By Dr. Jim Dahle, WCI FounderThis post borrows heavily from the ideas of Bill Perkins, the author of Die with Zero. I haven't actually read the book; I just listened to him on a podcast, but I felt like he deserved some acknowledgment.
The 3 Resources in Your Life
There are three resources in your life that you can use to maximize the quality of your life, however you wish to define them. That might mean maximizing your own pleasure and happiness. It might mean helping as many other people as you can. Whatever. Doesn't matter. These resources are:
- Health
- Wealth
- Time
To a limited extent, these resources are interchangeable. If you put time in at a job or building a business or creating a product or whatever, you are turning your time into wealth. If you exercise and spend time preparing healthy food, you are turning time into health. Good health can lead to more time on the planet. You can use your wealth to buy medications, tests, and treatments that improve your health. You can also use money to buy your time by paying someone else to do your chores, run your business, or otherwise make your time more efficient.
At a certain point, you can't buy any more time, so that one is the ultimate in limited resources. How many of you would wish to change places with Warren Buffett? Probably not very many. But to a significant extent, the three resources are fungible (interchangeable), and you should spend them in a very intentional way to meet your life goals and purpose, however you define those.
There is another book out there called 4,000 Weeks. I haven't read that one either. But the point of it is that you really only have 4,000 weeks on the planet. Four thousand weeks is actually 77 years, but maybe you don't count the first five or the last five or something. I'm not sure how 80-year-olds feel about that idea, but the point is that you only get a limited number of weeks in your life. I've already burned through close to 2,500 weeks in my life. Maybe I only have 1,500 left. When you spend significant time thinking about your death and the very limited amount of life that you have left, maybe you make different decisions and live a little bit differently.
How many of us know someone who had a health scare—cancer maybe or a bad car accident or a cardiac arrest—and then upon recovering, they quit their job, mended relationships, quit drinking or smoking, and began living very differently? Maybe we all need to do that, even without a health scare.
More information here:
What We Can Learn About Work-Life Balance and Retirement from the French
The Seasons of Your Life
The truth is that you don't even have 4,000 weeks for a lot of the stuff you want to do. I don't even have 1,500. That's because, as the Preacher says in Ecclesiastes:
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”
Basically, there are seasons in your life. And if you let a season go by without taking advantage of an experience or opportunity that is only available in that season, you can never reclaim it. Admittedly, there is some flexibility to some seasons, but for the most part, this holds true. Think about some of the experiences in life and match them to their season:
Backpacking Europe: This is when you go around Europe for a couple of months one summer, staying in hostels, riding the trains, making friends from all over the world, drinking and living it up and seeing tons of cool sites, spending everything you can get your hands on until you're flat broke and in debt, using your last dollars to come home. What season does this belong to? Your 20s usually. Before then, your parents won't let you go, or you don't have the money or credit to get there. After that, you're either too tied down to a job or family to break away for more than a couple of weeks. Besides, who wants to sleep in a hostel (or in the park in Pamplona) once you're 40? No thanks. If you miss this one, there's no going back.
Going to medical school and residency: This 7-11 year experience is one for your 20s and maybe 30s. Sure, you can find an occasional doc in residency in their 40s or even 50s, but it's not the norm and that's a pretty special person. If you don't get into medical school before 40, this season has pretty much passed you by, and you will never have this experience.
Having children: How about this one, huh? Yes, we all know someone who had IVF at 48 and it worked, but the truth is that if a woman puts off having children past 35 or so, that season may very well be gone—especially if you want five kids. You just have to start earlier—even if a job or an education or a residency is in the way. You can still doctor at 55, but you can't get pregnant.
Climbing a Big Wall: I was really feeling Father Time as I prepared to climb the face of Half Dome last summer in Yosemite. That had been a life-long goal of mine and one that I didn't think I could put off much longer. I've been lucky to maintain health and stamina this long; how much longer will it last? My back already hurts every morning, and that shoulder never recovered from CrossFit. Big Wall Climbing is a game for those in their 20s, 30s, and maybe 40s. Yes, there are probably a few people who kept at it into their 50s, but this isn't exactly a retirement community activity.
Golf: On the other hand, I know lots of people in their 80s playing golf. It could be argued that the season to really enjoy golf begins in your 50s or 60s as your career winds down and then lasts several decades. It's just hard to find four open hours when cranking hard on a career or taking care of kids.
Reading books to your kids: Our 7-year-old loves for us to read her a book every night and thinks sleeping in mom and dad's bed when one of them is out of town is the cat's meow. Our 16-year-old does not. Wait too long and these sorts of experiences with your children go away, at least until the grandkids show up. I have had so many shared experiences with our youngest (I cut back to 3/4 time the year after she was born) that I never had with the older three.
Coaching your kids' teams: Most of us can coach a 6-year-old soccer team with no problem. Few of us will coach the high school team. Then, they're gone. I was so glad to have this experience with our third child and kind of jealous that Katie had it with all of our children. But I just couldn't do it while working rotating shifts.
Taking the kids rafting: Rafting has a pretty long season in life. Taking your kids does not. Five years old is too little for whitewater. At 18, they go away and don't have time for you. If you have three kids spread over five years, your season is really only 3-4 years long where all three of them can go with you. Don't miss it.
Certain vacations: Are you really going to wait until your kids are 25 to take them to Disneyland? How about the National Parks? Did you want to do that stuff with your parents at 25? Probably not. Your kids won't be any different. However, you could now take them on a multi-day hut trek around Mont Blanc. But the season is short. They have to be big enough to carry their pack and you have to be wealthy enough to spring for it, but you have to do it before they have kids of their own and before your health keeps you from doing it. That season isn't that long, maybe 10 years.
Want to run a marathon? Then, 70 is probably too late for your first one.
College sports: I'm talking about playing them, not watching them. That's a 20s activity. We celebrate professional athletes who are still going hard at 40, because few of them are. Yes, you can play beer league hockey into your 50s and even 60s, but you're probably not out on the rugby pitch or football field. You only get so many seasons and so many games.
There are seasons to almost all of the activities you want to do and the life goals you wish to accomplish. Some are long. Some are short. But if you miss your season, that's it. Your chance is gone.
More information here:
It’s a Lifestyle, Not a Vacation
Mixing Life Experiences with Financial Activity
When you think about the seasonality of your life and the experiences you wish to have in an intentionally lived life, you start treating the five money activities
- Earning
- Saving
- Investing
- Spending, and
- Giving
a little bit differently. Would you rather blow $30,000 now on a certain experience that can only be enjoyed in your 40s, or would you rather have $150,000 in your 60s? Would you rather take your kids to Disneyland now or leave them an extra $20,000 when you die so they can take their grandkids to Disneyland? Do you want to go to Europe in your 50s while you can still make an attempt on the Matterhorn, or would you rather go at 70 on a cruise with 15 family members that only sees a handful of ports for a few hours each? Get those student loans paid off in two years, or pay them off in four years and get into that dream house two years earlier to start creating memories with the kids? Buy the sports car now while you can still use it to cruise the strip and get bottle service, or drive a beater and retire five years earlier so you can play more golf in your life? Do you want to give less money away with “warm hands” (where you can see the good it does) or more money away later with “cold hands?”
The choice is yours.
I just think you should make the decisions more intentionally than you currently are. I bet when you think about it, you'll agree. Don't just go onto autopilot and do things because that's what other people do or because that's how you've always done them. You only get one life. Make the most of it.
What do you think? What seasonal activities were you glad you took advantage of and which ones do you regret missing out on? Which ones are you still looking forward to?
Some good points for thought. I do look back and wonder if we could have visited grandparents more often, or taken more trips out West during that season with kids in the home.
But I also realize I now have the advantage of hindsight. Knowing that I did reach FI, That there were no adverse impacts on my career or health.
awesome post Jim and great perspective going forward on how we should intentionally plan and make the most of our lives and integrating finances into those decisions. It is this perspective that makes it so much more painful that I (actually, we!) got screwed with whole life insurance as that’s money that got taken away from interchanging between health and time. I think you made a key point saying “to a certain extent” that the three sources are interchangeable. I think people get money hungry because they blur the line of how interchangeable wealth/health/time is.
Amazing post, this hits home so hard for me right now. As I am determining how much of a pay cut I can/need/should take as I step down from my role as a manager to more of a support role, where I can have more flexibility/control over my commitments. Thank you!
Thanks for this Jim. I’m in my last year of residency and have really started to focus on prioritizing what I care about and how my post-residency life will look. I’m still relatively young and have thrown myself into as many rec sports I can handle while still juggling residency. I’ve invested more into my health this year than any other. For most people reading this blog who are naturally frugal the money will work itself out, likely much earlier than our peers. But it took a conscious effort for me to realize my ability to play 3-4 sports isn’t going to last forever, even if I am still in the phase of working 65+ hrs per week. It’s been wonderful and worth every moment.
I’ve been an avid WCIer since 2019, absolutely love all of the books, podcast, blogs.
My biggest philosophical disagreement with WCI (very rare) is the blanket recommendation to save 20% towards retirement largely due to the themes discussed in Die with Zero. Like many new attendings, there are plenty of things I want to do and places I want to see prior to having kids. The big squeeze becomes even tighter when considering simultaneously paying off loans and saving for a down payment. Sure I would love to save more for retirement, but I will never be able to recapture this time in my life of optimal health and not having to be responsible for kids.
The average doctor income is $300K. After saving $60K for retirement, $70K towards loans, $40K towards a down payment, and $80K towards taxes, that only leaves you with $50K to live on. I’m not disputing that’s enough to get by, but makes it difficult to take advantage of my youth with it. Seems more sensible to moderate retirement from now (5-10%) and when you’re not saving money for 30 things at once can up it to 20% or even more.
The “Live Like A Resident” period is only 2-5 years long. After that you only have to save 20% for retirement. You do all that other stuff in those first few years. Then that $300K income family can spend $160K. I’m not sure why you think you can’t travel, spend time with family, and really live it up on that. But yea, if you want to set yourself up for a financially awesome life, don’t grow into that doctor income all at once.
Lots of docs make more than $300K and many have a working spouse too.
Hiya doc,
Like I said before—huge fan.
I think the issue boils down to wanting to travel/experience prior to having kids whose ideal time horizon overlaps with the live like a resident period.
Sure you can pay off loans, then travel/experience, then have kids but that comes at its own time cost (I don’t want to first start in my mid/late 30s). You can travel/experience while leaving young kids at home, but that comes with its own set of constraints.
I find the 20% recommendation reasonable, just it’s one of the few blanket numbers I think can be selectively tinkered with based on life circumstance. Being equipped with the financial literacy super powers (in large part due to WCI), the math still works not contributing 20% until after the live like a resident period. This enables many to maximize years of the good life by including the “married + money – kids” era
I agree you can’t put off kids until after the live like a resident period. But you don’t have to take them to Paris when they’re 3.
It’s your life and your money and you can do what you want. So long as you do it consciously and understand the consequences of actions. Lots of docs at 30 think they’re going to have a 30-40 year career and then find themselves burned out at 45. If they saved diligently from 30 to 35, they have a lot more options at 45.
If you can only save 5% when single and making $300k, you’ll be in a way worse situation after having a family. If that’s your attitude I’d prioritize (even have that be a requirement) a high income spouse as family expenses are much higher than single life.
The aggressive saving to pay back loans and for a down payment (which I’m an advocate for, aligned with WCI) go away after the live like a resident period. I’m not sure you can equate that to a spend first attitude.
The essence of my response is not to completely minimize the live like a resident period. For many new attendings, it represents the post marriage pre children golden time. IMO it would be a shame not to somewhat capitalize on them. If you can demonstrate the ability to save for a down payment AND pay off student loans in that time, I would doubt that person would lack the discipline to save for retirement.
In Die with Zero one of the first chapters talks about how when he was younger, his friend took a bunch of time off to backpack Europe. In real time it seemed crazy but after the fact and upon reflection the author was upset he didn’t do it himself because you can never go back to recapture that time.
I really enjoyed this article. Perspective in life is key. I try to pay attention to the seasons in my life, but I probably could do better at it. Keep up the good work!
Interesting use of Ecclesiastes (seasons of life). In that text discusses his frantic efforts to acquire wealth and experience only to realize it is all futile (in Hebrew הבל which is related to breath), and that all that we do is destined to disappear when the next season comes. Which is a bit different than the capitalist/microeconomic/YOLO lens by which you use it.
The harder question is not what you can do with your health/wealth/time, but what ought one do with them. I recognize it is not the goal of this blog to give an answer, but that question is what Ecclesiastes grapples with.
I think Solomon would agree with Jim’s premises more than you give credit for. Solomon says since everything is but a vapor, find meaning and fulfillment in your short life (Ecc 2:24-25) and its pursuits and enjoy your family (Ecc 9:9 specifically says wife). Solomon doesn’t preach a poverty gospel but prudence in recognizing one’s own temporal nature.
Most of this is dependent on the family question. Like Marc Nardea, I had the ideas of Die with Zero far before Perkins, since it never made sense to me that physicians acted like they were poor but always were in the upper 10% minimum in our country, and also spoiled the S out of their children on average.
The problem is that now women don’t put any value on being wives and mothers, so they are an all time high in the liability category (when law and culture is added) and all time low in the asset column.
I’d advise Marc right now to just save and go overseas. Take a look at the Book of Numbers (ironic since people above posted about Solomon and Ecclesiastes) by Clarey in order to see how grim, sadly, things are in the USA.
I actually feel like a great saver having paid off my student loans 2 years out of residency and having saved a decent amount for a down payment. We max out my wife’s 401K. The reason we don’t quite save 20% of our income for retirement (yet) is because we wanted the flexibility of the taxable account to possibly purchase a dental practice if life takes us in that direction.
I wasn’t even talking about my case in particular before, rather just supposing a case with average doctor figures. WCI recommendations are all but gospel to me, but I think the 20% for retirement rule can wait (for intentional high yield tradeoffs) until the live like a resident period is over in many new attending situations.
I agree that many other things have to take priority during that period. These include:
Paying off credit cards and other consumer debt
Building an emergency fund
Saving up a down payment (sometimes)
Saving up for a partnership or practice buy-in or purchase
Paying off student loans (sometimes, particularly with a really high debt to income ratio)
But once you settle in, 20% of gross to retirement is about right. And prior to that, more than 20% ought to be going toward wealth building activities.
Great post. I love that you discuss these kinds of perspectives.
Preach 🙌 I’m reading this sitting on a beach in Chile while my four kids (ages 6-14) are playing in the waves. My husband, a pediatrician, and I saved up enough for him to take a year off of work so we could live in Argentina, just because we have always wanted to. We had a very narrow window where this experience would be ideal for our kids ages, and this was it. It’s a terrible financial decision as we blow through 100k and make 0k income for 12 months, but we’ll have plenty to live on and this has been priceless for our family.
What a cool experience. You should send us a guest post when your year is up!
https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/contact/guest-post-policy/
My neighbor is in New Zealand doing something similar .
Yep . . . Kia ora from NZ! 🙂
Any chance for a follow up on the Chile and New Zealand families and their experiences? Sounds like opportunities like these are open to people who implement the ideas of this website. Just like WCI teaches paths for FI, I love reading about what people choose to do with that gift.
I have a friend who has done guest posts for us before who took a sabbatical this year and spent several months in New Zealand and is currently in Europe. I hope I can talk him into another guest post.