So, how's it feel?

3 months into the new strategy;

all I have left in my own management is my Roth IRA, with about $170k in equities. So, I check things far less often. I get periodic account statements from both of my money managers; about what you would expect. Not particularly informative data on the portfolios, have to drill down to see if anything of interest is happening. Most people want that; minimal interaction. I'm an odd duck; I really like the alternative focus of dividend growth, dividend and distribution payments, growth in free cash flow in the portfolio. That's far more comforting to me than watching valuations. On the other hand, I worry less with someone else calling the shots.

Our lives have changed dramatically;

now, I work on the road 13-18 days/month. I'm a glamper; drive the motorhome to the worksite, plug in and set up housekeeping next to the hospital. I get paid to be there, to work over and above the baseline number of hours that come with the contract. I get paid federal mileage rate to get to and from the assignments; about double what it costs in fuel. I get paid a daily housing stipend (average hotel rate in the community), sweetening the locums pot by about 10%. I spend a lot of time on my laptop, corresponding, catching up on reading, waiting for the ER to call. I deal with some loneliness, but more often I like the solitude. My dog, my wife, even my boy, perhaps, are happier to see me after I've been gone a while. And, I make better use of my time at home, knowing I'll be pulling out again soon.

Working 0.8FTE doing rural acute care surgery brings in about 2/3 what I earned as a full time (overtime, actually) burn surgeon. What's sweet is that my time at home is unencumbered by a call schedule. On locums, I'm on call, always. There's no ambiguity about my purpose. Also no commute to the hospital, because I'm there in the parking lot, or very close by in the neighborhood. Full water tank, 20 amps of 110AC power and I'm good for 10 days. At "home" in the RV, there's the radio, CD player, the computer, my ukulele/songboosks, the e-bike, walking. I don't turn the television on.

Our financial situation has turned around dramatically as well. After 6 months of no income and then 8 months of 0.25-ish work for pay, I'm up to 0.8 fte and rising. The pay rate isn't what I could earn as a burn surgeon, but no matter. We're covering expenses and making progress against debt accrued in the transition.

What did that transition entail?  in anticipation of my semi-elective/semi-compulsory retirement, we sold the trophy home, bought the rural enclave with it's lodge-style, venerable old and creaky house.
We remodeled the ground floor for the inlaws;  40k expense for 18k/year of household support; pretty nice return on investment in addition to the very important social benefits to them and us of having them under our watch in their dotage. Even in the 9 months that they've been with us, we can see the steady march towards full time assisted living. We put up the yurt for the maker lab (12k+miscellaneous appointments). We put up the tiny-house Cottage for my design studio partner (60k)

The scar treatment business cost 82k in lasers, $3500 in monthly expenses;  I think we're about half way to break even, maybe a bit further. I'm certainly not bringing anything home, but the clientele is growing by hook and crook. Lets say it nets me -2k/month. 

The maker lab is costing $7k/month, mostly salaries, and some supplies, equipment and IP costs. That's the big sucking sound at the moment, but I can see steady progress towards viable products.

With 10.5k business expenses each month and another 7k in bare necessity household expenses, there's my financial life. I have about 200 days/month worth of scheduled work in locums, should net out about 300k and with huge business tax write-offs, essentially no taxes. I'm about to sign on to a 0.6FTE direct contract that will raise my pay, add benefits and 10% contribution to a pension plan; a major step towards financial stability for us, albeit a bit of a long commute to central Washington for 10 days each month.

We have 60k coming out of IRAs to cover insurance premiums and payment on our secured line of credit, also paying down high interest debt.

Then there's the Untattoo Parlor, the most unexpected gift bestowed upon me by my late friend and protoge, GV MD.  I have much to be grateful for to GV, who was a friend to me from the day I met him as an intern, over nearly 20 years of friendship.  He was such a positive person, enthused about life and it's opportunities. He was the most encouraging of all my colleagues as I washed out of my high-pressure career. He invited me to join him in a joint venture, co-locating practices and was to also house the maker space and be one of the design studio customers for his hand-joint-replacement practice-to-be. When he abruptly died last year, he left behind a growing side-business in laser tattoo removal. I put my finger in the dike for his business partner/life partner as a stand-in medical director, and 16 months later, we are 30% owners in the business, also taking home salary(kathleen) and medical director stipend (Nathan) as well as collecting some surgical fees for earlobe repairs that come through that business.  We count 2k+ monthly against a 16k investment; a huge return on investment, in addition to satisfying part time work for Kathleen. This has made a vast difference in the tenor of our relationship at home, where money stress was causing great tension in the house.

The combo of 1.5k/mo household support from the in-laws, 5k/month in household support from the IRAs and another 1-2k/month from K's hours lasing tattoos pretty much pays household expenses now. My earnings cover business expenses, health insurance and some other miscellaneous costs. God has been good to us, giving us both the opportunities and the health and energy to be able to hold it together through some rough waters these last 2 years.

What do I look forward to?  As the laser scar treatment business grows, I'd like to travel a bit less to work. I like locums, don't imagine quitting any time soon, but collecting more work closer to home is a great advantage and I'm working on that. I look forward to seeing the laser tattoo removal business grow, and to co-locating the two laser businesses. It will make a great deal of sense from a labor and expense standpoint. We have every indication that our partner is a solid business partner and we have mutual dependencies that make the combo of these businesses a great fit.  I look forward to more activity with my university connections, designing widgets and working to get them into the health care environment. I look forward to more time to do medical missions work in Africa, Haiti, where-ever the opportunities take me.  I look forward to watching my son grow and thrive, to renewing the depth and breadth of the relationship with my wife as we get past the many distractions that this huge transition has put in front of us.

While it seems that I've drifted a bit from the primary subject of this blog, in fac, everything we are doing is directly indirectly about securing our financial future, just not solely in the context of salting away more cash in the IRA/ qualified plan realm. We'll get back to that task, but right now we're building value in our wholely and jointly owned businesses. More on all that to come...