Hello all,
I'm in my early 30s and just about to start a "real job" , I've been in medical school, a stint at grad school, residency and fellowship for the last 15 years and just about to start a private practice career. So really at the other extreme from those who are happily "FIRED", and I've had great fun reading some of the threads here. I'd like to learn from your experiences as I start my own path towards FI, so forgive my overlong introduction.
Having put in all that time into my career, I'm not really looking towards early retirement. I like what I do, but would like to do it on my own terms, specifically practice in my home country, which is still a developing economy, albeit a large one. I moved to the US about 10 years ago, a year or so after medical school, and while grateful for the training and the opportunity to work here, not terribly fulfilled with continually being away from my extended family (its just me, spouse and our toddler here), and paperwork, risk and regulations accompanying medical practice here.
Moving onto hard numbers, I'm fortunate to not have much student loans (the little I owe is to the Bank of Mom & Dad , negligible CC debt, and still rent a home (and planning to do the same for the next couple of years at least). On the asset side, about 8K in IRAs, and real estate in my home country worth around 50K. But the real increase in my FI assets is bound to come as I move forward. My specialty is relatively well paid (250K ish), and our living expenses are lowish (very LBYM) so
I expect to save atleast 50-60% of my after tax income, and plan to do that for the next few years, to amass a reasonable nest egg so that I can return home, and start a non-profit healthcare foundation doing the same as I do here, but concentrating more on medical practice in underserved communities without regulatory or legal hassles.
Healthcare there is quite different from the US, with little medical insurance to speak of, most rich patients either pay out of pocket,and the poor suffer through in a broken public healthcare system. Most hospitals and clinics are privately owned for-profit concerns, and so starting a practice requires significant capital investment, especially if it is a non-profit concern. My rough estimates for this investment as well as some funds to keep us FI are somewhere around 800K prior to my returning (I'll still be working and making a liveable wage in my home country though a fraction of the amount here)
So my initial concerns are,
1. Where do I invest these annual savings, over the next 5-6 years I plan to work here, given the type of short term growth I'm looking for?. I've read the usual investment guides etc, and am familiar with index funds, but these don't seem to quite
suit the short term growth I'm aiming for. I know folks here don't favor stock picking, but would identifying a small basket of high growth blue-chips yield greater short term returns?. I can tolerate some degree of risk since I'd still be working
and won't have to rely on these for my monthly income.
2. I will not have access to most of the usual tax protection strategies, no Roths, and 401K cappped at 16.5K etc. Would you recommend just a standard brokerage account with Fidelity etc, or any other strategy?
I'll probably have to talk to a financial advisor at some point (though my interactions with a couple so far have been underwhelming), but would really like to hear the groups' thoughts on my scenario. Thank you for your patience.
I'm in my early 30s and just about to start a "real job" , I've been in medical school, a stint at grad school, residency and fellowship for the last 15 years and just about to start a private practice career. So really at the other extreme from those who are happily "FIRED", and I've had great fun reading some of the threads here. I'd like to learn from your experiences as I start my own path towards FI, so forgive my overlong introduction.
Having put in all that time into my career, I'm not really looking towards early retirement. I like what I do, but would like to do it on my own terms, specifically practice in my home country, which is still a developing economy, albeit a large one. I moved to the US about 10 years ago, a year or so after medical school, and while grateful for the training and the opportunity to work here, not terribly fulfilled with continually being away from my extended family (its just me, spouse and our toddler here), and paperwork, risk and regulations accompanying medical practice here.
Moving onto hard numbers, I'm fortunate to not have much student loans (the little I owe is to the Bank of Mom & Dad , negligible CC debt, and still rent a home (and planning to do the same for the next couple of years at least). On the asset side, about 8K in IRAs, and real estate in my home country worth around 50K. But the real increase in my FI assets is bound to come as I move forward. My specialty is relatively well paid (250K ish), and our living expenses are lowish (very LBYM) so
I expect to save atleast 50-60% of my after tax income, and plan to do that for the next few years, to amass a reasonable nest egg so that I can return home, and start a non-profit healthcare foundation doing the same as I do here, but concentrating more on medical practice in underserved communities without regulatory or legal hassles.
Healthcare there is quite different from the US, with little medical insurance to speak of, most rich patients either pay out of pocket,and the poor suffer through in a broken public healthcare system. Most hospitals and clinics are privately owned for-profit concerns, and so starting a practice requires significant capital investment, especially if it is a non-profit concern. My rough estimates for this investment as well as some funds to keep us FI are somewhere around 800K prior to my returning (I'll still be working and making a liveable wage in my home country though a fraction of the amount here)
So my initial concerns are,
1. Where do I invest these annual savings, over the next 5-6 years I plan to work here, given the type of short term growth I'm looking for?. I've read the usual investment guides etc, and am familiar with index funds, but these don't seem to quite
suit the short term growth I'm aiming for. I know folks here don't favor stock picking, but would identifying a small basket of high growth blue-chips yield greater short term returns?. I can tolerate some degree of risk since I'd still be working
and won't have to rely on these for my monthly income.
2. I will not have access to most of the usual tax protection strategies, no Roths, and 401K cappped at 16.5K etc. Would you recommend just a standard brokerage account with Fidelity etc, or any other strategy?
I'll probably have to talk to a financial advisor at some point (though my interactions with a couple so far have been underwhelming), but would really like to hear the groups' thoughts on my scenario. Thank you for your patience.
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