Posts on Fire, and FIRE, July 2022

I’m a bit behind in my blog perusal this summer–I still have numerous tabs open, waiting to be read–but here are some of my favorites so far. I hope some will spark your interest (pun intended).

I’m pursuing FIRE, but not this type of fire. Jesse Cramer at Best Interest notes a cautionary tale: My Parents’ Neighbors’ House Caught Fire. He offers some great safety reminders.

Fire extinguishers won’t protect you when your portfolio goes up in flames. Read on for wisdom from Bitches Get Riches in Wait..Did I Just Lose All My Money Investing In The Stock Market?

A naval battle with many fires and explosions
A visual representation of my portfolio this year.

I have been thinking a lot about the market drop, and what that means for my plans to retire. Mrs. Flamingo writes about the yes/no aspect of this thought process in The FIRE Community’s Greatest Flaw.

This article by Dr. Dana Sears (by way of KevinMD) made my head explode and burst into flames. Her post Why Are Women Leaving Medicine? had me nodding, and shouting yes! I don’t do scopes, but taking care of anxious patients (more often women) who need more than 15 minutes to address their multiple issues, means I am not seeing as many patients in a day. I cannot be as productive as someone seeing 32 patients a day and pushing them off to specialists to manage their anxiety and somatic complaints. A push to do more, see more patients, can only make me happier that I am on the path to FI, if not FIRE.

Part of the joy of reading blogs is seeing what other people are doing in their lives. (Yes, I’m nosy. I think of it as an occupational hazard.) I was excited to see a few updates recently.

Maggie at Northern Expediture posted her Q2 2022 Plan Update. I was glad to see a new post.

Mel at Broke Girl Rich wrote about Some Financial Things Learned Upon Moving to England; it sounds like moving there is quite a bit more complicated than a 7 day holiday. More recently, she has had to deal with a system of keeping the lights on which is very different from what we have in the USA. I enjoyed the account of her Extremely Privileged Problem of the Electricity Key.

One Frugal Girl returned after time away with a shorter post. She really lays out one of the most important benefits of financial independence: taking care of the important things in life. Her post Time and Money: Money Bought Me Time was a good reminder.

Do you have any favorite posts from this summer so far? Feel free to share below!