Finance – Page 13 – Physician In Numbers

4 Market Crashes, 5 Lessons On Risk Tolerance. And 1 On Life.

I have had the dubious pleasure of investing through a number of market crashes over the years. Each one has taught me something about my risk tolerance, and I hope that the lessons I have learned may be helpful to you. If only to show you what not to do.

I decided not to present each past market drop chronologically, but rather to discuss each drop in terms of my personal risk tolerance, from least to most. Please keep in mind that, of course, your risk tolerance will change depending on your age and life circumstances.

9 Things I Am Grateful For During The Pandemic

I was talking to a colleague at work today (how exciting to talk to someone new!) about some of the things we are grateful for in these challenging times. I thought I might share a few (with a slant towards personal finance).

I still have a job…
… which is still paying me my full paycheck.
I didn’t give away my scrubs from residency
…and they still fit.
We usually eat at home, and our evening entertainment is usually watching DVDs (I got a bunch from the library before it closed) or listening to music. So that hasn’t changed much.
If I get bored, I already have lots of books to read.
My gym automatically suspended billing while it is closed by order of the state.
My auto insurance is supposed to be giving blanket discounts, giving that many fewer miles are being driven during this time of social distancing.
And, most importantly, my loved ones and I are currently enjoying good health!

I hope you have plenty to be grateful for as well. Feel free to share, if you wish.

Monday Melange

My mind is still tremendously distracted as I try to adapt to life in a pandemic. Instead of writing a full post for today, which would require a bit more concentration than I have right now, instead I would like to highlight a few pieces I found on line and have been referring to frequently.

Future Me, COVID-19 Follow Up

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 January of this year, with a few wins, and a bunch of misses. I set new goals, many of which are not going to be possible to hit given the new recommendations around social distancing (#flattenthecurve).

I had planned to follow up at the end of May, but I would like to review my progress so far, and offer some course correction to my goals for the next few months.

This Is What You Have Been Saving For

The last few days have been a whirlwind of unexpected spending: food, electronics, and, yes, toilet paper.

All of this has come with a price tag, and I see the savings accounts dropping and dropping and dropping, which makes me anxious.

My husband points out, though, that this is what we have been saving for. An emergency.

While it would be great if the COVID-19 pandemic skips over our community, leaving little impact, we can’t count on it.

Wednesday Woolgathering, Procrastination Edition

Yesterday was a long day, and the post I was planning just didn’t get done. I’m putting it off to another day, and instead have some short snippets and updates, mostly about procrastination. Fitting, since I am publishing this late in the day.

A Money Date Interview

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 bills.

I started thinking about my own household: I have been taking care of the bills ever since we got married. Most of our discussion about the bills has gone something like this:

Me: I’m going to pay the bills this morning.

Him: Thank you for taking care of this.

Me (sometimes): Can you believe this water bill?

Him: I don’t know what to do about this, I do a lot of cleaning.

Clearly, we haven’t been communicating well about our expenses. I wasn’t really sure that my husband would be able to manage things if I were incapacitated.

Before our last vacation (which conveniently fell over the first of the month), I asked him if he would pay the bills that month. Of course, I would help him.

This would be our first real money date. I asked him if I could interview him afterwards, to see what he thought about it.

I note that my husband has a strong internal censor.

Buying My Own Bling

It’s a funny thing, jewelry.

If you think about it rationally, you’ll have to agree that it is expensive and a poor investment. Like a car, the price of almost any piece you might buy drops as soon as you take it home.

On the other hand, jewelry has been coveted and valuable for thousands of years. It can help dress up an outfit, start a conversation, or just straight up signal wealth and status. If you like a piece, it can work for you for many decades, unlike a car or cell phone, which is unlikely to last more than one or two.

I have to confess, I was able to accumulate plenty of jewelry over the years as gifts. My mother (who loves this stuff) has given me plenty of lovely pieces, especially for special birthdays (16, 18) and graduations.

Gold earrings, 4th–early 3rd century B.C., Etruscan. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Earrings are easy presents for birthdays/holiday/souvenirs. I have given and received a number from girlfriends and relatives.

Of course, who can forget the tradition of the engagement ring and wedding ring. I suppose I decided on my wedding ring, but my fiance picked out the engagement ring; we looked at rings together, but he made the final choice himself and surprised me.

It was therefore an odd event for me, last year, when I decided I was going to buy something expensive for myself.

Medicine And FI, Fast And Slow

I recently attended a conference on Physician Wellness, during which we were asked to do an exercise in pairs. Alone, we were to write down three goals at our job. Then, we were to ask our partner about a time when their work aligned with those goals, and how they felt.

My partner for this exercise was a hospitalist, who talked about the joy in finding time to really talk to a patient. When you don’t have to rush off to the next emergency or phone call, and can have a longer talk about who they are when well, or what has been happening, or just listen to someone who is sick and needs support.

For me, I thought about a visit I added on during the holidays, with no one scheduled afterwards. We had time to talk beyond the allotted 15 minutes, and to cover a few more problems, to build a stronger connection. I even had time to write the office note, while my house staff took care of business in the hospital.

In both cases, what we wanted was enough time to do our jobs well.

Credit Cards And My Budget

Despite the difficulties we had last May trying to earn credit card sign-up bonuses, I gave the credit card game another try this winter.

It’s been an interesting experience, and made me think more about budgeting. More specifically, about all those “one-time” purchases that come up.