Category: Finance

One of the pieces of advice I frequently read in articles on saving money is to examine your subscriptions and get rid of those you don’t use.

It seems pretty obvious that spending money on things you don’t use and don’t want is…silly? An easy target for budget cuts?

I used to scoff at this advice, because I didn’t have mindless subscriptions. I knew exactly where my money was going.

Recently, however, I have had to reconsider this self-assessment.

A phrase I used to hear all the time from my mother: if all your friends jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you do it too?

I don’t know if your parents asked you a similar question. Of course, my mother was not advocating bridge jumping; she was pointing out the importance of thinking for myself and not blindly following the herd.

I have been writing for the past several years about wanting to cut back.

Twice, I have asked to cut my salary in exchange for cutting my time.

However, I was recently in conversation with senior people about a new project. It’s something different–a change–and something that the department needs. However, it will most certainly be time consuming.

In discussing the terms of compensation, I am struck by how different things are for me now, compared to several years ago.

July has come and gone, and interns and residents should be settling in at their new positions (and salary). Not every new attending has started working yet, but many are.

This spring and summer a number of people have been looking at my posts about budgeting. Some of the more popular include:

• What Is A Good Budget For Intern Year? Obviously intended for new graduates, entering internship.
• Retrospective Budgeting: The 10% Rule . Geared mostly towards those making the jump from resident to attending.
• Retrospective Budgeting: The Live On Half Challenge. Also for the graduating resident.

For those who did not think about their budget before starting their job, or who maybe find their paycheck isn’t quite covering their bills, this post is for you.

This July I took a lovely vacation, longer than I have had off in a while. I visited family, and saw new places, and actually relaxed for a few days. I would love to do that more often.

On my return, I was soon working in the hospital with July interns. It was intense–both good and not so good–but exhausting. Everything that was not medicine went by the wayside: exercise, reading new books, watching suspenseful miniseries (I can’t wait to get back to The Night Manager).

Both experiences have left me wondering where my finances are vis a vis readiness for retirement.

I was thinking about this last summer also, and I think it is time to revisit that question: are we there yet? With the corollary: how can I figure out where the finish line is?

Join me as I walk through my rough calculations and figure out what I am still missing.

I frequently refer to my “secret” savings account, but realize I haven’t really written about it explicitly. Since I consider it one of my key tools to managing my finances over the past 10-12 years, I think it is time to review how it works and how important it has been.

Just to be clear, I am not advocating hiding money from your spouse; that is not cool in the least.

Instead this is an extra account to “hide” money from myself–which is sort of silly, because for sure I know I where these savings are. But the account is in a separate institution from my checking account, and it’s difficult to check the balance, so I don’t think about it very often. This means money accumulates without any effort on my part, growing steadily month by month.

Today I will finally describe all the ways this account has helped me since I started my “grown up” job, and encourage you to try this as well. Especially those of you just starting in a new position this summer, with a new (hopefully bigger) salary.