529s For Unborn Heirs: Take Home Points

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My poor word choice in a recent post about changing the beneficiary of a child’s overfunded 529 plan to an unborn grandchild regrettably created more confusion than it alleviated. To atone, here is a simplified summary and a couple of case studies illustrating how changing the beneficiary of a 529 incurs tax liability. Can you create an account for an …

How Schwab Can Afford To Eliminate Commissions

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Yet another nugget gleaned from reading Mike Piper’s Oblivious Investor blog was his link to an explanation describing what I’ve always regarded as one of the more impressive magic tricks in investing: How can big brokerages afford to eliminate trading fees on stocks and ETFs which have historically been the mainstay of their revenue generation? The article in question, by …

Set It But Don’t Forget It

crispydocUncategorized 10 Comments

Everyone has guilty pleasures they cannot resist…wine, women…mine are economics podcasts, specifically the wonderfully nerdy Planet Money from NPR. I was listening to a an episode recently that introduced me to a concept I’d never heard of before: escheat. The word dates to the 1300s, and derives from an old French term meaning to fall – in this case, referring …

Nuggets: 4 Ways To Make Money In Real Estate

crispydocUncategorized 6 Comments

I’m reading up on real estate these days, with the objective of identifying small multi-family units to invest in. The more I read, the more interesting it gets. Occasionally I’d like to put out posts that collect my thoughts as I go, as a guide post to others who might share this interest. Real estate involves assessing multiple variables and …

The Hobby Of Medicine

crispydocUncategorized 9 Comments

The first time I heard medicine referred to as a hobby, it was by my cousin, a corporate attorney who had met her husband while he was still a medical student. He moved into her place for his final year of medical school, then she continued to support him as they started a family during his residency and then a …

Can You Make An Unborn Grandkid Beneficiary For An Overfunded 529?

crispydocUncategorized 9 Comments

[Every now and then bloggers with the best of aims write a post that confuses their readers. This is my public embarrassment. I’ve tried to clarify the points in a subsequent post you can find here. Please forgive me if I paved your road to confusion with my good intentions. I’ll let this post remain as a reminder of my …

A Candid Review Of “Spending Habits For Professionals Who Want To FIRE” By B.C. Krygowski

crispydocUncategorized 4 Comments

If you have figured out your why, and are seeking specific, actionable advice to implement your how to achieve a FIRE lifestyle, physician finance blogger B.C. Krygowski has written an ideal primer. Her book adopts the confessional tone of a savvy older sister about to fill you in on everything you wanted to know about adulthood just as you are …

Real Estate Naysayer Haiku

crispydocUncategorized 5 Comments

I’ve recently been actively investigating the idea of investing in multi-family real estate, devouring every book, having coffee with every knowledgeable friend, and binge-reading every blog I can get my hands on. One of the most fascinating aspects of lifting up this particular rock is how many people who have opted not to do so are convinced it is teeming …

Why Keep Blogging?

crispydocUncategorized 7 Comments

September of 2019 marked my third year as a physician finance blogger. Blogging has not brought me fortune or fame. Why do I keep doing it? It requires discipline Like many of you, once upon a time I had aspirations/pretensions of channeling ideas through the written word. Committing to writing 2 posts a week indefinitely is discipline on a deadline …

Gratitude, Revisited

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My birthday. We said farewell to a visiting relative with an early morning departure, then the house was silent while everyone else slept. I’d just worked 3 back to back shifts during a week that likely contained the highest volume day in our emergency department’s history. It was that brutal. As a souvenir, I’d brought with me a sniffle (unlikely …