Sep 09
Burnout and Finance I was recently asked to speak to a bunch of medical residents about my story of burnout and my general philosophy on finance and life. I declined for a variety of reasons, but upon reflection I realized that this was a topic I had not addressed. This is really important stuff, and …
Apr 30
As an evangelist of part-time work for physicians, I occasionally get an e-mail from a physician reader asking if cutting back on work is the right move for them. Often times they are early in their training, and I’m not sure how to respond. I feel conflicted. I know what is right for me, but …
Nov 01
The purpose of doing an experiment is to learn something about yourself, and to see if there is an opportunity for growth or positive change. I started the Buy Nothing 2018 experiment with this in mind. It started with a no clothes challenge, but since I had plenty of clothes I didn’t think this would …
Jun 03
I am 5/12th of the way through my buy nothing experiment I started at the beginning of the year. In short, I have decided to be more deliberate about my consumption and buy things only when they meet certain criteria as I described in this blog post. As I progress I am starting to …
May 14
How to make financial mistakes and still achieve financial freedom I love to read blogs about personal finance, especially as they relate to financial independence and early retirement. When I was going through burnout very early in my radiology career, much of the inspiration, tools and tactics I used came from stories of ordinary …
May 03
Failure The problem with a buy nothing experiment where only one member of the family is participating (me) is that many of the purchasing decisions are really made by the family (and by family I mean Mrs. Happy Philosopher). Sometimes it is hard to assign a purchase to one person or the other. I could …
Apr 05
I’m a little late with the March update because I just got back from spring vacation. It was a great time and we spent plenty of money, but none of it was on ‘stuff’. All of the money we spent was on transportation, food and experiences. Knowing I would not be buying anything this trip, …
Mar 13
Today I have a case study that delves into many important questions about early retirement, financial freedom and the morality of work. I started interacting with this doc via email and knew I needed to use his case as a starting point for many issues I’ve been wanting to write about for a while now. …
Mar 04
I was a bit groggy and tired from a long day of work the day before, and I had not yet had my coffee when Mrs. Happy Philosopher greeted me with a colorful bag with decorative paper sticking out of the top. Mrs. HP: “I got you a birthday present.” HP: “But it’s not …
Feb 01
Buy Nothing January Update Well January is over, and my buy nothing experiment is approximately 1 month old. You may remember this started as a buy no clothes for 2018 experiment, but after reflecting upon it I thought it was just too easy. After taking inventory I realized I had enough clothes to last …
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