The Sunday Best (7/1/2018)

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:

 

This post has a built-in FIRE calculator with a graph that changes with the inputs. From Engaging Data, Will Your Money Last If You Retire Early? Visualizing Longevity Risk.

 

And this one’s got a clickbait title if I’ve ever seen one, but it’s full of intriguing and true tidbits from someone who’s studied safe withdrawal rates as thoroughly as anyone. From Big ERN, Ph.D. at Early Retirement Now, Ten Things the “Makers” of the 4% Rule Don’t Want You to Know.

 

Side Hustle Scrubs discusses the various sizes of FIRE and introduces the BMI (Banked Money Index) in a fun post discussing withdrawal rates and more in My Morbidly Obese FIRE.

 

Mr. Crazy Kicks FIREd a couple years ago, and he’s made as much from his blog this year as most physicians make in a workday, so you don’t call the internet retirement police! Reflecting on Two Years of Early Retirement.

 

EJ at Dads Dollars and Debts talks about life after a different kind of FIRE. He discusses the options of rebuilding on site, rebuilding elsewhere, or taking the money and runnin’. Find out what they chose to do after the Tubbs fire in Options for Living After a Fire.

 

Why would any physician want to pursue FIRE (the freedom kind, not the kind that burns)? Smart Money MD asks and answers, Why Do Young Doctors Hate Medicine So Much?

 

Is it the pay? No, we’re paid awfully well, as the Wall Street Physician points out in How Much Do Doctors Make? Takeaways from Doximity’s First Annual Physician Compensation Report.

 

Plus, we have great job security, right Passive Income MD? “Not so fast,” he says. Job Security in Medicine is a Myth.

Perhaps some of these burned out, well-paid, angry doctors would benefit from a break. The Locums Life highlights the benefits of a career break in Physician Burnout and the Locum Tenens Sabbatical.

 

The Fiology page has really taken off, with more than 25 lessons full of links and resources to help you understand all that is FI. A couple of them resonated with me (and happened to include me — a great way to be featured here, by the way):

•  Lesson 20: Geoarbitrage: Moving Closer to FI [cue the music: “the closer I am to fiiii-hiiii, yeah… credit to Ruth Berman who sang this at Camp FI]
• Lesson 23: Should You Pay Off Your Mortgage? [my vote is for Yes]

 

ESI Money has learned a few things from a bunch of fellow millionaires, some of whom are retired, and some that are not. Here’s five more of them.

• Millionaire Interview #61
• Millionaire Interview #62
• Millionaire Interview #63
• Millionaire Interview #64
• Millionaire Interview #65

 

Happy Doctor New Year!

 

Sixteen years ago today, I was a brand new intern. I had moved into resident housing, passed my first of many ACLS courses, and was both excited and anxious to start my medical career in a transitional year program with an M.D. behind my name.

Fifteen years ago today, I was a brand new anesthesia resident. I had moved into my swanky downtown condo, survived a broken down U-Haul incident in western Kentucky, and was excited and anxious to spend some time paired up with a senior resident behind the blue curtain, working the dials of the anesthesia machine.

Today, as a part-timer on another extended vacation, I welcome the new interns and residents, who will be working way more than full-time, and congratulate all of the just-graduated residents and fellows who will be embarking on their careers in the coming weeks. Congratulations to each and every one of you for reaching this stage in your career.

I’ve got a couple of gifts for you to help you with your financial literacy education.

First, a free book to help you understand and manage your medical school debt. This comes from Dr. Ben White, and he’s offering his student loan e-books for free through the end of the month. These normally sell for $10 apiece, and you can have them in exchange for your e-mail address.

Second, The White Coat Investor has knocked $75 off the price of his signature course, Fire Your Financial Advisor. This represents the third different use of the word “fire” in this post, but this time we’re talking about learning everything you need to know to make your financial advisor an unnecessary redundancy.

 

Discount Code: INDEPENDENCE

 

This code gets you 15% off, and the offer expires at the end of next weekend. Based on the testimonials and how few past students of the course have requested their money back, it’s clear people are finding good value with this purchase. If you disagree, take advantage of the 7-day money back guarantee.

 

 

Going Back to Full-Time Work

 

I’ve been touting the benefits of part-time since before I started my part-time schedule nine months ago. It’s been great and I highly recommend it.

That being said, I’m going back to full-time work.

What?!?

Yes, it’s true, but it’s only temporary. One of my five partners received his marching orders for a four-month military commitment overseas. Amongst ourselves, we devised a plan to cover the schedule in his absence without bringing in and training locums coverage.

This is a voluntary change that will take place over the winter. When spring arrives, I’ll return to my usual 7 days on, 3 weeks off type of schedule until my replacement arrives after his residency graduation a year from now.

When I am working full-time, I’ll be working 60% to 70% more than I’ve gotten used to, which equates to a couple extra 24-hour hospital shifts and a few more days at the surgery center each month. It’s still a very manageable schedule, especially when compared to the schedules I kept 15 and 16 years ago.

 

Subscribe and receive my quarterly newsletter tomorrow!

 

I’ll be putting together my quarterly newsletter which details my online revenue, blog stats and more. Find out how I’ve already exceeded last year’s revenue and am on pace for a six-figure profit in 2018. My revenue reports are reserved exclusively for those who subscribe to the site. If you don’t like multiple e-mails a week, I also offer a weekly digest.

 

 

Have an exciting week!

-Physician on FIRE