I hope you will pardon the diversion. But let’s face it, I’m on vacation. So wailing away on the wall of wealth building and and travel hacking is quite simply not in the cards right now. I would feel too much like one of those sad souls doing Excel spreadsheets poolside in his beach chair. […]
Archive | March, 2014
Poisonous Luxury
One of the themes of the early retirement philosophy is that the pursuit of luxury is fraught with danger. And I think that there is a lot of truth to this. On one hand life is a precious resource, and I can see nothing wrong with squeezing a little extra pleasure out of it. (I’m […]
Feline Indulgence
There are many different ways of spinning the early retirement lifestyle. For some, (I will call them the fundamentalists,) it is an ethical question. Dramatically paring down your lifestyle to something reasonable is a moral imperative. And wasteful spending and consumerism are not just stupid, they are morally wrong. They contribute to the impending doom […]
White Coat Face Off: Social Security
This is the second in a series of posts looking critically at an excellent counterargument to early retirement from The White Coat Investor. The first article in the series can be found here. Today’s argument deals with the variable value of Social Security. The first part of the argument is this: For some bizarre reason, […]
Unloading
I had a great conversation today with Brad over at richmondsavers.com. He was kind enough to offer me some great advice on my plans to retrofit the architecture of this site. As miles game geeks are wont to do, we of course got to talking about credit card offers, and manufactured spending, and the whole […]
Excuse Me
Friends, I write a daily post on this blog for one main reason. Because I love to write (and exchange ideas.) Incidentally, this is also why I have not yet done all of the things on my to do list for the blog. (Like adding social media links and contact info, building up a twitter […]
White Coat Faceoff: Too Much Saving?
One of my favorite websites, and one that I have not mentioned here previously, is The White Coat Investor. This is a financial site written by an emergency room physician, James Dahle MD. It’s a niche site to be sure, focused on providing financial advice for physicians. But I think it’s applicability extends far beyond […]
Zero Sum Game
I am very lucky. When I joined a private practice cardiology group 4.5 years ago fresh out of fellowship I joined a good one. I work with a great collection of doctors and practitioners of all different stripes. And I know that we do a very good job of taking care of our patients, and […]
High Roller’s Churn
Friend of the blog Bronx Dave is thinking about buying a house in the near future. He has taken up rock ‘n roll drumming, you see, and wishes to rent out his townhouse, and move into a single-family detached house because he feels empathy for his increasingly shellshocked neighbor. Because of this ambition he will […]
Penny Wise and Pound Foolish
A fundamental truth about me that you may have picked up on is that I love pizza. In fact I’m obsessed with pizza. There is something elemental about the satisfaction of sinking your teeth through a thin veneer of crispy charred crust encompassing a springy and open crumb redolent with sourdough aroma, topped with a […]
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