I Reached Financial Independence!

Although I took a mini retirement for 3 months this summer and lived in Spain, I still managed to obtain financial independence (FI) soon after. Financial independence is when you have enough money and investments saved up that can cover your expenses for the remainder of your life without having to work. You can calculate what your financial independence number is by multiplying your yearly expenses by 25. For example, if you spend $40,000 per year and multiply that by 25, you would get $1,000,000. That means you would need to have $1,000,000 in savings and investments to use to live off of for the rest of your life. 

Reaching my financial independence number was just like any other day. I didn’t feel different. That’s why it’s important to focus on the journey instead of the destination. I make sure that the way I am living my life currently is how I would want to be living even if I was financially free. It’s also significant to notate that I took 3 months off for my mini retirement and still reached my goals. This was due to compound interest and the power of real estate. My 3 months off with no income did not impact my financial independence goals. I was hoping to reach my number by 35 years old but I reached it early at 33.  

When I first found out about the FIRE movement I was excited to retire as soon as possible. Then realism set in and I realized I do value my career and profession. I still wanted to reach financial independence because I believe that should be everyone’s goal. You never know when you may become disabled and no longer able to work or want to take an extended amount of time off to be there for a loved one. Now that I have reached FI I think my next goal will be to reach Fat FIRE. 

Fat FIRE is when you budget for $100,000 worth of yearly expenses. This means your FIRE number would have to be $2.5 million. I don’t think I would need that much, but it’s always nice to have an extra cushion. At the same time, I will be cutting back on how much I work. I mentioned in previous posts that I want to work only 6 months total out of the year. I will continue to save and invest but not as aggressively. I will rely on the power of compound interest over a few years to get me to that fat FI number. Once you reach that million-dollar mark, it’s incredible how quickly your money compounds. 

In the meantime, I am work optional. I will continue doing locum tenens and working 3 months at a time. I plan to continue doing mini retirements as a I had a good experience in Europe and transitioning back to work was easier than I expected. My focus is also to spend more and save less. I am content with my life and level of spending. But I would like to spend more on treating other people and start a donor advised fund where I can increase my contribution to charities. 

Life Has Changed

My friends have gotten used to me working as a traveling nurse practitioner for over 7 years now. They are always asking me about my next adventure. I have worked only in Florida over this past year, and many of them are surprised. They are surprised I am not traveling to work somewhere new. The reality is that – Life Has Changed. 

My priority isn’t just travel somewhere new and have fun, new experiences. I am more focused on working somewhere I enjoy and being close to home when needed. For example, this fall I had several weddings and baby showers to attend at home so I didn’t want to have to travel from afar often. I also have nieces and nephews now that I want to see frequently. 

Some of my family have asked me why I don’t just work locally in Miami, FL and take an assignment there. The truth is I am spoiled now. I don’t like to commute to work in traffic, and since I wouldn’t be “traveling” to work in Miami, additional housing or a rental car wouldn’t be covered for me. 

For winter, I considered going back to my favorite place – San Diego, CA. However, since my time in Europe, I am in a long-distance relationship with someone that lives in Europe. So, it’s easier for my relationship to stay on the East Coast instead of having an even more challenging time difference. My partner plans on moving to the USA eventually, and he is open to traveling with me for work when I want to. So, life changes, and I just adapt. I still want to be a traveling nurse practitioner but it’s going to look a bit different each year. 

Top 10 Finance Books

It surprises me how many healthcare professionals are clueless when it comes to finances and investing. We often spend too much time studying medicine that we fail to study finances and what to do with our income. 

Most of the books below talk about some form of saving, spending, and investing. Here are the top finance books I enjoyed reading and recommend depending on your interests.

1. The White Coat Investor by Dr. James Dahle

Financial book targeted towards healthcare professionals on saving and investing.

2. I Will Teach You to be Rich by Ramit Sethi

I like this book because it doesn’t only talk about the obvious things like save save save. It talks about automating your finances so that you do not have to think about it too much, and how to spend on things that are most important to you. 

3. The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins

Great book for someone that wants to invest in the stock market but doesn’t know where to begin. He talks about how you can easily invest in index funds and why index funds will always increase in value.

4. Set for Life by Scott Trench

This is a good read for young professionals because it shows you the power of saving your first $25k and how that provides you with options. 

5. Retire Early with Real Estate by Coach Carson

For those that are looking into investing in real estate, this is an easy read in how to get started. 

6. Quit Like a Millionaire by Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung

This is about a young Canadian couple that retired early at 30 years old. They are now spending less than $40k a year traveling full time. Great read for someone that wants to be nomadic and how to get there. 

7. Die with Zero by Bill Perkins

Great read for those closer to retirement. It talks about how you need less money to retire than you think and why you should take multiple mini retirements while you are young and your body is able to do things you wouldn’t able to do when you are older. Such as hiking, adventure sports, and traveling.

8. Taking Stock by Jordan Grumet

Written by a hospice doctor that helps you figure out your purpose in life and how your finances can shape that. 

9. Cashing Out by Julien and Kiersten Saunders

Written by an African-American couple on how everyone should have a 15-year career and then begin another chapter in their life as an entrepreneur or retired person. 

10. Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier

This book is geared towards millennials and an example of how one can reach financial freedom early in life. 

Feel free to email me once you’ve read some of these books to let me know your thoughts!

Apartment and Car in Bradenton

I used furnishedfinder.com to find my apartment in Bradenton, Florida. This is a website for travel nurses looking to book a room or apartment for at least 3 months. I chose an apartment 10 minutes from work. I didn’t choose a place on the beach since there would only be one month left where the water would be warm enough for me to swim in. However, my place is only 10 minutes from the beach as well.

I chose a 2-bedroom apartment because I had some friends that planned to stay with me for labor-day weekend. It has a washer and dryer in the unit which is convenient, and a clubhouse with a pool. The furnishings are nice, and coming from Europe, the place feels quite big. 

I always use National to book my car rental which is provided by my agency/job. They didn’t have any sedans left so I just chose this Acura SUV. It’s a bit bigger than I wanted but it drives comfortably and is spacious for my guests. I can’t complain about driving a luxury car for free 🙂

Working After a Sabbatical

It was a bit strange to return to my job in Bradenton, FL at first. I felt like I had just lived another life and was returning to my old life. It sort of felt like deja-vu. I was initially nervous about how taking 3 months off of work would impact my skills. I have to admit I was a bit rusty once I started working again. But everything came back to me rather quickly.

The staff was used to me working as speedy Gonzalez and fitting walk-ins easily in between patients. But I did need the first couple of weeks to adjust back to working, and wasn’t as fast as I normally am. A couple of things had changed on the EHR and I needed a few extra minutes to contemplate some HCC codes on my Medicare patients. 

The level of complexity of the patients seemed higher than I remembered. But I think it was because since they opened my schedule last minute, they moved up some new patients that needed to be seen ASAP for serious reasons, such as an osteomyelitis patient needing IV antibiotics through infection disease; or a new patient with a decubitus ulcer, colostomy, and foley cath etc. 

Additionally, all of these patients I was now seeing were new to me. Since I am not familiar with them, I do need to utilize the extra time they are allotted on the schedule with me. It only took me 1-2 weeks to transition back to my normal working self. This was good, as it reassured me not to be worried about taking an extended leave again in the future. 

There continues to be some staffing shortages but I suppose it is like this everywhere. I noticed the other PCPs seemed to be burned out. I don’t blame them because they didn’t just come back from a 3-month vacation as I had (haha). So, I tried to do my best to help them in addition to staying on top of my own schedule. I found myself to have a lot of patience which is expected considering my extended leave.