Trigger Events
Trigger Events
I have thought a lot about retirement lately. As you can tell from my posts about downsizing and fading to early retirement, there are various ways to extricate oneself from W2 employment. Although there are many benefits to stay employed and choose work, it occurs to me that there are some absolutes to leave. I call these trigger events.
Whether positive or negative, trigger events are a promise to ourselves that when certain criteria are met, employment will be left in the dust. Whether subconsciously or not, we tend to hold tight to these belief systems in the worst of times.
If it ever gets to…then I’m out.
The Price of Entry
In order to consider compiling a list of trigger events, one has to be in a reasonable enough financial position to leave employment at any given time. There are multiple names for this state of grace. Some call it financial independence. Some call it FU money.
Financial independence, in my opinion, describes the economic freedom to never work again if needed. Whether passive income from stocks, rents collected from real estate, or some other side hustle that pays the bills, there is a perpetual money machine in place.
FU Money, however, is not as stable footing. In this scenario, one might have a few years of expenses saved up but not necessarily be financially independent. They are able to say FU to their current boss and lounge around for six months, but they eventually will need to find new income sources.
Either flavor works for our purposes.
Positive Triggers
Trigger events don’t necessarily need to be negative. There are a number of positive triggers that may be an impetus to leave the work place.
Net worth, for instance, could be a motivator. Possibly some distinct number will be determined to be enough. Or how about when passive income streams meet current spending needs? That also may be a wise time to leave the work place.
Trigger events aren’t always monetary either. Age is a common reason for leaving a beloved job. Another is meeting a personal goal, milestone, or finishing an important task. It is not uncommon for an employee to wait until adequate skills and resources have been gathered in order to allow retirement without harming the parent company.
Negative Triggers
Negative trigger events are more interesting to me. These are especially important to financially independent individuals who choose work over retirement. Given the economic necessity is lacking, there is room to create a list of non negotiables.
Theses triggers could be just about anything under the sun.
I’ll leave when I have to work nights and weekends.
There is no way I’ll travel for this job ever again.
If my boss leaves, this place won’t be tolerable anymore.
The argument is that when certain criteria are met, the cost/benefit ratio starts to sag in the wrong direction. Should one stay in a job that is intolerable if the financial drivers are no longer present?
Why Now?
Why am I bringing this up now? It so happens that recently one of my negative trigger events occurred unexpectedly. In my mind and heart, I had planned that if this lever was ever flipped, I would leave my clinical nursing home practice and focus on my hospice directorship only.
I have this luxury given that I am securely financially independent, and my lazy side hustles provide extra income in addition.
This shift would mean that, for the most part, I would give up seeing patients completely. While undeniably my life would become easier and I could have even more free time to pursue my interests, I have to say that this prospect is giving me pause.
The dream of medicine, the calling, has travelled with me since childhood. It has haunted my dreams and stoked my innermost wishes. It has been a fervent goal, a title, a window into the secret reality of humanity, and a crushing burden.
Am I ready to leave?
Our positive trigger is an age. That being said I do have several negative triggers between now and then. Fi or fu for me are not the trigger but the consideration or enablement. I’m nearing fi beyond fu, if a negative trigger hit I’d be out the door. Then again I’m a fairly tolerant person so the trigger is high. If it’s a no go it’s a no go. Refuse to do it and if that doesn’t work for person on other end pull the ripcord. Fi gives you the ability to say no.
Age is a common one. I think the negative triggers are the interesting ones!
My father called it the “go to hell fund”. As children, we took lessons on various musical instruments: piano, organ, baritone horn, trombone, acoustic string bass, clarinet, saxophone, sousaphone, flute. Among my two bothers and I, there was always somebody practicing a musical instrument in the house. We all gained a professional level of skill, yet none of us went into music. We two oldest went into medicine, and the youngest, physics and math. As I prepared to leave for college, I asked my father, who was a physician, why he and mother had spent so much time, effort and money into our musical educations. “It’s so that whenever, if ever, you reach the point when you can’t tolerate your job anymore, you can tell the boss to go to hell and quit. You’ll be able to do something else–play piano in a bar, work in an orchestra or band–you won’t be rich and drive a fancy car, but you’ll survive.” He was right. the musical skills did pay off with part-time jobs during college, substitute organist, and giving lessons ourselves to other children. And to enjoy a lifetime of musical avocation, with the ability to just sit down and play whenever the spirit moves us!
The “go to hell fund”. I like that. I tell my children a similar thing about playing violin. They have been playing for years. I always say, even if you heart takes you elsewhere, you will always be able to play weddings!
I haven’t really thought about that yet, but that is an interesting topic to bring up. My W2 is so droll and monotonous that I don’t think it’d be an event, but rather the buildup of compounding soul-suck that will drive me out.
Or it could be an age or a financial goal. I never realized that not only money but soul-suck can compound too!
It seems to me that you or anyone with a MD would have difficulty with giving up the seeing patients. Isn’t it a huge part of the practice and why you entered the field? It would be a very personal decision for you to make .
That being said, I am big on flexibility. After many years of full time employment, when children and f/t work could not be worked out. I switched to freelance work . It afforded me to opportunity to bring in an income (which varies), be a stay at home mom and participate in school and community.
Surprisingly, my choice of family over finances received a lot of negative flack from friends and family. It was the best choice for me and our family.
Whatever you decide will be the best choice for you and yours. If it turns out it’s not, Just make another choice.
Per your other comment of learning creative persists to supplement skills and as a future back up . I had a wise college professor instill in us the opposite side. For all of us in creative persuits the message was driven home to also have a practical skill , to supplement and as backup .
I think that although a calling, many physicians are now leaving medicine because of these negative triggers.
You’ve been ready to leave since the day you created this blog. The entire body of writing has been about you trying to convince yourself to stay. Not a criticism just an observation. Personally I do not miss medicine but sometimes I do miss actually taking care of patients especially in my pain practice where I had decades long relationships with some of them. I don’t miss it enough to continue to slog through the BS of practice for that aspect. It’s not about money at all. I don’t spend the monthly money I budgeted, just a portion, and as I move through this early retirement epoch into the Social Security epoch my expenditure will further plummet. If you ACTUALLY built a detailed working income producing money machine and not a mirage from some blog the security takes care of itself. I do exactly what I want and my interests consume me.
The interesting thing about medicine is opportunities present themselves. How many nursing home docs need vacation relief for a month in Africa? How many ex-nursing home docs need to spend a month in Africa? You inhabit a rarefied place, a place where you are actually free to choose, yet still encumbered by fear of the unknown. Fear is your prison not money. It’s not about “if this lever gets pulled” boundaries. All time travel is necessarily forward moving. All forward movement begets leaving the past behind. It’s actually pretty exciting once you understand the quality of the opportunity.
So if you were me at the age of 45, would you stop working?
At 45 I wasn’t done. I didn’t go to med school till I was 30 and had a couple careers before that. I didn’t finish residency and get out of the Navy till 41. I didn’t adopt my children till I was 46. I had other needs therefore to fulfill when I was 45. I also had the need to succeed. At 58 (18 years later). I had worked hard, the barns and silos were full and I was accomplished. At 58 I was still working hard, nights weekends knife and gun club 2 am C sections saving lives and winning valuable prizes, pain practice on the side. We lost our contract to corporate medicine and I had to re-evaluate. I had enough to pull the plug and did stop for about a year living off my accounts receivable. In the meantime a SDSC popped up on the horizon and I decided I wasn’t done, so I went into practice against my old hospital. The challenge suited my nature and though a lot of work was very rewarding from a business experience point of view. I lost nights and weekends and emergency emergency call anesthesia but I still got to practice at a high level because we were safely doing very sick patients. It wasn’t all eyeballs and tonsils. I was working with the same surgeons I had worked with for the previous 18 years I I knew their style cold so I could trust the pre-op system. At some point the personal growth wasn’t there and we had been acquired by corporate minions and swarmed by newly minted shiny MBA’s who were good at brown nosing the hire-ups but incompetent at management. My partner of 25 years decided to retire and the guy they hired in to take his place didn’t fit my style. I basically did the SDSC job for healthcare coverage and the challenge. When challenge became the hassle, color me gone. How I know I’m done is if this prospect popped up again as a business opportunity, I wouldn’t bite. I actually do have an essentially bullet proof money machine which means security for me and my wife which will last decades beyond our demise. I understand it’s workings perfectly and have stress tested it. My kids are close to the end of college. One graduated and is employed the other has a couple more years but she will be employed also as she is indomitable. The day she turned 16 and was eligible she got herself a job at a grocery chain because she wanted to know about work and making money.
I wrote a post published on xrayvsn.com
https://xrayvsn.com/2018/08/16/guest-post-gasem-buckets-of-time-or-buckets-of-risk-retirement-portfolio/
which looks at how to granularize your life into what I call epochs and then analyze how each epoch is funded an the risk exposure associated. I think granularity in understanding the future is the key to managing fear, and having someone to talk to who actually knows their patootie from their elbow and is somewhat encyclopedic in their knowledge and practiced in money management at a professional level, which is why I have a manager who manages himself a quarter billion bux and has written 12 books and publishes at Forbes. He has lunch with Warren Buffet twice a year. That must mean Warren likes him and finds him interesting. I’m hell on wheels when it comes to anesthesia, he’s hell on wheels when it comes to cash which is why I hired him. My portfolio isn’t super hard to manage, but then his fee isn’t that high either, so I pay a little for what I need and if I die my wife is covered.
And so to your question. From what I’ve gathered your about 20 years into practice. You’re clearly whip smart when it comes to finance and can turn a sows ear into a silk purse. Your barns and silo’s are full and your money machine is pretty robust from an outsiders point of view. I don’t know your spending habits but if you fret over owning a Tesla they likely aren’t perverse. So if you have the kid issues managed (college etc), then the only thing you’re waiting on is old age. How do you want to spend your time? If it’s pissing you off and your bullet proof then your done IMHO. Ain’t no future in having a bad time.
Age plays into this. I just wrote an article not yet published which looks at my take on Bernstein’s concept of life cycle investing. The trick to quitting early is managing your end of life risk. You give up a lot of human capital when you quit at 45 instead of 65 to just sit around and pick your nose. In your case however you won’t sit around. You will sell your remaining human capital as a author and speaker and maybe a youtube videographer/podcaster (that’s what I would do anyway). You will keep your ear open and your eye peeled for opportunity. You will build your “SDSC” same as me ’cause you’re not done yet and it will fit your personality. You won’t stop working you will simply turn your attention to other work. If you want to see some patients there is always a medical mission available for your expertise. How many residencies might like a speaker to come in and teach their residents and young attendings about dough? You can spend your first year doing that and establish a deep bench of experience and credential, just as an example. How many society meetings might like such a topic covered? One thing will lead to another…. All time travel is forward moving.
For me, it all kind of built up. They were mostly negative triggers.
– My health deteriorated
– I got more and more stressed out
– Friends left
– New boss I didn’t really like
– etc…
I had to wait until we’re comfortable financially before I retired, though.
It sounds like you had more than enough reasons to leave.
Like my father before me, I uttered the words “Yesterday was my last day” to my boss after a day that was so unbelievable, I could not go on. I was working on a job in engineering where we were subcontractors for an oil and gas company. It was at the same time and very similar to the circumstances leading up to the BP oil spill. A long story, but a negative trigger indeed. I have loved every minute since. Sometimes, a kick out the door is just what is needed!
I have been waiting for mine. We will see if this is it.
Ceasing clinical practice is surprisingly difficult….I had anticipated I’d love to quit clinical medicine. When I could finally “afford” to do so…it was much harder than I thought it would be.
Interesting. I’m wondering if I’ll feel the same way.
Well DocG,
Sounds like you’ve had it. Keep your license but you can probably try out some different things. Being self employed has the amazing benefit of being able to jump in and out of work whenever you like. I sure have over the years.
Interestingly clinical medicine is hard for me to give up as well.
You have young children. What will you do when they wants more stuff and start to bleed you dry?
My kids are older and their spending has always been modest. Plus they go to the local university. My husband and I will keep one of us working until the kids are fully launched. Cuz you never know…
Helping out family with money issues is one of the ways folks veer off course from their best laid plans. I am aware that that would be my trip wire.
Everyone keeps saying that! I guess my writing is screaming my feelings loud and clear.
not only is your writing clear, the response of ppl caring about how you feel are clear
Thank you. By far one of the best things about this community is that people actually care.