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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It is the 5th week of essential lock-down for our family. We started social distancing prior to the general order in California and our city. I had been following the COVID-19 MD Facebook groups closely. Before most were social distancing, we had cancelled our early March vacation and cancelled Mr. Plastic Picker’s parents trip to New York. Thank goodness, as New York is now the epicenter of COVID-19. California has done remarkably well, but even with hundres of thousands of cases averted and thousands of deaths prevented – we have many dissenters. Probably there are not many, but they are taking up a sizeable share of the blogsphere. I had a high school friend post on facebook COVID-19 misinformation. I replied but didn’t have the energy to have a prolonged facebook discussion. I ended it with let’s just be grateful that we in California are doing okay.

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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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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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January 1, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I was having too much fun on Instagram. I was up to almost 200 followers and then my account was deactivated because I violated some rules. I’m pretty sure it was because the word I was trying to write for Korean New Year’s soup is maybe a bad word to someone. I don’t know. I haven’t learned how to type in Korean and Vietnamese on the internet yet. It’s on my to-do list for 2020, along with saving the earth. I’m just a middle-aged pediatrician trying to pick up trash! Anyway, I’ve emailed back the Instagram team and we’ll see what happens.

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December 31, 2019

by drplasticpicker

I want to coin a new term. If I blog about it enough, perhaps it will gain traction and enter into the internet/instagram/English speaking lexicon. FISE – Financial Indepedence and Save the Earth. FIRE is well established. It’s Financial Independent Retire Early. I used to follow these FIRE blogs religiously about 15 years ago, when they were just getting started. I’ve been reading 3 bloggers pretty regularly, Retireby40, LenPenzo.com and Mr. Money Mustache. I read intermittently Financial Samurai as well. These financial bloggers pretty much just talk about their lives, how they spend their money, how much they save, and then all of them (except LenPenzo) left the workforce. Mr. Money Mustache is actually a closet environmentalist. He is probably the most popular of the FIRE bloggers. These bloggers all make money off their blogs through advertisements, links to financial planning services, links to credit card offers.

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