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:
I took part in a recent written interview with EquityMultiple in which I share my investing strategy, thoughts on asset allocation in retirement (an increasing equities glidepath), and thoughts on REIT versus crowdfunded RE. An Interview With Physician on FIRE.
I’d much rather be hit by an e-bike. You may have read about my Electrified Fortified Commuting Machine. Our friends at Kiwi & Keweenaw have built something similar.
- The Hunt for an E-Bike
- How to Build an E-Bike and How Much it Costs
- Putting on the Batsuit: Riding the Bat-Mo-Bike
Bikes are ubiquitous on college campuses. The lawyer and dog walker Financial Panther lives near my alma mater. He recently explained Neighborhood Arbitrage — The Advantages of Living in a College Neighborhood. [besides cheap beer]
Plenty of people retire, some of them early, and live well on 4% or more of their nest eggs. But those who spread the FIRE are doing some sort of work to share the message. Perhaps it’s time to look at FIRE from a different perspective, especially for those of us who blog about it. Two timely articles with comments worth checking out:
- Financially Comfortable and Pivot | The Finance Buff
- What FIRE Bloggers Owe Readers // A Blogging Manifesto | Our Next Life
Healthcare coverage is a huge concern among the self-employed, newly retired, and aspiring retirees. Health sharing ministries are looking better and better with stable costs of about $500 a month for a family. Michael Kitces of Nerd’s Eye View commissions a thorough guest post discussing the four most popular plans. How Healthcare Sharing Programs Compare To Traditional Health Insurance.
I’m a firm believer that travel can enhance your life. But can travel save your life? From The Dragons on FIRE, Travel Saved My Life — My CML Diagnosis.
We’ll close with a couple of podcasts featuring physician friends of mine. Put them on your playlists.
- Physician Burnout with The Happy Philosopher – Podcast #46 | The White Coat Investor
- Friends Talk Finance: WCI Conference Recap and Life Update | Hippocratic Hustle
Student Loan Case Studies with DMFA
I am pleased to announce a partnership with Dr. David Anderson, a physician some of you may recognize from the WCI Forum as DMFA. If you’re curious, as I was, the M.F. stands for his two given middle names, the first of which happens to be the same as my only middle name.
I reached out to DMFA, a final-year pulmonology / critical care fellow, after seeing him selflessly offer thorough, sound financial advice on the forum (with over 1,500 posts to date) and on Facebook, where he’s now part of the rapidly growing Physicians on FIRE Facebook group.
I could see that he had expertise in optimal student loan management and also had a generous willingness to help others. Together, we are launching a case study series in which he will analyze a person’s student loan picture as part of their larger financial situation and make recommendations as to how he recommends you proceed.
Select case studies will be worked up and published as a post on the site and archived on the Student Loan Resource Page. Unfortunately, we will not be able to address all questionnaires, but we may be able to help you find someone who can. If we do select you for a case study, your personal details will remain private and you’ll have the opportunity to review the post before it is published.
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
75,000 point bonus after spending $4,000 in the first 3 mo.PoF Summary
2 points per dollar spent (2% cash back equivalent). Up to $300 credit each year for travel booked on Capital One Travel, 10,000 bonus miles each account anniversary ($100 value). Unlimited Priority Pass Lounge Access, $100 Global Entry or TSA Pre✓ credit. $395 fee can be more than offset with travel credit & annual point bonus
Have an outstanding week!
-Physician on FIRE
I keep hearing great things about health share ministries. I’m wondering if they are something I can share with my clients (65+) as an affordable option. I will be looking more into that, because who likes paying an arm and a leg for healthcare?
Great Sunday best as always PoF! We’ve been traveling for the last couple of weeks, so I need to get caught up on my blog reading! Thanks for compiling some great stuff all in one place!
Good round up PoF. That article on health share programs was interesting, as well as moderately infuriating. Reading through the comments people were talking about 20k/yr premiums with a 10k/yr deductible, and that’s just for in-network. I feel like I’m just shouting into a tornado sometimes but health care coverage/disasters are becoming increasingly difficult to hedge against for the early retiree. Has our health care system in this country really come down to this?
How do you model for potentially 30k+/yr in costs when you are living off of 40k? Maybe realize income in years when you are healthy and be prepared to live off savings and assets with low cap gains in years you are sick and get on medicaid? Maybe that is the next FIRE hack now that the ACA is dying – How to retire early and game the medicare system. Could you imagine the angry comments? 😉
One thing that puzzles me is why are these all religious based? You would imagine one could organize a health share around any philosophy or requirement (ie: BMI, gun ownership, political philosophy, etc.). It would be fascinating to see how the risk pool could be altered.
Enjoyed my first Hippocratic Hustle!
That opening jingle is so uplifting, am I right?
I just signed up for the case study – crossing my fingers lol!
I’m in the middle of paying off my loans, my timeline is 1.9 months and things are looking good to hit it!
In that case, I have a hunch you’ll do just fine on your own. But one more refinance can’t hurt, can it? 😉
I don’t read much news but I treat your Sunday Best like my newsfeed. Love it.
Thanks for the mention. I enjoy that you give readers more than straight finance.
I was just glad to hear you were alright! What more can you do? Look both ways, enter the crosswalk… I’m always extra cautious on my bike. People aren’t looking for them and often don’t see them.
Best,
-PoF
Thanks for helping motivate us to get the commuter e-bike and featuring us here! Now that the snow has melted near us we are in full agreement that commuting by e-bike is much better than by car. Soon you’ll be out on two wheels again too!
Can’t wait!
That case series sounds like it will be fantastic! Looking forward to that.
I’ve also been looking for some new podcasts. Hippocratic hustle has now made the list in my Stitcher app.
Now to go check out your other recommendations.
TPP
I enjoy the Hippocratic Hustle even though I’m not exactly the target audience, having man parts and all, but much of what is discussed can be applied to all physicians.
Cheers!
-PoF
Thanks for the shout out, Physician on Fire. We really appreciate it!
You got it. I enjoyed discovering your blog.
Cheers!
-PoF