Finance – Physician In Numbers

The Joy Of Giving

My sister-in-law–that is to say, Mr. PiN’s sister–had a big surprise in 2025, which I’d like to discuss while keeping things anonymous.

A long-time friend of hers passed away. That itself was sad, but not a big surprise, as her health had not been good for some time.

The friend had named my sister-in-law the executor of her will, which was a surprise, as she hadn’t really asked if my sister-in-law would agree to take on the job. However, that was not the big surprise either.

The big surprise is that this friend, despite (as far as I can tell, as I never met her) dressing cheaply, living cheaply, and spending very little, left a large estate. Very large.

My Thoughts On Our Spending In 2025

Every year around January 1, I calculate my (our) net worth and tot up my (our) spending. [I’ve been doing this for many years, since well before I met Mr. PiN, so I will revert to the singular going forward, mostly.]

I have written about this on the blog before, usually in January.

Once again, I spent some time around New Year’s Day going through accounts to calculate the household spending, and compare it to our net worth. And once again, as usually happens every year, I note changes that bear some consideration.

What did I notice this year?

A Look Back At 2025

We have just a few days until 2025 is over, and I figure it’s time to review 2025 and look ahead to 2026.

A carved angel, with a blue scarf flying up over her head. From a presepio. — I love these angels. I suppose we can call them angels of the past, present and future for this post.

Angel in a green dress with a red sash overhead — I love these angels. I suppose we can call them angels of the past, present and future for this post.

Cutting Costs To Travel More

About this time last year, I wrote about increasing our yearly budget for travel. We had taken a last-minute trip abroad after Mr. PiN’s father died, and I was looking at a vacation rental for a winter trip to warmer weather, but these were going to be much more expensive than our usual trips.

Since our finances seemed okay, this sounded like a good time to loosen the purse strings for something Mr. PiN and I both enjoy.

We decided to travel more, and with less concern for costs, in 2025.

This year saw us taking more trips than we have in some time: 3 vacations and 2 meetings together, 2 solo trips for me to see my mom, and 1 solo trip for Mr. PiN to visit an uncle. The vacations have been higher end than we have done before. It’s been fun.

Although I haven’t quite made myself add everything up (I will do that at the end of the month), I am pretty sure we have spent more in one year on travel than we ever have before.

I realize that travel after COVID is just more expensive. Also, inflation is a thing, and keeping our travel budget the same as in 2010 means we are effectively spending less. So it’s okay to spend more on travel. Nevertheless, I am thinking it’s time for me to review ways to spend less on travel for 2026. I already have 4 trips half-planned, and it would be nice to save a little money to splurge on 1 or 2 more.

I’ve written about saving money on travel before, but I think it would be good for me to go over some of those tips again.

Future Me, December 2025

I started this series early in my blog, when I cut my hours and wanted to make sure I used my time wisely. I started with lots of big goals, but I knew that I couldn’t follow all those dreams all at once.

I’m now trying to prepare for retirement in earnest. I’ve cut my hours even further, and finding purpose when I stop working seems more pressing.

Every few months, I try to look at what I have accomplished, and see if I can adjust course to focus my free time in the directions I wish I would go: increasing fitness, building (or maintaining) connections with friends, family and community, engaging with the arts, and, lately, keeping up with financial tasks.

My last update was in September 2025. This is a good time to review how well I have been pursuing those goals, especially given my additional time out of the office.

A Geyser Of Consumption

After a very busy period of work, I finally had a little time this weekend to catch up on the rest of my life.

Since it’s early December, and I’m not so good about unsubscribing to advertising emails from companies I like, I had many, many emails imploring me to save money by buying something.

And so, this weekend I did. I bought many somethings.

Are My Finances Being Sunk Now By Subscriptions?

On my last vacation, I started thinking about reviewing my subscriptions again. It feels like I did this recently, but a review of my blog shows that I last scrutinized my recurring charges–and wrote about it–in 2021.

Great minds think alike, and not long after I started considering this, Michelle at BoomerEcoCrusader wrote about it too.

Well! If ever there was a sign to get started, that was it.

New Retirement Account Decisions

In my mad dash to catch up on blog posts after my vacation, I read one post (not 100% sure where) about changes to retirement contributions, starting in 2026.

Apparently, it’s now time to deal with Secure 2.0, which requires that “catch-up contributions” for retirement made by high-earners be post-tax.

What does that mean for me?

Month 3 Of Spending More

I wrote in July about deciding to spend a bit more.

The rationale: if I have hit my FIRE number, but am still working, I can loosen the purse strings and maybe enjoy my money a bit more.

Then I spent a ton in July, and a good bit more in August.

The July spending took care of some overdue purchases (like a usable computer, and new carpeting), and some splurges (fancier plane tickets for an upcoming vacation). I felt pretty good about these purchases.

In August, our spending was mostly about traveling a little fancier, and I didn’t feel so comfortable with the cash outflow.

It seems learning to enjoy spending more, but not too much more, is something I need to work on.

So, how did September go in this regard?

Future Me, August 2025

I started this series early in my blog, when I cut my hours and wanted to make sure I used my time wisely.

I’m now looking down the slope to retirement. I might ski this hill for a bit (a bad metaphor, as I hate skiing), but I’ve cut my hours more, and finding purpose when I stop working seems more pressing.

I started this series of posts at the end of October 2018 with lots of big goals, but even at the beginning, knew that I couldn’t follow all those dreams all at once.

My last update was in May 2025. This is a good time to review how well I have been pursuing those goals, especially given my additional time out of the office.