

Actually, I don’t expect or even want a gift from TPP. Unless I can drink it. Terry Gross of NPR takes abd eye-opening look at what happens to donated goods. ‘The Best Thing You Can Do Is Not Buy More Stuff,’ Says ‘Secondhand’ Expert. I don’t know what’s up with all the single quotation marks. They didn’t want to buy their partners?

 

What should you get your kids? How about a great rate on their savings? With a nod to the Bank of Mom and Dad, but with a more sophisticated spreadsheet, XRAYVSN explains The Greatest Bank Ever (With Unheard Of Interest Rates!). Note: if you’re not my kid or his, these are some of the best rates available to you.

 

It’s important to teach your kids the magic of compound interest. I believe it’s also wonderful to instill an interest in charitable giving in your children. Andy at Marriage Kids and Money feels similarly. How to Make Charitable Giving a Family Tradition.

 

I spent a good amount of time over the last week donating $100 each to the 130 charities recommended by a bunch of you. Thank you for those requests!

I also want to thank a generous long-time reader who was kind enough to chip in and donate $100 to each of the 10 charities requested in the comments section after our quota had been met! You know who you are, and your $1,000 gift was unexpected and much appreciated.

 

 

Read any good books on real estate investing lately? The White Coat Investor read three of them, and this was the takehome message: If It Doesn’t Cashflow, Don’t Buy It.

 

Cash[flow] is king, right? The Semi-Retired MD duo achieved FI rapidly by virtue of their income from rental properties. They detail how leverage, risk, and good timing can converge in the conclusion to this two-part series. How to Fast FIRE Your Way to Generational Wealth – Part II.

 

Thousands have taken WCI’s FYFA course and it has absolutely changed many lives for the better. I recently shared 5 reasons not to enroll in a course — here’s the flip side. The Top 5 Reasons to Enroll in an Online Course.

 

Jillian Johnsrud (TAFKAMM = the artist formerly known as Ms. Montana) counts herself among them, having spent plenty of time and money on self-improvement. Should You Invest in Yourself?

 

Three Months of Kindle Unlimited for a Penny

 

My reading list now includes JL Collins’ The Simple Path to Wealth and Tim Ferriss’ Tools of Titans. I’m shelling out 0.5 cents per book or 1/10 of a Mexican peso to read them.

I was alerted to this deal that is apparently being offered to some, but not all Amazon customers. To see if you’re eligible, click here. If you don’t get three months for 1 cent, you can always get your first month free.

 

 

Adios, Mexico!

 

After 9 weeks in sunny Mexico, we’re heading home for the holidays. The past two months have been fantastic, and I lament the fact that we may not be back for several years or more. There’s a great big world out there for us to explore!

I’ll be writing up a blog post detailing our time here, but for now, I’ll just say that our time here has exceeded expectations. I can’t say I had many expectations upfront since we didn’t know we’d be coming here until about 18 hours before we boarded the plane.

The weather at this time of year is perfect every day. The people are friendly and put up with my attempts at speaking Spanglish. The food is exceptionally good, as are the prices of pretty much everything.

After our first week here, I boasted about my Duolingo accomplishments and commitment to exercising. I didn’t keep up the intensity on either front, but I didn’t let it go, either.

I’ve used Duolingo to further my Spanish language education every single day since we arrived.

 

 

As far as exercise, I did take most of three weeks off from running when I took a week off to go to Ecuador and then came back to spend long days being a tourist in Mexico City, but I got back on track here in Queretaro.

Over the last 9 days, I ran alongside the “river” / drainage ditch every other day for a total of 21.44 miles. That included a couple of 5k runs and a 10k, and since I’ve never done much running at 6,000 feet of elevation, I can say these are my personal bests at over a mile high.

 

 

My wife and I are now signed up for half marathons in Barcelona and Charlevoix, MI this spring. My goal is to keep the pace under 9:00 a mile. That’s good enough for me. I’ll never be a Michael Iverson, a blog reader and anesthesiologist who, at 53, just ran a marathon in 2 hours and 44 minutes.

Man, that’s impressive. Respect to you, sir!

 

 

Have an outstanding week!

-Physician on FIRE