Top 5 Reasons Not to Retire Early

PIMD welcomes Physician on fire As our guest post. POF is a personal finance website created to inform and inspire both physicians and our patients with insightful writing from a physician who has achieved financial independence and the ability to retire early.

1. You love your job.

You had a life-changing experience as a teenager. You have made up your mind that you are going to help people. You studied your butt off for the next seven years and got into medical school. After three to six years in residency and maybe another year or three in fellowship, you’re finally doing it! You are a true doctor and you are making a difference one day, one patient at a time.

What is this all about. Honestly, there are moments almost every workday that remind me that I made the right choice and make me feel good about being a physician. When I decide to move on, there is I will miss the career aspects very much.

A big part of my job as an anesthesiologist is to reduce the fear and anxiety of my patients and their loved ones. We sometimes use feel-good drugs to speed up the process, but it’s often nothing more than a confident smile and handshake or connecting with a child on his level.

If you love what you do, and don’t mind the nasty and cramped hoops you’re asked to jump through, that’s a great reason to keep working. If you don’t like it, most do and enjoy a steady paycheck, that’s reason enough to keep working. I would put myself in the latter category for now.

Once you’ve reached all of your financial goals, ask yourself a simple question: If your job turned into a volunteer position (no compensation), would you continue to work? Will you scale back? The answers will help you decide if you really love your job. If the answer is yes, you can Keep working, because you love your job!

2. You can’t retire early!

That private college was expensive. So was medical school. Of course, you lived like a resident… in medical school.

At Residency, you rent a luxury SUV. You bought your dream home when you got your first dream job and put it on the market two years later when it was time to look for your next dream job.

I don’t blame you, I made some smart choices We make many financial decisions that will have good or bad consequences. Something we will never regret. Other choices will leave our older self wondering what on earth the younger one was thinking.

Saving money is hard. Two car payments, mortgage and property Tax on a million dollars High cost of housing houses, private schools. This stuff costs serious money $$$!

Never mind what the studies say about spending and happiness (they say having more $50,000 per $75,000 Does not significantly increase happiness per year)? They didn’t study you, did they? You’re not keeping Dr. Jones’s word. you is Dr. Jones. May they all be with you.

You worked hard for it. And you’ll continue to work hard for a very, very long time, because once you and your family get used to a certain high-cost lifestyle, it’s really hard to go back.

And what about college? 529s??? You can barely afford to max out your 401(k). You want to work until the kids finish college. Then do some more work to pay for a lavish wedding. And you saw Arugula prices at Whole Foods? You don’t want to follow me down that rabbit hole! Don’t retire early; You can’t!

3. You’re walking away from the million!

Let’s keep the math simple. If you can expect to earn an average of $250,000 a year and retire at age 45 instead of 65, you’re walking $5 million away from total earnings. That is a huge pile of cash. Of course, in the real world where we pay taxes and such, it’s not so easy, but early retirement can be expensive.

By the only way I could justify walking away from millions There are millions when I’m gone. Sure, I could have millions more, but at what cost? I don’t need them, won’t spend them, and at some point, I won’t be interested in trading time for money early in my life.

These extra millions will lock me into a higher tax bracket in retirement. It’s a good problem to have, but if I can save 30x to 40x the cost, the other 30x is just unnecessary. I feel guilty when I think about the good I could be doing by donating extra money to a better cause than just living my retirement. I plan to get rid of that guilt by making mine Donor Advised Funds About 10% of my nest egg before I quit clinical medicine for good.

“The only way I can justify walking away from millions is to have millions when I walk away.”

Gordon Gekko Don’t walk away from millions, and neither should you, so Keep up the good work, for more millions!

4. You don’t know what else to do.

After 20 years of 60-hour work weeks, you haven’t really had time for hobbies. The last time you had a week off and didn’t go anywhere, you were lost and couldn’t decide what to do with yourself.

I hear this predicament is actually rather common. I’ve heard of plenty of physician retirement failures. They stop working but not working doesn’t work for them. I think this is especially true if one spouse is still working.

It is said that retirement is better per Something, not just something. Part time work or a holiday It can help people figure out what that thing or things might be.

Personally, at least I can think of 50 things I wish I did with more free time. But you have what works for you, so Keep working, what else can you do?

5. You need health insurance.

This is a big one for early retirement. If you don’t have a working spouse with health benefits, don’t have retirement benefits from a previous employer, or don’t expect to receive Tricare after serving in the military, you’ll need to figure out how to bridge the gap from your early retirement age to magical Medicare. Age 65.

The Affordable Care Act (if it survives) could come into play here. If your MAGI (modified adjusted gross income) is reasonably low, which it should be in early retirement, you may qualify for a subsidy. For a family of 4 in 2019, MAGI must be below $100,400 to qualify for the minimum subsidy in the lower 48 states. For a couple, it’s $65,840 and for an individual $48,560.

Lacking a good crystal ball, I’m not going to pretend to know what the health insurance landscape might look like in five or ten years. All I can do in the meantime is max out my HSA and plan to carry a high deductible health plan. After all, if you’re worried about making retirement difficult with a $5,000 or $10,000 deductible, you really don’t have to. enough Retirement.

You need to protect yourself from the $500,000 bill that could come from a medical disaster without health insurance. As long as you’ve got that full time doctor job, you don’t have to worry about any of this, so Keep working, for health insurance!

What is your #6? Why would you choose not to retire early?