Female Physicians – B.C. Krygowski

FIRE is Boring: Redefining what Retirement Means

“The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.” – Allan K. Chalmers

Boredom, Isolation, and Loneliness of FIRING During a Global Pandemic:

In August 2019, we moved to Gainesville, Florida, to give our boys a more rural upbringing, etc. In early 2020, we sensed possible danger on the horizon and quickly moved up our home purchasing plan. So we looked at the sparse real estate inventory and bought a house.

Just as we settled in, COVID-19 hit. We hunkered down, self-isolating because my husband’s a front-line doc. We didn’t want to unknowingly spread Covid.

Never before had I felt this socially isolated. We were in a new city with a tiny support network. For a social introvert like myself, the extreme social deprivation due to self-isolating was beyond tough. I was going stir-crazy and desperately craved human interaction.

‘Living the dream’ of FIRE isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Even with our hands full with young kids, quasi-retirement turned out to be boring during our period of prolonged self-isolation.

Only with this realization did I understand why some actual older retired folks without hobbies or many friends are bored out of their minds. (Though, in retrospect, I realize maybe they’re not self-aware enough to understand that what they’re doing is acting out their boredom…).

It was only after I made the excruciating decision to return to work that I realized I yearned to be back with my doctor community. They were in the trenches and I wasn’t.

Defining Wealth for Women by Bonnie Koo, MD: A Book Review

Bonnie Koo, MD of Wealthy Mom MD has written a finance book for females. Before I tell you about my book review, let me tell you about Dr. Koo. She’s a board-certified dermatologist best known for being passionate about teaching personal finance strategies designed specifically for women physicians since 2016. Dr. Koo has gone on to become a certified life coach with The Life Coach School.

I’ve been so excited for years for this book to come out because I knew she had a great money book for women—and the specific challenges women face with money—in her. So I eagerly loaded Dr. Koo’s book up the first chance I got and listened to it while driving from Tampa to Gainesville.

How I Lost my Covid-15 pounds

People much wiser than myself recommend picking a word for each year. After the dumpster fire of 2020, I decided the word I needed for 2021 was HEALTH. I even wrote it across the top of our wall sized, yearly planner in big, block letters.

At the start of COVID, I stress-lost weight, then immediately gained back more than double. Going into 2021, I was determined to fit back into my clothes again (it’s frightening how living in one pair of yoga pants (or scrubs) lends itself to not realizing you can’t fit into the rest of your wardrobe!).

Here’s the list of things that helped me finally lose weight by the end of 2021. I hope you can find some helpful tips in case, like me, you’d prefer to start using the rest of your wardrobe again:

The Benefits of Investing in a Solo Parent-Child Trip

You thought the ending to the title was going to be “…Solo 401k” didn’t you? That’s where DH (Dear Husband) thought this was going when I told him about this blog post. I pointed out that a Solo Parent-Child trip is actually more valuable than a 401k. For the myriad reasons why read on in time for a “Mother’s Day” type blog post. Continue reading “The Benefits of Investing in a Solo Parent-Child Trip”

How to Get a Good Price on a Vehicle (Without a Male Accompanying You)

The fact I even have to add that second part onto the title tells you how far our misogynistic society has yet to change. You see, I recently went out and purchased a truck by myself for our family. Posting about this on social media caused quite the flurry. “You went alone? What was that like? How did you do it? Why didn’t your husband go with you—are you guys not getting along?”

This last question is probably still lingering in people’s heads as I’ve been writing this post while traveling in the U.K. with my son (when childcare falls through, you make lemonade. Or change a trip to your sister’s wedding into a mother-son one like I did). So to reiterate what I posted on social media: DH and I are just fine. Actually, we’re better than ever, but that’s a subject of a future post about how awesome FIRE can be for a marriage.

To get back to the matter at hand, it’s possible for a female to not only buy a vehicle by herself but to get an excellent price on it as well. Continue reading “How to Get a Good Price on a Vehicle (Without a Male Accompanying You)”

Why “Forever Home” Should be Removed from our Vocabulary

I know the White Coat Investor advocates for the One House rule. However, there are times when it may be to your financial—or otherwise—benefit to move. Continue reading “Why “Forever Home” Should be Removed from our Vocabulary”

A Physician Comes Clean

Or maybe this blog title should be: How I have time to type so much nonsense into the computer and an update on our search for financial freedom (hint: we completed our quest!).
First, with all I juggle, I don’t feel like I have oodles of spare time—I think I am barely hanging on. But my Dragon Lady (my secret weapon about whom I’ll write in the future) instructed me to tell you all more about myself. And maybe some of my weird quirks can help you achieve your financial goals. So here is my confession:

Continue reading “A Physician Comes Clean”

Becoming the Change I Want to See: #OwnVoices Movement

I was bombing as a medical educator, and I knew it.

Five days a week I was teaching Fellows how to navigate the inpatient hospice world, but I was still failing these about-to-graduate physicians. Some had up to $650,000 in student loan debt, but I was sending them on their way to attending-hood without the real education they needed to survive long term.

Continue reading “Becoming the Change I Want to See: #OwnVoices Movement”