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

A year ago, I was at WCICON20 and the stock market was fluctuating up or down 5% to 10% every day we were there! Robin Hartill with Penny Hoarder performs a post-mortem on the voluminous volatility. 7 Truths From a Gut-Wrenching Stock Market Crash, One Year Later.

If you had a solid money mindset, you stayed the course during the 2020 madness. March is Women’s History Herstory Month, and The Female Money Doctor celebrates with her Top 10 Money Mindset Books by Women.

The Physician Philosopher is big on mindset and money, as discussed in TPP Podcast 28: Why Physician Entrepreneurs Work Less & Earn More.

• Bonus: Learn from dozens of physician entrepreneurs in the upcoming and free 2021 Leverage & Growth Summit from Passive Income MD.

Earn more, spend less, and you just might find yourself able to retire much earlier than anticipated. Make sure you check all the right boxes first, says the FI Physician. A Physician Early Retirement Checklist.

Is FIRE the end goal, a new beginning, or the wrong way to approach your work life completely? Andrew Daniels of Millennial Homeowner and Family Money Plan shares his thoughts with Camp FIRE Finance. It’s Time to Think Past FIRE.

I thought I wanted FIRE but I found something better than full-on retirement. Hint: it’s this blog. So I didn’t actually retire, which is one of the Top 5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Listen to a Word I Say.

As I write this, I’m halfway through a week as a guest at a timeshare with plans to listen to their spiel to earn another week and some cash tomorrow. If things don’t go as planned, I’ll refer back to Radical FIRE‘s excellent guide on How to Get Out of a Timeshare: 5 Proven Ways.

Happy Pi Day! On 3.14.2021, you can score some sweet discounts on pizza pies and other goodies, including $3.14 pizzas at several spots in Orlando. Guess what I’m having for dinner. Pizza Deals for Pi Day.

Mr. 1500 Days did a live-in fix-and-flip in Longmont, Colorado, ending up with a very nice home (trust me, I’ve stayed there) worth more than triple what he bought it for. Now that it’s sold, he performs a Home Sale: Mortgage Post-Mortem. Was financing the right thing to do?

Homes all across the country are selling rapidly and often for over the asking price. Are we in bubble territory? Coach Carson contemplates. A 2021 Housing Bubble? My Thoughts on How to Invest Wisely.

• Bonus: Join “Coach” Chad Carson tomorrow for a live day or evening education session. The Baby Steps That Lead Directly to Your Next Investment Property

Is it cold in here or is The Darwinian Doctor just using a funky real estate acronym to describe his excellent investments? Returning 17-50% via the BRRRR method for Duplex #2 and #4.

Just how well do you know your investment acronyms and lingo? Could you go 4 for 4 on defining these? One of my preferred real estate investment platforms, Crowdstreet, drops some knowledge.

• Understanding Internal Rate of Return (IRR) in Real Estate Investing

• What is a Cash-on-Cash Return?

• What is a Preferred Return?

• What is a Cap Rate?

Real estate investing can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. Passive Income MD shares 6 Rules for Owning Rental Properties Without The Headaches.

Having bought and sold more homes than I care to count, I’ve wondered how much money a typical realtor makes. With a total of 6% in commissions for many real estate transactions, I expected the number to be higher. Kevin with Just Start Investing breaks it down. How Much Do Real Estate Agents Make?

The Best Real Estate Course on the Planet for Under $1,000

Coach Carson’s Real Estate Start School is now open for enrollment! Sign up and you’ll get lifetime access to the comprehensive course and any updates. In addition, he includes his “Grad Level” Courses at no additional cost, including:

• Real Estate Deal Finder
• Rental Property Analysis
• Creative Financing
• Contract to Closing
• Fix & Flip for Cash
• Find Your Focus in Real Estate Investing

You also get access to an active community of real estate investors who are taking or have completed the course, a physical workbook, quizzes at the end of each module (55 videos in Real Estate Start School alone), 12 live “office” hours with Chad Carson over 10 weeks, and a whole bunch more. It is a complete package. Click here to learn more from the course creator.

Answer quick MicroSurveys for cash. Designed with convenience and timeliness in mind, 70% of surveys are answered on a mobile device in just a few minutes.

Physicians, Pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals are invited to join Incrowd today!

A More Passive Way to Invest in Real Estate

If direct ownership of individual rental properties is not your thing, you may be more interested in one of my preferred real estate investment platforms, Crowdstreet. They recently surveyed over 1200 investors to find out how they’re approaching investing in 2021. 96% of respondents said they plan on making a real estate investment this year. Are you thinking the same thing? 

The survey also found that multifamily (think apartment buildings) and industrial (warehouses, distribution centers, cold storage, etc.) were the most popular types of real estate to invest in–I’ve personally made investments in two residential properties with CrowdStreet–while a whopping 75% of respondents said they had no interest in retail properties. You can download their full investor sentiment survey report now.

Given how hard retailers have been hit by COVID, it doesn’t surprise me to hear that other investors are not interested in those opportunities. But in their Investment Thesis the CrowdStreet team explains how even in the industries hit hardest by COVID, like the travel and hotel sectors, there are still investment opportunities if you know what to look for. The deals you see on their Marketplace reflect those insights.

To learn more about how Crowdstreet works and what current investment offerings are available for accredited investors, click here to get started.

Earning $500 to $900 an Hour

Looking for some seed money to start your real estate empire? If you’re a physician, you can leverage your expertise as an expert witness to earn double or triple what you might make providing patient care. For better or worse, that’s the world we live in, so why not be on the receiving end while defending your physician colleagues?

Gretchen Green, MD has put together a course with 9 teaching modules, weekly live Q&A sessions, a dedicated Facebook group, and all the tools you need to build a successful expert witness business.

This course will enable you to:

• Launch and build an expert witness business

• Understand the process of case review and deposition

• Rise to the challenge of putting your existing skills to work, in a new way

• Take immediate steps to increase your income, on your own time

Enroll in Expert Witness Startup School today and cover your tuition with earnings from your first of many bookings as an expert witness.

Last Day to Save $100 on Continuing Financial Education 2021 from WCI

17 CME credits, 50+ speakers, 1 great gag that started with the word “bonds” being heard as “bronze” and typed as such into the teleprompter.

I had a great time being a part of the live broadcast, and I learned more than I thought I might from the handful of pre-recorded talks I was able to take in. Now, you can enjoy all of this year’s Physician Wellness and Financial Literacy Conference in the form of an online course at Teachable known as CFE 2021.

The pre-sale ends tonight, and the course will be delivered tomorrow as the price goes up to the normal price of $779. If you’ve got a CME fund, I can’t think of a better use.

10 Lessons I Learned from Star Wars About Retirement

Which is Better: Dollar Cost Averaging or Buying the Dip?

Steps of Investing For High-Income Earners to Achieve Financial Independence

Have an outstanding week!

-Physician on FIRE