A female primary care physician opines on money, travel, fitness, and other topics to be determined
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.
Continue reading “My Money 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.
Continue reading “Soon To Be: Debt-Free”Personal finance posts can sometimes be awfully earnest and dry. Sometimes, a spoonful of sugar (or a good laugh) makes the medicine go down.
Channeling another Julie Andrews character, here are a few of my favorite things posts from the last year or so. The ones that made me smile.
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.
Continue reading “Are My Finances Being Sunk By Subscriptions?”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.
Continue reading “If All Your Friends Retired, Would You Do It Too?”In honor of seeing my parents this weekend, I thought I would share (again) some of the best lessons my Dad taught me about money.
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.
Continue reading “Financial Security Changes The Conversation”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:
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.
Continue reading “Correcting Course: Managing Your Budget In Your New Position”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 April 2021, with a number of wins, and several misses.
I’ve been busy and tired since; took a vacation; worked in the hospital in July; and asked for another pay cut to reduce my hours after they crept up again to 100%.
With all that, how did I do with my goals over the past 3-4 months?
Continue reading “Future Me, August 2021”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.
Continue reading “The Finish Line Keeps Moving”