Weekend Reflections: August 5 -9

Weekend Reflections: August 5 – 9

For the month of August, I started a daily writing challenge, I chronicle this in my /Now page. Here are some of the reflections that I have had from these daily musings.

In this post, I’m republishing the entries from my /Now page. And below each daily entry, I include an article I’ve recently read that relates to how I felt in that particular moment.

Just like in the past, I try to use my Weekend Reflections posts to highlight the work of others. Knowing that blogging is a lot of hard work, this is one way for me to show some gratitude.

Enjoy!

 

August 5, 2019

Geographic arbitrage

I recently learned that one of my colleagues is leaving the practice and moving to another state. He’s moving to eastern Washington close to the Idaho border. It was kind of a shock to me because he had bought a beautiful house two years ago with a view overlooking the water. He was set and settled.

His primary motivation for moving to Washington is to be closer to his parents and the rest of the family. Totally understandable. I can also see how it would make a lot of sense financially. He will be selling house at a profit, living in significantly lower cost of living area, making more money, keeping much more of his income (Washington has no state income tax), and has 12 weeks of vacation. Wow.

If Southern California wasn’t my home and if all our family (both mine and my wife’s) were not here, sometimes I wonder if we would move. Sure, it is nice here and the weather can’t be beat. But is it worth it? It’s an interesting thought to entertain.

Reflections:

Where you live matters more than you think. We all know that having the right spouse can have a huge impact on your financial and emotional wellness. But in many ways, settling in the right place plays an important role too. AdaPia d’Errico’s demonstrates this in her post Divorce and FIRE: Authority Through Authenticity, a guest post on XrayVsn’s site. She talks about how on the outside, she appeared to be living the dream with her then husband in Italy. But looks could be deceiving. She was actually unhappy and unfulfilled. This was mostly because the values of her spouse and the culture of Italy were not in alignment with hers.

Sure, my family could geoarbitrage to eastern Washington and have a lot more money. But would we be happier and more fulfilled? Probably not. We already have enough money to happily live well in California. There’s no point in striving for more if you are already happy and have enough.

 

August 6, 2019

Cancer sucks

Today I assisted in performing a celiac plexus neurolytic block for one of my patients. He had intractable abdominal pain due to unresectable metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Pancreatic cancer is the worst. The patient experienced immediate relief and was incredibly grateful. He was otherwise healthy prior to getting cancer. Some people are just unlucky and that’s not fair.

One of my interventional radiology colleagues had assisted me in the CT guided procedure. We performed the procedure using the anterior approach. It was the first time I did such a procedure in the CT suite and it was pretty awesome. Days like this remind me of how collegial my workplace is and how it is so important to have wonderful colleagues you get along with.

Benefits of blogging

A year ago, I reached out to one of the other San Diego finance bloggers, Michael of Financially Alert. Ever since, we hang out every now and then. I had a decent lunch break today, so I invited him to get some ramen. We chatted about our families and general updates with what we are up to.

By far, the greatest benefits of blogging is making connections, meeting new friends, and learning new things.

Reflections:

One of the things Michael and I talked about was his experience at the local Tony Robbins Global Youth Leadership Summit. He volunteered as a captain to help kids aged 14-18 become tomorrow’s leaders. I thought it was pretty neat. It might be something I’m interested in doing in the future too.

In addition to Michael of Financially Alert, I know other people who have also attended a Tony Robbins events including my friends over at Passive Income MD and Semi-Retired MD. It seems like their experiences were life-changing.

Tony Robbins is an incredible person and has a tremendous impact on a lot of people. I’ll have to check out one of his events one day!

 

August 7, 2019

Hanging out

One of my colleagues invited us (me, wife, and daughter) to their place for dinner to hang out. In addition to us, two other colleagues were there with their families. It was a fun evening of eating, drinking and being merry. We as humans are incredibly social beings. That’s probably why hanging out is essential. It’s just fun to spend the evening after work with great company. Of course the night was short because all the little ones who were in attendance had to go to sleep (and us adults have to work the next day). It’s okay, sleep is so important :).

Doctor McMansions

We chatted about various things. One of the things we talked about was how one of our colleagues just bought a 2 million dollar house. That’s not too unusual in southern California. Home prices are so absurdly high these days. But her house is pricey because it is right by the beach. To afford the house, my colleague would have to work quite a bit more to the tune of 55+ hours a week. She’s regularly picks up extra shifts. I suppose we could potentially afford a house like that. But there would be no leeway. Most of our extra money that we enjoy now would be going toward housing. And I would have to work a little more than I am now. I’m happy with our current home. I value my time and freedom more than having a really nice house. Our house is nice enough.

Finding your right balance, knowing your “enough”, and being grateful for what you already have is a key component of happiness. At least that’s what I think.

Reflections:

A small part of me wanted to tell this colleague something along the lines of: “What’s wrong with you? What’s the point of having such a nice, big house when you don’t have the time to enjoy it because you’re working too darn much?!”

But of course I held back. I didn’t want to offend her or make her feel bad. Plus who am I to tell someone else how they should live their life. It’s not my place to judge.

In his recent post Flash FIRE warning: The Dangers of Sharing Financial Independence, The Physician Philosopher reminds us all that we should be careful when talking about finances. Especially with people at work.

I would squarely categorize my colleague as part of “The Joneses” group. But she’s also financially savvy. And of course I didn’t say anything negative. I congratulated her for buying her dream home. In fact, I am actually really happy for her. She knows what she wants and she is willing to work extra hard to get it. I totally respect that.

Many years later, she’ll be reaping the benefits of her front-loaded sacrifice as she’s relaxing in her near beachfront property along the shores of La Jolla. Because of its prime location, without a doubt her house will appreciate way more than mine. And in ten years when her house is worth 6 million dollars and mine is only worth 2 million, I’ll be kicking myself in the head for not working harder to afford a nicer house!

I’m kidding of course. Kind of. Sort of. I think.

 

August 8, 2019

Not born to run

I’m not a natural runner. Or at least I tell myself that. Perhaps I shouldn’t though because our identity is tied to the narrative we keep tell ourselves.

Anyway, this morning I went for a 2 mile run before work. The first half mile I felt so alive. Breathing in the crisp, cool morning air feels amazing. Then I started huffing and puffing. All of a sudden I don’t feel quite as alive anymore. Not that I was dying from dyspnea on exertion, but it feels like a tough struggle when I run distances longer than a quarter mile. But I kept going. The last eighth of a mile I full on sprinted back home.

I collapsed on the sofa in exhaustion. And after a few minutes as my heart rate normalized, I felt great. I was energized. My brain felt more alert. I went to work ready to tackle the day.

To me, running is a form of meditation in motion. You are constantly aware of your breath and how your body is moving. And your energy is focused is on the next closest destination and milestone to achieve.

Reflections:

Self care is an essential task that should be a habit and part of everyone’s daily routine. It could be running, meditating, exercising, lifting weights, reading, journaling, or anything you enjoy.

For me, I get a great start to my day when I batch these self care essential tasks first thing in the morning. If I have at least 15 minutes in the morning before going to work, I go out for a run. When I have a little less time, I still do something active. It’s usually either walking the dog, one moment meditation, back exercises to improve my posture, or doing 50 pushups. The point is, I do at least something to take care of myself as soon as I wake up.

Everybody should take the time out of their day to take care of themselves. Physician Zen teaches us how to carve out time and be more productive in his post Ultimate Secret to Productivity: Habit and Task Batching. I’ve been implementing some of his tips and I’m already starting to see a noticeable increase in my productivity!

 

August 9, 2019

In Memoriam

After work I met up with my wife for one of her law school mentor’s memorial service / celebration of life. As a founding senior partner of one of the most prestigious big law firms in town, he was a well known figure. He was also my wife’s coach and mentor when she competed in the international moot court competition. I arrived at the tail end of the celebration, but I could tell it was a jovial atmosphere. In his later years he was known as an great poet and photographer. It was nice to see his art work on display. Reflections of a beautiful and accomplished life.

Holy Matrimony

The celebration took place at my wife’s law school alma mater. It was nice to go visit again. I have so many fond memories there. First of all, it’s a very beautiful school. It is also the place where we were married. We took our daughter to see the church on campus where our wedding took place. It was fun to relive such a beautiful moment!

Reflections:

My wife’s mentor (let’s call him Mike) lived a good life. And his legacy lives on through his students and others he has impacted throughout his lifetime. In A Dash Of Life, Accidental Fire reminds us that life is short, and it will one day be “a dash”.

You only live once. We should all be like Mike and “live our best dash.”