Category: Finance

For the past 2 years, I have written about giving money to charity (see here, here, and here).

After several years of thinking about setting up a donor advised fund (DAF), possibly with a little trepidation, I finally started mine this month. It was pretty darned easy, though a few details were a bit tricky for me.

I thought I might go over my reasons for finally opening a DAF, and then go through the steps. Of course, I can’t help commenting on some of the small print that I found interesting or amusing.

Life has been pretty busy at the PiN household for the past few weeks. My thoughts have been a little too scattered to compose a lengthy and coherent post, but as I have been trying to decide what to write about, I have noticed that money touches just about everything we do.

Instead of a unified essay, I thought today’s post might just touch on six of the financial stories that have come up in the past week.

It’s been a busy week or two in the Physician in Numbers household. I think this will be a much shorter post.

My big excitement is that, one day after this posts, our last car payment will be sent in! That’s right, no more mortgage, no more car payment. Our only debt will be whatever we charge that month to our credit cards; we pay that off every month, so I would consider us debt-free at that point.

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.