Below you'll find a list of all posts from July, 2020
It was the day after Father’s Day, and we’d chosen a park for an outdoor, bring your own lunch picnic. It was 80 degrees and piercing California light, but we scouted some secluded bleachers beneath an awning that promised reprieve from the sun and sufficient space to maintain social distancing. There was a 100 yard walk along a 30 degree …
I continue to read the 2018 edition of Reducing The Risk Of Black Swans by Swedroe and Grogan, and I’m thoroughly enjoying the intellectual exercise. Today, I’ll share my latest A-ha moment.When designing a portfolio, we often use the terms risk tolerance or risk aversion. The caveat to using these terms is that investors don’t have a terrific way of …
Uncharacteristically wet morning in late June, more than drizzle but less than rain. Beyond the wall of windows in the great room: expected coastal fog but with asphalt roads visibly soaked enough to preclude my comfortably taking a morning bike ride. Seattle riders wouldn’t think twice, but it takes so little to stop a Californian. I am reading the poet …
[Disclosure: The author sent me a free copy of her new book, asking if I would review it. I make no commission, and we have no affiliate relationship.] During orientation week in my first year as a medical student, a particularly thoughtful classmate in an adjacent apartment building concluded by week’s end that she didn’t want to become a physician. …
My 25th college reunion was set to place place this Autumn. Among those I’d looked forward to seeing was a friend since high school whom I’d grown closer with during our years living under the same roof in college. Proximity And Time My friendship with C began innocuously enough in advanced track science, math and English courses during high school. …
In Part 1, we outlined how high income professionals who respond appropriately to tax incentives can easily find themselves with a majority of their retirement nest egg in tax-deferred accounts. Left unchecked, this imbalance can lead to tax-inefficient withdrawals in the form of required minimum distributions (RMDs). Compounding a bad situation, inheriting tax-deferred retirement accounts can saddle the surviving spouse …
The COVID pandemic has had a significant adverse financial impact on physicians of all specialties despite the widely-held belief that medicine was supposed to be a recession-proof career. As a result, many physicians expect a lower than normal income for 2020. A year of reduced income presents certain tax-saving opportunities to low spenders looking to minimize long-term tax liabilities. The …
They were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. They had that certain sparkle in the eyes. They boldly set out to revolutionize physician financial literacy. Then they disappeared. The physician finance blogosphere is relatively small, but for the past several years the rate of new blogs coming online exploded with Malthusian vigor, like Silicon Valley startups in 1999. I first counted 50 on …
A couple of days ago the outlook for the summer took a turn for the better. After a little bit of online brainstorming, I confirmed that several California state parks within 1-2 hours’ drive were reopening on a limited basis beginning next week. That discovery led to the purchase of a gently used, lightweight, two-person camping tent via craigslist for …