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!
Lots of people have interviewed me. It’s my turn to interview you. Announcing three written interview series that will feature readers on the regular. Interviewees Needed: the FIRE Starter, FIRE Crossroads, and Post-FI Interview Series. That could be you!
FIRE comes in many flavors, and that’s a good thing according to Money Flamingo. Why We Need Different Types of Financial Independence.
When investing with “play money,” which can be 5% to 10% of your pre-FI portfolio or any amount above your FI number when post-FI, it’s OK to swing and miss when batting for home runs. Mr. Tako Escapes swings for the fences in The Epic Quest For Multi-Baggers.
The startup world offers grand slam opportunities among the strikeouts, and it can be exciting to be part of something new. Chuck Pettid with Republic.co discusses the stages of funding for new and growing businesses. Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, B, C: How Startup Fundraising Works.
How does inflation work? And how can our investments protect us? The Banker on Wheels weighs in on this timely topic. How to Protect Against Inflation.
Speaking of inflation, the White Coat Investor has announced WCICON22 in sunny Arizona this February. It’s the biggest one yet, the most expensive, and the first dual-mode Physician Wellness and Financial Literacy Conference yet with in-person and virtual options. Read more in the WCICON22 Announcement!
Practicing medicine got to be more expensive after Investing Doc‘s most recent hire. Don’t make the mistakes he made in the Employment Contract That Lost Me A Hundred Grand.
Losing $100,000 is taking a step away from financial independence. Step into it. 5 Ways to Get Started on Your Financial Independence Journey if you haven’t already.
Maxing out retirement accounts is one step. The Physician Philosopher and Ryan Inman pair up to discuss retirement accounts for the self-employed. MMM 86: Solo 401Ks and Saving Taxes on 1099 Income.
Have millennials gotten the shaft? How has Generation X fared as compared to the Baby Boomers? Sorry, Gen Z, you’re relegated to the kids’ table in this conversation, but you’ll have your time to shine. The Economist Writing Every Day digs into the data. Who is the Wealthiest Generation?
If you want to be among the wealthiest, do what they do. A mere millionaire can emulate the same strategies they use to reduce taxation. The Financial Samurai recommends that you Never Sell Assets And Pay Less In Taxes Like Billionaires.
Yes, the rich borrow money. For many, leverage played a major role in obtaining their wealth. Personally, I rather like being debt-free, but that’s just me. Jonathan with Parent Portfolio explores investing with OPM (other people’s money). 4 “No Money” Ways to Invest In Real Estate.
A sensible loan-to-value ratio will decrease your likelihood of being wiped out. Passive Income MD offers up 9 other factors to get real estate investing right. How to Increase Your Chances of Success in Real Estate Investing.
Leif from Five Year Fire Escape will tell you that his FIRE strategy is tightly revolved around real estate. His guide on getting started: How to Get Into Real Estate – Your Guide from a Veteran Investor.
Upcoming Webinars
Market Outlook and Real Estate Investing
Hosted by Sovereign Properties
Gain insights from Sovereign Properties’ CEO Russ Krivor on capitalizing in today’s market. Discover our fund’s strategy for investing in discounted land near thriving Sunbelt cities and the latest trends in multifamily and active adult living. What You’ll Learn: • Market insights for multifamily and senior living • Strategic land acquisition in growth areas • Sovereign’s innovative active adult community model
When: November 13 | 8 am PT | 11 am ET
Physicians and pharmacists, Register with Incrowd for the opportunity to earn easy money with quick "microsurveys" tailored to your specialty.
Getting Into Real Estate
Why do I feature real estate as much as I do here? There are three primary reasons.
First, the asset class has played a key role in many of my FIREd friends’ early retirement plans. It’s also something I’ve gotten into more, particularly after reaching FI.
Second, there’s only so much one can write about VTSAX or the three fund portfolio. I do talk about them a lot, and they make up the bulk of my investment portfolio, but there’s not much more to say that hasn’t been published here or in books.
Third, real estate pays. I’ve promoted Vanguard hundreds of times in recent years and I have yet to earn a dime from them. Conversely, I do receive advertising and/or referral fees from many of these real estate investing platforms and courses.
I do invest a good amount of my own money in most of the companies featured, and I see rave reviews of the courses below which are put together by people I know and respect. Still, I’m not going to pretend that I’d feature them as prominently as I do if there were no money to be made. We have a charitable mission here, after all. No margin, no mission, as Dr. Dahle likes to say.
Coach Carson’s Real Estate Deal School
With that lengthy disclaimer, I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you that today is the final day you’ll be able to enroll in Real Estate Deal School in 2021. The course is updated and offered twice per year.
“Coach” Chad Carson has been investing in residential real estate for about 20 years since graduating from Clemson. It’s the only real job he’s had, and he knows this stuff extremely well, having been on the buying side before and after the Great Recession. He’s also a humble and effective educator, and I’m honored to call him a friend.
“First, from like a psychological perspective, I liked how right from the start Chad was like ‘don’t worry about being perfect, just pick a number, pick a day, and just do it. That really set the tone for the entire course. A lot of what’s stopping me – and I’m sure a lot of people – is the need to be perfect. It cripples you and paralyzes you.
And then I really liked figuring out my why – I want to have income flowing while I’m traveling and just enjoying myself. It’s my big why.” -Michael Nguyen
When you enroll, you get access to all of the current and future modules in the course, a half-dozen other “grad level” real estate courses he’s created (a cost of ~ $700 if purchased separately), 10 weeks of group coaching calls, and an online community of current and former students, many of whom are growing the number of doors producing income for them.
He also throws in one physical workbook and a copy of J Scott’s The Book on Estimating Remodel Costs. Enroll and keep learning beyond the 30-day money-back guarantee period and I’ll throw in a couple of more books including Chad Carson’s Retire Early With Real Estate and any other real estate book with a value of up to $25 of your choosing.
Check Out Real Estate Deal School
SemiRetired MD’s Zero to Freedom Through Cashflowing Rentals
This premium 7-week course from Drs. Leti Alto and Kenji Asakura isn’t available today, but it will be tomorrow! Join the waitlist and be the first to know about bonuses for new students.
Hundreds of physicians have come out of this incubator program ready to purchase their first investment property; some make that move by the time the course is over.
With a focus on tax-free cashflow, the course creators have replaced their clinical income with investment income in five short years. You’ll learn how they still pay no income taxes by clever use of real estate professional status.
Waitlist members will also be invited to join a pop-up Facebook group with other like-minded individuals. I’ll make the same offer I made above of tossing in two additional paperbacks to help you on your real estate investing journey if you choose to enroll and keep the course.
Join the Zero to Freedom Waitlist
Still COVID Negative!
At this point, to be 0 for 4 in getting COVID in our household feels like something of an accomplishment.
After a bit of traveling that included my wife taking my older son to New York City for 4 days to celebrate his birthday and me going to two B1G Ten football games, we went ahead and took advantage of a free local drive-through testing station this week.
This is one test where a negative outcome is a positive thing, and I’m happy to report that’s what we got. Now, if we can just get more kids vaccinated, we might be open to some more regular family travel for the four of us. Still waiting to hear when a booster might be an option for us, as well.
Until then, we’ll continue to have fun locally. Props to our local Austin Brother Beer Company for an excellent 6th Anniversary party on the patio yesterday. The Austin-tatious 15-pack variety pack with 5 different punch-packing imperial beers is a concept I hope they keep!
Have an outstanding week!
Upcoming Webinars
Market Outlook and Real Estate Investing
Hosted by Sovereign Properties
Gain insights from Sovereign Properties’ CEO Russ Krivor on capitalizing in today’s market. Discover our fund’s strategy for investing in discounted land near thriving Sunbelt cities and the latest trends in multifamily and active adult living. What You’ll Learn: • Market insights for multifamily and senior living • Strategic land acquisition in growth areas • Sovereign’s innovative active adult community model
When: November 13 | 8 am PT | 11 am ET
-Physician on FIRE
3 thoughts on “The Sunday Best (9/19/2021)”
Thanks very much for the feature in your Sunday Best post PoF! It’s a total honor to be included along with such great writers.
I don’t know if I’m “swinging for the fences” like you mentioned in this post, but I do my level-best to learn how to be a good investor. That includes reading a ton of books like Chris Mayer’s “100 Baggers” book, and understanding why compounding happens in the stock market.
At any rate, thanks for the mention! 🙂
I hear you. I did read the post, and I’ve also learned that readers are less likely to click on what might sound like a book review, so I’ve learned not to advertise posts as such.
Cheers! And may a 100-bagger be in your future,
-PoF