Finance – Page 12 – Physician In Numbers

How To Retire Earlier

When I worked through my retirement numbers earlier this month, I was pretty excited to see how things worked out as far as retiring before age 65. I thought that 5 years from now, I might not have quite enough money, but should be in a position to start making firmer plans. I.e. retirement would be affordable just a few years after that.

After a few days, though, I realized that I would like the freedom to leave work sooner. Working another 5 years and then recalculating how much more I’d need to save–this started to sound like an interminable process.

Surely, I thought, I can make things go faster.

How Much Finances Can Improve In 5 Years

I wrote this on Mother’s Day, or, in my household, Step-Mother’s Day. My husband was kind enough to give me a card, and we spent a little time reminiscing, especially about the 5 years since our son graduated from college. Talking about his life doesn’t seem appropriate for this blog; but looking back to his graduation, we were amazed at how much more stressful our finances were then, compared with the life we have arranged for ourselves now.

Are We There Yet?

I stayed home from work for nearly a month this summer. It took a while to adjust to the slower pace, to find meaning and accomplishment in my day, but I did. I very much enjoyed waking up without an alarm, spending time with my husband, and getting chores done around the house. On the eve of returning to my regular, full-time work week, I found myself asking: can I retire yet?

One Year Without Mortgage Payments

In some ways I can’t quite believe it has been a year since I paid off the mortgage. Something that was the focus of so much of my attention, scheming, and calculating, is now just history.

On the other hand, the downstream consequences of paying off the mortgage kept showing up months after the actual event.

I thought it might be worthwhile to go over the past year without mortgage payments, and review the different ways my life has changed because of it. I break this down into three different categories: new bills from the loss of the escrow account, increased cash flow without the monthly mortgage payments, and changes in attitude.

In case anyone reading plans to pay off their mortgage soon, I have a few recommendations at the end.

Monday Melange: Travel Points

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.

I love, love, love stories about travel hacking. Not the low stakes stories of: I had to rush home for an emergency and saved a few hundred dollars on a last minute ticket using miles. No, I like the big shebang: look at this crazy thing I did for free (or nearly free).

What Are My Best Uses Of Credit Card Rewards?

At the beginning of the year, I was really thinking about how to get more from my credit cards. I opened up a card or two, worked to get the welcome bonus, and was plotting how best to use credit card bonuses to reduce the cost of our multiple planned trips in the coming year.

I have some large medical bills coming up, the question becomes a little more pressing. If I have to pay out lots on money on my credit card(s), I would like to get the most out of it that I can.

Future Me, June 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 March of this year, with a few wins, and a bunch of misses. I set new goals, based on my predictions of what life might look like with a pandemic sweeping through.

I had planned to follow up at the end of May. I’m a little late, but rounding things up after 13 weeks of dealing with COVID-19.

What Should You Budget For Intern Year?

It’s June! Many medical students have graduated already, and the rest will be getting their diplomas very soon. Possibly via Zoom this year. What this means is that for the vast majority of new MDs, internship year will start in the next 30 days.

If you are one of those lucky new doctors, you have a lot on your plate: licensure, ACLS, orientation, possibly moving to a new town. Figuring out a reasonable budget should also be on your list of to-dos.

If you are a traditional student who went straight through high school, college, and medical school, this may be the first time you have earned a decent salary that you had to live on.

Though many people pay attention to the big jump in salary that comes with the end of residency and the start of the attending paycheck, you are also enjoying a huge income increase this summer. You are going from no income, or negative income (borrowed money), to a positive income. How you handle this change in fortune can lay the foundation for a financially successful future, or make your finances more difficult once you finally reach the attending stage.

Victory! Or, On Completing A Huge Challenge

After writing about clearing my bookshelf for nearly a year and a half, last week I emptied it! The thrill is starting to fade, as I deal with the downstream effects, but let me tell you, I mentioned it once an hour the day I accomplished it.

To some of you, this may not seem like a huge accomplishment. I myself thought I could get it done in just 4 months–how deluded I was! I had no idea it would take me another year beyond that to accomplish my goals.

In many ways, achieving this goal was like achieving any other intimidating goal, like paying off a mortgage or student loans. And in other ways, it is very different.

Interview After Another Money Date

When my father became very ill last spring, I realized that my mom didn’t really know everything she needed to in order to manage the household finances. I couldn’t believe that she didn’t know how to get to all the accounts.

Then I realized that my husband was in the dark about much of our household finances. We had our first money date while on vacation, visiting family, this February.

Now that COVID-19 is going around, I feel a little more urgency to make sure he can really manage if I am unavailable for some reason. We took care of the bills together at the beginning of April and May.

I asked if he would be willing to be interviewed about the process again. We will see if third time is the charm, as far as feeling ready to tackle things on his own. This time I have added my commentary to his answers, the editor’s prerogative.