Weekend Reflections: 8/5/2018

Weekend Reflections: 8/5/2018

I know. I know. I’m like two days late on this post. Better late than never, right?

I haven’t even posted my monthly update on our buy nothing challenge.

Truth is, I’ve been working a lot lately. The past two months I have been logging in 65 hours a week of work. That’s a little bit more than when I was a resident. I’m not as resilient as I was in the past and when I come home I try my best to do my part in child care duties. I’m getting a bit more tired lately. If only I were superhuman…

The increase in work load is purely self-inflicted. I typically volunteer to work a lot in the winter and summer months so that I can earn extra money to save, invest, or spend as I please (mindfully on experiences or things that provide good value of course).

For the rest of the year, I’m usually working about 40-50 hours a week or on vacation.

My wife and I like to take vacations in the shoulder seasons. The months of April-May and September-October are perfect. The weather is pleasant in most places during this time. Airfare, lodging, and attractions are generally cheaper too compared to the summer high season. And because there are less tourists, vacations are bit more enjoyable during these times.

We reserve late October to early January for spending a lot of time with family. Mostly because there are a lot of birthday celebrations and holidays during these months.

Okay, enough about my explanation of being tardy, let’s get on to the post.

Here were my thoughts last week…

Sunday 7/29

Back to work again. This is the second Sunday in a row that I have worked.

Anyways, sometimes I catch myself fantasizing about traveling to exotic places in the world. This is the result of me scrolling through my Instagram feed and clicking through my favorite travel blogs. I hate to admit it, but I have major FOMO. The wanderlust lifestyle will have to be on hold for now. It’s just not as easy to do now that we have a baby.

Some time in the future, when my kid(s) are school age, I imagine us taking our kids on vacation in the early part of summer break. Late summer (especially August) seems like a terrible time because the weather is unpleasantly hot and most of the locals (in Europe at least) close shop and leave their homes to vacation themselves. I don’t want to be sweating in a sea of other tourists!

Maybe one day, my wife and I will take our time and semi-slow travel with our kids to somewhere far and isolated. Crispy Doc took a trip to rural Greece and it looks like they had a wonderful time.

One day.

Monday 7/30

I was reading Tawcan’s post on 7 Money Goals To Hit By The Time You’re 35. It was a post inspired by J. Money at Budgets Are Sexy.

It piqued my interest because I am 35 years old and I wanted to see how I fare.

So far, I’m meeting goals one through six. The only goal that I’m falling short on is “Consider a very basic estate plan– especially if you have children.”

Since my wife and I are now parents of a baby girl, we should get a little more serious with this aspect of our finances.

Tuesday 7/31

Speaking of estate planning, Physician on Fire had a great post on The Importance of a Legacy Binder.

A legacy binder is a place where all of your important information is stored so that it would be easily accessible to family members in the unfortunate event that you and your spouse unexpectedly passes away.

Mama Fish Saves created a printable PDF worksheets (not an affiliate link) that contain everything you might need for your legacy binder. It is $19 until August 5, then goes up to $29 afterward.

Even though my wife and I follow a healthy diet and lifestyle that will likely allow us to live for a long time, we are not immortal. One day, we won’t be around in this world. And while I don’t like to think about it, it’s never to early to create an estate plan and legacy binder.

Wednesday 8/1

I can’t believe it’s already August.

I was driving to work and listened to a Market Place podcast titled In LA, Driving To Work Can Be a Part-time Job of its Own. It talks about how the housing market in Southern California is so hot (and unaffordable) that people often have to live far from work to find affordable housing. With commute times of 1.5 to 2 hours long each way, that’s 15 to 20 hours a week of commuting. Yikes! That is a part time job.

While on our evening walk around the community, my wife and I talked about how we are both grateful to have careers that allow us to do meaningful work. We then talked about the potential alternative jobs we could have had instead. This led to a discussion about the difference between having a job and a career. She then showed me a hilarious YouTube clip of Chris Rock on jobs versus careers (warning: may contain offensive language).

It’s funny because it’s so true. I feel fortunate to not have a job scraping shrimp all day long…

Thursday 8/2

Staying on the topic of food, today after work I went to my friend’s house to check out her backyard garden. She’s taking her family on a two week trip to London and Paris in a week, so she wanted to give me some of her fruits and vegetables.

You know me. I’m not going to turn down free, fresh, organic, locally-grown produce. I took home some delicious yellow watermelon, purple carrots, cucumbers, and eggplants. Along with some rice that we had bought in bulk, this should be enough food for few days!

My friend (who is also my co-worker) could probably sell each watermelon for $10 each at the local farmer’s market. They are that good!

If didn’t take so much of her harvest, she could make a decent side gig by selling her produce!

Friday 8//3

Speaking of side gigs and side hustles, The Luxe Strategist wrote a great article today about how to find real-life side hustles that aren’t a waste of time. There are some great tips in this post. The comments at the end are intriguing too.

Some people may think it’s a waste of time to devote so much energy on a side hustle that makes a little more money. Other people don’t see the point of using precious free time to do even more paid work.

However, if you’re income is low and not adequate for your needs, you have to do what you can do to improve your situation. Leveraging your skill set through side hustles is one way to grow your income. My wife grew up with very little money, but she  found 22 side hustles and part time jobs to help make ends meet and pay for college.

It’s so in style these days that Erik from The Mastermind Within is dedicating the entire month of August to the topic of side hustles. I enjoyed his series of articles in July about his alternative thoughts on personal finance, so I can’t wait to see what he comes up with this month.

I’m guilty of writing about side hustles too. In case you missed it, I also wrote about how a lot of physicians are getting into this side hustle thing in my post How Having Side Hustles Can Increase Your Fluid Intelligence.

Tonight, I picked up an extra overnight shift. Does that count as a side hustle?

Saturday 8/4

I finished the overnight shift and returned home around 7 AM.

Coming home to see my daughter in the morning is delightful. She always has a big smile on her face when she wakes up well rested. Not only is she getting bigger, her looks are changing a bit too. She used to look a lot like me as a baby. Now she’s starting to look more and more like my wife. I guess it depends on her facial expressions :).

Every morning we place her on a play mat on the floor where she practices flipping on to her belly. She’s getting better at tummy time. She also likes it when we read books to her.

Most of the day was spent relaxing and spending time with our daughter. In the evening, we all went to a social event at the zoo that was sponsored by my work. The vegan option for food was quite disappointing, but overall we had a great time. It was fun to catch up with co-workers outside of the hospital. They are great people. I’m grateful to have wonderful co-workers.

 

I hope everybody is having a wonderful week so far 🙂