[Editor's Note: Today's WCI Network post comes from The Physician Philosopher and discusses the depressing state of mind that comes from realizing you want FIRE but are still a decade away from it. 10 years is a long time, but luckily the benefits of financial independence are a continuum, not a cliff.]
In the personal finance blogging world, it seems there is a race to early retirement. Yet, no matter how hard I hustle, how much I focus on our savings rate, or how often I think about financial independence and retiring early (FIRE)…. early retirement is still a decade away for my family and me. And that is a minimum length of time. It might prove to be more like 12-14 years.
Life often teaches us that moderation is the key to satisfaction. Can we apply the logic of moderation to the philosophy of FIRE?
Partial FIRE
Enter here Partial FIRE. Partial FIRE is the point at which you have enough financial freedom in your life that you can reduce your current workload and pursue part-time work. While normal FIRE entails socking away as much money as you can until you can enjoy a full and early retirement, partial FIRE is a softer version filled with part-time work at an earlier stage.
Partial FIRE will look different for everyone. However, it will usually consist of less time at work and more time doing what you want. It comes at a cost of creating a slightly slower trek towards traditional FIRE, because a lower income usually means we save less money.
Is the work-life balance we find through Partial FIRE worth it?
Here are four reasons partial FIRE might be helpful in your route to financial freedom.
1. Better Career Fulfillment
Physicians often talk about their limited time. The fact is that the current culture of medicine is happy to overload physicians not only within a given shift, but with the total number of shifts that we are required to take. This is a large part of the reason I created my Hell Yes Policy. I’m the Anti Fan-Boy of forced overtime.
Time is our only truly finite commodity on this earth. No matter where you are in the milestones to financial independence, you only get 24 hours in a day and 365 days in the year. This is true whether you are the hospital custodian or the CEO. Time is the most valuable commodity we have. We should not give it away easily.
For this reason, we must use the hours we are given to pursue our true passions. This also means that when we have a limited amount of time to pursue our passions, our career fulfillment can suffer. It reduces the amount of time we have to pursue our passions.
Perhaps you want to spend some time on a research project or quality improvement initiative. Maybe you want to create a personal finance curriculum for medical students. Whatever your passion, partial FIRE can provide you the time you need to pursue them.
Imagine having one or two days off each week that you could use to devote to a worthy cause. Maybe then you’d have the time to finally chase after that goal you’ve kept on the back burner.
I don’t know what goals or projects you would pursue. However, I am fairly certain you’d find an increasing amount of career fulfillment through the time provided by partial FIRE.
2. Reduced Burnout and Moral Injury
The factors that lead to physician burnout seem too numerous to name. However, I hold that many can be summed up in just a few words. Lack of autonomy.
This lack of autonomy involves not being able to control our lives and our patient care the way that we would choose. We are forced to see patients in 10-minute intervals. With each day, there are more buttons to click in the electronic medical record system. And when we decide an appropriate course of action for a patient, we are told that the insurance company will not cover our treatment plan.
This inevitably leads to burnout and moral injury.
Imagine if your version of partial FIRE involved negotiating with your hospital to see your patients over a longer time period. Perhaps you bartered for 20-minute visits because you didn’t need the additional money from a heavier clinic volume?
It could also be simpler than fixing your daily schedule.
Maybe additional time off through partial FIRE might allow you to have more time to recover from your demanding work life. After all, there aren’t many people who feel the same level of burnout and moral injury while on vacation, at the beach, on the golf course, or getting a mani-pedi.
3. Better Work-Life Balance
After sitting down with my wife and going through The 3 Kinder Questions, I realized that a big motivation for our financial independence is to be able to spend as much time as I can with my kids.
After going through the questions, I was reminded of the great quote by the Dalai Lama when he was asked about the most surprising thing about humanity:
Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.
I don’t want to die having never truly lived. And I really don’t want to die having never spoken truth into the lives of my three kids. I want to attend every single tee-ball game, recital, art show, performance, and golf match. My cell phone will be in my pocket and my eyes will be on my kids. I want to be present and intentional with my time.
I refuse to wait until my kids are old and gone to enjoy the freedom that financial independence provides. Instead, I’ll Partial FIRE through part-time work so that I can be there for my kids as often as is humanly possible.
This will provide a better work-life balance for my family and me.
4. Fixing A Broken System
One of my dreams for medicine is that there will be a cadre of financially literate physicians who will not only stay in medicine, but will endeavor to fix the broken system that currently exists.
Partial FIRE would provide the time they need to make the changes that a full-time clinical schedule does not allow. In addition, it would allow physicians to stay connected enough to clinical medicine that they could still relate to the people on the front lines – which is a big problem for today’s administrators who hang out in their C-suite offices without ever meeting the people that they lead.
Imagine a world full of physicians who choose to practice medicine because they want to, and not because they have to… that would provide the power for change.
Take-Home: Partial FIRE
Partial FIRE holds a lot of promise for many of the problems that ail today’s physicians. Even if you are still years away from traditional FIRE, you might consider the moderate option of part-time work after obtaining enough financial freedom for it to become an option.
If you do, you just might find that you fall back in love with the job in a brand new way, find a better work-life balance, and have the time and motivation to fix our broken medical system.
Have you ever considered partial FIRE? In what way would it improve your current situation? If you are already there, how has it changed things for you? Leave a comment below.
The Partial Fire was beautifully written. For us dentists working in community health centers and private practice we do experience burnout for the same reasons. As a result of this most of us are striving for more work life balance. For me that means transitioning to locum tenens work. Thank you for writing the article. I too am hopeful healthcare will get an overhaul.
I am working part-time as medical oncologist-hematologist since beginning of 2019. One can say I am partial FIRE. Because I am not under constant pressure of taking care of patients in 2 hospitals while I am in office, I spend more time with my patients in the office and enjoy taking care of them more. I have multiple streams of income – consulting as Expert Witness, performing independent medical examination, chart reviews for disability/medical necessity, active and passive real estate investment, retail service business. I have always been very entrepreneurial and have not had a single day where I did not have something to do on the days I am not working. I am constantly evaluating new business or investment opportunities. If I am not doing that then I spend time learning more about my favorite hobby of Photography. I have become a better photographer. For last few years I have been traveling more than in the past with my family, usually 6-8 weeks a year. We have been lucky to visit all 7 continents in 1 year and to about 40 countries so far. We love travel to polar regions – have been to Arctic region 6 times and Antarctica 2 times. I noticed early on that many physicians work till they are in their late 60s or 70s and don’t get to spend time with their loved ones or to do things they always wanted to do, they retire and very soon fall ill or pass away. So I made a conscious choice to spend time in activities that matter most in life.
Very nice, what’s there to do in artic region and Antarctica?
Yes,
Decades ago I read essays by Bertrand Russell and other deep thinkers about the value of what he called “Life-long Semi-retirement.” You set a manageable, enjoyable pace for life.
I worked extremely hard for 2 decades in medicine. I enjoyed it all along the way though. I didn’t feel I was sacrificing anything. But I’m glad I saved and invested a lot. Now I can take my foot off the gas a bit and work part-time. Or not. It’s up to me. Having options is the best situation.
Having the option of doing partial FIRE or full FIRE is exciting and I definitely think the readers love having options. Choosing partial or full often is dependent on ones goals. I love the thought of retiring early fully but still working. By working i mean on my own personal desires not a nine to five. If any one is looking to choose between partial or full then it may be helpful to take time and think about what you would like your life to look like after reaching financial dependence. I would also recommend mastering how to invest in income-producing assets so even if your at partial FIRE you could use that capital or cash to invest and then acquire returns on investments that ultimately will pay you back the amount and more you originally investing in.
partial FIRE has allowed me to avoid burnout. Instead of racing towards FIRE to be able to retire by 45 (my goal coming out of residency), I can now see myself working this reduced schedule until my 60s if I want to. I’ll still reach my original FIRE number by 57 if I continue on this path. And have more time to spend (actually be present) with family or friends if I want to as opposed to trying to schedule a weekend off 6 months in advance.
I completely agree with this idea. It is interesting how the pendulum has shifted. Is trying to FIRE too early now one of the causes of burnout? All things in moderation. It’s what we have done all along for our dual physician family.
Thanks for the well written article!
FIREd surgeon here. I might have taken a partial FIRE job if it were feasible. Unfortunately, there are some specialties where part time work is not tenable. Many employers aren’t that interested in a part-time surgeon (I did ask). Locums is always an option, but that would have taken me away from my family which is the opposite of what I was trying to achieve. In the end, full FIRE was probably my best choice.
It’s definitely harder in some specialties than others.
Though me and my wife are working as full time hospitalist , our job is like a “partial FIRE” as we are only working 11-12 days in a month. We are very happy and satisfied with our work life balance (which i think is a luxury for physicians in today’s world).