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Category: lifestyle

How soon should doctors be able to retire?

Posted on March 2, 2017January 30, 2021 by SmartMoneyMD

The financial blogging world seems to be obsessed with who can retire at the youngest age. We’ve got thirty-year-olds hanging up their hats and traveling the world proclaiming that they are done with the regular workforce. Obviously there really isn’t much of a standardized amount of money that one should have when they retire, other than a fixed multiplier of annual expenses on the oft-bastardized Trinity Study results.

25x? 35x? 36x? 40x?

Having a multiplier on your annual expenses instead of a fixed number like $10 million allows people to reach an achievable number based on individual needs. And boy is there a wide range of net worths out there. I recall seeing that Pete of Money Mustache fame hung up his hat after accumulating around $700,000 in his early 30’s. Not bad. Pete, however, is one handy guy who has the right attitude of living like a king spending only $25,000 a year for a family of three. The math might not work if you like driving a Hummer H2 to commute 60 miles roundtrip to work each day.

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Jacob Fisker of Early Retirement Extreme fame became financially independent at age 30, and “retired” at age 33. Mind you, he has a doctorate degree in physics. I have a friend who got his physics Phd at age 32 still has a negative net worth. I don’t recall exactly what Jacob’s “magic number” was, but I do recall that he probably holds the record in spending what I consider to be almost no money. Bravo.

On the other end of the spectrum is my fellow physician blogger, Physician On Fire, whose exceptional level of fitness is matched by an exceptionally impressive net worth of around $3 million at age 41 despite only started on a real job after training in his late 20’s. By his meticulous calculations, he is indeed financially independent and can start cutting back on his work soon enough.

Even higher up on the absolute bank account value spectrum is Sam from Financial Samurai, who truly is one hard worker living in a high cost of living area. After leaving the financial sector, Sam built up an impressive array of passive income streams that continue to fund his net worth.

In fact, many of the early retirement folks, by virtue of discussing their financial journey online, are able to generate ancillary income that supplements or even replaces income from their prior careers. Interesting world we live in, eh?

The doctor dilemma and early retirement

I finished my training in my early thirties. I had a solid negative six-figure net worth to my name then. I actually came across Money Mustache before it became a cult following, and promptly forgot about it because I didn’t think that this sort of hogwash applied to doctors. Why?

It seemed foolish to go through such a traumatic, challenging, and life-changing decade only to hang up your hat prematurely. Society has invested in your education, you’ve invested in your education, and your family has also sacrificed for your education. Are you really going to throw it away because you don’t like the way healthcare policy has transgressed?

The Smart Money MD Solution to Early Retirement

I like practicing medicine. There aren’t that many jobs out there that directly compensate you so well for clinical skills. I also hate dealing with hospital politics. I am also currently not financially independent, so I still have to continue working in the meantime. However, the goal is not to quit a soon as you can. You just need to build up enough of your net worth that your primary job as a doctor isn’t a necessity for survival.

Work at least as many years as you put into becoming a doctor.

If you spent four years in medical school, and three years in a family medicine residency, you need to work a minimum of seven years as an attending earning a six-figure salary.

If you spent five years in medical school, one pre-residency year of research, five years of residency, and three years of fellowship, you need to work at least 14 years.

I think that this is a reasonable number of years to help out society with your unique skills. Sure, some specialties are going to have more money in the end than others: an ER doctor spent the same number of years as a family medicine (FM) doctor training, but can earn more than twice as much as the FM doc.

You might also like: How much do doctors earn?

For example, let’s take a look at a hypothetical simplified situation in which a doctor earning $250,000 annually will end up with after 10 years. Suppose he is in the 25% effective tax bracket and spends $75,000 annually.

You might have even less if you started with student loan debt!

After 10 years with a conservative 5% growth, he will only have slightly south of $1.5 million. This translates to a safe withdrawal of 4% at less than $60,000 annually. Not bad, but there is not much buffer. Obviously, there is a wide range of what you can earn and save as a physician, but not every doctor will have amazing income potential.

Afterward, go into part-time practice.

The beauty of getting close to your magic number is that you become less dependent on the B$ that is involved with work. If you don’t like dealing with some of the politics, you cut back your hours to reduce exposure. You earn less, but you also might be happier. In contrast, if you still need to keep that Hummer in the garage for your grocery shopping, you might need to figure out another way to fund your habit. There’s nothing wrong with staying happy. Just be aware that there is no free lunch. Your net worth simply needs to fund your expenses. Easy peasy.

Transition to a lifestyle existence.

You might also like: Why every doctor needs a side hustle.

If you plan to bail out of clinical medicine because you have enough money for eternity, you still have to figure out how to occupy your time. Sitting around the house vacuuming the carpets every day gets boring. If you made it through medical school, you probably have enough ambition to do something more with your life. It doesn’t have to be as admirable as providing healthcare to refugees either.

Do you spend your time brewing beer? Perfecting your photography skills? Volunteering for youth groups? Who knows, you might actually have a hobby that can generate additional income.

What is the Smart Money MD plan? It is still in development. I am mapping out my career roadmap, finances, and savings rate. Whatever the future brings, it will be awesome.

Perils of being a physician leader

Posted on January 30, 2017January 30, 2021 by SmartMoneyMD

You’ve been pulling long hours at your practice for the past five years, and are finally building a sizable patient following. Your hospital is making record profits in part to your labor. One day you get a call from the administration. Will you finally get that raise that you’ve desperately needed? No such luck, but the administration invites you to attend their exclusive meetings. You say, “yes” without truly understanding what the job entails.

You would be lucky to have these chairs in your hospital conference room

Guess what? You’ve now become a physician leader. Sometimes your hospital or group may spin the title in euphemistic terminology like “executive team”, “management team”, or “lead provider” (shudder). No matter how this title is spun, the bottom line is that you’ve just volunteered for more work. Don’t think that you can cut back on your clinical hours just because you have that fancy new title. That extra $1,000 every quarter on your paycheck will SURELY cover those extra hours of your life spent in meetings.

Did you just sign away your life?

Becoming a healthcare administrator can promote your career.

There are merits to becoming a leader. Most doctors in every stage of our careers still report to someone else. As a medical student, you reported to residents, attendings, and even nurses! As an attending physician, we still report to our chairmen, the insurance companies, and other regulators. There is always someone who is above you at any point of your career. When you become a physician leader, you start gaining that authority to help make our healthcare system better.

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The second you move onto an administrative role, you automatically acquire authority. Authority to make decisions. Authority to change the silly policies that you hated to deal with when you were a peon. These changes can be as insignificant as replacing the low-grade coffee stirrers in the break room. How about getting rid of that noontime mandatory team huddle that you always missed because your clinic runs two hours late? Done!

More importantly, you gain the opportunity to grow your career as a healthcare administrator. You get to see the side of the healthcare system outside of direct patient care. You will see how complex, confusing, and inefficient our healthcare system really is. This is where you can actually shine. What goals can you implement in your hospital to improve healthcare delivery? How does the revenue cycle for an orthopedic clinic work?

You might actually be a whiz at healthcare policy. That would be a powerful skill to have. Instead of fighting hypertension in the clinic, a strong healthcare policy reform could prevent the same disease in thousands of people without stepping foot into the clinic! There is real opportunity in administration to lift yourself out of direct patient care.

Becoming a healthcare administrator can destroy your health.

This picture is more representative of hospital conference room chairs.

Look, being a leader is not all fun and fame. Who knows how many failed administrators never become CEOs, start up their own consulting firms only to fail, or even quit medicine altogether. Administration is not a sure path to lifelong success.

We all know that being a physician leader involves added work. You have to hustle through your patients and then rush to meetings afterward. The hustle is actually not the hard part. You already know how to hustle. The problem is that progress with any hustle takes time. You will fail. Many people will hate you for implementing changes. It may take years before you realize whether you’ve accomplished anything, and that can take a heavy toll on our psyche. You might burnout.

No one is immune to burnout. I get notices almost every month that CEOs or senior staff members of local hospitals getting replaced. Some take on roles in other organizations. Others vanish. I doubt that every single one of them actually left their prior jobs because they were offered wildly lucrative offers elsewhere. I bet that most of them burned out from their long hours and lack of job satisfaction. Don’t think that you are immune to administrative burnout simply because you are a doctor.

Becoming an administration adds tension between your colleagues.

Once that title of “lead physician” gets appended to your name, your colleagues will view you differently. That inherent trust that you shared is no longer as apparent. That is a weird feeling. Whether or not you actually continue to suffer through the pain of clinic, useless meetings, and stupid online compliance training makes no difference. Your colleagues probably think that you actually know something that they don’t. The lack of certainty is a powerful motivator for skepticism.

You probably aren’t going to be besties with the administration either.

If you can’t be friends with your fellow doctors, you’ve still got your administrative posse right?

Wrong.

<insert cynicism> Half of your hospital’s management team aren’t physicians (or providers if you’ve already been brainwashed). Some of them may not have any formal professional degrees other than “B.S.” or some made-up title like “DFO” (Director of Financial Operations). Since this is a financial website, I’ll add that all of these people have salaries higher than your best friend who got a USMLE Step 1 score of 260—this is considered a high score—but decided to go into family medicine. <end cynicism>

This administrative team expects you, the physician leader, to be on board with their recommendations. Some of these recommendations will be unfavorable. Do you have to be a sycophant and agree with their decisions? Or do you risk your future career as CEO by going against the grain? Will you always be outvoted since you are the sole physician on the board? What can you actually accomplish if you don’t already agree with the existing administration?

Will you be happy as a physician leader?

I’m all about happiness. If you don’t like what you do, you probably aren’t going to be motivated to improve your skills. If you dread the 5 hours a week of additional meetings in addition to your clinical practice, you’re probably not going to be good at your job. However, if you love spending a few hours every evening planning for your meetings, you might actually be a great administrator.

“A jack of all trades is a master of none.” There are only 168 hours in a week. I know a vascular surgeon who works 85 hours a week. Imagine adding on another 8 hours of your weekly life going to meetings. For most people this is unsustainable. You will break down. If you pare down your clinical activities, you might not actually have enough time to maintain your clinical or surgical skills either.

There is a fine line between the clinician and administrator. Plenty of us do both, both are we sacrificing our abilities to perform one for the sake of doing both?

Have you considered becoming a physician leader?

(Photo courtesy of Flickr)

Why every doctor needs a side hustle

Posted on January 23, 2017January 30, 2021 by SmartMoneyMD

Doctors are impressive individuals. This statement is by no means objective, but this is the truth. ? I’m not even referring to the medical miracles that a decade of training allows us to perform. Some of the most talented and diverse people I know have primary careers in the medical profession, many of whom have tremendous drive outside of medicine.

Take, for example, the following people I know:

I had a classmate who contributed to the scriptwriting on the set of Scrubs prior to entering medical school.
Another friend of mine patented some special brace for treating scoliosis. In grade school.
Another one of my colleagues once conducted the New York Philharmonic. Over ten times!

All of these people are true hustlers in their own league. But hey, don’t discount your successes! The rest of us mere mortals who entered the medical profession, too, have that inner drive that has carried us thus far into our careers. We opted to become “experts” in our respected fields. At least several gallons of midnight oil were burnt to get us anointed as medical doctors. We’ve all got the grit to hustle if forced to.

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Physicians are at high risk of burnout.

Imagine signing charts and refilling prescriptions every day for 2 hours after clinic!

Hustling for no good reason but to hustle, unfortunately, can be unhealthy. You can’t run at 110% all the time. And medical practice can drive you to go 110% all the time. Our actions can determine whether someone will be alive or dead, walking or wheelchair bound, blind or sighted. Even the results of cosmetic surgery will impact someone’s physical appearance, self esteem, and livelihood. We deal with high stress situations daily. These actions wear on us. Over time, this can lead to burnout.

Interesting, the term “burnout” was coined by a psychologist in the 1970’s named Herbert Freudenberger. He was a workaholic who burned out himself. Stress, fatigue, and irritability…these are the common symptoms of burnout. We’ve all seen it. We’ve all had those days, the days where we want to call it quits.

You might also like: How to identify physician burnout: and how to prevent it.

Burnout is prevalent in medicine. Recent studies from the Mayo Clinic and @Medscape have burnout rates for physicians in the 50% range. One study reported that Emergency Room physicians, Internists, and Urologists have a burnout rate of 55%! Another study reported that Critical Care physicians had the highest burnout rate. It’s also not just the stress of medicine or long hours that contribute to the burnout; survey respondents report that the increasing amount of bureaucracy and computerization of the healthcare system that are the top offenders. Essentially, many of the tasks that cause burnout are things that we don’t like doing.

You need to have a hobby to avoid burnout.

Just as how the scriptwriter or conductor-turned doctor has diverse interests, we all should have hobbies to fall back to outside of the workplace. These are activities that we can enjoy without the demand of outside influences. Doctors are artists, musicians, athletes, and photographers. These are hobbies and outside interests that got us into medical school, and these are the same solutions to combat burnout. You don’t have to be as good as Lebron to play basketball either. Your interests don’t even have to be productive either. Hell, you can just go read @Corporette or @RealitySteve in your free time and have a blast…I know I do.

The lack of external pressure magically reduces the stress and anxiety of an activity. I see this behavior with one of the doctors at my hospital. When the administrators mandate us to see additional patients, this doctor refuses, stating that he doesn’t want to see more patients. However, he volunteers on the weekends and in mission trips to care for patients on his own time. Without pay. The truth is that he DOES like caring for patients. The irony is that he just doesn’t like to get told what to do. It makes little logical sense, but that is human behavior.

Hobbies can turn into side hustles.

Many of our hobbies are actually full-time occupations for some people. I know several computer programmers who dabble in photography in their free time. Some of them actually are transitioning to full-time photographers, starting with small-time events through Craigslist and then eventually larger venues through word of mouth.

One of the plastic surgeons in my area dabbles in woodworking and produces craftsman-style furniture. Could he dive into this full-time? Absolutely, but I’m sure that he wouldn’t be happy if his livelihood depended on it. However, it is conceivable that he could turn this skill into a side-hustle. Will he do that? Probably not, because he is busy enough correcting ptosis or making people beautiful.

Then there are doctors who really kick themselves into overdrive and basically find ways to make a name for themselves outside of clinical medicine. Some of the more popular routes include becoming a CEO of a hospital, joining an advisory board of a company, and or even becoming a writer.

You just need to do something that makes you happy.

Not everyone dreams of becoming the next @JohnChow or @FinancialSamurai who works on their own time while money rolls in his bank account. Most of us actually like practicing medicine or law. We just need a break from it sometimes.

You don’t have to be the next Dr. Oz, but finding a way to maintain your sanity will carry you a long way in your career.

What have you all done to find a good balance between work and life?

(Photo courtesy of Flickr)

Why are you a doctor, lawyer, or engineer?

Posted on January 9, 2017January 30, 2021 by SmartMoneyMD

No, this isn’t an interview question, but I’m sure that all of us who are doctors, lawyers, or engineers have been asked this very question at least once in our lives. I do think that this is a valid question that we should all reassess at certain points in our careers.

Because the moment that we can’t honestly tell ourselves why we continue our daily 9-5 jobs (or 11pm – 8am shifts) is the moment that we should consider what we can do to change our situation. It’s also not wrong to tell ourselves that we’re doing it for the money either.

We’ve got to live and get to retirement somehow, right?

I would add that doing our jobs for the money is okay until we truly decide that it’s no longer fun.

I took a poll of my colleagues and acquaintances regarding why gets them out of bed every day. It’s interesting how much variation there is in their responses.

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One dermatologist told me that she wanted to eradicate all frown lines, wrinkles, and skin cancers from the world. Fair enough. She does see over 70 patients a day, so by virtue of numbers alone, she is probably fulfilling her end of the bargain. Sure, the money is good, but she’d continue doing it until she couldn’t anymore. She definitely had a strong affinity to her profession. But the money allows her to wear those $1200 heels and that $10,000 clutch.

One engineer I spoke to was not so convincing. He had an advanced degree in physics and electrical engineering so he spent a considerable number of his younger years studying these topics. He worked for a research facility conducting various tests for both private industry and the government. Even though I had a science background, I really had a tough time following what he really did. He did take advantage of his employer’s arrangements with the local university and took continuing education classes in his free time. He probably didn’t love his job, but he probably didn’t hate it either. I guess it paid the bills. I actually think that he would have wanted to become a lifelong student if he had the option. His primary job allowed him to do just that.

One of my lawyer friends who graduated from a top tier private law school actually spends her time working for both the local public radio, taking care of her kids, and writing scripts for various broadcast programs. I could tell that she loves her current occupations. I’m sure that given her capabilities, she could have also been working at a high-profile law firm. More power to her. The law degree probably cost around $150,000 at the time, as did her private university degree. That’s a $300,000 investment plus seven years of your life. Now her income has been essentially zero except for whatever scripts get accepted. I do wonder how she lives in a $2 million home, though. 😉

In contrast, another one of my lawyer colleagues works at a corporate firm. He works over 100-hrs a week on certain weeks where deadlines loom, and about 50 hours a week at other times. He lives like he has a serious income (he probably has a serious income). I’ve wondered whether he’d have any ability to retire before age 70, but it’s not clear that he does unless he has a huge inheritance at some point (he actually might).

How does this apply to me?

Hearing from the four colleagues above, I am even more convinced that money does buy happiness. The dermatologist appears to enjoy her role in helping people, and also enjoys her healthy income. The engineer probably hasn’t found his calling yet, but his current situation appears to allow him to pursue his version of happiness. Lawyer #1 clearly has lined up her priorities to her liking. I suspect that she has been able to pursue her passion only because she has a bank account to back up her standard of living. Lawyer #2 may or may not be happy. I think he has allowed his success define his occupation and lifestyle. I guess it’s probably not a situation I’d want to be in long term, but I have seen plenty of doctors get consumed by their jobs.

What I’ve concluded from this thought exercise is what I’ve pushed along on this website—we really should consider molding our lifestyle to what makes us happy. Wealth is a source of our happiness and potentially our misery. The sooner that we can free ourselves from working towards getting wealth (and have that wealth work for us), the happier we can be.

Have you asked yourself why you continue your career or what your daily activities are (if you’ve reached FIRE)?

Photo courtesy of Flickr)

Wasteful Wednesdays – High flow water fixtures

Posted on December 28, 2016January 30, 2021 by SmartMoneyMD

It’s that time of the year between Christmas and New Year’s. Interestingly, Hanukkah also falls within this week—I don’t recall it falling so late in December in recent years. Most of us are relaxing with family, taking holiday vacations, and digesting that so unhealthy Turducken that we finally caved into trying out this year.

While taking a shower this morning and wondering what I could cook on my wasteful stovetop, I was reminded of another convenience that is not in keeping with conservative measures or being financially frugal—my shower head.

The rage these days is about low-flow fixtures. You have 1.6 gpf toilets compared to the classic 5-gallon toilets of the 80’s and early 90’s. I remember being able to modify those 5-gallon toilets to flush using 6-7 gallons by changing the angle of the float, just to ensure that all of the waste is flushed away. More efficient toilet design such as glazing of the trap and wider flush valve diameters (remember, I am a self-proclaimed toilet expert) allow less water to do the trick.

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Likewise, low-flow faucets and shower heads are becoming the norm, to decrease water consumption. Our local utilities company actually sent us a 1.25gpm low-flow shower head. I’ve used it before, and it does the trick using aeration holes to diffuse the water spread.

However, when we moved into a house with wasteful kitchen appliances, I started using the built-in shower head: a water-wasting Kohler 2.5gpm shower head!

It works great. Water pressure is excellent. It uses twice as much water as the low-flow units:

Boy do I love the extra calcium in the water!

Rough calculations on my water consumption and costs show that I will spend an extra $50 a year for using a high flow shower head. No, I don’t live in a drought-stricken area, but I do sometimes feel guilty of using extra water.

Do you use a low-flow shower head?

Is a degree from a prestigious medical school advantageous for doctors?

Posted on December 24, 2016January 30, 2021 by SmartMoneyMD

Some of us are overachievers. Some of us are overachieving doctors. What if you’re in-between? Let’s say that you’re an overachiever, and you want to become a doctor.

Should you go all the way up top and get that medical degree from a top private institution? Does it even matter? With tuition costs skyrocketing, you can easily spend $60,000 annually on tuition alone for each year in medical school. Add another $10-$15k in room and board, and you will be about a quarter million in the hole by the time you get out. In contrast, medical school tuition in 2016 for UT Houston for in-state resident is only about $20,000 annually. That’s a big difference.

These are considerations that are rarely taught or even discussed. If you are planning to go to medical school, it does pay to consider the consequences thoroughly before you proceed.

Does a prestigious degree help get you a better job?

It depends. It depends on where you plan to work. In clinical medicine, you can either work at an academic institution or in the private sector. Many job situations in the academic world require teaching, research, or involvement in administration. If I were a departmental chair looking to bring on a clinician-researcher, I’d want someone who not only can practice medicine well, but also has strong writing skills, coherent presentation abilities, and innovative characteristics. If two candidates had similar track records with similar recommendations and charisma, I might lean towards going for the gal with the Ivy-league degree, especially if I am running an Ivy-League department.

If I needed a doctor in the private sector, the institution that granted the degree is unlikely going to matter much at all. Yale? Great. Wayne State? That’s okay with me. You just need to be ethical, hard-working, and reasonable to deal with. For all other qualities, the verification process in each state and governing medical board can do the rest.

Do doctors from prestigious institutions make more money?

It depends again. To understand this question, you should understand how doctors make money to see whether an Ivy-League degree will translate to higher dollars. This is also contingent upon how you are using your medical degree, whether you are practicing medicine, performing administrative work, or consulting. Remember, you don’t have to be a doctor to get rich. Or you shouldn’t become a doctor if your main goal is to become rich.

If we are considering doctor worth from revenue alone obtained through clinical practice, insurance companies make no distinction between where you obtained your degree. U.S. grad, international grad, it doesn’t matter. As long as you pass your boards (sometimes you don’t even have to do that!), you’re golden. From clinical practice alone, you’re not going to make more money having gone to a top college or medical school. Period.

Now having that special degree CAN get you more business, depending on which part of the country you practice medicine. This is particularly true (and sometimes annoyingly so) in the New England area. Patients in New Caanan Connecticut do (in general) care where you obtained your degree. They may or may not even be highly educated, but the high concentration of Ivies in that region predisposes this behavior. Unless you have significant street cred and have been working in the area for a long time, your patient may doctor shop your degree.

Okay, I sank $200,000+ into an Ivy-league medical degree, what am I going to get in return?

Many of us, under the guidance of family, friends, or schooling, end up enrolling in well-known [read: expensive] private universities and medical schools.

DESPITE the equivocal conclusion by Smart Money MD.

Don’t fret. You’re not totally screwed. If you have a good inheritance coming your way or an alternative means to fund the process, you’re actually in great shape.

If the above doesn’t apply to you, don’t fret either!

Step 1. Pat yourself on the back.

Congratulations. It is not easy getting in. It is SIGNIFICANTLY more difficult to get in medical school than law school, business school, or college. Kudos to you.

This is a fact. By numbers alone. There are simply fewer number of available positions in medical school. The Class of 2018 Stanford Graduate School of Business has 417 new students. Last I checked, the Stanford medical school had fewer than 90 students per class. I think the acceptance rate in the medical school was about 2-3%, while the business school acceptance rate was 6%. If you compare these numbers to that of an average public medical school and public business school, you’ll see that the class sizes will be larger and the acceptance rate will also be higher.

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Step 2. You’ve got a lifetime of prestige attributed to your name.

Yup, your mother can brag about her daughter at every holiday party. Your distant relatives will direct their children to you for advice. Your alma mater will also hit you up for donations every single year. You can volunteer with your local alumni group and have “exclusive parties”.

You have a lifetime of memories and connections to potentially successful friends and colleagues.

This is not a bad situation to be in.

Step 3. Clear your mind and get to work.

Get yourself back into the real world. Don’t let anything else cloud your judgment. You’re probably not even that smart. Your coworker at the hospital who came from Portugal probably is one the smartest gals in her country. She memorized Harrison’s twice to pass her country’s exams. Oh yea, she also repeated residency in the U.S. and passed all of her U.S. board exams…in English.

That’s right, her native tongue is Portuguese, and she learned Spanish as her secondary language. English was her third language.

Get yourself out of debt if you funded your education through loan sharks. If I dug myself out of debt, so can you. Save up your money. Figure out how much you are worth.

Figure out what makes you happy. Then work to get there. Easy peasy.

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(Photo courtesy of Flickr)

How fancy appliances can dent your savings rate

Posted on December 21, 2016January 30, 2021 by SmartMoneyMD

I was recently thinking about all of the financially foolish actions I have committed that violate the rules of good financial sense and realized that I could easily fill a year’s worth of material every Wednesday….

Let’s call it Wasteful Wednesdays…

Of course, the only role of noting financially irresponsible actions and purchases on a website that encourages good financial behavior is to provide examples of what not to do, and how easy it is to squander your earnings, no matter what you income levels are. There is no limit to how quickly you can exhaust your paycheck…

Notwithstanding my retirement-preventing expensive house purchase, let’s take a look at my kitchen appliances are probably adding year’s to my working career…

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The Refrigerator

Don’t worry, the paneling itself costs more than the average fridge

This Subzero fridge costs about $12,000 retail. It is built-in the wall so that it’s nearly impossible to change the water filter. Since the fit is so snug next to your cabinets, you have to pay extra to make sure that your cabinet doors won’t block the refrigerator door from opening. Some people like to have the door blend into the cabinets to look cool. The fridge includes a built-in alarm to notify you that 5 seconds is too long to keep the fridge door open too (hey, we’ve got to be energy star compliant somehow!) And it depreciates in value faster than my car too. By the way, the freezer compartment is intentionally small to prevent me from storing unhealthy frozen foods (literally written in the owner’s manual). It is also the reason I own another freezer in the garage that I pay extra electricity to run so that I can store my ice cream from Costco.

Oven / Range

If you have to ask what brand this stove/oven is, you don’t deserve to know. I believe that this is another $10,000 drop in the bucket. That’s why there is a stone mode for you to make your own pizza at home. Does it make pizza taste better? You bet it does, only if you buy optional the $100 pizza stone kit. Hey, it’s saving you money every time you bake your own pizza instead of getting take-out. Ten dollars is worth saving, right? In case you’re worried, I actually saved money by owning a stove/oven single unit instead of two separate appliances.

The dishwasher

This dishwasher is made by the other Swedish company at non-Ikea like prices

This high-end Swedish Asko dishwasher supposedly will save you water and electricity every time you use it. Don’t be bothered that each cycle takes about 2 hours! Worried that a stainless steel or brushed nickel finish to your dishwasher won’t match your fridge? No problem, you can pay extra on top of the $1000 dishwasher to have a skin custom-made.

There you have it. Three kitchen appliances that could have easily covered the annual cost of living in the MMM household. And these aren’t even the top of the line models that you can buy! You can be sure that if any of these appliances break down, I will be the first to sell them for scrap parts and find replacements a tenth of the cost of these. Lesson learned: you can sink a lot of money in your kitchen.

What splurge appliances do you own?