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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!
“Follow your passions, do something you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life,” said some idealistic nincompoop not named Piggy or Kitty. Bitches Get Riches request that you Don’t Turn Your Passions Into Work.
Joel at Budgets are Sexy has lost his passion for managing tenants and being a landlord. Selling our rental properties… 2 down, 2 to go!
He’s not the only one who has sold 2 homes this year. I sold 2 by owner in 2021 and 4 in the last decade this way. My tips for saving tens of thousands of dollars in Selling a Home By Owner is Easier Than You Think.
It’s especially easy in this seller’s market. J.D. Roth from Get Rich Slowly is on the other side, though, and it’s tough. We offered to buy a home for $128,000 over list — but it wasn’t enough!
Joel is moving from active real estate to passive real estate investments. Cadre looks at the impact of inflation on such investments. Rising Inflation and the Protective Potential of Real Estate.
- See also: The Challenge of Market Selection – and Cadre’s Approach on how they evaluate 3 million data points across over 40,000 investment factors.
What type of inflation are we experiencing? Barry Ritholtz with The Big Picture looks at 3 possibilities. Inflation: Long-Term, Transitory or Reset?
Dying with zero doesn’t leave enough of a cushion for me, but I agree with much of this book’s message. Passive Income MD shares his perspectives in Die with Zero by Bill Perkins – Book Review.
Most physicians start with much less than zero, thanks to the high cost of a medical school education. Where can you find tuition that won’t break the bank? The 25 Most Affordable Medical Schools in the United States.
What about affordable transportation? The Physician Philosopher‘s got you covered with his comprehensive Best Time to Buy a Car & 8 Other Steps to Get the Best Deal.
With the Delta variant taking hold, it may be best to hold off for a while, but the Physician in Numbers discusses plans for her First Vacation After COVID: Making Travel More Affordable.
The best way to make travel more affordable is to rack up some reward points with normal spending. The Dragons on FIRE have racked up tens of thousands of dollars’ worth. Travel Points — Our Other Early Retirement Currency.
- Related: Find Your Next Ideal Credit Card
Late October may be a good time to travel, and that’s when the Tired Superheroine, interventional radiologist Dr. Barbara Hamilton, is hosting a retreat for women physicians in male-dominated fields at a boutique hotel in Palm Springs, CA. More info on the CME Retreat for Women Physicians.
Most people who discover FIRE go through an evolution, and the couple behind Tic Toc Life is pretty far along. Your Start to Financial Freedom (From Scarcity to Abundance).
Deja Vu All Over Again
When we planned this ill-fated trip to Florida, I was cautiously optimistic that COVID would be tamed, and that things would be returning closer to normal by the week. Boy, did I get that wrong.
Before I get into everything else that went wrong, I will say that we had some fun times together as a family, visited beaches on both coasts, and learned a lot about the past and future of space travel. I also got to enjoy some tasty beverages at a Space Coast Brewery.
The weather wasn’t great, but I knew what I was getting into. Of course, the weather was perfect at 2:53 pm, the scheduled time of the launch of a Saturn V rocket topped with a Boeing CST-100 Starliner space capsule for which we had tickets to view from the Kennedy Space Center.
We had thunderstorms all week long at that particular time of day, but on Friday, it was nothing but blue skies and a few fluffy clouds. Perfect launch weather. No matter. A Russian craft misfired its thrusters after docking at the International Space Station a day earlier, throwing the ISS out of orbit enough to cause a delay in the launch we were supposed to see in person.
What else went wrong on our trip?
Many months ago, we scheduled a cruise, knowing that it was unlikely. It obviously didn’t happen.
We started our trip in St. Petersburg. On day one, we played at the beach and in the ocean but there were a few dead fish floating around here and there. On day two, the air was making us cough and dead fish were piling up on the shore. The red tide had come in.
Our kids’ week at Camp Kennedy Space Center was cut short after three days when a staffer from the prior week tested positive for COVID.
Also, our travel companions who planned to join us for Camp Kennedy didn’t make it due to a URI making it way through their household. We did get to see them briefly at Universal Orlando, at least. Three days after, I came down with URI symptoms myself. We all tested negative for COVID, thankfully.
Yes, it was an ill-fated trip, my family is 75% vaccinated — we impatiently wait for the go-ahead for our soon-to-be-11-year old to get vaccinated. Until that can happen, it’s tough to get excited about travel. We look forward to being home for August.
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Get Upside
With inflation impacting the cost of petrol at the pump, it’s tough to find an upside, but I have recently discovered a new way to save a bit on gas.
The GetUpside app is pretty straightforward. It shows you the price of gasoline at various gas stations on a map, and they’ve negotiated discounts for app users. First time users can save an additional 20 cents per gallon on their first fill-up with code AFF20.
I’ve used it on my recent road trip to Asheville and Chicago, and we’ve used it again in Florida. Everywhere we’ve gone, the gas stations around us had discounts via the app.
GasBuddy works similarly, but I’ve found GetUpside to be more user-friendly, with prices and discounts showing up directly on the map.
To save money on gas, try out Get Upside. Use promo code AFF20 for 20 cents off your first fill.
A Recommended Insurance Agent
Dr Disability Quotes
DrDisabilityQuotes.com Bob Bhayani, MBA is managing partner for a truly independent provider of disability insurance planning solutions to the medical community nationwide. Bob lectures at hospitals and faculties regarding creation of income protection and risk management solutions.
Bob specializes in working with residents and fellows to set up sound financial and insurance strategies. Bob leverages his decades worth of relationships with top insurance companies to deliver discounts to all eligible applicants.
DrDisabilityQuotes.com is an interactive website where physicians are able to gain a wealth of knowledge regarding disability insurance and run instant life insurance comparison quotes from various companies.
Dr Disability Quotes Vetting Application
Have an outstanding week!
-Physician on FIRE
2 thoughts on “The Sunday Best (8/1/2021)”
Thank you for the inclusion this week. Always appreciate a shout out!
Thanks for the mention!
Sorry to hear your vacation wasn’t all you had hoped for.