Eight Years Retired from Surgery 

(Keep an eye out for my upcoming book The Doctors Guide to Finding Joy in Your Work. We can all use a little more joy in our lives and this book will help you attain it.)

This month marks eight years since I left the hospital as a working physician for the last time. At age 54, even though my wife, the accountant, assured me we were financially ready for retirement, I wondered if we had enough passive income and retirement savings to meet our needs for the rest of our lives. I also wondered if I would miss surgery.

Today, I know the answer to those questions, and it’s better than I imagined. Here is a look into what transpired during my eighth year of retirement.

My Psyche

One of my biggest concerns when I stopped working was missing the operating room. I loved surgery. I did not leave medicine because I didn’t like it, I left because I wanted new adventures while I was still young and healthy enough to enjoy them. The worry that I might miss surgery was heavy on my mind. Surprisingly, missing surgery never surfaced as an issue. 

The wise council I got before I retired was to create a new purpose to occupy my time. I spoke in depth about this in my book, The Doctors Guide to Smart Career Alternatives and Retirement. I believe having a purpose was a life saver for me. 

Even though I stay busy, I especially enjoy the flexibility of dropping everything when an interesting opportunity arises. When our kids need us to watch the grandchildren at the last minute, or I decide to pop over to my parent’s house for a visit, or someone asks if we want to go on a trip with them, I’m glad I can say yes. 

My mission

I have been teaching personal finance for decades, and I have turned my passion for personal finance into a part-time business. I began by publishing The Doctors Guide series. These books have become bestsellers and have won several awards, one of which was non-fiction book of the year. 

This month I will publish the sixth book in the series, The Doctors Guide to Finding Joy in Your Work. Many of the test readers feel this is my best book. All of us can use a little more joy in our lives and this book walks through a new method of finding joy both at work and at home.

Publishing a blog article each Thursday has kept me busy. My online courses, The Doctors Course to Automating Your Real Estate Investments, and The Doctors Course to Thriving in Locum Tenens, continue to change lives.  

My favorite activity is one-on-one coaching. It is so rewarding when the person on the other end of the phone has major breakthroughs as we work together each week. 

One thing I did not anticipate was how effective my High Performance Coaching program is in stopping burnout and improving careers. Clarity, courage, and influence are key factors to fighting burnout and finding direction. 

I gave five lectures last year and have two booked already for this year.

My Finances

The real estate investment cash flow from our four apartment buildings (55 rental units) has continued to climb and provide more income than we need. You can read all about creating passive income from rentals in my book, The Doctors Guide to Real Estate Investing for Busy Professionals. Because of this income, we have stopped accessing our retirement funds. Those funds will now continue to grow knowing we can take any amount out at any time now that I am passed 59 ½ years old.

Since we stopped accessing those funds, which we had used to pay our income taxes once a year, we started paying quarterly tax estimates. 

Now that we know we have plenty of money for the rest of our lives, we have significantly increased our giving. Last year we gave away more than 50% of our income. I wrote about the difference between what I projected my retirement income would be by 2023 vs what I actual received. It was crazy to learn that we currently earn more money from our investments than what I projected ten years earlier.

Many people mistakenly think I make a fortune from Financial Success MD. I have never run this business as a source of income. That is why you see very few ads on my website. The purpose of this business is to give me a purpose, not to finance my retirement. My aim has always been for the business to pay for itself, and that has been what it has done. It is funny how many people say I do well financially in my retirement years because I make money telling people how to do well in their retirement years. That is clearly an incorrect assumption. My retirement is fully financed by the investments I made during my working years.

Travel

Since I retired, we have traveled to many places each year and we have visited more than two dozen countries. Lately though, our travel desires have changed with the introduction of our two grandsons. 

We decided to provide daycare for our grandkids.  I wrote of the incredible economic benefit derived by having free grandparent childcare in How a Father Can Make His Kids Millionaires. Since our daughter-in-law works for the school district, childcare is only needed during the school year. Thus, we have stopped snow birding in the winter until our grandkids are in school full time. The bulk of our travel has moved to the summer.

We used our timeshare week to trade for five weeks of travel last year as well as giving away a couple of weeks of vacations to friends. We went to nearby Klamath Falls, Oregon for a week, and spent a week in San Francisco. During the summer we spent a month traveling in the New England States and did a week each in the Berkshires of western Connecticut, New Hampshire and Cape Cod. After the three timeshare weeks, we got on a small cruise ship and explored the islands south of Rhode Island. If you are interested in learning how we get multiple timeshare vacation weeks out of the single week we own, check out my book, A Guide to Loving Your Timeshare. This provides the instructions you never got when you bought your timeshare.

We also brought the family together for a week in Sun River, Oregon, in a large vacation home we rented. 

Our big adventure last year was riding our bicycles for two months across America from San Diego, California, to St. Augustine, Florida. My son Keith, my brother-in-law Paul, and I rode our bicycles, while my wife drove the support vehicle. My blogs in April and May of 2024 tell the story in full as it happened.

Exciting new changes during my eighth year of retirement

My wife and I have begun walking again. When we were in Sun River in August, I went for a walk with my daughter-in-law and realized how out of shape I was compared to when we walked 450 miles across Spain in 2019. We are now walking four miles 4 times a week. So, for 2025, my wife and I have set a goal to walk 2,025 miles before the end of the year. We are currently ahead of schedule. Having a goal inspires us to get out and walk more. We are egging each other on.

In September we refurbished our pickleball court. I have only dabbled at pickleball over the years. I got inspired by the new court and began to take pickleball seriously this year. I am now playing for several hours a week as well as taking lessons. I expect to be playing in tournaments by summer. 

I wanted to return to playing music, so over the last couple of years I have added over 100 songs to my repertoire. I pulled the trigger and began singing and playing piano at local events. It is so fun to have people singing along with me as I play. 

Last fall I took a role in a musical as one of the singers in a quartet in the play. The play was written by a local playwright. The playwright and I discussed my book writing, and my song writing and thought it was time to put those skills together to author my own musical. So, I have joined a group of writers who inspire each other. I’m hoping to have my musical finished by year end. Not surprisingly, my play will be about a workaholic surgeon.

The Future

I plan to continue to use my time writing/teaching/coaching/speaking about personal finance. Helping doctors achieve financial success and avoid burnout brings joy and purpose to my life. But I will also take time to enjoy my grandkids, play the piano at events, and write a musical.

Next summer we plan to use our motorhome on short trips. This will allow us to take several camping trips with the grandkids, and it also keeps me close to home to play piano at more gigs.

If your retirement goes anything like mine, it will be better than you anticipate. Your plans will evolve, so just go with it. When you believe you have enough money to retire, trust that you do. Travel does not cost nearly as much as you think it will, and the freedom to come and go as you please is wonderful. 

Before you pull the trigger, please read The Doctors Guide to Smart Career Alternatives and Retirement. It will help make your transition into retirement a smooth one.