Would I Do It Again?
Would I Do It Again?
There is a lot of grousing in the financial independence community. Especially from those of us above the age of thirty. We look at the young people in this community and shake our head knowingly. We grumble some version of the same slogan. If I only knew then what I know now. We repeat this refrain often, but put little energy it to considering if it is actually true. Would I do it again? In the same way? And make all the same mistakes?
I guess the answer is equivocal. Yes and no.
Becoming A Doctor
There is no question that becoming a physician has been the greatest boon, and the most difficult journey of my life. Exposure to the healing arts has given me purpose and identity over the years. It has provided for my intellectual as well as financial needs. I traversed the most formative years of my life with a distinct plan and goal.
Helping people has been a gift. Having the skills and inclination to insert myself into the most intimate moments of peoples lives and lend a helping hand is indescribable. How could I ever regret such a career?
The good, however, came with a price. Being responsible for other’s well being is a daunting task. Dealing with death and destruction, fear and fatigue, and anger and sadness is no small feet. It is downright exhausting.
I can’t imagine a life where I wasn’t a doctor. I would do it again. But maybe I would have done it in a much less taxing way. Maybe I would have chosen a less stressful specialty or concentrated on hospice work earlier.
Managing My Money
There is no question that I could have been more proficient with money management earlier in life. As my career in medicine took off, I felt overwhelmed with responsibility and purposefully outsourced my financial well being. I just felt like I couldn’t juggle all those balls up in the air by myself.
So I hired a financial advisor. Which generally worked out fine. I chose a person who was trust worthy and always had my best interests at heart. We met regularly and I had a grasp of what was going on with my finances.
It was not perfect. I certainly should have paid more attention and understood my investments more thoroughly. I probably bought some insurance policies that were less than ideal.
Would I do it again? Probably. I needed someone to take over a part of my life I wasn’t ready to manage. But, I would have spent a few more hours each month familiarizing myself with my advisor’s suggestions. I should have been more engaged.
Retired Earlier?
Looking at my finances now, I could have taken a half retirement much earlier. I could have slowed down years ago, and maybe I wouldn’t feel so burned out at this stage in my career. Maybe I worked too much for too long.
While there are many disadvantages of the one more year syndrome, there are definitely some benefits. The money I saved in those last few years has made my financial plan even more stable. It allows me to live with a non budget, and even spurn travel hacking.
Final Thoughts
While it is fun to daydream about all that you would improve if you got a do over, I think such thinking is fruitless. I would likely do it again in a very similar manner. Only after walking a path can you really understand in which direction the journey leads.
In the process of learning from our mistakes, we course correct.
And it is in those corrections in which a life is made.
You can’t have a life without regrets. How can anyone not have regrets ? That would be like saying I made no mistakes. It’s one of those cognitive biases that we see the way things happen/panned out as deterministic.
I love your blog Doc G. You’re very thoughtful. I like the philosophy behind your thinking.
I think the main thing is that we did what we thought was right at the time. If we succeed, we can pat ourselves on the back and think it was deserved. If we don’t, that’s bad luck isn’t it ? It’s good to be grateful we didn’t get one of the possible worlds where life would have been much harder. A lot of things you can’t control for, like not being born, having a very early death, being born in North Korea this century or being born anytime on earth before the last 200 years.
I guess we made it by just being born when we did ! The FI could be just obsessive icing on the cake. Looked at this way, maybe there’s less to be fearful of than we think. Even if we lost all our money and fortune, we’d still be doing pretty well. Maybe the money and FI is mainly about being in control. Or feeling we are in control.
I think you are very right about the control thing. FI makes us think we can tell where the future will go. We can’t!
I’m 30 now. Perhaps that means the question for me is not ‘would I do it again’ but, instead, ‘will I do it’ (which can be difficult to answer as I don’t have the benefit of hindsight and so am unsure what my ‘it’ is yet).
“We look at the young people in this community and shake our head knowingly.” I think this is simply part of the human condition. Whatever age one is one always ‘seems’ to have more experience of life than a comparatively younger person. Since you are a specialist yourself, I’m sure you’ll appreciate that experience has to be relevant. Even if endowed with all of your present day knowledge and transported back through time into a younger version of yourself your knowledge may not retain its relevance as the world is ever changing. E.g. Retail investing methodology and options 50 years ago look very different from now.
I agree with your final thoughts though. The detail of a journey through life is only clearly knowable upon reaching a destination.
HH
My main regret was worrying about it so much. Maybe I wouldn’t have got to where I did if I hadn’t. Maybe it had little to do with it and I could have had a better life not worrying about whether I would get there.
It’s hard to know what the counterfactual would have been.
I expect by the time we all get there, it won’t matter as much. We’ll all be tired and ready to let go. All the striving of youth makes way to acceptance or apathy, depending on how you look at it. I could imagine one day finding out I have terminal cancer and thinking, well it’s been a good life and that’s ok.
In my 30’s I could never imagine that. But in my mid 40’s I can.
May you have the best and most interesting journey. Wherever it takes you, you will be there. Ie you are a result of what you did and didn’t do.
I would do it the same. I’m glad I did it how I did it, no regrets or adjustment necessary. I was and am a success. Unfortunately how I did it wouldn’t work today. The “machine” I interacted with as a physician for 30 years no longer exists and now I’m a provider, entirely responsible for the power I wield but thoroughly neutered in the ability to effectively wield that power. Catch 22. It is what it is and the leaves that were green turned to brown. No problemo, new green leaves await my attention daily.
True. If you had the choice to do it again you might have not have the opportunity anymore. Things change.