Finance – Page 12 – Physician In Numbers

Questions About A Spousal IRA

I have been talking about setting up an IRA for Mr. PiN forever, without actually getting it done.

For a few years, he didn’t want me to set one up for him. Then he wanted to wait until we had paid off the mortgage. This spring I was thinking about setting one up, and the pandemic hit; we decided it was better to beef up our emergency fund.

Now, though, those barriers are gone.

I thought it might be worth going through some of the questions I have about setting up a spousal IRA. I suspect I am not the only one with these sorts of questions. Except where noted, I found my information from the IRS publication 590-A.

As always, do not rely on what I write to make decisions for yourself. I am not your tax expert, or indeed any tax expert at all. I am just some random person writing on the internet. Do feel free to consult your own tax expert, or to look at the IRS forms yourself.

Monday Melange, COVID-19 Edition

As you might have noticed, if you read the news, the first (Pfizer) vaccine for COVID-19 received an emergency use authorization 3 days ago. At the end of this week, the Moderna vaccine may receive a similar authorization. Vaccines are rolling out, and healthcare workers–though certainly not all of us–will start vaccination this week.

Most certainly, the pandemic is not over. It will take months for enough people in the USA to be protected to reduce the spread of this illness. I expect the next several months to be full of stories of overfull, overworked hospitals and people grieving for loved ones lost to this disease.

However, I am starting to feel a little hopeful that we might be at the very beginning of the end.

On that note, I thought I would share a number of posts related to the pandemic that struck my fancy over the year. Many are from the very beginning of the pandemic; it is interesting to note the difference in tone from April until now. And yet, I find the messages within remain relevant.

How Much Does It Cost Me To Work?

It’s that most wonderful time of the year, a time of celebrations, gift-giving and holiday discounts. Not to mention marshmallow toasting, caroling out in the snow, and scary ghost stories.

Unfortunately, it is also the time when many licenses and professional memberships need to be renewed. Additionally, if I want (need) to register for meetings or buy study guides, this is the time to pay for them–prices usually go up sometime in January.

This year I started feeling a little steamed, as I contemplated paying out quite a lot of money for these work-related costs. I started wondering: how much does it cost me to work?

Soon after I jumped down the rabbit hole of totaling up all the costs that I see, or can estimate, just to be able to keep working. I am not counting all the other expenses related to work, à la Your Money or Your Life (professional clothing, dry cleaning, massages or vacations to decompress), just the plain, required (and possibly reimbursable) ones that keep me eligible to work in medicine.

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?