Category: Save Income

Low-cost investment showdown: where do you stash your funds?

Posted on by SmartMoneyMD
I opened my first investment account in medical school at E-Trade.  I was roughly $160,000 in loan debt, but I opened a Roth IRA along with a brokerage account at the same time.  I believe that stock trades at E-Trade were only $9.99 a trade, which was one of the lowest in the industry.
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I knew nothing about indexing at the time. Never heard of Jack Bogle or Vanguard. That was probably still okay, since I did not have much disposable investment income at hand. Now that I am more attuned to the available options in the market. The following are a list of where I continue to place my investments and my impressions so far:

Vanguard

This was my first custodian after I started indexing my funds.  Great low-cost options are available, along with Admiral funds for even more savings after you’ve reached a certain amount.  There are essentially no service fees as long as you commit to electronic documents. The website interface is relatively basic but functional.  I wished that Vanguard offered more detailed analyses on funds, but most of the time I already have done my homework about which funds to purchase prior to venturing on the Vanguard website.
My second pet peeve of Vanguard is that there is no easy way to calculate an annualized rate of return on my investments.  The Vanguard interface has a “Balances Over Time” tab that calculates an overall growth of your funds like this:
A 10.5% rate of return is deceptive if you don’t account for the duration investment. My annual rate of return is a meager <4%!

Sometimes you don’t want to load up a spreadsheet to do these calculations by hand. I still keep my investments in Vanguard, but I have since started to diversify even more, as we will see below.

Fidelity

I started placing funds in Fidelity over the past year, due to a slightly lower expense ratio, and the fact that they offered airlines miles on keeping funds with them.
As I had written before, you can earn up to 50,000 Delta, American, or United airlines miles by stashing at least $100,000 in Fidelity. You can also receive miles for smaller investments.  The Fidelity index fund options track all of the standard markets that Vanguard funds do, so you don’t really sacrifice much if you are a Vanguard loyalist.
I like the Fidelity interface.  There are clear cut menu options, customer service is relatively competent and prompt.  My employer uses Fidelity for its 401k custodian, so I’m able to reduce the number of logins to keep track of.

Charles Schwab

 
I opened a credit card account with Charles Schwab years ago when they offered a free iPod Shuffle after the first purchase. I promptly closed my account a year later when I realized that I was not getting any further benefits from using the card. I never even considered their investment wing until now, because their expense ratios were horrible. Not anymore:
Schwab may have the lowest expense ratios to date!

This is only a recent change since March of 2017, presumably because of the competition in the market, especially from robo-advisors who also charge minimal management fees.  I plan on placing all of my future investments in Schwab.

Where do you keep your investments?
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How to save money on social events

Posted on by SmartMoneyMD

At some point in our careers, we will end up either hosting or participating in social gatherings.  The events may be as simple as meeting up with a few colleagues at the bar  or renting out an event space for a departmental party.  This is essentially what happens in the big cities like New York and San Francisco where most doctors aren’t going to have much apartment space (more importantly bathroom space) for more than a handful of people.

If you live anywhere else in the country, you could end up saving quite a bit of money if you offer to host an event in your own home.  It can be done, no matter what size of home you live in.  I once had a coworker in New York’s Upper West Side host frequent parties in his 1200 sq ft, two bedroom two bathroom apartment. I believe that we had about twenty people in the apartment at one point with room to spare!

 

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The benefits of hosting a party at home.

As the host, you essentially trade the hassle of traveling and parking for having to organize your own event.  You have to assess whether that is worth it to you.  But everyone can end up saving a bit of money if someone in your group volunteers to host.

Space.  For large groups, restaurants gouge you either on the space rental or on the minimum purchase amount of food needed.  That can easily run $1000 if you have an entire department to host.

Drinks.  The biggest money maker in the restaurant business is alcohol.  Beer, wine, and spirits confer the highest profit margin in any sale.  In parties, we drink alcohol.  Unless your friend Physician On Fire (who owns shares in a brewery) offers to host your holiday party at his brewery, you’re going to spend a ton of money on drinks.  A $12 drink at the bar could buy you an entire 750ml bottle of table wine. If you drink the cheap stuff, you can get 1.5l at Total Wine!

If you’ve already paid for a fancy chandelier, you might as well show it off.

Food.  Even if you cater all of the food to your home, it will be cheaper than purchasing food at a restaurant or bar.  Better yet, your hosts can each potluck items for the event.  Someone’s gotta have a Costco membership.

You might also like: The only strategy you’ll need to save money when you’re too busy to price shop.

 

How much you can save will depend on how much time you have to spend on preparing meals for your guests.

Comfort.  Most social events I’ve been to in restaurants are confined to a room where everyone is sitting around a table.  You only get to talk to the people immediately adjacent to where you’re sitting.  Larger settings in restaurants can be arranged in a cocktail-like setting, but boy are those expensive.  If you are attending an event at a coworker’s home, you’ve potentially an entire backyard for kids to run around and plenty of space for everyone to mingle or sit down.

Make sure you are adequately insured.

Liability is more of a touchy issue.  It probably won’t matter as much if you are hosting your partners at your home. However, once you have employees and ancillary staff around, there is real risk of liability.  What if someone gets injured in your swimming pool? What if one of your employees gets inebriated at your home and hurts herself or someone else? What if said inebriated employee gets into an automobile accident on the way home? If you aren’t financially independent already, you still have great financial liability that some sleazy television lawyer is waiting to sue.

Get yourself some umbrella insurance.  You might not need any if you are still a resident with a six-figure negative net worth and struggling to pay your electricity bill, but once you are an attending with some wealth attached to your name it’ll give you peace of mind.  For those of you who have already looked into it, you will likely find that your auto and home insurance company will offer umbrella insurance, but may have certain stipulations.  Most companies require you to purchase a minimum amount of auto insurance in order to meet the requirements for umbrella. Even though a $1 million umbrella policy might only cost you $400 a year, you might have to purchase a more comprehensive auto insurance that might run you an extra $1200 a year.  It doesn’t matter if you drive a 20 year old Honda or a Maserati.

Umbrella insurance itself is inexpensive, but in order to meet the qualifications, you might have to increase the coverage of your vehicles and homes.  Food for thought.

What other suggestions do you have to save money on social events?

(Photo courtesy of Flickr)

How big of a hat do you wear?

Posted on by SmartMoneyMD

You’ve probably heard the quip about having a big hat but no cattle. Some people might phrase it as “all talk and no show”. If you’re going to flaunt any definable measure of success, you should have some success to back it up. I’d say this principle is a corollary to stealth wealth, which is defined by having your outward appearance underrepresent your level of success in life.

You might also like: Stealth wealth revisited: it applies to doctors too!

I like talking about big hats and cattle, partly because my colleagues who have never lived anywhere outside of the Northeast corridor may have never viewed life in terms of cattle ranching. Big hats are unfortunately prevalent in the medical world.  And it doesn’t matter what type of cattle either—financial or egotistical cattle, it’s all there.

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Big hats and financial cattle

I saw lots of big hats even in college. These hats came mostly in the form of spring break vacations. Some of these vacations came as road trips, others as trips to Cancun. I didn’t think much of it, since most college students had no full-time jobs. Everything was bankrolled by the family or student loans. It really didn’t matter much to me because, well, it was college. People did a lot of impractical things in college.

If you haven’t gone cow tipping before, you should!

There were big hats in medical school too. Most medical students also had no full-time income, but others may have had careers prior to enrolling into medical school.  I wasn’t too sure whether any of those big hats I saw in medical school were justified, but I had no business judging any actions other than my own.  These big hats also came in the form of lavish vacations abroad, long weekend excursions to Europe, weekly take-out meals, and home/car purchases too. I came to believe that most of these big hats were backed by lots of cattle. Inherited cattle. Borrowed cattle. Probably not any self-raised cattle.

The hats have gotten bigger after training. McMansions. Fast cars. One of my coresidents leased a mid-range BMW during fellowship, and moved on to an upper range BMW soon afterward.  Most professionals are intelligent people. I would assume that doctors who spend their careers working on brains and hearts to be some of the most intelligent people out there. I would assume that most of these people are aware that it is not wise to wear big hats without a sizable herd of financial cattle to back you up.

The problem is that we are all human.  We have our desires. I think that it’s an admirable skill to be able to mold your needs to a level significantly lower than your financial earning potential, but it is not easy for many people. Suppose that you are an interventional cardiologist. You fix heart attacks on Friday nights and holidays.  That is an impressive feat. Why shouldn’t you be able have radiant heat in the floors of your home?

 

Hat size should correlate with cattle size. 

There is no reason to deprive yourself of what makes you happy.  You just have to be smart about it. If radiant heat makes you happy, go for it.  Just make sure that you can balance it with some moderation elsewhere. Otherwise, you might end up like the surgeon I saw on the news who couldn’t pay his rent and got evicted. I have no idea how that could happen, but there is a lesson to be learned in moderation.

As I have gotten wiser financially, I wonder if my classmates have too.  I’m sure that the borrowed cattle will run out eventually.  When they do, I hope that they will be prepared. I did check in on a distant acquaintance from medical school recently—she was one of the people who vacationed lavishly during school. She purchased a nice $1+ million apartment and works as a geriatrician! Okay, there isn’t much of a lesson to be learned there, but I guess that some people are fortunate to probably have inherited a nice herd of cattle.

 

Moral of the story? It is okay to wear big hats as long as you keep a healthy and sizable herd of cattle!

 

(Photo courtesy of Flickr)

How to save money while living in New York City

Posted on by SmartMoneyMD

Most of my readers do not live in high cost of living (HCOL) cities. The financially savvy crowd typically has already done their homework and know all about geographical arbitrage. A doctor in the Bay Area might not even be able to swing a two-bedroom apartment for less than $3000 a month (more like $4500). Guess where all of your salary is going towards if you life there? For $3000 a month, you can get a McMansion in Indianapolis, with a one-acre lot to boot.

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Unfortunately, not all of us have that much freedom. Many doctors are going to be “stuck” living in a HCOL city due to family ties, specialization, or hubris. Hey, Northern California is nice.  You won’t find strawberries better anywhere else in the world.  Who cares if there are droughts, mudslides, and earthquakes? ?

Likewise, there are many doctors in the New York area.  This place is crazy expensive.  I remember hearing some statistic that almost a quarter of all doctors in the United States have journeyed through New York City or are living in one of the boroughs. I suppose that it is a reasonable number due to the dense population and high number of hospitals in the region. For this reason, many of you readers might end up living in the NYC area at some point during your career. Here are some tips to keep more of your paycheck in your bank account while living in the Big Apple:

Rent  

By far, the biggest expense for most people in NYC is the cost of rent or owning. There is almost no real way to cut costs since the real estate market is insane. If you choose to live in the city, getting a roommate may be the most economical choice. You can probably save about 30% on rent with splitting a two-bedroom unit instead of living in a studio or one-bedroom apartment. The cost of rent correlates with vicinity to subway lines and neighborhoods. You have to weigh in safety to cost, as there is obviously crime in the city. One consideration is to live near a college campus where you might be able to get a cheaper rent targeted for students. Rent stabilized units are also an option, although many of these may be in less desirable neighborhoods.  Get on your hospital bulletin boards to look for roommate options and rental opportunities. Sometimes there are professionals who own their apartments but wish to rent them out while they are living in another city training or on a sabbatical.

I assume that most of my readers aren’t in the market to purchase a house/condo/co-op in New York City. If you are flush with money, go on ahead and buy. ? Expect to pay premium HOAs for doormen and building amenities.

Food

There is no Aldi grocery store in NYC, but there are plenty of ethnic neighborhoods with more budgetary grocery items. I wouldn’t necessarily consider these ethnic markets to have a healthier selection of food, but vegetables, fruits, and meats tend to be cheaper in Hispanic markets and markets in Chinatown. The grungier the neighborhood, the cheaper the products.  There are Chinatowns in Manhattan, Flushing, and Brooklyn. Take your pick.  Budgetary Indian groceries can be had in Jackson Heights in Queens.

This Cara Cara orange at $2.99/lb better taste awesome!

If street markets or ethnic groceries aren’t your type, you can still find some deals at expensive grocery stores like Fairway and Whole Foods.  These are the markets where you pay $12 for a dragonfruit, or $24.99/lb for salmon that you can get free from rivers in Alaska (Looking at you, LiveFreeMD!).  Produce at these groceries establishes aren’t allowed to have blemishes. And unfortunately when fruits are stacked together in piles, some of them will be bruised. Every day Fairway will have blemished fruit prepackaged in clear bags for about $1.50 or $2 apiece. Sure, you might only get two apples, a pear, and two oranges, but this haul would have otherwise cost $10!

Restaurants are a dime a dozen in the Big Apple. If you live there, you will find your favorite cheap eats.  Ask Yelp, or your friend who has written thousands of Yelp reviews. We live in a foodie world.  The only tip that I have that I rarely see mentioned is dim sum. Yep. Dim sum is tapas in Chinese form. It is typically eaten as a brunch. Each dish is typically >$4 a piece. If you have dim sum with friends, you will likely rack up a hefty bill. If you are in the market for decent dim sum at the minimal price in NYC, go to Ken’s Asian Taste.  Go there, and report back here on your findings.  You will not be disappointed.

Furniture and consumables

For furniture, Craigslist is your friend. It is not easy moving stuff onto or off of Manhattan island.  New York is also a city with many transient residents.  Use that to your advantage. You can even hire movers on Craigslist.

You might also like: How much of your lifestyle contains used items?

If used items aren’t your cup of tea, then you can seek your wares elsewhere.  There is an IKEA in Brooklyn, and one in New Jersey.  That’s right, right across the river is more normal civilization.  You can find Targets, Walmarts, and grocery stores with normal prices.   Even if you rent a car for the day (or Zipcar/Uber), you can save quite a bit if you are buying bulk.

Hospital

No matter how much you hate going to the hospital for work, it can be your friend.  Take advantage of your hospital perks, like discounted or free meals.  Procell batteries (first person to comment on this, wins a prize!), alcohol swabs, and the break room are your friends.  Use that hospital gym membership, cellphone discounts, and price breaks that your labor affords.

New Yorkers, what other money saving suggestions do you have?

How much of your lifestyle contains used items?

Posted on by SmartMoneyMD

We all know that we can save a bit of money by buying used items. The prospects of preowned material wealth is good for the environment and is good for your wallet. However, it’s not for everyone. Up until I finished college, I wasn’t truly aware that you could actually buy anything used other than informally through your friends. Call me a lucky kid, but my parents never bought me anything used. Then again, America is the land of incredible wealth and cheap items. A new top at Walmart, whether you believe in foreign labor, was less than $10. Why would anyone ever spring for second-hand clothing for $5 if you could have a new one for marginally more?

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As I’ve gotten more savvy with money, it’s slowly dawned on me that second-hand doesn’t necessarily connote being “cheap”. Buying used is actually cool.

Used car = financially smart.

Aside from your home, the vehicle we drive is considered a big ticket item. Sure, if you’re like Mr. Money Mustache and bike everywhere for transportation, you might not ever need a car. But a car is pretty much necessary for most people who commute to work.

Cars can be expensive. The sticker price of a 2017 AMG SL63 (Surgeon Moe’s weekend car), is close to $150,000! However, a four-year old 2013 AMG SL63 can be had for about $65,000!

 

You might also like: How to burn through a $1 million salary

 

That’s right. After 4 years, this monstrosity is worth less than half its original value! Most cars lose significant value after 4 years regardless of mileage and wear. You can save quite a bit of money by buying a used car, even if you buy a certified preowned vehicle from the dealer.

Conversely if you sell your new car after 4 years, you will have lost quite a bit of money.

Used furniture, can it be a good idea? 

I first purchased used furniture when I was a medical student. Most of it was second hand IKEA furniture. Some of it was actually stylish. Boy, was that furniture cheap. I remember buying a desk for $20 that would have retailed for $150. Were there mites and bedbugs? Not that I could recall. After I graduated, I sold that desk for $20 (I probably could have sold it for more, but you gotta pass along the good karma).

I have since moved on from second-hand furniture, but have wondered whether it is a venue that I should reconsider in the form of estate sales. I once had a coworker who stated that she bought a $10,000 dining set for “only” $1000. Sounds like she got a great deal, if the dining set is worth that much to her. I haven’t actually seen her dining table, but I sometimes wonder if one would derive as much happiness in buying a “new” dining table at a furniture store for $1000. Who knows.

Miscellaneous items in the used market

There are various items that I’ve seen in the used markets that are simply expensive when purchased new. Sporting equipment like golf clubs, hockey gear, ski gear, and scuba gear are some of the items that come to mind. These are items that I actually don’t feel cheap by buying used. Scuba gear is EXPENSIVE. Most of the time this gear is hardly used. More importantly, you might not use it frequently either. I have a coworker who owns her own snowboard, but only hits the slopes once or twice a year. Someone eventually buying her snowboarding gear would get a great deal on equipment that is rarely used.

Who wants to buy a used watch pitcher? J/k, but not really…

Used clothing = bad idea? 

This is a topic that I have mixed feelings about. Justin at Rootofgood purchases used clothing for the family, which is a practical idea for kids who will outgrow their clothing within a few years anyway. Our markets are filled with used clothing. The last time I made a Goodwill drop-off, I was shocked to see department store-sized aisles of used clothing for sale. Some of the used clothing was practically free (<$2), which some of it was overpriced ($19.99 for a Banana Republic top).

I’d imagine that you can get huge savings on used clothing, but is it worth your time to sift through the mix to find something that suits you while saving a few dollars? Would you ever buy used shoes? What about socks? What should one’s threshold even be?

Should an early retiree doctor with $5 million in the bank buy a used shirt for $5 or just spring $15 for a new one?

What is your threshold for buying used items?

The only strategy you’ll need to save money when you’re too busy to price shop

Posted on by SmartMoneyMD

There was recently a poll on Whitecoatinvestor’s forum on number of hours that we work, and I was embarrassed to see that I was actually on the upper end of the spectrum. I will make it a goal in 2017 to figure out a way to cut back hours, although it might also come with a pay cut.

That being said, my limited hours of free time certainly are reflected in my shopping patterns. I’ve got better things to do than to drive around finding the cheapest prices on items and foods that I need. Price shopping also takes mental power and an affinity to knowing what the going prices for items are. Some people have that knack. Some people don’t. Those who are intense price shoppers are the ones that pester their doctors to find the cheapest pharmacy for them as well. I could be one of those people, but I really don’t have the energy at the end of the week.

 

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What do I do? I just shop at Costco and Sam’s Club. That’s right. Wholesale clubs. Some people hate them. The bulk. The crowds. I hate them too, but the stuff is [relatively] cheap with a slight premium twist.

You don’t want to get in the way of these guys wanting to get into the store!

The cost of wholesale clubs.

Membership isn’t free. Many people may not necessarily recuperate the cost of membership either. I’ve seen debates on the validity of purported cost savings at Costco and Sam’s Club.  You buy two pounds of lettuce but a pound and a half rots.  You don’t need 25 lbs of flour but you buy it because it’s “cheap”.  However, if you spend a decent amount on bulk items, you could come out ahead and get a higher quality of product.

A standard membership at Costco is $55 a year. An executive membership is $110 a year, and you get a 2% rebate on all of your purchases. In order to make up the difference between the two tiers, you’d have to spend an extra $2,750 a year at Costco. That is not a small number. However, you also receive a second membership card. This allows other family member to use the same membership. I have an executive membership, and I share my card with a relative who doesn’t live nearby. I doubt that Costco actually cares, since it gives them another means to capture another customer. If you are in the market for a mortgage, you’ll come out ahead from getting better rates over the life of the loan.

The perks of wholesale club membership. 

You don’t necessarily have to buy a ton of stuff to benefit from a wholesale club—you just have to have a general idea how much things cost in general to maximize your savings. For instance, Walmart/Target typically has a 2-pack of Colgate Total (8oz) toothpaste for $5. Costco had a 5-pack for $5! You’re not always going to save this big all of the time, but these little savings add up. Moreover, toothpaste is relatively shelf stable so you won’t have to worry about waste (you have to fill up you McMansion anyway!).

Gas. I violate one of the principle tenets of saving money: living close to your workplace. It just isn’t going to happen for me until I move somewhere else or hang up my hat completely.  I spend a lot on gas. My strategy is simply to save some money when I fill up. Fortunately Costco has great savings at the pump. In general, prices are at least 10c/gal cheaper than anywhere else in my vicinity, so I save approximately $1.40 (oooh, big money) simply by filling up at Costco. With the Costco credit card, you automatically get another 4% back at the pump. If you have the Chase Freedom card, you can save 5% on gas purchases this quarter. I probably fill up once a week, so with the Chase Freedom card at Costco I “save” a little less than $3 on gas when I fill up 14 gallons at $2/gal. Will I get rich on this? No way. But it’s the best that I can do if I have to drive.

Penny pinchers beware.

If you are a price Nazi or a coupon clipper, membership clubs aren’t going to be for you. If you’ve had the luxury to shop midday and midweek, you can find really great deals on food items. I once found a 12oz bag of Gevalia coffee for $1.50 at a local (expensive) grocery store! If you are fortunate enough to have access to an Aldi grocery store (I do not), you can save quite a bit on groceries. That being said, most produce items at wholesale clubs aren’t going to be great deals, although the quality might be higher.

 

You might also like: Stealth wealth revisited: this applies to doctors too!

 

Most busy people are going to consolidate their shopping trips. This might mean going to a wholesale club that’s 20 miles away every three weeks and stocking up on bulk items.  You might even overpay (or pay a competitive price) on some items, but it can save you multiple trips elsewhere. In fact, the more items that your household needs in general the more you will likely benefit from joining a wholesale club.

How much of your monthly budget do you spend at wholesale clubs?

How to burn through a $1 million salary

Posted on by SmartMoneyMD

There is something about tragedies and victories that we all love to witness. The guy who was blessed with the silver spoon but squanders his way into poverty.  Or the waitress who finds her way to become a real estate mogul. Today we’re going to look into the financials of Joe, a surgeon I know who has experienced both the financial successes of being a high-earner and the dangers that come with a huge bankroll. While I don’t have exact numbers in this scenario, the overarching principles still apply.

Ahem. To keep Joe’s anonymity, let’s call him…Moe.

Moe, a vascular surgeon, had a relatively lengthy training path. He wanted to enter academics, and had matched at one of those 7-year general surgery residencies. Afterward, he spent an extra two years in fellowship before striking out in the real world. That’s already a crazy long time to train. Fortunately he saw the light and did not take an academic job.  I recall that his first job was with a hospital that lowballed his worth with a salary around $275,000 a year. That’s pretty insulting for a job that expects you to work a minimum of 70 hours a week and answer the phone during ungodly hours. Vascular surgeons fix dissecting aortic aneurysms, clean out carotids, and place dialysis shunts. These are serious plumbing jobs.

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Gals (or guys) who work serious jobs need to have a nice place to live. So Moe bought a $750,000 home. He also leased two nice cars, and the wife and kids also had nice clothes. Thus far, an estimate of his big ticket recurring expenses included:

Fine details left out, but you get the point.

Moe had a monthly take-home salary of around $13,000. After the expenses above, he had roughly $3,500 left for everything else including gas, clothing, discretionary spendings…etc. Overall, not a bad salary, but he make quick work of his hard-earned cash. There was not much left over for savings.

After two years of indentured servitude at the hospital, Moe found a private practice job across the country and relocated his family there. Here’s an outside snapshot of some of his big-ticket expenses after 4 years when he made partnership.

This is how to kick your expenses into overdrive!

This is but a crude estimate of how one can blow through a huge bankroll. Note that there was no account for vehicle upkeep, clothing, routine home maintenance (lawn), malpractice, disability, and life insurances, or personal goods and toys for the kids. Given that the kids were in school, babysitting expenses are relatively modest, and mostly for evening hours.  Moe, by virtue of living in a very high cost of living area, is expected to have a take-home income of about $550,000 on a $1 million salary.

How sustainable are $400,000+ expenditures?

In this scenario, I’d expect Moe to still have about $100,000 of disposable income annually. It’s not horrible for most families, but it looks bad with a $1 million pretax income to start with. He is basically spending 80% of his post-tax income. Despite having a millionaire salary, Moe isn’t much of a millionaire with these expenditures. Interestingly, if he is able to maintain his line of work throughout a standard 30-year career, he’ll still make do.

The problem is that life happens. What if he can no longer work those 70+ hours a week? It may not necessarily be disability that prevents him from working.

Epilogue

Last I checked in with Moe, he did curb some of his lavish lifestyle habits. Gone were the ultra-elaborate vacations (replaced with still-luxurious vacations). He actually purchased a Honda Accord for his daily commutes to cut down on maintenance costs and gas for the AMG.  He was still paying off his first house, which is still on the rental market. The kids had even more (read: expensive) activities like tennis, baseball, and hockey.

Moe’s medical practice has been doing even better than before.  He still works about 70 hours a week, but he is now average about $3 million of pretax earnings a year! Talk about hard work and a bit of luck!

The moral of the story? Not everyone will be as fortunate and diligent as Moe. Don’t hedge your life savings on a strong offense. And by the way, some people do get lucky.