What will you do once financially independent?

[Cinclus]

Let's say you achieve FI fairly early in your medical career through EM income, passive income, investments, or whatever. Would you still practice EM? Reduce your hours? Change your practice setting? Do something else in medicine? Or would you leave medicine entirely? If you did leave, would you feel any guilt or sadness for leaving? For those of you who left EM and are doing something else in medicine, what would you do once FI?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[DocEspana]

nothing out of the ordinary for me.

 

[bravotwozero]

nothing out of the ordinary for me.
View attachment 305355

Yeah i'm pretty sure this is what @EctopicFetus does all day, except he washes down each gulp by poppin' krystal champagne...


If I were to achieve FI now, it would mean i'd have the house paid off and $2.5 mil in investments. At that point, I'd keep working, but less shifts, and hopefully even less nights, just to maybe fund my kids tuition and maybe take a few more nicer, but unnecessary vacations. If the EM work environment becomes completely intolerable, I would likely walk away completely, and spend more time pursuing my hobbies that I already have, like learning arabic, going to the gym, read more books, etc. I think I could easily find plenty of things to keep my time occupied outside of 'work'. I would not feel any guilt whatsoever at leaving medicine, I don't think I owe this to anyone. It's not like my medical education was funded by the state.

 

[gamerEMdoc]

Idk what counts as FI, I never had loans bc of being in the military (though Im convinced I lost a ton of money in that deal because I made 80-120k for 4 years). All I have is a mortgage. Eventually Ill pay for my kids college. But Im pretty financially independent. I could easily pay my mortgage off with a check tomorrow if I wanted out of my investments. But I still plan to do EM for the next 15-20 years. I think the financial flexibility allows me to not have to chase rhe money, work extra, etc. I can work academics, which generally pays lower, without the guilt knowing I could make more money elsewhere. And academics definitely makes the career more doable longterm. Less shifts, more admin, residents helping both clinically but also socially/emotionally since working within the group dynamic gives you a different sense of purpose. So I guess for me, my answer is/was academics.

 

[EctopicFetus]

Yeah i'm pretty sure this is what @EctopicFetus does all day, except he washes down each gulp by poppin' krystal champagne...


If I were to achieve FI now, it would mean i'd have the house paid off and $2.5 mil in investments. At that point, I'd keep working, but less shifts, and hopefully even less nights, just to maybe fund my kids tuition and maybe take a few more nicer, but unnecessary vacations. If the EM work environment becomes completely intolerable, I would likely walk away completely, and spend more time pursuing my hobbies that I already have, like learning arabic, going to the gym, read more books, etc. I think I could easily find plenty of things to keep my time occupied outside of 'work'. I would not feel any guilt whatsoever at leaving medicine, I don't think I owe this to anyone. It's not like my medical education was funded by the state.

its cristal. krystal are the burgers i are in college.

when i hit my FI goal ill maybe work less. I dont work much now so it is hard for me to say that. I have been working my whole life so the concept of not working seems weird to me. I used to work 160+ clinical hours a month plus admin work. now it is way down clinically but my non clinic stuff has grown. I think I will be at this same status for the next decade or so but who knows. Cristal and champagne is my Robin Leach baller side.

 

[RustedFox]

1.) Work part-time ONLY in the ER.
2.) Work part-time doing something else low-impact that I dig (golf courses come to mind).
3.) Ski/Bike/Hike and enjoy as much of this planet as I can before I can't anymore.

 

[Groove]

I'd work 4 shifts/mo so my mom could still tell her friends that I'm an "ER doctor". Otherwise, I'd buy a second home in Breckenridge and spend my entire winter there skiing. I'd buy a condo in St. John, USVI and spend about 2 months there out of the year. I'd buy one of those luxury RVs and spend the rest of the time driving around the country to all the national parks and bike/hike/explore to my heart's content or until one of my joints or back gives out. Big smile on my face.

 

[EctopicFetus]

I'd work 4 shifts/mo so my mom could still tell her friends that I'm an "ER doctor". Otherwise, I'd buy a second home in Breckenridge and spend my entire winter there skiing. I'd buy a condo in St. John, USVI and spend about 2 months there out of the year. I'd buy one of those luxury RVs and spend the rest of the time driving around the country to all the national parks and bike/hike/explore to my heart's content or until one of my joints or back gives out. Big smile on my face.

Your definition of FI is on another level. Thats lottery winning type stuff. I would define FI as having enough money to live the life you want whethr you work or not. Aka work is optional.

 

[Fox800]

I'd go down to part-time. I'd want to try working somewhere really interesting (Guam, USVI, Saipan, some random island, Antarctica, DOD civilian doc on an overseas base in Japan or Germany) or work internationally in a place that has physician wellness figured out (likely Australia or NZ).

Alternatively, I'll marry rich, gobble up real estate, move to Maui, and run a tiki bar.

 

[Groove]

Your definition of FI is on another level. Thats lottery winning type stuff. I would define FI as having enough money to live the life you want whethr you work or not. Aka work is optional.

Yeah...I apparently took that "financial independence" a little too...literally.

 

[bky3c]

Retired as an EM attending at age 40, 6 months ago. Zero guilt. Zero regret. If you want to do it, you can make it happen, and you shouldn't feel bad about it.

(How? Investment of EM income and living mostly like a resident. Doesn't mean I don't have a nice house and nice vacations, though. You can have (almost) anything, just not everything. What do I do with my time now? Whatever I want.)

 

[hundreddaysoff]

Retired as an EM attending at age 40, 6 months ago. Zero guilt. Zero regret. If you want to do it, you can make it happen, and you shouldn't feel bad about it.

(How? Investment of EM income and living mostly like a resident. Doesn't mean I don't have a nice house and nice vacations, though. You can have (almost) anything, just not everything. What do I do with my time now? Whatever I want.)

Congratulations! You won the game. I'm pushing 40 and hope to be where you are in about 5 years. I know I'm not the only one around here.

Are you comfortable posting some financial details on this board? Eg, net worth, region where you live, investment income and strategies, whether you used or are using 401(k)/Roth ladder/other special accounts or just put everything in taxable?

Do you differ philosophically from WCI/PoF in any significant ways?

When you run the math, are you set for the rest of your life, or do you plan/want to pick up interesting side jobs to pay the bills eventually? Will you need to depend on SS?

 

[HemorrhagicShock]

@bky3c - Agree with @hundreddaysoff above. Answering some of those questions would be helpful for many of us trying to achieve financial independence! Thank you!

 

[justin8818]

@bky3c Agree with above, would love to see your answers to those questions. Thanks!

 

[bky3c]

I hope this will still be helpful despite my intentionally vague answers in an effort to remain anonymous.

At the risk of enraging the "retirement police," I do have to preface all of this with the following... If I were single, I'd be living my current lifestyle entirely on my investments without a problem. I've tracked my expenses for years and know for sure that I could do that with plenty of wiggle room. However, I happen to be married to a working spouse, so we're both living on his (much smaller) income while my investments grow to the point where we can both retire on them.

Net worth ~$1.75M

Region: very rural Pacific Northwest (But I did not earn the majority of my income here. For the second half of my career, I did locums, mostly in the southwest, and I had a part-time job in this area for the last year or so in addition to locums. We live here solely because we love it here.)

Investments: Vanguard Roth IRA, SEP IRA, and taxable brokerage account. Set it and forget it. I fired my financial advisor years ago. I paid off my student loans (over $300,000) 4.5 years after finishing residency, and I continued to funnel as much as possible into "buying my freedom."

Philosophically, I'm pretty much the same as WCI and PoF. The main difference I see is that they seem to spend more, or at least WCI does. I'm frugal, but not cheap, and for me, freedom for the rest of my life is worth skipping some luxuries. I pretty much buy what I want; I just don't have expensive taste, and I'm happy to DIY a lot of things. (It helps, of course, that my husband is the same way.) Some examples:
WCI's infamous $11,000 dining room table --> I bought big slabs of gorgeous local curly maple for $1500 and made a table myself
Suburban "doctor house" --> $450,000 rural house with good bones but in need of some cosmetic work on a piece of land that needed clearing but has incredible views (People who haven't been here before do a double take and then out comes the phone for photos. "Um, sir? The water pump that we called you about is over here... Sir? Excuse me?")
Heli-skiing --> trekking across Costa Rica, AirBnBs near Scotch distilleries on Islay, learning Spanish on the beach in Ecuador, etc.

Nothing against any of those more expensive options, but I knew that for me, it was more important to just get out.

You might have noticed I didn't mention kids. So yeah, we were DINK. But I don't think kids have to mean that you can't retire early. I have a friend with SIX kids in southern CA in a lower-paying specialty who is on track to retire early, too. Not quite as early, but still long before "normal" retirement age.

Side jobs: If something fun happens to pay money, great! But I'm not looking for anything just to make money.

SS: I did not count this in my "what do I need to retire" calculations. If I get anything, it'll just be a happy bonus.

 

[bky3c]

I just want to add a few things for those who might feel like they're screwed since they haven't been financially perfect since infancy. I made a lot of dumb mistakes, and I still came out okay. Some of those include:

-Taking a job that paid just barely $100/hour for my first year out of residency (it was in an exotic location that seemed amazing at the time)
-Buying a house at the beginning of residency and selling it at a loss
-Buying land in the exotic location mentioned above and selling it at a loss
-Paying rent in the exotic location while still paying my mortgage in my residency location
-Buying a luxury SUV and spending $14,000 on repairs before finally throwing in the towel and buying the used Honda I drive now (zero repairs and still going strong)
-Not checking things like dental insurance coverage and paying for it out of pocket even though I was actually covered by my husband's employer

I think WCI has said this before -- given our high income, we can afford to make some financial mistakes before we finally start getting things right. So even if you've done some dumb things, I think you can still end up doing just fine.

 

[doctalaughs]

I just want to add a few things for those who might feel like they're screwed since they haven't been financially perfect since infancy. I made a lot of dumb mistakes, and I still came out okay. Some of those include:

-Taking a job that paid just barely $100/hour for my first year out of residency (it was in an exotic location that seemed amazing at the time)
-Buying a house at the beginning of residency and selling it at a loss
-Buying land in the exotic location mentioned above and selling it at a loss
-Paying rent in the exotic location while still paying my mortgage in my residency location
-Buying a luxury SUV and spending $14,000 on repairs before finally throwing in the towel and buying the used Honda I drive now (zero repairs and still going strong)
-Not checking things like dental insurance coverage and paying for it out of pocket even though I was actually covered by my husband's employer

I think WCI has said this before -- given our high income, we can afford to make some financial mistakes before we finally start getting things right. So even if you've done some dumb things, I think you can still end up doing just fine.

I’m a few years older in terms of age and net worth but still plan on working another 15 years.... I do feel like the big X factor is the kids and a non-working spouse. Sure, planned lifestyle is still also a huge factor - but if you have a few kids and plan to give them that “leg up” of paying for college + possibly grad school, that can literally set you back millions (accounting for the time value of money). For me 1.75 mill at age 40 would not even close to cut it....

 

[dchristismi]

I have now retired from EM altogether. I was doing a little Oncologic EM, but since others wanted my shifts, and I was happy to ditch them, that chapter has now closed.

I hit my proverbial "number" and have enough of a nest egg to retire, but in the last 3 years while I've been "transitioning" away from EM, I realized that I need something meaningful to do and if I have too much spare time, well, lets just say that I tend to get into trouble. And that thing is HPM, specifically inpatient hospice, and I love it. So while I don't have to work at this point, I want to.

Also DINK here (although that's because his kids are grown and out of the nest - I skipped the hard part altogether and went straight to being "Nonna.") Husband didn't have any meaningful retirement savings before "us", but I do think lifestyle is key.
We don't live extravagantly. I buy my clothes secondhand because it's less wasteful. I shop at Aldi and have always clipped coupons. My parents are downright cheap, but have amassed enough that they will never be able to spend it. Growing up with that mindset may actually have been more important than income... they are, in Millionaire-Next-Door-lingo, PAWs.

We do have, for this area, a "doctor house" on a lake, but it would have been $200K more nearer the coast and our community is lower cost that the neighboring big cities.

So basically, I stopped doing EM and switched to a different specialty. It took several years to adapt to the new mindset and accept this new identity, but I'm there now, and I can see myself doing this for a damn long time if for nothing else to enjoy medicine and make a little bit of a difference. I still plan to take epic trips, but epic trips don't have to be $$$$$. (Been to Islay. Would go back in a heartbeat.)

 

[bky3c]

if you have a few kids and plan to give them that “leg up” of paying for college + possibly grad school, that can literally set you back millions (accounting for the time value of money).

Yes, that's a choice that every parent has to make if they're fortunate enough to be in that position. But it is a choice, just like the big house and the fancy car are choices. Obviously a more important one, since real human beings are involved. I think if it's a carefully considered decision, there's really no wrong answer. I just hate to see some parents struggling to pay for college while making themselves miserable by staying in a job they hate. If you don't mind the work and are happy to start your kids off with free education, then I don't see a down side. This stuff is going to vary for all of us depending on what we want/need to do with our money and how painful our jobs are. Lots of decisions to be made, and lots of right answers.

 

[ERDude]

And that thing is HPM, specifically inpatient hospice, and I love it. So while I don't have to work at this point, I want to.

I'm curious, did you do an HPM fellowship or get into it in another way?

 

[dchristismi]

No fellowship. I referred enough to a local hospice that doors opened when I hinted I might be interested in learning more. I didn't really want to do palliative - I prefer the actively dying, especially those suffering enough to warrant a high level of care. I'll be certifying through the HMDCB, which is a backdoor board certification, so to speak. It was a pretty natural segue, actually.

 

[e30ftw]

I would like to be able to either retire or go part-time at 45.

EM is a job that generally takes more than it gives, unless you truly need the money.

I really like a lot of EM; ortho reductions, complicated lac repair, cardioversion, etc and actually don't really mind the nights/weekends. I don't find the work that difficult either. I actually still get a rush walking into an exploding department and just dominating it for a few hours, knowing that you're "making a difference" and etc, professional satisfaction.. I have a great job, have no regrets, and would do the same thing again probably, can just tell after 6 years of practicing EM that in another 9 I'll be ready for something else.

I'm looking forward to having less routine exposure to the cases that "stay with you." I tend to be fairly self-critical and while gallows humor and healthy compartmentalization can help a lot, I think about the bad outcomes longer than I'd like to.. sick kids, the young guy having a STEMI w dinner plate eyes where you do literally everything correctly and as fast as possible, he still dies, death notification to the crying young family, then having the case "reviewed" and even though all care was appropriate, the amount of time you've spent awake at night thinking about "what else you could've done" even though it's obvious to everyone else that there's nothing else that could've been done, ultimately makes the profession borderline unsustainable from a mental health perspective. No one really understands or appreciates it other than your partners, and they're in the same situation.

Bad cases will happen hundreds of times over the course of a career and while I'm glad to have had such intimate experience with life and death as it adds to the "richness of life", I'm ready to spend as much time as possible trying to forget about the inevitability of mortality and be blissfully ignorant of such things. Weirdly in that sense HPM would be a good transition but I've always thought that tele-med would fit better once I do retire from EM.

I want to spend a good portion of healthy life without time restrictions. EM is great for short trips but doesn't really lend itself to sabbatical type experiences unless you're only locums, which I don't really want at the moment. I want to be able to get in my truck and spend 3,6,9? months camping across the country, hiking, fishing, surfing, mtn biking, photography etc. Get on a motorcycle with no specific plan and just see where I end up. Live in Europe on the cheap for a year again. Call up my cousin who's sailing from HI to AK at the moment, fly out and sail around for an undetermined amount of time and then come back.. do the "great loop" on a small cabin cruiser. stuff like that. I'd like to get a masters or phD in music composition at some point (already have the B.S.). Also have a "low expectations" music career just for the experience.

Def keep my medical license and probably do part-time at a rural ED or tele med to stay in the game. I've had the "EM experience" and want to do "everything else" in life without restrictions for forty or so years. Currently saving ~$15k/mo and in about 9 years should have enough to withdraw $10-15k/mo for 30 years depending on future returns, which should be more than enough considering the part-time income. That's the plan anyway.

 

[BAM!]

Hope to be FI by late 40's, with continued current lifestyle. However I would like to think I will continue to work for another decade. To be fair, I never have to "dominate" the ED. My job is pretty chill and the pay is good. I still have plenty of time to get exercise, go surfing, take ski vacations, etc, except COVID ruined my IKON pass

Sure, sometimes I have a touching moment with a patient or find something about medicine interesting. But overall I enjoy the camaraderie with other physicians much more than interactions with patients. I worry that leaving the work environment may cause me to fall out of touch with life.

When I do leave medicine, in a weird way I may feel some guilt in leaving my group. But I know another young doctor will come in and fill the position. I won't have any guilt related to serving the community. I would consider dabbling in legal case review.

 

[doctalaughs]

Yes, that's a choice that every parent has to make if they're fortunate enough to be in that position. But it is a choice, just like the big house and the fancy car are choices. Obviously a more important one, since real human beings are involved. I think if it's a carefully considered decision, there's really no wrong answer. I just hate to see some parents struggling to pay for college while making themselves miserable by staying in a job they hate. If you don't mind the work and are happy to start your kids off with free education, then I don't see a down side. This stuff is going to vary for all of us depending on what we want/need to do with our money and how painful our jobs are. Lots of decisions to be made, and lots of right answers.

Agree. I don’t mind work right and honestly would be happy to be “a little miserable” for a few extra years to mean they are debt free.

That being said Given I work full time now, I can’t imagine what I would do with my time if I cut down to 50% or 30%.... so that’s the most likely path in 5-10 years rather than quitting entirely. Guess the financial piece will just be a bonus.

 

[miacomet]

Curious what peoples' number for FIRE would be? Mine would be a paid-off dream house and 2.5mm in other assets.

 

[EctopicFetus]

For me I have been aiming for FATFI (no RE). My number is no debt, paid off house and $5m in the bank.

I think leanFI is less than half that number. There was a physician on Fire article discussing the difference between financial independence and financial freedom.

Financial Independence versus Financial Freedom - Physician on FIRE

Although they are often treated as being synonymous, I see financial independence and financial freedom as two separate entities. Here's why Freedom wins.

www.physicianonfire.com

I hope to achieve FATFI which is really what he terms financial freedom.

I would like to have 150-200k in inflation protected income for the rest of my life. I could live a grand life and help my kids with that level of money.

 

[doctalaughs]

Also FatFIRE. Paid off house (almost there), funded college (70% there) and 8 mill other assets (got a ways to go- shooting for ~300k replacement income cause if I have that much time on my hands I would think my discretionary spending will go up).

 

[Hercules]

Curious what peoples' number for FIRE would be? Mine would be a paid-off dream house and 2.5mm in other assets.

I think the whole magic number thing is an interesting concept. For most of us, I don’t think it’s the total nest egg number so much as what your passive income +- safe withdrawal amount will be. So instead of a magic number, I have a combination of what that number plus other passive income should be. For me, my number after paid off mortgage is 3M in traditional investments (ETFs, mutual funds, etc) plus enough real estate, business ventures, etc to generate an additional $120-150k/yr in passive income. So using a withdrawal rate of 3-4% on the traditional investments, I’m looking for about $250k of passive income before I consider myself FATFI. If I can maintain a lot more than $120-150k/yr in passive income streams, then I may be willing to consider myself done before I have $3M in traditional investments.

 

[bravotwozero]

Curious what peoples' number for FIRE would be? Mine would be a paid-off dream house and 2.5mm in other assets.

Same here.

 

[deleted547339]

Also FatFIRE. Paid off house (almost there), funded college (70% there) and 8 mill other assets (got a ways to go- shooting for ~300k replacement income cause if I have that much time on my hands I would think my discretionary spending will go up).

Holy cow. You need 320k to live with no house payment? I mean, you do you, and I like my job and all, but I wouldn’t grace the inside of a hospital with a lot less than that.

 

[deleted859535]

I hope this will still be helpful despite my intentionally vague answers in an effort to remain anonymous.

At the risk of enraging the "retirement police," I do have to preface all of this with the following... If I were single, I'd be living my current lifestyle entirely on my investments without a problem. I've tracked my expenses for years and know for sure that I could do that with plenty of wiggle room. However, I happen to be married to a working spouse, so we're both living on his (much smaller) income while my investments grow to the point where we can both retire on them.

Net worth ~$1.75M

Region: very rural Pacific Northwest (But I did not earn the majority of my income here. For the second half of my career, I did locums, mostly in the southwest, and I had a part-time job in this area for the last year or so in addition to locums. We live here solely because we love it here.)

Investments: Vanguard Roth IRA, SEP IRA, and taxable brokerage account. Set it and forget it. I fired my financial advisor years ago. I paid off my student loans (over $300,000) 4.5 years after finishing residency, and I continued to funnel as much as possible into "buying my freedom."

Philosophically, I'm pretty much the same as WCI and PoF. The main difference I see is that they seem to spend more, or at least WCI does. I'm frugal, but not cheap, and for me, freedom for the rest of my life is worth skipping some luxuries. I pretty much buy what I want; I just don't have expensive taste, and I'm happy to DIY a lot of things. (It helps, of course, that my husband is the same way.) Some examples:
WCI's infamous $11,000 dining room table --> I bought big slabs of gorgeous local curly maple for $1500 and made a table myself
Suburban "doctor house" --> $450,000 rural house with good bones but in need of some cosmetic work on a piece of land that needed clearing but has incredible views (People who haven't been here before do a double take and then out comes the phone for photos. "Um, sir? The water pump that we called you about is over here... Sir? Excuse me?")
Heli-skiing --> trekking across Costa Rica, AirBnBs near Scotch distilleries on Islay, learning Spanish on the beach in Ecuador, etc.

Nothing against any of those more expensive options, but I knew that for me, it was more important to just get out.

You might have noticed I didn't mention kids. So yeah, we were DINK. But I don't think kids have to mean that you can't retire early. I have a friend with SIX kids in southern CA in a lower-paying specialty who is on track to retire early, too. Not quite as early, but still long before "normal" retirement age.

Side jobs: If something fun happens to pay money, great! But I'm not looking for anything just to make money.

SS: I did not count this in my "what do I need to retire" calculations. If I get anything, it'll just be a happy bonus.

Congratulations again -- hoping to also win the game early.

Just out of curiosity, did you stick to index funds and some typical allocation, 70/30 or 80/20 or 60/20/20 or something similar in your IRAs and taxable -- and did you intentionally pay off your mortgage early, or still paying it off since DINK, or..?

 

[doctalaughs]

Holy cow. You need 320k to live with no house payment? I mean, you do you, and I like my job and all, but I wouldn’t grace the inside of a hospital with a lot less than that.

Agree- don’t need, just want (maybe).

If I hit 55 and have 5 mill instead of 8 because the markets remain garbage for a decade, I wont be disappointed (and May just throw in the towel if I’m miserable at that point). However, right now I’m thinking I don’t like skiing more than 2 days a week, exercising more than an hour a day, vacationing more than 3 months a year,; kids will be out of the house, wife very independent and has her own hobbies-- what would I do with that extra time? Most likely continue to work 1-2 days a week?

And I guess that 2 mill slope-side vail condo does look nice if I can’t find a place to spend the money at that point!!! Don’t need it— but nice to have the option.

 

[miacomet]

It's pretty reasonable to get to 2.5mm in assets; for those who want fat or morbidly obese FIRE, how are you planning on getting there? I'm just not that good!

 

[bky3c]

Just out of curiosity, did you stick to index funds and some typical allocation, 70/30 or 80/20 or 60/20/20 or something similar in your IRAs and taxable -- and did you intentionally pay off your mortgage early, or still paying it off since DINK, or..?

Yep, index funds at 75/25 overall. Paid cash for the house a few years ago.

 

[turkeyjerky]

It's pretty reasonable to get to 2.5mm in assets; for those who want fat or morbidly obese FIRE, how are you planning on getting there? I'm just not that good!

I'm aiming for 4mm, in order to achieve a 2.5% swr of 100k/yr. I don't think assuming a 4% swr is a good move, but I tend to be a little conservative.

I'm 35, and I think my net worth is about 1mm +/- 100k after the recent market drop. I'm invested in index funds w/ an 80/20 distribution, assuming a doubling time of 10 yrs, if I can contribute 8k a month on average, I get to 4 mm in 12 years.

I don't own, but I'll probably buy in a year or two. Probably do a 10 yr mortgage. If I spend 4k a month on the house, and living expenses average 6k a month, I can get there w/ an annual income of 324k.

 

[doctalaughs]

It's pretty reasonable to get to 2.5mm in assets; for those who want fat or morbidly obese FIRE, how are you planning on getting there? I'm just not that good!

I don’t think there’s any mystery to morbidly obese FIRE (which I guess my plan would fall into). Save 100-150k per year for 25+ years (And don’t invest stupidly, use all tax shelters available) and you are easily there - even assuming a real return of 5-6% accounting for inflation.

 

[miacomet]

I don’t think there’s any mystery to morbidly obese FIRE (which I guess my plan would fall into). Save 100-150k per year for 25+ years (And don’t invest stupidly, use all tax shelters available) and you are easily there - even assuming a real return of 5-6% accounting for inflation.

That's a LOOONG ER career....

 

[RustedFox]

That's a LOOONG ER career....

He's derm.

 

[miacomet]

He's derm.

Yeah....

 

[doctalaughs]

Yeah....

I could see a high acuity specialty with nights like EM being very hard to log 25 years....

The oldest Derm practicing I knew was 91. Of course he was kinda losing his marbles— probably missed a bunch of melanomas and forgot to check labs for his immunosuppressive drugs — but he probably was just fine up to age 85 and came to work with a smile on his face (not that I’m aiming for that).

 

[Brigade4Radiant]

So anyone thinking of practicing over 20 years?

 

[Dr Mantis Toboggan]

So anyone thinking of practicing over 20 years?

I’m almost 17 years out. Probably have another 10 at least left in me.

 

[EctopicFetus]

It's pretty reasonable to get to 2.5mm in assets; for those who want fat or morbidly obese FIRE, how are you planning on getting there? I'm just not that good!

For me, good job, aggressive saving and safe but appropriate investing.

 

[EctopicFetus]

I'm aiming for 4mm, in order to achieve a 2.5% swr of 100k/yr. I don't think assuming a 4% swr is a good move, but I tend to be a little conservative.

I'm 35, and I think my net worth is about 1mm +/- 100k after the recent market drop. I'm invested in index funds w/ an 80/20 distribution, assuming a doubling time of 10 yrs, if I can contribute 8k a month on average, I get to 4 mm in 12 years.

I don't own, but I'll probably buy in a year or two. Probably do a 10 yr mortgage. If I spend 4k a month on the house, and living expenses average 6k a month, I can get there w/ an annual income of 324k.

the SWR you can use depends on when you plan to retire (years in retirement) and your risk tolerance a 4% rate at age 60 is pretty safe.. heck if you only return inflation you have 25 years worth of money not including social security. I think the longer your horizon the lower you can place your SWR. I think if you retire at 50 or more 4% SWR is safe.

 

[EctopicFetus]

So anyone thinking of practicing over 20 years?

Im 11 years out and I hope to practice for another 15-20. I still really like my job. My goal was to have freedom and use some of the money to get a better schedule. Paying others to work nights (I worked nights for years when I started), not needing to work, working less etc.

 

[Interpolfanclub]

I've been out 10 years and feel like I could easily do another 10. I've also got a great job so that helps. I've started putting extra money into passive real estate partnerships. I plan on doing at least a min of 50k per year into those and compounded over 10 years would easily have enough cash flow to quit if I want. I like the cash flow and tax bene of passive RE.

 

[deleted547339]

What would you do with a million dollars?

Two chicks at the same time.

 

[Apollyon]

What would you do with a million dollars?

Two chicks at the same time.

Thank you, Lawrence!

"That's what I would do!"

 

[deleted547339]

Thank you, Lawrence!

"That's what I would do!"

The kinda chicks that would double up on a guy like me do.

 

[suckstobeme]

I've started putting extra money into passive real estate partnerships. I plan on doing at least a min of 50k per year into those and compounded over 10 years would easily have enough cash flow to quit if I want. I like the cash flow and tax bene of passive RE.

What are these passive real estate partnerships? How are you finding them? I'd it like the crowdfunded real estate websites?