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Welcome to this session of grand rounds, a collection of posts I have discovered in the blogosphere and have found of interest and hope you do too.

 

The theme for today’s grand rounds is retirement.

Whether it be early retirement such as those who follow FIRE, or standard retirement, we all will eventually deal with this transition period.

 

 

 

As more and more doctors are finding themselves running faster and faster on that hamster wheel, so that they can compensate for the deadly combination of higher student loans and decreasing reimbursements, it is only natural for them to daydream of leaving the medical rat race completely and throw, not hang up, that stethoscope.

OB Doctor Mom paints a compelling picture of this desired exodus in, “The Reason Everyone is Retiring Early From Their Medical Career.”

 

 

 

 

One of the caveats that people on the path to early retirement is that you need to have something to retire TO, not from.

This can not be stressed enough.

Numerous articles have shown that an aimless early retiree can be at risk for all sorts of health and mental issues as he or she no longer has routine interactions from the workplace.

This can lead to an unhealthy, sedentary lifestyle which can actually shorten your not so golden years.

Our Financial Path highlights potential lifestyles an early retiree can incorporate to avoid wasting away mentally and physically in the post, “7 Lifestyles of Financial Independence Early Retirees.”

 

 

 

I am sure when I decide to hang up the MRI for good there will be some doubt creep into my head about whether or not I made the right decision, financially or otherwise.

Those first couple of months, I can imagine, would be trying for anyone making the transition from building up your nest egg to actually having to crack it open and start consuming the contents within.

Therefore the best resource is someone who has already done it.

Early Retirement Now was happy to share some insight in his post, “Eight Lessons After Eight Weeks of Early Retirement.”

 

 

 

 

For a lot of individuals, Social Security will be the main source of income when they retire.

I have previously thrown in my 2 cents on how I view Social Security, likening it to a giant Pyramid/Ponzi scheme.

Although I fully expect Social Security to survive, I also realize that there will likely be a drastic change in the benefits it provides.

The amount of Social Security benefits you are entitled to depends on how many qualifying years you have logged in (need 35 years of earnings for maximum benefit).

This is problematic for the early retiree as each year not worked get inputted as $0 in the benefit calculations.

Root Of Good goes through the exercise of how you can account for social security benefits if you do plan on retiring earlier in, “How Early Retirement Affects Social Security?”

 

 

 

 

After reviewing these posts you may feel  that you are not ready to retire that stethoscope.

Perhaps instead you might be happy just having one ear piece in and just push the work-life balance pendulum back towards life.

Fortunately there are some pioneers that have shown it is possible to cut back from your medical practice hours and reclaim some of those important life hours that went missing.

Crispy Doc highlights some of these physicians and their stories in, “Doctors Who Cut Back Early.”

Although the majority of these physicians are part of the “shift specialties (E.R., Radiology, Anesthesiology),” I hope that more physicians from other specialties get added to the list to show that it can also be done.

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the reading material.

Have a great rest of the week.

 

 

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-Xrayvsn