Lately there’s a lot of talk among newbies on the Physicians On Fire facebook group about how they are tempted to practice market timing: hold onto their cash and strategically wait for a market downturn to invest on the dip. Given the famously poor relationship we docs have with our money, it’s evocative of the famous quote attributed to investor …
Not Your Typical Warren Buffett Article
David Sedaris once wrote a piece about walking into a curio shop and seeing a large bowl filled with prosthetic glass eyes. He reaches into the bowl, grabs an eye and holds it up to his own. Then he sees a sign stating, “Please do not hold glass eye up to your own to pretend it is yours as the …
That’s Not A Health Plan. That’s Wishful Thinking.
I love that the FIRE blogging community makes our health a priority. It’s clear that taking responsibility for your finances goes hand in hand with taking responsibility for your physical well being. I take voyeuristic pleasure in reading prominent bloggers’ accounts of milestone physical achievements, and share their vulnerability when they confess their dietary indiscretions to a readership that …
A Master of Public health Takes Issue With A Master Of Finance
Like many of us in the FI blogging space, Mr. Money Mustache is the reason my blog exists. I’ve never met Pete, but by all accounts he seems like a charismatic and responsible human being, and I have great affection for the cult he’s created. Still, something on his blog has gnawed at me for years, and I’d like to …
Too Much Home: Further Reflections And House Selling Fantasies
Second in a series of woulda shoulda couldas. Picks up where the last post left off. Two Story vs. One Story To get the large square footage we sought, he had to opt for a two story home. This is fine assuming youth and health. Stairs are problematic. They present a constant hazard to infants and toddlers early in …
If I Had To Do It Over Again, I’d Buy Less House
When I moved from Boston to LA in 2005, everything was coming up roses. I was dating a woman whose presence had suddenly transformed my life from black and white to color, and we were moving in together (spoiler alert: I married her). I’d found us an apartment that was a nine block walk to the beach. I’d landed a …
Deprivation Vs. Discipline
<![CDATA[ The Happy Philosopher, a radiologist whose thoughts on life routinely serve as inspiration for his readers and fellow bloggers alike, began an interesting experiment at the start of this year. He initially made a public declaration that he’d buy no clothes for the year. Reconsidering it a few days later, he grew more ambitious and decided that (excluding a …
Parenting Is In The Recovery
I made a brief visit to a dear friend who recently became a single mother by choice. We met when we were seventeen at a summer program for high school students on the campus of UC Santa Barbara. Between the beach and falling in love with a new crush every 3 days, it was adolescent heaven. But I digress. …
Unconstrained
We spent this past weekend in San Francisco, at a friend of my wife’s 50th birthday party. He’s a sweet and thoughtful guy, and as part of the festivities we met up for lunch with a handful of my wife’s college friends and enjoyed a middle-aged version of “The Breakfast Club.” Accomplished professionals gathered around the table like a professional …
Reflections On Last Weekend’s Doctor Prom
One of the most enjoyable ways I’ve channeled my finance geek leanings has been to offer to meet with newbies who join our practice to review their finances and help them develop confidence in a plan to pay off educational debt, invest, and save for retirement. For a surprising number of them, it’s the first such discussion they’ve ever had, …