Finance – Page 11 – Physician In Numbers

On Giving, 2020

I hope you all have had a good Thanksgiving, while, of course, staying safe and not-mixing germs (aka, not spreading COVID).

These days, the Thanksgiving season has been spreading, just like America’s waistline after the big meal. We have Turkey Day, then Black Friday, Cyber Monday…. and since 2012, Giving Tuesday.

This has been a difficult year for many (most? all?), but I was raised in a tradition of giving, where all except, perhaps, the very destitute are expected to give a hand to others. However, I understand that not everyone has that background.

I thought that today, the day before Giving Tuesday, might be a good time to review some thoughts on giving: why, when, and how to fund giving. As a bonus, I also decided to list the eight levels of charity, also called the Golden Ladder, which is a nice framework for thinking about how to give.

Monday Melange, Money Mentality

Some of personal finance is about numbers and strategies. Much of it, however, has to do with mindset. I read lots of articles about personal finance, and only remember to save some of them. I thought it was time (or past time) to share: here are a few that struck my fancy.

Mr. PiN Proposes A Spending Challenge

Work these days has been… difficult.

In addition to the usual increased workload when I am seeing hospital patients, we have the lovely development of dealing with more COVID, in patients and in staff. Meanwhile, administration is asking for more from us and offering less in return. What joy.

Mr. PiN, who would like me to join him in retirement, is supportive when I say things like: maybe it’s time to bug out. Except then I have to add that we aren’t ready financially.

Keeping The Personal In Personal Finance

Last week my mom was texting with me and with Mr. PiN. This was a bit of a first, as she much prefers talking on the phone.

Anyway, some of the discussion was about streaming services. We had just signed up for Acorn (7-day free trial, we will see if we keep it), because we were watching a series and impatiently waiting for the next DVD to be ready at the library. When we saw we could get the next episodes streamed to the home, we gave in. My mom texted: it’s a bargain. Just think about all the money you are saving not going to the movies or eating out.

When You Feel It’s Your Partner Who Is The Spender

When you start to notice that the extra money leftover from paying off the mortgage is disappearing every month, and your spouse’s credit card bills have gone up by several hundreds of dollars. Nothing suspicious, like Strippers R Us. Just Costco, Lowes, etc. Places they shop all the time, only the bills are going higher and higher, while you are trying to move towards FI/RE.

Do you:

A) Go ballistic and demand receipts from all shopping trips, going over each purchase line by line?

B) Melt down, asking if they want you to work forever while sobbing uncontrollably as you ponder another 20 years of taking call?

C) Try to schedule a calm, loving budgeting meeting over dinner? Which they have prepared with the food they purchased, in between fixing home maintenance problems you were too busy working to notice?

D) Say eff-it, if they are going to spend more and torpedo our plans to retire early, then I will stop curbing my purchases and buy whatever I want?

E) Realize you had a tough week at work, and tell yourself to chill out and ignore the household finances for at least a week or two?

Asking for a friend.

Monday Melange, Money Matters Math

I have been saving a number of blog posts that caught my eye, and I think it might be time to share them. Saving blog posts without sharing seems to me like saving yummy leftovers in the fridge but never eating them–the saved item loses much of its value.

I read lots of articles about personal finance, and only save some of them; mostly it depends on how organized I am when I read them. Here are a few of my favorites, though there were so many I will probably have another round up soon.

Forgotten Treasure

Mel at Broke Girl Rich wrote a few weeks ago about how Old Mel had set up New Mel pretty well, by putting money aside for future spending. The special part is that she had forgotten she had set this up until she recently needed the money.

I thought that I had a pretty good grip on all of my financials, and commented that really, I knew where all my money was, except for maybe a few bills stuck here and there.

It turned out the laugh’s on me. In the past month I ended up finding a lot of extra money.

On the whole, it’s nice to have some extra money show up (it’s certainly much better than getting surprise bills!), but a little embarrassing when you thought you had your life more organized.

Where was the money?

Monday Melange, Inspired By BLM

I have been saving a number of blog posts that caught my eye, and I think it might be time to share them. Saving without sharing seems to me to be losing some of their virtue–sort of like saving yummy leftovers in the fridge but never eating them.

The links below were inspired by the events of this summer as regards systemic racism. Most are focused on highlighting financial blogs and podcasts by Black content creators. One meant to straight up educate others on what systemic racism is for those who don’t suffer under it. One offers some inspiration on how FI can help make the world a better place for all.

Future Me, September 2020

I started this series of posts at the end of October 2018. I had just cut back my hours from full time to 90%, and wanted to use my new free time wisely. Some of that time was to relax, but I also wanted to improve my fitness, make my home a more pleasant place to stay, and work on becoming a more well-rounded human being.

My last update was in June of this year, with a number of wins, and several misses versus abandonment of goals (that darned pandemic!).

Here is my 3 month update. I have been giving myself plenty of slack, as between COVID and worrying about the other big C, my brain has been very busy this summer.

Monday Melange: Medicine

I have been saving links to posts by other people for over a year. Some of these posts just struck my fancy at the time, others I find myself thinking about for weeks or months afterwards. I would like to share them with others, rather than hoarding them on my list of saved posts. I hope some of them speak to you as well.

It’s almost September, and another year has started at the medical school. In honor of those eager, earnest students I see (and in memory of the eager, earnest student I once was), here are some articles I have saved about…Medicine. With some segues into health, finance, the business of medicine, and the meaning of life.