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

“The health care system is broken. We don’t have to pretend anymore that it isn’t.” – Jennifer Lycette, MD, a physician who took a much-needed sabbatical. The Heart Has a Back Door, and Other Lessons I Learned When I Left Medicine For a Year.

Doc to Disco took a break from medicine in her late 40s, but she made it a permanent one. Her story and the trick she used to shave years off her working career in Why FIRE Was This Burned Out Doc’s Only Way Out.

Having a job and earning a wage is one great way to make money, but as The Frugal Expat points out, it’s not the only (or best) way. How Owning Assets is Better than a Job.

The wealth and wellness you experience depend upon more the money you make; your mindset is equally important. Why You Need to Ditch Your Scarcity Mindset to Enjoy an Abundant Life according to Our Life on FIRE.

That’s not to say money doesn’t play an important role, and doctors are notoriously bad at managing theirs. The Debt Free Dr. channels The Millionaire Next Door in 5 Reasons Why Doctors Aren’t A Prodigious Accumulator Of Wealth.

The Physician Philosopher looked at the same question with a different lens. The role of human behavior, radiologists’ competence, and the irrational choices we make in Why Aren’t More Doctors Wealthy?

What does it take to be wealthy? What’s considered rich? How do we define enough? Rinkydoo Finance helps us sort this out. How Much Money is Enough? 8 Questions to Consider.

If you have enough to satisfy the 4% rule (of thumb), is that enough. Some say a 5% withdrawal rate is safe; others say 3%. Amy C. Arnott, CFA of Morningstar has a request. Will the Real Retirement Income Number Please Stand Up?

A great way to ensure you have Enough is to continue working after becoming financially independent. How this doctor could eventually reach a nine-figure net worth. 4 Physicians 2021: Dr. A & the Impact of Working After FI.

When you see a number like that, it can be hard to imagine ever leaving a job. Money is not the only thing that keeps us engaged in paid work, though, says Passive Income MD. He discusses the dilemma in PIMD Podcast Episode #46: Why It’s So Hard to Give Up Work.

I don’t know if NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are the next big thing or digital beanie babies, but they seem pretty nifty (see what I did there)? Packy McCormick at Not Boring explores the world of crypto-things and the power they give to their creators. Power to the Person.

Short sellers took it in the shorts (see what I did there again?) in January, but they’re making out like bandits these last few weeks. Michael Dinich at Your Money Geek explains what it means to short a stock and how it can be effective. Shorting a Stock Explained.

When Warren Buffett speaks (or writes), you should listen. Linda from The Cents of Money has been analyzing his annual shareholders’ letter for decades, and she shares her take on the latest. Money Lessons From Warren Buffett’s 2021 Letter To Shareholders.

On The Road Again

I’ve gotta tell you; it feels good to travel again.

As many of you know, I joined Dr. Jim Dahle and his team in Salt Lake City as one of five in-person speakers at WCICON21 over the last few days. After about a year of mostly “hunkering down” and laying low, it was refreshing to get together with friends and see some new scenery. SLC has some great scenery!

I realize that this is not the time to let our guard down, and a number of precautions were in place, including 10-minute rapid COVID testing, even for people like Jim and me who have been twice-vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine.

The conference, despite the pandemic challenges, was really well-done. The setup was an impressive technological display that was essentially a full-fledged television studio. The virtual option will return next year for those who can’t make it to Phoenix for #WCICON22, but I really look forward to seeing hundreds of White Coat Investors there in person.

If you missed this one, the talks will be packaged into an online course in the coming weeks. It won’t have the live events and ongoing chats with the speakers, but it will still have a ton of valuable information and CME. I’ll let you know when that’s available.

I spend quite a bit of time in the studio this weekend, moderating one panel, serving as a panelist on two others, and taking in the excellent keynote speeches. I also managed to get out for some fresh mountain air. My Google Timeline tells me that my Saturday afternoon stroll around town added up to 9 miles. I needed the mileage to work off all that good food the WCI team hooked me up with all weekend long!

In two days, my family and I “hit the road” by boarding a plane bound for warm and sunny Florida. My wife and I have been vaccinated, and our kids won’t be eligible anytime soon, so we’ve decided to get out of Dodge.

We’ll be masking when indoors, physical distancing, hand sanitizing, and all of that. We know there are risks — more so for the kids — but I can’t imagine they’ll be at a higher risk traveling with us than the millions of kids in classrooms across the country.

Do what you can to keep safe and keep sane, and we’ll keep on doing the same!

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Free Education Sessions From a Real Estate Pro (and a Helluva Nice Guy)

Looking to get started with direct real estate investing? My friend Chad Carson has made a career out of real estate investing, helping him achieve financial independence in his 30s. He continues to teach others as it is a passion of his and it drives his charitable mission.

His signature course, Real Estate Start School, will be open for enrollment a week from today. Between now and then, he’s offering 3 no-cost workshops. Sign up today and attend any or all as your schedule allows.

• Tue 3/9 – Workshop #1 – How Real Estate Deal-Making Actually Works (8pm E / 5pm P)
• Thur 3/11 – Workshop #2 – The One Real Estate Skill Every Real Estate Investor Must Learn (8pm E / 5pm P)
• Mon 3/15 – Workshop #3 – The Baby Steps That Lead Directly to Your Next Investment Property (1pm E / 10am P & 8pm E / 5pm P)

The FIRE-Minded Approach to Life Insurance

Credit Cards for Free Travel & Cash Back

Can I Take A Mini Retirement as Physician?

Have an outstanding week!

-Physician on FIRE