3 keys of financial independence

When you think about the word retirement, what images come to mind? For me, the first ones are silver haired folks teeing up on the golf course, gathering at a community center, or sitting on the front porch at any day or time of the week. That picture might be wonderful, but what does it have to do with me and how I’m living my life right now? If you’re like me, retirement is something that happens way down the line, in the sunset of our lives. If we wait a little while to think about and plan for it, no big deal! There’s plenty of time, right? Plus, who in the early stages and prime of their career wants to stop and think about getting old anyway?

I’d like to invite all of you reading this post to go ahead and throw away the word retirement. Yes, throw it out! Let’s all learn to put financial independence in its place. Ok, retirement might show up in the name of savings accounts that could be using now, like Individual Retirement Accounts. Other than that, focusing on financial independence is going to create the mindset you’ll need to start planning and positioning yourself for the best clinician career and lifestyle that you can!

So what exactly is financial independence? Some of you may already be very familiar with the concept, but it will be new for others. When I shared with other people in my life that I was creating a plan to reach financial independence, the response was confusion. Oh, are you still getting money from your parents? Aren’t you independent already? When we use the terms financial independence or financial freedom, we are really talking about growing enough savings and investment profits to live off of so that we can be independent from required employment and have ultimate choice in our lifestyle. This growth process will be the same for all clinicians, no matter how much money you make! The amount of savings needed to call yourself financially independent is personal and depends on the lifestyle you want to have. At that point, you could retire if you wanted to, or just have the freedom to work and live however you desire. Whether or not you plan to retire or leave a job at financial independence does not change the overall process, but financial independence is needed to be able to successfully retire. Thus, financial independence is really the only term we need! 

Clinicians are passionate, hard working, and motivated people. Thinking about retirement can be a strange concept for us, especially early in our careers, and many will attempt to keep working in some way for a very long time. Focusing on financial independence means that we are making the most out of our career choices and clinician lifestyle, regardless of what the end points might be.

Financial independence (FI) for clinicians:

1. Growing wealth with savings and investments
2. Controlling your own career path and lifestyle
3. Not worrying about retirement

Coming up, I’ll start off more discussions about financial independence and how clinicians can pursue this with their career and lifestyle. Go ahead and ask me a question or request a personal consultation.