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

July 6, 2020

by drplasticpicker

It’s amazing what you can learn on the internet these days. It’s Plastic-Free July. We are using this month to really try to reduce our plastic waste. One thing that we have been buying lately is premade frozen either sweet potatoe fries or regular fries. We usually pair this with some sort of easy vegan burger. But since yesterday’s home made black bean burger project was a success, I have decided to try to make our own frozen french fries.

Again, I looked at several recipes online and mostly used this one from Frugally Blonde. Anything with the name Frugal is great. A long time ago, I used to call myself the Frugal Pediatrician but never really used that name other than to comment. That was 10 years ago. Then when I wanted to start blogging I found Dr. McFrugal who I now know in real life, and I thought better come up with something else. Mr. Plastic Picker suggested Dr. Plastic Picker, and this blog was born. But anyway, this is the link from Frugal Blonde who is a stay-at-home lifestyle blogger https://www.frugallyblonde.com/homemade-frozen-french-fries/.

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July 4, 2020

by drplasticpicker

FISE stands for Financial Independence to Save the Earth. And today Dr. Plastic Picker was FISE. When I successfully made vegan black beans burgers – the earth, my net worth and our family’s health all won today. When I stumble upon a great project, I know I need to dive right in. I, Dr. Plastic Picker, your local litter picking and wannabe vegan pediatrician, am committed to perfecting several recipes for several different kinds of vegan burgers for my family. I made my first batch today for July 4th, and unanimously our family loved them. I just finished chatting with our culinarily-talented tween daughter. The girl has made her own brioche and can whip up her own quiche with her eyes closed. And she said “I loved them. They were delicious the softer texture compared to the store-bought ones. It went well with the toppings. And knowing how much more affordable they are made them even more delicious.”

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June 20, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I definitely dodged a financial bullet the last few weeks. Not a financial bullet meant for me, but for this blog’s readership. I was chatting with my property manager yesterday and catching up on the little details of two of our newer rentals. There were some minor issues about a window and a fridge, and since we are expecting them to be long-term tenants I told him to go ahead and fix those things for them with the higher end options. But then one of the tenants was being somewhat demanding and unreasonable, and I said no to something else. Tenants are not that different than patients, but with tenants I don’t have to worry about tenant satisfaction scores. I just deal with them how I think I should ethically and legally but also being fiscally responsible. They can move on if they are not happy. Most if not all our tenants are long term and reliable, so I think I’m doing the right thing. Here is my blogpost on real estate investing advice for MDs https://drplasticpicker.com/dr-plastic-picker-shares-real-estate-investing-advice-for-mds/. I’ve stated in the past that usually we buy single family homes and nice condos as rental properties, and mostly increase our networth through property appreciation and equity. We are not looking to replace our Two Assistant Boss Two MD income with real estate, but rather to diversify and build our net worth.

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It’s my last day of my week of vacation. It’s been a mentally exhausting week because a lot of important work issues crept up that needed to be completed. Today is my last day and I will enjoy the day with the kids. Mr. Plastic Picker said he will try to work from home. He usually ends up getting called into the hospital to do an emergency fluoroscopy study. But I am hopeful he will stay home for some of it and we can be together.

There were many important tasks I had to complete this week despite “vacation.” I am proud that they are done. They were big tasks that only I could complete because I care about them. Since it was vacation, the usual annoying issues of pediatricians essentially whining about this and that – I just ignored and punted to the managers that were actually on duty. One of our pediatric GI nurses used to have a sign on their door that said, “NO WHINING.” I loved that. At some point I’m sure someone from compliance or customer engagement made them take it down. This week I did not deal with the whining. I did receive messages about clinic issues that are meant for Dr. Dear Friend, who leads the clinic and is not on vacation. Another physician sent a message about a going away party for a graduating resident and a special caterer he likes which does not have anything to do with me, unless the other physician was subtly asking for department money for that party? But in this COVID-19 pandemic and the financial stresses we are facing in healthcare, there is no budget for that. I punted it to Dear Dr. Friend and told her I’d chip in my own money, but no departmental funds are available for extraneous costs that do not have to do with actual departmental business.

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June 16, 2020

by drplasticpicker

FISE: Financially Independent Save the Earth. Dr. Plastic Picker

FISC: Financially Independent Serve the Country. Brother-in-law Navy Academy Graduate actively serving his country.

FIBS: Financially Independent Building Stuff. Older brother now doing a lot of carpentry.

FICL: Financially Independent Crafting Love. Younger Ivy-League trained younger sister crafting love in all her spare time.

FILP: Financially Independent Loves his Parents. Mr. Plastic Picker keeps on working as a financial cushion in case his parents need anything.

I was approached by part of a well know FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) blog team about including Dr. Plastic Picker into a multi-blog user app. It’s one of the well known FIRE bloggers I follow occassionally who is like the Oprah of Personal Finance Bloggers https://drplasticpicker.com/blogroll/. That blog has a devout readership of millions of people, but they are kind of scary and judgy. But in all seriousness, I appreciate the personality behind the blog and the environmentalism that informs his writing. I believe that blog is a force of good in the world. I give credit where credit is due, and for me that blog was one of several that I have admired. I was approached by individuals affiliated with his blog that are trying to spread exposure to his blog through an app, and of course they will make some sort of money off it either through ads or something.

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May 27, 2020

by drplasticpicker

It is almost the end of May and the third calendar month that we have been #shelteringinplace and #stay(ing)home. I talked to my sister yesterday and as a nonmedical person she gets frustrated that her neighbors are slowly breaking down those physical barriers, and may increase the spread of COVID-19. A friend traveling to a vacation area. Families now meeting in the backyard. While she holds the line because she has to make sure some important people remain protected. I’m the older sister who is a pediatrician, and I advised her to do what she knows is right. The world will do what it is doing, and we can’t stop the world from going what is it going through – but we should not accelerate it.

CNN and the major news outlets do not stress me out as much anymore. What is happening now in California is what we expected. We closed down early, and our rate of infections was slow. But now sandwhiched between the crazies in Orange County that are going to beaches without masks and our less medically equipped Southern neighbor Tijuana, of course our community will see an uptick in cases. We had thought through various prediction models and I think the Pediatric Infecitous Disease head had said also during one of the weekly lectures, that we should expect things to peak mid June. So here we are, rising slowly and peaking but slowly. We are not the travesty of New York City. But then people will get together like they did undoubtably like this last Memorial Day weekend, and there will be another peak. The second wave will come, and we are all just playing our bit parts.

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April 11, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I’ll be blunt here. Physicians are not for the large part good stewards of their own money. Physicians often think other fields are easier than our own work. I hear this a lot. Some of my colleagues think there is easy money in real estate investing, yet rarely do those same people have actual real estate outside of their primary home. It’s kind of a minor insult to true real estate professionals, just like a parent telling you they could drain an abscess better than you could with a sewing needle and exacto knife.

To actually support a middle-class or upper-middle-class family solely through the real estate boom and bust cycles of the market is not easy. Like performinig surgery, real estate investing requires a very specific skill set. It requires negotiating, managerial skills interacting with skilled laborers and tenants, having good accounting skills and being able to take on financial risks. You need to know about the specific tax laws, termite inspections, cost by the square footage of decking material and on and on. It also requires time and focus and attention to detail.

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April 5, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Chris was my anatomy lab partner during our first year of medical school. We had the right side of the cadaver of a 90-something-year-old woman, and across from us was Felipe and Andrew. Felipe was the son of a Nobel Prize winning chemist. He was always a more morose soul, and would disappear after class. He made it through and I believe is an internist in New York. Andrew was very slim and handsome, and dated a fellow student who was beautiful and smart. They broke up before the Residency Match as they were applying in very competitive fields. I believe the beautiful girlfriend is an ophthalmologist now. Andrew stayed at one of the teaching hospitals as an academic specialist. It is ironic because he used to talk about the stock market and money a lot.

Even before medical school, Mr. Plastic Picker and I were already together and had been dating for 3 years in college. We were planning our lives together. I studied harder in the last few years of college so I could attend the same medical school as Mr. Plastic Picker. Life worked out. He was initially a year ahead of me at school, and when I was starting my first year of medical school – he purposefully took an extra year of research so that we could be in sync during our training. He was having a relatively relaxed time driving around putting on event monitors on volunteer study subjects with varying Bostonian accents. His lab was studying the effects of air pollution on cardiovascular events. He was there to support me, and talk me through the first year.

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March 24, 2020

by drplasticpicker

One of the bright spots of becoming Dr. Plastic Picker is since I have my own blog and a catchy internet handle, I can comment on some personal finance blogs that I have been reading for over a decade. When I was a young resident taking NICU call, I would look around me and analyze people’s financial lives. I realized that these super smart physicians that were training me were not as well-versed in personal finance. Some of the smartest ones went over to the dark side and sold their souls to pharmaceutical companies. You see, I am the daughter of an accountant and successful small-business owner. I absorbed my attending physicians’ lessons regarding medicine, but disregarded much of what they said about finances or real estate. Except Dr. Young-Ho Yoon, who advised me to start my Roth IRA https://drplasticpicker.com/dr-young-ho-yoon-pediatrian-and-environmentalist-1/. That guy is smart with his money.

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February 16, 2020

by drplasticpicker

If you know me in real life, you know that if I had not been a pediatrician than I really should have been a Trust and Estates Attorney or a Personal Financial Advisor. I find personal finances fascinating, because the same way folks make irrational decisions in their personal lives or in their health decisions, they do the same in their finances. Personal finance is at it’s core pscyhology. It was taken me to my 40s to realize you cannot fix people’s financial problems. Even if you draw out a personal financial plan for them and hand them essentially every detail they need to make themselves financially free, they still won’t.

But since I have become drplasticpicker, I am very hopeful! Just like my mission to save the planet, I have to do it by not telling people what to do – but rather showing them different possibilities. Most won’t listen, but some will begin their journey and hopefully end up in a better financial place.

I am hoping that I give you small glimpses into our personal finance journey, especially to our Young MDs. So here are Ten Financial Tips to Young MDs.

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