Lessons from my parents – Page 2 – Physician In Numbers

The YOLO Chair

In the corner of my parents’ living room sits a large armchair, Louis XV style. It’s my father’s chair, generally speaking no one else sits in it, unless one of the cats sneaks in. It’s quite handsome, and guests frequently remark on it.

My mother tells the story of how they acquired the chair:

One Doctor’s Retirement, 20 years later

In my prior post, I wrote about my father’s career and retirement preparations. He retired just over 20 years ago, and from what I can see, had a pretty good time.

Over the years we have talked about finances, and though I haven’t announced firm plans to retire early, I think he can tell I am thinking about it. He has been giving more advice recently, mostly to keep working.

I thought I would share some of his recent advice, and some of my observations of his two-decades-long retirement, which I hope will go another decade more.

One Doctor’s Retirement

My office mate is just starting out, and seems overwhelmed by finances. When I mentioned my father was a retired physician, and had retired well, she was very interested in how he had managed that.

I asked him this weekend, and got a shorter-than-expected answer. In many ways, the answer is very simple: save money and invest it. I will embellish the answer and see if it might be illuminating.