Top 10 Life Hacks I Wish I’d Cultivated In Training

crispydocUncategorized

You’re a busy person, you want only the essentials: what can you do today (as a med student or resident) to make your life better tomorrow?  Following is a basic tool kit with immediately actionable items, to be elaborated in later posts.

  1. Reduce expenses. Optimize housing, transportation and food.  Dine in. Buy staples in bulk.  Brew your own coffee. Get roommates.
  2. Cut your commute.  Choose housing so you can walk/bike to class, work, and market.  Make your car a rarely used beast of burden (or eliminate it completely).
  3. Save for financial independence.  Maximize tax-free retirement contributions.
  4. Minimize investment costs.  Avoid financial advisors. Use Vanguard to do it yourself, or Betterment to have it done for you.
  5. Understand your finances. Track expenses with a free account at Personal Capital.
  6. Optimize social outlets to save. A potluck in the park or value-conscious dining out with like-minded friends hurts the wallet far less than the celebrity chef restaurant.
  7. Look for heroes. Find mentors, especially among the misfits of medicine.
  8. Don’t accumulate stuff.
  9. Identify pursuits that give you pleasure out of proportion.  Spend judiciously to do what you love.
  10. Get a ridiculously cheap cel phone plan (eg, Google Fi or Republic Wireless).