Physician In Numbers – Page 66 – A female primary care physician opines on money, travel, fitness, and other topics to be determined

Not Quite What I Was Hoping For

I may have mentioned that I am taking a pay cut to reduce my hours. The plan is that with a slightly shorter day, I can finish earlier, and spend some time on my life outside the office, maybe working on future me.

Today was my first day with the shorter schedule. I had lots of patients who need extra time, but were scheduled for 15 minute visits. The electronic medical record wasn’t cooperating. Despite the supposedly shorter schedule, I finished at same time I used to finish, and went home just as late (actually, later) as I did before the change.

I can tell myself thank goodness my schedule was truncated, otherwise I’d have been in the office even later; but right now, I’m just not feeling the love. We’ll see how things turn out going forward.

Hiding Money from Myself, or Giving Each Dollar a Job

Last year I finally got around to making an updated will, which means I had to open up my financial life to a stranger. My lawyer offered a number of unsolicited opinions about our situation, but the one that I am still thinking about is his comment about the multiple accounts my husband and I maintain. He seemed to think this was silly, and that we should be able to manage just fine with one or two accounts if only we were financially responsible. I beg to differ.

Fitness Log #5

One of the favorite things I have heard from a patient is: you’re a doctor, you don’t have to worry about blood pressure. Implying, of course, that doctor’s don’t struggle with their health.

I most certainly do struggle with fitness and health, like many other Americans with sedentary jobs and a proclivity to eat treats. One of my goals is to make sure that I get my 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise (or 75 minutes of high intensity exercise, which probably won’t happen). I will see for how long I am willing to document my progress Saturday to Friday.

FSAs and HSAs

Monday I wrote about picking a health insurance plan. I compared the cost of the premiums and the costs for the care I expect us to use.

Today, I am going to cover the FSA (Flexible Spending Account) and HSA (Health Savings Account), which are tax free accounts that can help lower the cost of health care when you have to pay for it.

Choosing Medical Insurance

It’s that time of the year again. Benefits enrollment, when you have to pick your insurance plan (medical and maybe dental), decide on an FSA or HSA, and generally review any other benefits that come with your job.

I know a lot of my patients aren’t always clear on what their options are, so I thought I’d go through the process here. I was pretty sure before I started which plan I would pick, but it’s always good to review.

Fitness Log #4

One of the favorite things I have heard from a patient is: you’re a doctor, you don’t have to worry about blood pressure. Implying, of course, that doctor’s don’t struggle with their health.

Thoughts on “The Italian Job”

In our house, we seldom watch network TV, at least not live. We watch a lot of movies–usually old ones, that we can watch for free, or get from Netflix. We enjoy discussing them later, and I may post some of our thoughts from time to time.

On Good Citizenship, or Don’t be a Pig

One of the issues have with some of the frugality blogs out there–and don’t get me wrong, I love reading them–is the excitement? Pride? Exhortation? to take advantage of free things. It especially bothers me when I know that the author is no longer struggling financially.

I should point out that as I write this, I have just taken advantage of free admission to a museum while staying (for free) at a relative’s home in another city. So I get the appeal of the cheap/free treat.

Fitness log #3

One of the favorite things I have heard from a patient is: you’re a doctor, you don’t have to worry about blood pressure. Implying, of course, that doctor’s don’t struggle with their health.

Ten Steps to Future Me

Last week I rambled a bit about finding something to retire to, rather than focusing on retiring from. Also about (re)building a life that I can enjoy now, rather than waiting until . I also mentioned that I am taking a small pay cut, to get a little more time back in my life. The big question is: how will I use that time well?