February 2019 – Physician In Numbers

Women in Medicine and Personal Finance

I recently found some papers related to my time with AMWA (the American Medical Women’s Association), and was reminded of an experience I had in medical school.

Both my undergraduate college and medical school were rather late to admit women. Women were still in the minority at both schools when I enrolled, which left me with an interest in Women in Medicine while a student.

I attended pretty much every meeting for female medical students while in school. In my senior year, I remember a comment an older (faculty) doctor made, something along the lines of “here you are again.” The implication (at least what I heard) was “it’s much better now, why do you keep coming to these talks?”

Retrospective Budgeting: the 10% Rule

One of my big financial regrets is not having had a good plan for my money when I started my first attending job. My salary increased by about 150%, and I wanted to be sure I made the most of it. Finding the right balance of saving and splurging (or taking care of things I had put off for years because of I couldn’t afford it), was pretty stressful for me.

At the time, personal finance blogs, let alone physician personal finance blogs, weren’t nearly as easy to find as they are now.

I thought it might be interesting to apply a few of the doctor blogger financial rules of thumb to my first attending year, and see how I did. Since I did not have as much student debt as seems to be typical these days, I also will see how these numbers might look for a PCP just starting out with 6-figure student debt.

Fitness Log #20

One of the favorite things I have heard from a patient is: you’re a doctor, you don’t have to worry about blood pressure. Implying, of course, that doctor’s don’t struggle with their health.

I most certainly do struggle with fitness and health, like many other Americans with sedentary jobs and a proclivity to eat treats. One of my goals is to make sure that I get my 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise (or 75 minutes of high intensity exercise, which probably won’t happen). I was doing well enough that I added a second goal of 60 minutes of strength training a week; I’m still working my way up to that part of the goal.

Retrospective Budgeting: Live Like a Resident

At the time, personal finance blogs, let alone physician personal finance blogs, weren’t nearly as easy to find as they are now.

Fitness Log #19

One of the favorite things I have heard from a patient is: you’re a doctor, you don’t have to worry about blood pressure. Implying, of course, that doctor’s don’t struggle with their health.

I most certainly do struggle with fitness and health, like many other Americans with sedentary jobs and a proclivity to eat treats. One of my goals is to make sure that I get my 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise (or 75 minutes of high intensity exercise, which probably won’t happen). I will see for how long I am willing to document my progress Saturday to Friday.

Future Me, the February Follow Up

At the end of October 2018, I wrote about 10 Steps to Future Me. I was a bit worried that I would be cutting back on work and frittering that extra time away. Those 10 steps were meant to move towards my idea of how I wanted to improve myself and/or find new activities to give my life some purpose and form once I am no longer working full time. I thought it might be time to review them, see what progress I had made, and think about how I might move forward on some of those 10 steps.

To be brief, there were 10 items to work on over time, but I really only planned to address 4 or 5 of them over the short term. What have I gotten done in the past 3 to 4 months?

Technical Difficulties

Apparently, updating my computer meant I wasn’t able to get online for some time. Which meant I didn’t finish the post for today.

Wednesday’s post should appear on time.

Fitness Log #18

One of the favorite things I have heard from a patient is: you’re a doctor, you don’t have to worry about blood pressure. Implying, of course, that doctor’s don’t struggle with their health.

I most certainly do struggle with fitness and health, like many other Americans with sedentary jobs and a proclivity to eat treats. One of my goals is to make sure that I get my 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise (or 75 minutes of high intensity exercise, which probably won’t happen). I will see for how long I am willing to document my progress Saturday to Friday.

This week, I think it is time to increase my exercise goals. I haven’t been truly working on building strength, and I am starting to feel it. The current guidelines advise working your muscles twice a week–I’d like to have a goal of 60 minutes a week, in addition to my 150 minutes of moderate exercise. It may take me a few weeks to reach that goal, but I’m hoping that by spring I’ll be hitting it most weeks.

Beware the Anahafta

I recently had the pleasure of a “day off.” I use the quotation marks, because I was still covering issues at the office by phone.

After a relaxing breakfast, I was attacked by the dangerous, slithering Anahafta, which tried to choke some of the happiness out of my day.

I suspect that you, too, have had to deal with this untamable beast, though perhaps you know it by a different name.

Retrospective Budgeting: the Live on Half Challenge.

At the time, personal finance blogs, let alone physician personal finance blogs, weren’t nearly as easy to find as they are now.

I thought it might be interesting to apply a few of the doctor blogger financial rules of thumb to my first attending year, and see how I did. Since I did not have as much student debt as seems to be typical these days, I also will see how these numbers might look a PCP just starting out with 6-figure student debt.