Physician In Numbers – Page 26 – A female primary care physician opines on money, travel, fitness, and other topics to be determined

Fitness Log #182 And Friday Firsts

I have been keeping track of my exercise every Friday for over 3 years, and plan to continue doing so.

I started the Friday Firsts sections as a way of keeping track of some of my “firsts” as I dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. Things seem to be settling down, but I will keep it for now–more as a way to be aware and thankful of what is happening in my life.

My Brother’s (Money) Keeper

Money in the PiN household isn’t holding my interest this week. We paid our bills, and saw our investments drop by 1x our annual spending. Nothing that I feel like dwelling on at length.

I thought instead I would write about someone else’s money instead. My brother is hoping to sell his first house, which has been a rental for a few years.

In this post, I review some reasons why becoming a landlord isn’t the family dream, and what to do when one comes into a large sum of money.

Fitness Log #181 And Friday Firsts

I have been keeping track of my exercise every Friday for over 3 years, and plan to continue doing so.

Do I Need A New Map?

A number of personal finance bloggers write about making a plan–an Investing Personal Statement (IPS)–to keep you from doing dumb things with your money.

With a plan in place, you have guardrails for when your finances aren’t doing their normal thing. The stock market is falling and you aren’t sure what to do with your investments? Your IPS should address this. Your bonus was much bigger than expected, and you aren’t sure what to do with it? Your IPS should address this too.

I don’t have an IPS myself, at least not nearly as detailed as the ones other bloggers have published, but I have had a road map for years. Every year, at the beginning of the year, I look at my financial goals for the last year, and update them for the year to come. I decide what my goals are and decide how to send the money I (will) have to achieve them: save up a house down payment, pay off the mortgage, pay off the car, always max out retirement accounts, put aside money for travel and house repairs, etc.

Lately, however, I have been distracted by the changes in my household finances, and I realize I should probably check my map. I am still pretty sure I know where I am going, but my eyes keep straying to some of the road side billboards.

Fitness Log #180 And Friday Firsts

I have been keeping track of my exercise every Friday for over 3 years, and plan to continue doing so.

Monday Melange, March 2022: Women’s History, The Arts, The War.

A collection of posts that caught my eye in the past month or so.

The invasion of Ukraine has been very much on my mind this month, as well as on the minds of others. There has been much discussion on the topic in the PiN household, as well as in the blogosphere.

March is also Women’s History month, and I found a number of entertaining and informative posts.

I also threw in some posts related to Art, because I really needed something uplifting to tide me over until Spring arrives.

And, on a blog where I write about money and medicine, how could I not include a few links on these topics?

Fitness Log #179 And Friday Firsts

I have been keeping track of my exercise every Friday for over 3 years, and plan to continue doing so.

The Million Dollar Dream

After some very long weeks and months this past Fall, Mr. PiN and I were able to get away to my parents’ place on the coast.

As often happens, on my first day here, I started fantasizing about being able to spend weeks (months!) in this great location. It doesn’t seem like a totally crazy idea—after all, my grandparents spent their winters here in their retirement years, and now my parents do as well (health crises and COVID being the exception).

Entrance to a beach, framed by palm trees. — I would definitely walk daily if this were my destination

My “assignment” while here has been rest and recuperation, but my brain kept turning over thoughts of what it might be like to actually live here for months at a time.

While the privilege here is obvious, some of my thoughts may have relevance to other professionals thinking about a vacation home. Especially as regards making memories with the family, and the fallout from that.

Fitness Log #178 And Friday Firsts

I have been keeping track of my exercise every Friday for over 3 years, and plan to continue doing so.

A PCP Looks At FIRE

I have been thinking about early retirement for a while now. Eight years, in fact, ever since one of my partners retired early and put the idea in my head.

The closer I get to financial independence, the more I am thinking about what I would like to do. My planning is complicated by the nature of my work: being a primary care physician isn’t solely shift-work. If I am gone for 2 weeks out of the month, or for 3 months at a time, someone still needs to take care of the patients when they call in with problems.

Shift-work (hospital medicine) is a little easier if I want more days off, but comes with other challenges, like the expectation to put in long hours for many days in a row.

I decided to walk through some of the different flavors of FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) and see how they might work out for me, as an Internal Medicine PCP.