Category: Personal Finance Blog – Financially Free to Save the Earth (FISE)

October 15, 2020

by drplasticpicker

My father is an accountant. When I was growing up I used to count cash all the time, as we totalled things for the family business. I used to come home from college and roll quarters from the laundry machines at the rental properties for fun. I was taught to think of the world in terms of dollars and sense, and efficiency and hardwork and return for investments. I also went to protests for democratic and religious freedoms. I learned early on how to hold placards and march, and use my voice. I learned to love my native country and culture, as it has blended in with this chaotic beautiful country of ours. This is probably why I am who I am today, Dr. Plastic Picker – a pediatrician with some extra discretionary income because I’m fundamentally frugal who loves fighting for the side of righteousness through targeted effective donations. It all kind of makes sense now. We are all products of the unique circumstances of our upbringing. I had a gloriously enriching and stimulating one!

It’s mid-month already and I finally did our family’s monthly donations. The kids are very busy at school with their various projects and activities, so we did not discuss too mcuh at dinner time. They needed time to talk about their thoughts and projects, and Dr. Plastic Picker is my project – and not the focus of their lives. This is how it should be. They have other causes that they care about. They both volunteer with our Children’s Arts Council. But my son is starting to volunteer for a tutoring program for underserved youth on-line. It’s founded by one of his friends and he wants to support him, and he is learning important skills. Our tween daughter is emeshed in a new book series, and have five thick novels to get through. She is in high heaven. She is also in the middle school ASB and going to be responsible for weekly announcements soon, and she has been practicing her public speaking skills in her room. Mr. Plastic Picker is living in his middle-management more upper management now bubble. Dealing with somewhat interesting things but sometimes mundane things that are annoying, but he is happy. I always check in and see how he is doing. And then there is me, chugging away at what I think is important – stopping climate change.

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September 11, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Yesterday was one of those discombobulating environmental work days. My post got published on KevinMD “It’s Time To Go All In on Climate Change,” https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/09/its-time-to-go-all-in-on-climate-action.html. Yet thus far, no shares. Hmmm. Half a million subscribers but no shares. Top Social Media Blog for Physicians yet the apathy on climate change in that virtual medical sphere is deafening. I agreed to do a podcast for KevinMD as well, so we shall see. Or maybe I’m just not the right messenger for that audience? I am who I am, so I’ll find another venue where I can try to activate more people.

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August 31, 2020

by drplasticpicker

FISE stands for Financial Independence Save the Earth. I coined this phrase on New Year’s Eve 2019 https://drplasticpicker.com/fise-financial-indepedence-and-save-the-earth/. Since then I’ve written almost twenty blogs with this term. Maybe if I blog about it enough, it will become mainstream. Did you know that I am technically a Physician Personal Finance Blogger? I am included on Crispy Doc’s blogroll and the requirement is to have at least one new blog regarding personal finance every 3 months https://drplasticpicker.com/the-road-to-fise-financial-independence-to-save-the-earth/. This is an easy requirement for me. Since I am the daughter of an accountant and Financially Independent myself, I think of the world in terms of fiscal responsibility and dollars and cents. It’s just how I am wired.

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August 11, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I have a downtown condo. It’s super nice. It’s a 2 bedroom 2 bath single floor condo, that overlooks the trolley line in East Village. The street it overlooks is lined with mature trees with broad leaves that filter the afternoon sun. When you stand on the balcony of this condo, you can easily imagine yourself in Paris or some European city. It’s near a major ballpark (Mr. Plastic Picker is a huge baseball fan), and comes with 2-underground garage parking spaces. Most condos in the area now only have 1-parking spot. When I bought this condo, I knew that parking in downtown was becoming a premium.

From this condo you can walk to the Central Library, major ballpark, Convention Center, the East Village campus of UCSD, where you can pick up a shuttle that runs to the main La Jolla campus. The two bedrooms are well proportioned and the two baths are very nice size. The kitchen is tucked in the corner, but open to the living area and nicely designed. Did I tell you I love this condo?

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August 8, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I had a fun experience speaking on a virtual panel, as part of the HMO Family Practice Residency Didactics regarding Financial Planning. The residents had very basic questions about financial planning. I may or may not blog about it later. I thought I offered a helpful perspective being a woman and one in administration and leadership. The residency is predominantly female. My advice was very different than the men. It’s funny how writing organizes your thoughts, as I found myself parroting sentences from my various blog posts. They are my blogposts and my words, but it was interesting that I know I had written them first before I spoke them.

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July 31, 2020

by drplasticpicker

It’s 535AM and I’ve been up since 4am, and already sent all the work emails I needed and deployed assignments to the future leaders I am helping to guide. I sent reminders to the last stragglers in our department who are committee chairs to submit their committee descriptions. One stellar pediatrician sent a one-liner and I replied back “I do insist. I want people to take credit for what they do. I think you do more than that. Can you come up with 1-2 more lines? I want you to imagine what you want to do in this role as well. It’s actually a secret self-reflective process for the department – if that makes any sense. I want us to all psychoanalyze our professional lives.” To the ones who sent complete descriptions, I sent positive notes back. And then there are the others that sent over-blown descriptions of essentially defunct committees. I’m a new kind of Assistant Boss, non-judmental. We all live in our imaginary worlds, especially me.

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July 20, 2020

by drplasticpicker

My right foot has been hurting. It’s probably plantar fascititis one of the most common causes of foot pain. I started jogging a bit more before my plastic picking sessions and overall I think it’s good for my health. I’m doing more stretches to ease the strain on the fascia. My foot pain has been bothering me on and off for a few weeks now, and it’s part of the reason why my health took a turn for the worse about a year ago. I don’t talk about it much. Many of us who are healers, mothers, and nurturers – we need to take care of our SELF. But we are often drowned out by this noisy world.

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July 19, 2020

by drplasticpicker

FISE stands for Financially Independent to Save the Earth. This is my lofty goal for the world. I believe most physicians, especially pediatricians, care for our earth. But physicians in general are not well known to be good at money management. If I can help my colleagues save some money here or there and more importantly save their time and their well being, than I have hope they will go out into the world and help the earth and help our society. I imagine them all leading Scouting groups on beach cleaning outings. If they have extra cash from being FISE, they can opt out of the Louis Vutton bag ($1000) and instead save 2,000 acres of Peruvian rainforest ($2000) or plant 20,000 trees ($1000).

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Yes I did it. If there was ever anyone who annoints who is a Physician Personal Finance Blogger, it is CrispyDoc https://www.crispydoc.com/physician-finance-bloggers/. Honestly, I had no idea who this person was until last week when I was on Dr. McFrugal’s website. But I’ve now wandered over to CrispyDoc’s blog and I enjoy his well written posts. I asked to be included on his blogroll of 50 something odd Physician Personal Finance Bloggers, and he has agreed. I haven’t seen my blog name up though, so I have to keep on checking back. I’m pretty sure I’m the only litter picker among them though who makes trash art? I wonder if he would like me to mail him one of my anti-vaping trash art pieces? He’s an ED doctor and I’m sure he hates vaping as much as I do. They are such toxic things.

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July 7, 2020

by drplasticpicker

When I was a freshman at Crimson College, we were required to be part of the meal plan where our parents had to pay a set amount yearly for unlimited meals at the residential dining hall. The reasoning from Crimson University is that unrestricted communal eating in the classic House Dining Hall setting promoted a shared university experience. For over a decade, Mr. Plastic Picker and I ate countless meals at Hufflepuff Dining Hall and much of our university experience as undergraduates, medical students and later as advisors centered around those late hours in the dining hall chatting with friends and students.

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