Fawcett’s Favorites 6-7-21

Each week I run into a few articles that I feel are especially valuable. Every Monday I would like to share some of the best with you, my readers. I hope you find them helpful.

This week’s favorites include how one doctor was scammed buying gold, when to stop reinvesting dividends, young doctors are more likely to opt into becoming employees (bad trend), how our jobs are killing us, and how to enjoy frugal living.

Happy reading!

Scams are everywhere. Scammers contact me every day with wonderful opportunities through my email accounts, mailbox, website, home phone, cell phone, texts, social media… Most of the time it is easy to spot scam artists, but some of them slip by the radar. Some of them have even asked to write a free article to post on my blog, if I will only let them inset a few special links in the article. They say they “…can write on any topic of your choice. I assure you that the content will be unique, worth-reading, and informative, and your readers will enjoy reading it.” XRAYVSN let one sleazy scammer slip by his radar and shares his story via Physician on FIRE as a guest post on how he was scammed buying gold. I hope you never get scammed, but odds are you will someday when your guard is down.

All of the investments in my retirement plans have the “reinvest dividends” box checked. After reading this article by FiPhysician, I am rethinking that choice. Should I reinvest dividends now that I am retired? I am now at the point of spending my money rather than saving it. So if I don’t have the dividends reinvested, I can easily spend the money as I don’t need to first sell an investment to get money. What do you think? (FiPhysician is on my list of recommended flat fee financial advisors.)

A trend sweeping the medical field is the move from owning your practice to being owned as an employee. Young doctors, who don’t know any better, are falling into the mistaken belief that they will have more stability and a better work-life balance if they become an employee. I remember one doctor told me he wanted to become an employed physician because it was easier to change jobs than if he joined a partnership. He was already planning to change jobs before he even started. Medscape shares with us their data and thoughts as to why More and More Doctors are Abandoning Private Practice. Before you consider this move, read my article on Five Disadvantages of Being an Employee. I’m not sure how much longer this trend will continue before doctors become fed up with administrators telling them how to practice medicine. 

We all know being a physician is a tough job. The Darwinian Doctor shares some actual statistics of how hard it really is in How Our Jobs are Killing Us. Lack of sleep, high stress, no time to exercise, eating on the run, lack of family time, etc., all add up to bad health. What are you doing to combat these forces in your medical practice? The Darwinian Doctor shares some helpful ideas.

Everyone wants to have a huge pile of money in their savings account, but no one wants to live on less than they make in order to save it. The thought of frugal living brings up notions of peanut butter and Top Ramen. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Five Year Fire Escape share with us how Everyone is Doing Frugal Living Wrong. Have you tried frugal living? My wife is my greatest financial asset and we have lived on half or less of our income since we got married and no one has accused us of living frugally, even back when we made less than $50,000 a year. You can still live a nice life living on much less than you make, if you do it right and avoid debt.

I hope you enjoy these articles as much as I did. I look forward to updating you again next week with a few more articles I find especially interesting. If you read an especially good article, send me the link so I can share it with others.