My guest is Leif Dahleen, aka Physician on FIRE. He retired from medicine in August to live a bigger life.
I was excited to have POF on the podcast for a few reasons. First, I’ve recommended his blog, PhysicianOnFIRE.com, to several friends of mine over the years. Leif’s been sharing a wealth of knowledge on personal finance, early retirement, medicine and other miscellany since 2016.
Second, doctors are notoriously bad with money. In fact, The Millionaire Next Door author Thomas Stanley wrote that doctors are the worst under-accumulators of wealth (UAWs) among high-income professionals. But Leif’s a contrarian. He took exception to the UAW moniker and became the change he wanted to see—then started blogging to track his progress toward early retirement.
Despite reaching financial independence (FI) at age 39, Leif kept doctoring. Who knew “doctoring” could be used outside of baseball? I digress. Finally, at age 43, he hung up the scrubs, adding RE (retire early) to his FI.
Now he’s a FIRE’d full-time family man focused on content creation (last year alone POFire.com had over 3.5 million page views). He & his family also plan to do volunteer work in Honduras and travel overseas [POFO?].
His travels have already begun—he joined me on the podcast from Guanajuato, Mexico. Here are topics we discuss:
- A major uprising in Ecuador
- Why his family loves Guanajuato, MX
- Political instability in Barcelona, Spain
- Language learning with Duolingo
- Homeschooling kids
Life as an Anesthesiologist:
- Why anesthesia made me question my Catholic upbringing
- Examples of high-stress situations he faced at work
- Grueling schooling required to be a doctor
- Why residents are called residents
Blog Life:
- My theory of why POF is so prolific in producing content
- A day in the life of a retired physician
- Attending Camp FI
- The importance of providing a rich cultural experience for his kids
- Website he used to plan a trans-pacific international cruise
- Plans for a 5-month trip (LA to Shanghai)
- AirBnB tips & advice (use this link for $55 toward your 1st booking)
Money Talk:
- Where he learned the value of a dollar
- What Financial Planners disagree with him on
- Inspiring friends to pursue financial independence
- How Leif handles Twitter trolls
- Tracking & sharing your net worth online
- Online net worth “pissing contests”
More Money Talk:
- How much POF will spend annually in retirement
- The Rule of 72
- $10 million net worth by age 60
- How J-Money became a millionaire
- Leading cause of physician burnout
- Getting to FI within 10 years of finishing residency
Questions:
- Doctors are notoriously bad with money—how did you maintain being frugal?
- How did you explain your FIRE plan to your wife, enabling changes to the way you live?
- How many of your friends are now on the FIRE path [that you’ve inspired]?
- For higher-income folks—what percentage of their income do you think they should live on?
- How many PF bloggers would there be if markets had been down the past 10 years?
- Knowing what you know now…let’s say you’re 18 years old…would you still go to med school?
More Questions:
- If someone dropped a $5,000 cash in your lap tomorrow, what would you do with it?
- If you had an early retirement party, who would you want to perform, Tupac or Notorious B.I.G.?
- When is the first time you felt a little bit like a celebrity because of your blog?
- Is there an underrated personal finance book you’d recommend?
- What are you most grateful for?
Listen here:
“Trying to spend your way out of a frustrating situation only prolongs your misery.” – POF
Books mentioned:
Articles Mentioned:
- Backdoor Roth IRA 2019: s Step by Step Guide with Vanguard
- Teach Your Kids About Money with the Bank of Mom and Dad
- Retire Early With Real Estate (book review)
- The Marble Movers: A Jarring Dividend Parable
Charitable Giving:
Man Overseas featured on PhysicianOnFIRE.com:
- In Sunday Best (6/16/2019)
- My Guest Article (9/11/2019)
