You vs you - how far have you come in 10 years

[emergentmd]

Great post...just wondering how you can spend 500k on a remodel, or was that a typo?

Def not a typo. I am looking at a 3-400K remodel on a vaca home this month.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[em1234]

Good on the OP for starting this thread. It was a fun exercise to look back and take a moment of gratitude for my younger self for putting in the work to get us to where we are now, because honestly, current me would not be able to shoulder the same load.

2013 - 2nd year as an attending. 230,000 in loans. stay at home spouse who was in the middle of her PhD and kids were 4 and 3 with another one about to arrive. working alot (16-20 8 or 12h shifts depending on how much coverage we could find on any given day) at an understaffed SDG in the mid atlantic for average to slightly below average money for the area and criminally below what could be had elsewhere. Add in our moderately HCOL surroundings and my suboptimal pay we realized that we were never going to reach the financial goals we wanted so we decided to follow a friend from residency to Texas for hot humid summers and the hopes of a pile of cash.

2023- I doubled my pay overnight and by the highest point of my earnings was making 3x my old pay. I realized early on that being an emergency physician is like being poorly paid professional athlete. I knew I couldn't ride this pony forever, got really into the FIRE philosophy and though I'm thankful I made hay earlier in my career, I probably should have struck a healthier balance. In the subsequent 10y, we eclipsed all the wealth milestones we thought out of reach in our old situation. Aided by a minority share ownership in a FSED group (that has been the best financial decision of my life), we have a current net worth 3 million, just boring index funds and bonds. Loans-gone. bought a forever home with about 150k left on the mortgage but at 2.5% we are in no rush to pay it off. All 3 kids 529's have more than enough for any state school plus a decent amount of grad school. our old rust bucket cars replaced with real cars, all paid off. Moving to a LCOL city and working/overworking really set us up for a brighter future. As the FSEDs were getting off the ground, for about 2 years, I was basically working 200h/mo. All that lost time with my young family still gnaws at me. I really wish I had been better about prioritizing the little holidays. I missed so many birthdays, school performances, sporting events. If I have any advice to the younger generation, it is to make it an absolute priority to be off for as many of these little life events as possible. This career inherently requires the sacrifice of personal time, nights and holidays but don't miss more than you have to. I remember thinking when my kids were little and I would get scheduled on their birthday, "meh, he's 3, he doesn't know it's his birthday, we'll do it tomorrow." This logic was misguided and stupid. Take the time, make the time, they won't be little forever and it goes by in a blink. When the kids ask why I'm never in any of the pictures from when they were little, I always so I took the picture, but odds are I was at work arguing with some hospitalist, or getting yelled at by a meth head, or even treating some really nice person who was really appreciative and thankful...the point is, it doesn't matter. I don't remember what I was doing or what patient I saw, all I remember is that I wasn't home to be there. These are the trade offs we all have to make as physician parents, I just hope you all do a better job than I did to make a few less trades.

Now with our kids older 14, 12, 9, my wife got bored with brunching and peloton and went back to work as an executive in her field last year which enabled me to cut back some. I've picked up some nonclinical utilization review work to fill part of my off days. It's not sexy, but the pay is decent, and it has the potential to be a remote work second act career, but my main focus has just been making up for lost time. My oldest son, for whom I harbor the greatest sense of regret about missing his near entire childhood, was born 1 mo into intern year. I blinked and suddenly he was 3, residency was over and we were moving to my first job. blinked again and he was 6 and we were moving to Texas, one more blink and he was 10. In 2019, my wife and I considered having me cut back to 8 shifts per mo and then that little pandemic hit, no cutting back then, blink and here we are. Finally cutting back in 2022 has been amazing. It's freed up time for me to be a much more present and involved parent. My son plays AAU for a highly competitive traveling national basketball team and I always make sure I am off to travel with him. I feel like we've made up for a lot of that lost time, exploring new cities together while he plays the game he loves with his friends. It is my greatest joy just to be a proud smiling supportive face in the background of these memories that he will cherish forever. I do the same for my daughter and youngest son, but thankfully their volleyball and baseball teams are local, otherwise I might have to go back to work just to afford my children's activities.

Again, thanks to the OP for this thread, and may we all continue to thrive and prosper together and hopefully be able to do another update in 2033.
-1234

 

[WilcoWorld]

Def not a typo. I am looking at a 3-400K remodel on a vaca home this month.

Well you are living LARGE, does MTV still do Cribs? Sounds like they oughtta hit you up!

 

[cyanide12345678]

Good on the OP for starting this thread. It was a fun exercise to look back and take a moment of gratitude for my younger self for putting in the work to get us to where we are now, because honestly, current me would not be able to shoulder the same load.

2013 - 2nd year as an attending. 230,000 in loans. stay at home spouse who was in the middle of her PhD and kids were 4 and 3 with another one about to arrive. working alot (16-20 8 or 12h shifts depending on how much coverage we could find on any given day) at an understaffed SDG in the mid atlantic for average to slightly below average money for the area and criminally below what could be had elsewhere. Add in our moderately HCOL surroundings and my suboptimal pay we realized that we were never going to reach the financial goals we wanted so we decided to follow a friend from residency to Texas for hot humid summers and the hopes of a pile of cash.

2023- I doubled my pay overnight and by the highest point of my earnings was making 3x my old pay. I realized early on that being an emergency physician is like being poorly paid professional athlete. I knew I couldn't ride this pony forever, got really into the FIRE philosophy and though I'm thankful I made hay earlier in my career, I probably should have struck a healthier balance. In the subsequent 10y, we eclipsed all the wealth milestones we thought out of reach in our old situation. Aided by a minority share ownership in a FSED group (that has been the best financial decision of my life), we have a current net worth 3 million, just boring index funds and bonds. Loans-gone. bought a forever home with about 150k left on the mortgage but at 2.5% we are in no rush to pay it off. All 3 kids 529's have more than enough for any state school plus a decent amount of grad school. our old rust bucket cars replaced with real cars, all paid off. Moving to a LCOL city and working/overworking really set us up for a brighter future. As the FSEDs were getting off the ground, for about 2 years, I was basically working 200h/mo. All that lost time with my young family still gnaws at me. I really wish I had been better about prioritizing the little holidays. I missed so many birthdays, school performances, sporting events. If I have any advice to the younger generation, it is to make it an absolute priority to be off for as many of these little life events as possible. This career inherently requires the sacrifice of personal time, nights and holidays but don't miss more than you have to. I remember thinking when my kids were little and I would get scheduled on their birthday, "meh, he's 3, he doesn't know it's his birthday, we'll do it tomorrow." This logic was misguided and stupid. Take the time, make the time, they won't be little forever and it goes by in a blink. When the kids ask why I'm never in any of the pictures from when they were little, I always so I took the picture, but odds are I was at work arguing with some hospitalist, or getting yelled at by a meth head, or even treating some really nice person who was really appreciative and thankful...the point is, it doesn't matter. I don't remember what I was doing or what patient I saw, all I remember is that I wasn't home to be there. These are the trade offs we all have to make as physician parents, I just hope you all do a better job than I did to make a few less trades.

Now with our kids older 14, 12, 9, my wife got bored with brunching and peloton and went back to work as an executive in her field last year which enabled me to cut back some. I've picked up some nonclinical utilization review work to fill part of my off days. It's not sexy, but the pay is decent, and it has the potential to be a remote work second act career, but my main focus has just been making up for lost time. My oldest son, for whom I harbor the greatest sense of regret about missing his near entire childhood, was born 1 mo into intern year. I blinked and suddenly he was 3, residency was over and we were moving to my first job. blinked again and he was 6 and we were moving to Texas, one more blink and he was 10. In 2019, my wife and I considered having me cut back to 8 shifts per mo and then that little pandemic hit, no cutting back then, blink and here we are. Finally cutting back in 2022 has been amazing. It's freed up time for me to be a much more present and involved parent. My son plays AAU for a highly competitive traveling national basketball team and I always make sure I am off to travel with him. I feel like we've made up for a lot of that lost time, exploring new cities together while he plays the game he loves with his friends. It is my greatest joy just to be a proud smiling supportive face in the background of these memories that he will cherish forever. I do the same for my daughter and youngest son, but thankfully their volleyball and baseball teams are local, otherwise I might have to go back to work just to afford my children's activities.

Again, thanks to the OP for this thread, and may we all continue to thrive and prosper together and hopefully be able to do another update in 2033.
-1234

This sounds wonderful. Im actually toying with going part time too - 10 monthly shifts. My wife is definitely going part time to 27 weekly hours in 5-6 months.

I thought i was going to cut back in 2 years after hitting 2M net worth, but honestly, what’s the point of all this money now that i mostly already have everything i need. I might do it much earlier and just be a better parent and husband - i know i could definitely use improvement in both of those life aspects.

So i think I’m going somewhat part time by end of the year. Maybe that can be my birthday gift to myself and maybe I’ll start liking work more.

 

[emergentmd]

Well you are living LARGE, does MTV still do Cribs? Sounds like they oughtta hit you up!

Its an investment property/gut job and we are adding 1000sqft which at a modest $200/sqft is already 200K. But I am hopeful that it will add 5-700K in value. I keep telling myself to not take on any more big projects but I actually enjoy the process.

 

[emergentmd]

Good on the OP for starting this thread. It was a fun exercise to look back and take a moment of gratitude for my younger self for putting in the work to get us to where we are now, because honestly, current me would not be able to shoulder the same load.

2013 - 2nd year as an attending. 230,000 in loans. stay at home spouse who was in the middle of her PhD and kids were 4 and 3 with another one about to arrive. working alot (16-20 8 or 12h shifts depending on how much coverage we could find on any given day) at an understaffed SDG in the mid atlantic for average to slightly below average money for the area and criminally below what could be had elsewhere. Add in our moderately HCOL surroundings and my suboptimal pay we realized that we were never going to reach the financial goals we wanted so we decided to follow a friend from residency to Texas for hot humid summers and the hopes of a pile of cash.

2023- I doubled my pay overnight and by the highest point of my earnings was making 3x my old pay. I realized early on that being an emergency physician is like being poorly paid professional athlete. I knew I couldn't ride this pony forever, got really into the FIRE philosophy and though I'm thankful I made hay earlier in my career, I probably should have struck a healthier balance. In the subsequent 10y, we eclipsed all the wealth milestones we thought out of reach in our old situation. Aided by a minority share ownership in a FSED group (that has been the best financial decision of my life), we have a current net worth 3 million, just boring index funds and bonds. Loans-gone. bought a forever home with about 150k left on the mortgage but at 2.5% we are in no rush to pay it off. All 3 kids 529's have more than enough for any state school plus a decent amount of grad school. our old rust bucket cars replaced with real cars, all paid off. Moving to a LCOL city and working/overworking really set us up for a brighter future. As the FSEDs were getting off the ground, for about 2 years, I was basically working 200h/mo. All that lost time with my young family still gnaws at me. I really wish I had been better about prioritizing the little holidays. I missed so many birthdays, school performances, sporting events. If I have any advice to the younger generation, it is to make it an absolute priority to be off for as many of these little life events as possible. This career inherently requires the sacrifice of personal time, nights and holidays but don't miss more than you have to. I remember thinking when my kids were little and I would get scheduled on their birthday, "meh, he's 3, he doesn't know it's his birthday, we'll do it tomorrow." This logic was misguided and stupid. Take the time, make the time, they won't be little forever and it goes by in a blink. When the kids ask why I'm never in any of the pictures from when they were little, I always so I took the picture, but odds are I was at work arguing with some hospitalist, or getting yelled at by a meth head, or even treating some really nice person who was really appreciative and thankful...the point is, it doesn't matter. I don't remember what I was doing or what patient I saw, all I remember is that I wasn't home to be there. These are the trade offs we all have to make as physician parents, I just hope you all do a better job than I did to make a few less trades.

Now with our kids older 14, 12, 9, my wife got bored with brunching and peloton and went back to work as an executive in her field last year which enabled me to cut back some. I've picked up some nonclinical utilization review work to fill part of my off days. It's not sexy, but the pay is decent, and it has the potential to be a remote work second act career, but my main focus has just been making up for lost time. My oldest son, for whom I harbor the greatest sense of regret about missing his near entire childhood, was born 1 mo into intern year. I blinked and suddenly he was 3, residency was over and we were moving to my first job. blinked again and he was 6 and we were moving to Texas, one more blink and he was 10. In 2019, my wife and I considered having me cut back to 8 shifts per mo and then that little pandemic hit, no cutting back then, blink and here we are. Finally cutting back in 2022 has been amazing. It's freed up time for me to be a much more present and involved parent. My son plays AAU for a highly competitive traveling national basketball team and I always make sure I am off to travel with him. I feel like we've made up for a lot of that lost time, exploring new cities together while he plays the game he loves with his friends. It is my greatest joy just to be a proud smiling supportive face in the background of these memories that he will cherish forever. I do the same for my daughter and youngest son, but thankfully their volleyball and baseball teams are local, otherwise I might have to go back to work just to afford my children's activities.

Again, thanks to the OP for this thread, and may we all continue to thrive and prosper together and hopefully be able to do another update in 2033.
-1234

Docs with young kids should read this. You eventually will have $$$, but you can never make up lost time. I have 3 kids and almost never missed any school/kiddie events. My schedule revolves around my family. I am starting to cut down from 6x24hrs shifts to 4-6x12 hr shifts. Told my kids that I am cutting down and my daughter said, "but you don't work much now". I can't think of a bigger compliment.