Finance – Page 3 – Physician In Numbers

The Financials Of Going Half-Time

It has been a long week. In fact, it has been a long few months, with not enough vacation time to break it up.

While on a walk home, I started thinking about what my schedule might look like if I cut back to very part time, just working enough to qualify for health coverage. In my mind, it sounded very pleasant.

My friend, who has decided to work One More Year, will actually be doing this in a few weeks. She is suddenly a good deal more interested in having me cut back as well, so we can have more time to socialize together. She asked if I could afford to do so.

A young woman with brown hair, wears a light brown turban, a dress (blue with large flowers) with a large red collar, leaning on a table with a book. — Can I afford to keep up my wardrobe on half-pay?

I don’t think I can, just quite yet. But I thought it might be interesting to look at the finances of cutting back, and see where the sticky points might be for me.

That Time I Finally Reviewed My 2022 Spending

Every year, at the end of the year, I review the year’s spending. I’ve done this for over 20 years, and I learn different things every time (here are my lessons from 2021).

Reviewing our spending by category, or even thinking about what category to include, means that I can really look at where my (our) money is going. Which can prompt further reflections, like: is this where I want my money going? Does that seem like a good amount of money to spend on that category?

It’s also good to know how much money it takes to support our lifestyle. Since finding out about FIRE, I realize this exercise is even more helpful. After all, once I have 25 times (or 30, or 33, depending on how conservative I want to be) my yearly spending saved, financial independence has been reached. So, every year, I can ask myself: how close am I to reaching financial independence?

Future Me, July 2023

Not long after the start of this blog, I cut my hours very slightly, and wanted to make sure I didn’t waste the extra time I was paying dearly for.

I had started reading about preparing for retirement in non-financial ways, and I realized that it was time to start (re-) building a life that didn’t revolve solely around medicine.

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. 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 late March. After taking nearly half a year to update my progress towards my goals, I started doing a little monthly wrap up, to see if that would better keep me on track.

How did I do over the past 4 months?

Second Thoughts On Living As A One Car Family

As seems to happen at least once a year, Mr. PiN and I are reconsidering our decision to run our household with just one car.

Once again, Mr. PiN had to be out of town for a family medical emergency. This time, he left the car here (he flew), but the situation was still pretty inconvenient for me. Even better, the “check engine” light came on right before he left.

Is it time, we wonder, to get a second car?

4 Pieces Of Advice For Those Starting Internship

Another school year has come to an end.

Graduations are pretty much done.

That means the first days of internship are approaching fast.

I thought a few pieces of advice, and encouragement, might be appropriate at this time. As I prepare to meet my new interns on my next rotation through the hospital.

Why I Like 529 Plans For College

Going through old mail on my first day of vacation, I realized that I had not deposited any money into my niece and nephews’ 529 plans this year.

I dug out the quarterly account updates, with attached contribution forms. The plan helpfully shows the current totals in each account, and, on another page, the contributions to date.

Reviewing these numbers, I thought it might be worthwhile going over why I think putting money in a 529 plan is worthwhile, even if my strategy isn’t perfect. As a side note, they also show why investing over time is a great idea.

Six Lessons From My Mother, A Mother’s Day Reflection

Readers of my blog might think that my father was the only parent who taught me anything about finances.

It’s true that he and I spoke often about money and investing.

However, it would be absolutely incorrect to think that I learned nothing about personal finance from my mother. It’s just that many of her lessons were not so explicitly about money.

In honor of my mother’s contribution to my financial knowledge, here are six lessons I have learned from her that are (or can) be related to financial health.

The Best Financial Advice I’ve Gotten From A Book

It’s that time of year, when people seem to be asking more questions about how to manage their money.

I suppose it has to do with the turning of the (academic) year, as medical students graduate, and start earning an income; as residents and fellows graduate and look forward to earning a much larger income; and as new attendings finish their first 1-2 years, and wonder where all their money went.

I thought I would share the best financial advice I’ve ever read, and talk about why I think it makes the biggest impact on someone’s financial health.

Why I Update My Net Worth Every Year

Every year, at the end of the year, I calculate my (liquid) net worth, and review my spending for the year that is finishing up.

I have done this for over two decades, and have come to realize that I don’t do this (only) for the pleasure of seeing an ever-increasing number. Especially for 2022.

There are a few other valuable aspects of this exercise, which have benefited my finances greatly over the years.

I will review my annual spending in another post, but in this one, I will go over my net worth update, and offer some thoughts about why you too might benefit from such a practice.

Chasing The First Social Security Bendpoint

A few weeks ago, Mr. PiN surprised me. He announced that he wanted to earn some more money, in order to boost his Social Security paycheck.

I had brought this up a few years ago, when I first read this post from Physician on Fire about the Social Security bend points.

My takeaway at the time was that, for people with a lower earnings history, Social Security is set up to replace more of the income. Because the benefit is calculated on lifetime earnings, if you were in the workforce long enough to qualify for benefits, but didn’t earn tons, you can get a pretty good return on your efforts if you work and earn a bit more.