Category: Medicine

As I may have mentioned a few times on this blog, I am cutting back on clinic hours, starting this month.

The effects on scheduling have been apparent quite quickly: whereas it never used to be a problem scheduling out 3 to 4 months for follow up, this is now a huge problem. (I imagine it will be less of a problem in a few months, as patients decide they can see someone else; or move away; and are not replaced by new patients.)

I have therefore been telling patients that they should lock in a follow up appointment now (at check out), since I’m reducing my clinic hours and it may be harder to schedule going forward.

I have found the reactions of various patients very interesting.

Continue reading “Patient Reactions To My Cutting Back”

July is approaching, and I see that people are reading some of my older posts on budgeting.

This might be a very good time to highlight posts which may be of interest to people about to start their training.

Continue reading “Welcome, Interns!”

In my work, I sometimes prescribe weight loss medications.

They are not currently covered under many local insurance policies. Although the hospital insurance plan was covering them for a short time, coverage will end very soon. However, for the cash-paying patient, they can now cost “only” $500 per month.

I don’t particularly want to talk about whether or not injectable medication for weight loss is a good or a bad thing, or about the cost of medications in the US, or whether or not healthcare coverage for obesity management meets your favor.

What I do want to talk about (briefly) is the wiggle room in some budgets.

Continue reading “Choices And Their Results”

I made a comment a few months year ago on a post offering financial advice to younger people on finances. The writer advised signing up for an HSA (health savings account) and I advised being careful about one.

A quick back and forth earned me the comment that I should write about my experience, so here it is.

Just to be clear: I am not saying that HSAs are bad; in fact, for many people they are great vehicles for saving (and investing!!) for the future.

I’m just saying that an HSA was a bad idea for me.

Below I will go through why the HSA and accompanying HDHP (high deductible health plan) didn’t work for me and my husband, and point out a few things to think about before deciding on the HSA route for you.

Continue reading “Why I Won’t Sign Up For An HSA Again”

Match Day is coming up, and soon 4th year medical students will find out where they will be training for the next several years.

Best of luck to those waiting to hear the news, I hope any senior medical students reading are happy with their result.

From a financial standpoint, making the transition from a tuition-paying, negative income flow state to working (and paycheck earning) is huge.

Making better decisions during residency can really set you up for financial success as an attending.

I don’t like to imply that if you don’t get it right now, you’ll be doomed, because that isn’t true. However, you can really make your attending life easier based on habits you build earlier.

Continue reading “To Those About To Match”

Just a short post today, as my thoughts have been darting all over the place in the past week.

I am meeting with my boss (one of my many bosses) this week, to discuss what my position might look like going forward.

Even though I think I know what I want, I’m torn between joining multiple friends in retirement, and continuing to practice medicine at my current institution.

Of course, what I want and what my boss can agree to may be very different things. Especially given the uncertainty these days with government funding.

I hope to have, as we say, some clarity about my future by the end of the week.

What’s new with you?

As I figured out in my last post, I think the PiN household is financially independent (FI).

This leads to the next question: will I retire early(-ish), the RE in FIRE?

Although I wasn’t sure about financial independence until I calculated our numbers for 2024, I have had a strong suspicion since the spring of 2024, when my taxable investment account hit, and then blew by, a very interesting round number. For several months, I have been kicking around the idea of stopping work vs. cutting back vs. continuing as I am.

With the financial excuses for why I can’t retire yet out of the way (mostly), I now have to seriously consider whether what I get out of work is worth what I give up to practice medicine.

Continue reading “If I’m FI, Now What?”