Author: IM-PCP

This July I took a lovely vacation, longer than I have had off in a while. I visited family, and saw new places, and actually relaxed for a few days. I would love to do that more often.

On my return, I was soon working in the hospital with July interns. It was intense–both good and not so good–but exhausting. Everything that was not medicine went by the wayside: exercise, reading new books, watching suspenseful miniseries (I can’t wait to get back to The Night Manager).

Both experiences have left me wondering where my finances are vis a vis readiness for retirement.

I was thinking about this last summer also, and I think it is time to revisit that question: are we there yet? With the corollary: how can I figure out where the finish line is?

Join me as I walk through my rough calculations and figure out what I am still missing.

I frequently refer to my “secret” savings account, but realize I haven’t really written about it explicitly. Since I consider it one of my key tools to managing my finances over the past 10-12 years, I think it is time to review how it works and how important it has been.

Just to be clear, I am not advocating hiding money from your spouse; that is not cool in the least.

Instead this is an extra account to “hide” money from myself–which is sort of silly, because for sure I know I where these savings are. But the account is in a separate institution from my checking account, and it’s difficult to check the balance, so I don’t think about it very often. This means money accumulates without any effort on my part, growing steadily month by month.

Today I will finally describe all the ways this account has helped me since I started my “grown up” job, and encourage you to try this as well. Especially those of you just starting in a new position this summer, with a new (hopefully bigger) salary.