It is official. I have left my day job and have two months off before starting my next day job thanks to being financially secure. As many of you know, the Tubb’s Fire has led to many changes in my life over the past year. We had many decisions to make and now, 13 months out, are putting those plans into effect. The biggest of these decisions was to …
Being financially secure is different than being financially independent
I am the one obsessed about finances in our house. Updating our monthly net worth spreadsheet and ensuring we are not paying mindless monthly fees for things we don’t use (i.e., magazines, Netflix, etc.). I allocate our investment portfolios and ensure that we have paid into our IRAs and 529s annually. It is not that my wife is not interested, it is more that I am very interested.
So why would …
A physician’s financial advice to his widow
I recently posted a graph of my net worth since I started tracking it in 2014 on Twitter. Despite becoming an attending in 2012, I did not track my net worth early on. As you can see, it has been a slow and steady climb to a positive net worth. I posted this, and the White Coat Investor stated this is a good case to discuss one house, one …
One house, one spouse, one job. How did this physician do?
College
I went to a fairly expensive college, George Washington University. I think at the time (1998) it actually was one of the, if not the most expensive schools. Why did I decide to go there? Well, my brother was attending the school and living in Washington, DC seemed amazing to a suburban boy from Tennessee. Sure, I had gotten into University of Tennessee with a scholarship, but adventure won over …
Is private college and medical school worth it? One physician’s story.
We are now almost 2 1/2 years into this parenting thing. It is a pretty amazing thing, raising a toddler. There are a lot of awesome days, watching him learn and explore his surroundings. The sentences that are coming out of his mouth now are pretty wild. He is funny, has a good amount of potty humor, and is all around a cool kid (at least I think so).
That is …
What a toddler can teach physicians about the stock market
I walked in the other day, and my colleagues were shooting the breeze. They were both staring at the computer and were online looking at watches. Seemed harmless enough. So I sat down and asked them how much the watch cost?
They said $7,000! I almost spit out my coffee. $7K! Seven grand! That’s an expensive watch. That’s how much my 2011 Nissan Altima is worth.
“That much for a watch?” I asked. …
How much will an expensive watch really cost you in the future?
Yup, I won the lottery! $785 million dollars. Pinch me because I must be dreaming. I am a physician finance blogger; I would not recommend buying a lottery ticket. But I did. So screw all the people who said it was a waste of $2.
So here I am, the big time winner: What to do now? Well, that is what this post is about.
(In reality, I did not win the …
What would you do if you won the lottery? Here’s one physician’s plan.
Being in a high income, high-risk field I often think of asset protection. The lawsuit may not come from medical work, but from an auto accident or someone slipping on my front step. All of these can lead to suits, and as a high-income earner, we all have a target on our back. The last thing I want to do is work hard to save money to then have it …
Physician asset protection: Is it a good idea to pay down debts?
Congratulations!
After months of planning, you are now a proud parent. Starting today the rest of your life will change. No longer will you worry about getting reservations at the “in” restaurant. … or any restaurant. Nope. You won’t have time. Nor will you have energy. Both will get zapped, and that is okay.
Instead, you will be figuring out breastfeeding, bottle feeding, sleep schedules, diaper changes, educational and interesting toys for …
Doctor, you’re now a parent. It’s time to get your financial plan in order.
There is a lot of talk on the web about having an emergency fund. Typically this is three to six months of expenses. Some would argue to keep three to six times bare bones expenses, and others would argue to keep three to six times the average amount you spend on expenses. Having an emergency fund makes sense to cover life’s unexpected occurrences. What could these be? Well, the biggest …
Do doctors need an emergency fund?
This is a tough post to write. I struggle with this issue daily. Is it OK for a physician to retire early? The obvious answer is: yes. Each individual should live their life as they see fit. But with a continued shortage of physicians (granted this is more in rural areas and not big metropolitan cities), and the time, money and resources required for training physicians, is it selfish to …
Is it OK for a physician to retire early?
I feel privileged to be practicing medicine. Many people consider doctor careers and imagine how great it may be. Is it the right thing for you? Yes there are days of frustration, exhaustion, and utter defeat, but at the end of the day I home and know that I helped at least one person if not two from the 16 I meet.
The fact that I alleviated one individual’s anxiety or …
10 reasons why being a doctor is a privilege
Throughout training, I had an idea. And that idea was — I would be a great academic physician. I had the right training. I had done research from college through fellowship. I had received research grants from medical school through fellowship, published numerous papers and started defining a niche. Everything was going great.
Academia — here I come!
Then attending-hood arrived. I looked for positions in academic centers. I was limited by …
Better care: Private practice or academic center?
My cousin visited me in sunny Cali this past weekend. She lives a life that many in the medical community can appreciate: a stable and successful job for many years, but burnt out. She then decided to take six months to work on her writing and try establishing herself through various pursuits. While successful in some ways, she decided she needed a more stable position. So she found a job, …
4 ways to take a break from your career
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