The Sunday Best (12/23/2018)

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:

 

The Leisure Freak‘s been early retired for nine years. Nine Years! And just after the markets had plummeted in 2009. Nine years of spending didn’t quite match up with the anticipated budget. My Early Retirement Spending Miscalculation. It’s Less Than Expected.

 

Fritz Gilbert of The Retirement Manifesto hasn’t even been retired for nine months, but he waited until he could do so with a generous budget. 5 Reasons We Decided to fatFIRE.

Related: Join the fatFIRE Facebook group!

 

Maybe you don’t want to retire, but could really use a break. Look for Zebras suggests you hop off that horse (or zebra) for an extended respite. Sabbatical for Doctors: The How, What, and Why.

 

My friend Doc Green of DiverseFI was featured on KevinMD after dropping the clinical portion of his medical career. He counts the ways his life has improved in Retirement from Medicine is More Healthy Than the Way This Physician Used to Live. I had breakfast with Doc G last week and he seemed both happy and healthy, indeed.

 

KevinMD is a big fan of physicians using social media to further the profession, as is Dr. Corriel. 5 Top Reasons Physicians Should Take on Social Media (& What is #SoMeDocs?).

 

Geographic Arbitrage is alive and well in 2018. Yeah! The gender gap is strong, as well. Boo! More insight from Stat News in Anomalies Shed Light on Doctors’ Compensation.

 

Passive Income MD is compensated pretty well as an obstetrical anesthesiologist in southern California. He’s used some of that income to invest in single family homes. Things to Know About Investing in Turnkey Real Estate.

 

Are you ready to take a deep dive into commercial real estate investing? Learn the terms, pros, cons and more in Equity Multiple‘s free 4-part, 21-module Introduction to Real Estate Investing.

 

Real Estate Investing is a fairly common thread among the 100 millionaires ESI Money has interviewed.

• Millionaire Interview #96
• Millionaire Interview #97
• Millionaire Interview #98
• Millionaire Interview #99
• Millionaire Interview #100

 

What else can be gleaned from the ESI Money series? 13 Surprising Facts from 100 Millionaire Interviews and What We Can Learn from Them.

 

Realizing that many readers only visit my site once a week, I figure I should highlight what you might have missed. Yesterday, I published a post from WCI on how to Avoid the Hedonic Treadmill.

 

Thursday’s guest post and interview from a PCP (the doc, not the angel dust) lead to some heated discussion in the comments. Physician Retires Early and is Met With Scorn.

 

On Tuesday, Ether to FI returned with his eighth installment highlighting his nearly $400,000 increase in net worth in the first 17 months of his career, sharing one of his secrets to success. Ether to FI: Frugal Spouses: The FI Superpower & a Net Worth Update.

 

Gifting Experiences

 

I hope you’re done with Christmas shopping. Or maybe you took my advice and chose to do some degifting this year. Either way, if you do plan to give gifts and haven’t yet found the perfect item, consider giving an experience, instead.

I wrote the following for possible inclusion in this article for Money magazine. My words landed on the cutting room floor, but I’m happy to share them with you here:

 

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In an era where most of us have everything we need and then some and any perceived need can be fulfilled with a few clicks at places like Amazon or eBay, we struggle to find gifts for our loved ones.

In recent years, we’ve shifted from buying objects to buying experiences. For example, this fall, for my parents’ birthdays, we took them to Minneapolis. My wife took my mother to Hamilton. I took my father to a Golden Gophers football game. We took them out to breakfast on the way down, dinner in the evening between events, and put them up in a hotel for the night.

We’ve got two boys in grade school, and as the only kids in their generation among our families, they get more than enough toys. When Christmas comes, we’ll get them something small, but their big gift will be a trip.

Two years ago, it was a Disney cruise. Last year, it was a trip to Roatan and mainland Honduras as part of a medical mission trip. This year, we’ll give them guidebooks to the Southwest USA (going to see the Grand Canyon!) and Costa Rica. They know we’re going back to Honduras, but don’t yet know we’ll be seeing volcanoes, beaches and monkeys in Costa Rica before and after.

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One of the best places to find unique experiences for the person that’s impossible to shop for is Airbnb. I always think of them first when looking for a place to stay, but rarely think of them as a place to book something cool to do when exploring a new location.

 

 

When I’m retired, I might even set up an Airbnb experience of my own. Private brewery tour with the Physician on FIRE. Maybe a pontoon ride on the lake. Curling lessons. The possibilities are endless!

Use this awesome referral link to register at Airbnb and you’ll get $15 off your first experience of $50 or more. In addition, you’ll receive $40 off your first home booking of $75 or more. That’s $55 in savings for using my link and you’ll also be supporting our charitable mission. Win win!

 

If you need a little beer money for your weekend getaway, and you’re a healthcare professional, fill out an Incrowd survey during the bowl game commercial breaks. They’re so short you can honestly complete them that quickly, and you’ll likely earn enough to buy a beverage or two.

 

If You’re Working this Christmas, Thank You

 

I want to acknowledge all of you that will be on call, in the hospital, or working in some other capacity instead of celebrating the holiday as you wish with your family. I’ve been you a number of times, and I know it’s not easy. I’ll be free this Christmas, but you can guess where I spent Thanksgiving (and Christmas two years ago).

The work you do is important or you wouldn’t be asked to do it on what for many is the most celebrated and anticipated holiday of the year. I appreciate the sacrifice you’re making.

 

 

Have a Merry week!

-Physician on FIRE