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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!
Tune in to an enticing three-way conversation with me, Nisha Mehta, MD of Physician Side Gigs, and Dr. Jim Dahle, the White Coat Investor, as we talk about Life after Financial Independence.
- This episode is also available on the WCI Youtube Channel: WCI Podcast #293 – Life after Financial Independence
Kristy from Millennial Revolution has been living a life after FI for the better part of a decade. She reflects on her post-FI life in What I Learned After 8 Years of Early Retirement. I hope to skip that one-to-two year depression and boredom phase when I fully retire!
His post-FI life looks identical to his pre-FI life, and he hasn’t determined how to leverage his $10 Million net worth to make it better. What would you advise? Post-FI Notes 021: A Super Successful Surgical Subspecialist.
To change his lot in life, he may have to break “the rules,” as the former CEO behind Accidentally Retired did. 12 Rules to Break on Your Path to Wealth AND Happiness.
Life has two “halves,” and we’re constantly changing, opines Chris Mamula with Can I Retire Yet. That’s what makes it tough to pin down an answer to How Much Money Do You Need to Retire?
- I took a stab at it, anyway. How Much Money Does a Doctor Need to Retire?
Our friend JL Collins played around with a new tool he’s discovered, and I encourage you to do the same to garner a better understanding of U.S. stock market history. Fun with Numbers: Historic Stock Market Returns.
Anyone who tells you they traveled for free with credit card rewards is having their own fun with numbers. No, You Didn’t Travel for Free With Those Points and Miles.
I’m not saying those points and miles aren’t valuable though. The questionably-named “Travel Freely” site shares The Best Travel Credit Card Offers for December 2022.
Boyz II Men found it hard to say goodbye to yesterday. Fritz Gilbert with Retirement Manifesto had similar difficulties letting go, but it was time. Saying Goodbye to the 401(k).
Wouldn’t it be nice to say goodbye to heavy taxation? While I don’t agree with every proposed strategy, this guest post on Tax Strategies for High-Income Professionals is worth reviewing.
On a related note, if you’re ready to do some year-end tax planning (which you ought to be), my favorite tax planning tool is now 20% off with code POF2023 through the end of 2022.
I’ll confess that I carry no long-term care insurance, and yet I still sleep well at night. Dr. David Graham, the FI Physician asks, Should I Self-Fund Long Term Care?
I’ll bet these folks can afford to self-fund LTC. Another round of millionaires share their stories with ESI Money.
- Millionaire Interview 340
- Millionaire Interview 341
- Millionaire Interview 342
- Millionaire Interview 343
- Millionaire Interview 344
Early Season Skiing
Eager to try out our new-to-us downhill skiing equipment, my boys and I are on day 3 of 5 straight days hitting the slopes in Michigan’s U.P. and northern Minnesota.
I thought I planned out the itinerary reasonably well, but no.
I knew Marquette Mountain opened this weekend, so I booked us a hotel room for Thursday night with a plan to ski on Friday. With 3-5 inches of fresh powder falling on Thursday, I figured that would work out really well. Nope.
Yes, they opened this weekend, but not until Saturday. I had my dates mixed up.
No worries. There are a couple of ski resorts in the western U.P. on our Indy Pass, and I had an Airbnb at the base of one of them for Saturday and Sunday, so we planned to ski Big Powderhorn this weekend. The main lodge was just two blocks from our condo for the weekend.
Guess who delayed their opening from this weekend to mid-week, despite a foot of new snow this week? That would be Big Powderhorn.
Luckily, we have the ability to be flexible, and despite the closure of the two places where we planned to spend our first three days skiing, we managed to improvise and ski every day. On Friday and Saturday, we skied Snow River (formerly called Blackjack and Indianhead and just 15 minutes from Big Powderhorn), and today, we’re at Spirit Mountain in Duluth.
As planned, we’ll hit up Lutsen (which I know is open!) tomorrow and the day after, and then we’ll take some time off to “warm up” in northern Minnesota where the overnight lows will be well below zero.
There are some challenges with early season skiing. In addition to the uncertainty of tentative opening days, even the places that are open may only be half-open, at best. Our experience has been that about half of the chair lifts are running, and maybe half of the runs are open, if that.
The good news is that there aren’t too many people skiing yet, at least not in the upper midwest, so there’s no waiting in any queue whatsoever, and the slopes are not crowded at all.
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No Holiday Party This Year
I wasn’t invited to the company holiday party this year. Or last year. Or the year before.
Hmmm…what’s up with that? Did I drink too much the last time I was actually invited to one?
The answer is “probably,” but that’s not why I will not be attending a work-related holiday party in 2022, just like I haven’t the last few years. It’s because I haven’t had a real job or worked for anyone else since the summer of 2019.
I miss those holiday parties; the surgery center always threw a great December shindig. Maybe I need to get some of my semi-retired solopreneur friends together to throw a holiday party of our own next year. You bring the eggnog. I’ll supply the beer!
Have an holly, jolly week!
-Physician on FIRE
4 thoughts on “The Sunday Best (12/18/2022)”
I read Fritz’s post and think for those of us changing 401k companies frequently through our career it may be different in retirement. Whether it’s my company changing 401k providers or the company being sold to another entity, or changing jobs… I can’t tell you all the places I’ve had a 401k. Because the fees at Vanguard are lower, I roll any 401k to a traditional IRA when I change companies. I just have an active 401k wherever I’m currently working. It makes things easier to manage. thanks for a great Sunday best!
That’s a simple solution.
The one downside of doing this while working is that it takes away the ability to do a clean backdoor Roth. That’s not the end of the world, but it’s a consideration.
Cheers!
-PoF
That’s a simple solution.
The one downside of doing this while working is that it takes away the ability to do a clean backdoor Roth. That’s not the end of the world, but it’s a consideration.
Cheers!
-PoF
Oh I love the UP of Michigan…..At least in the summer! I hadn’t been there in the winter, but I’ll bet is just as majestic as the summer. Safe travels, enjoy the skiing, and of course, happy holidays!