56yo doctor nearing the light at the end of the tunnel

[disneysteve]

Hi everyone.


Someone on the SavingAdvice forum recommended I join the crew here. I'm 56. DW is 57. I'm not quite ready to retire yet but the numbers are starting to approach the point when I will be able to. I'm a full time physician. I'm not yet sure if I will stop working entirely or switch to part time or per diem status but we should be in a position to do that in 2-3 years.


Going PT would allow me to keep health insurance through my employer, though at a somewhat higher premium than I pay as a FT employee but still less than what we'd pay to get our own coverage. And, of course, continuing to earn income would limit what we'd have to draw from our portfolio.


I'll share more details later but for now I just wanted to introduce myself and start reading all of your posts. I look forward to sucking up all of the knowledge you all share, and hopefully contributing some of my own.

 

[38Chevy454]

Welcome to the forum here. Lot of good information and knowledge. So read up and learn what you can, ask questions, and be prepared for your retirement. Congrats on being near the goal!



There are many who have done the part time winding down, it is a good way to transition from full time working.

 

[2017ish]

Welcome!

DW was 56 when she retired cold turkey from small private OBG practice. (I quit cold turkey from litigation practice same day at 57.)

For us, part time work wasn't a possibility due to both the nature of our practices and our plans to focus retirement on serious traveling.

Neither of us ever regretted the abrupt change, and we had no issues with it.

But, YMMV. I suspect that our ease of transition was unusual for those in our fields...

 

[Bamaman]

Congratulations on you getting to the point in life where you have so many options. A physician can go very part time and still make a decent living.

With Covid, we've seen so many doctors going into virtual medicine. One young M.D. told my wife he would never go back to face to face medicine, as he's adjusted to telemedicine easily. He sent my wife to LabCorp with a storefront in Walmart.

My doctor can barely type, and he's not at all technically capable. This would be a good time for such aging doctors to retire. So many physicians have already sold their practices to the dominant hospitals in the area anyway.

We have a friend that's an oncologist, and he's been on 56 medical mission trips all over the world. His last trip was to Northern Brazil where a local medicine man (with bones in his nose) met and approved him to treat some 600 sick natives. He's had some incredible trips over the years.

 

[corn18]

I want to put a shout out here for disneysteve (DS). I joined savingsadvice.com back in 2013 when I was up to my eyeballs in debt, had a negative net worth and was spending more than we made. DS asked a lot of hard questions that I didn't like but he did convince me that I needed to change my ways. I did. Because of his tenacity and guidance, we are now able to retire in 49 days. I credit DS with helping me make the huge changes required to make that happen. He is a great American.

 

[swakyaby]

Warm welcome, Disneysteve from one physician to another. I found it easier to go from 100 mph to full retirement, in part due to the high fixed expenses of maintaining licensure. And there were very few financial incentives to go part time in my medical group (I always had to pay full freight on medical premiums, for instance). But I entirely understand the allure to going to part-time at first. Feel free to post financial questions as you get closer to the finish line. Lots of very knowledgeable helpful people here.

 

[disneysteve]

Thank you very much corn18. That means a lot. You are definitely one of my favorite success stories from SavingAdvice.

So where here do folks lay out their situations and numbers?

 

[disneysteve]

Warm welcome, Disneysteve from one physician to another. I found it easier to go from 100 mph to full retirement, in part due to the high fixed expenses of maintaining licensure. And there were very few financial incentives to go part time in my medical group (I always had to pay full freight on medical premiums, for instance). But I entirely understand the allure to going to part-time at first.

I’m an employee of a large medical/hospital system. I work in Urgent Care (after 24 years in private family practice). Dropping to part time would be pretty simple and seamless. The job pays all of my license fees, even as a part timer.

 

[corn18]

Thank you very much corn18. That means a lot. You are definitely one of my favorite success stories from SavingAdvice.

So where here do folks lay out their situations and numbers?

I would use the FIRE and Money forum.