This week’s PhREI network post is from Ian Cook of Carpe Diem MD. I have to admit…I am really digging Ian and his wife’s Lauren’s posts. This is such a great and important story and evaluation for all doctors to read in my opinion. I have and am often still guilt of being a workaholic. Many doctors are similar. In fact, I would venture that most doctors are this way. It’s built into us from our training. But that doesn’t mean it has to be that way…as Ian says, working less is worth every penny!
As a primer, you can read about how my journey to overall and financial well-being started here!
Take it away Ian!
Now I know that might sound crazyā¦.Ā Isnāt this one of the 100s or 1000s of physician financial freedom blogs?Ā Shouldnāt I be writing about working as much as possible now, savings rates of 80% and retiring in 3 years?Ā Ā Wellā¦ yes and noā¦Ā Ā Letās break the mold.
Lauren and I believe in our motto āEnjoy Your Journey to Financial Freedomā and that is why we blog as Carpe Diem MD. We do not have a goal of being āretiredā before 50ā¦. Our actual number is 55. Laurenās number is 58 because she wants to max out her pension. But honestly, we think that the 50s is still young and we plan on working past that time.
We are definitely an anomaly in the FI world

Usually our community considers 55 and 58 ancient, like totally geriatric, but we are good with that number.Ā If we won the lottery tomorrow we would still practice Medicine because the sense of purpose we receive from helping others cannot be matched by money or from another occupation.Ā That does not mean we donāt consider other occupations rewarding but being a Physician is the calling we answeredā¦
So, I am little off topicā¦. Why is working less worth every pennyā¦.Ā Because money later in life cannot buy back the time you spend today.Ā Ā If you have been reading this blog you know I fell off a ladder, years ago, resulting is massive trauma and near personal and financial ruin.Ā (Click here for the full story)Ā That experience has changed our perspective on investing and our approach to life.Ā
We are not a YOLO family or true financial independence now family. We are somewhere in between
The silver lining during my long recovery was that I spent a great deal of time at home via 9 months of extensive rehab and a nearly two year ācompleteā recovery period. The time home with my Daughters and Lauren was truly a special time even though it was caused by a tragedy.
As I gradually returned to work I kept Tuesdays OFF because Lauren had Tuesdays off. We protected that time off together and spent years going to the gym on Tuesday mornings followed by lunch dates, Tuesday Movies (when those existed Pre-Covid), and Disneyland days with the girls. (Disneyland is way better on the weekdays).

Although, the trauma we experienced as a family was awfulā¦ Ā it resulted in this Golden Period of Family time and protected one-on-one time for Lauren and I.Ā
But as is common in life things gradually changedā¦.Ā
Our schedules changed and I as regained strength I gradually began to work more.
We protected our Tuesdays off together for years but one day I made the trade to work Tuesdays to have all weekends off.
But I also went back to my old work waysā¦
I would work a Wound Care clinic from 7-10:30 followed by an 11am-11pm ER shift and then a quick turnaround Wound Care shift the next morning at 7:30. However, that was a pretty good deal because it allowed us as a family to have weekends off together, Iām not complaining. Iām just highlighting how āwork creepā gradually occurred. Does this sound familiar?
I was willing to make this move for increased family time but I honestly missed the Tuesday lunch dates and āourā time together during the āgolden yearsā.
This new scheduled worked for a few years until Lauren convinced me to practice Full-Time Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine. She knew that I enjoyed my practice but was reluctant to leave Emergency Medicine. Trust me, she listened to me mull this decision for years.
Emergency Medicine was great but was not aligning well with our goals as a family
Lauren knew and patiently guided me to the eventual decision to change my medical practiceā¦ She was right and I have zero regrets.
Lauren has also been suggesting for years that I should take Fridays off so we can share a day off together like we had in the past. She again has patiently addressed my fears/limiting beliefs about finances. Especially, my concern about āgiving upā a clinic day after it took years to build up.
Wound Care is not like Emergency Medicine. In Emergency Medicine you can pick up extra shifts but Wound Care is a small field and building a clinic can take timeā¦
The reality is that we can afford to take this time off and maintain our savings rate. At our current savings rate, we will be able to easily retire at 55 (I know ancient). So, the question we needed to ask was whether we wanted to work more now to retire earlier or enjoy our time now and retire at 55ā¦ (again with no plans of actually retiring at 55).
So, we went with Fridays off.Ā Our daughters are 8 and 9 and we would rather spend our time with them now while we can hike, snowboard, swim, bike ride and play games.Ā
This decision is based on our current income
We have not increased an additional income stream and we do not plan on retiring from Medicine into the āfull-timeā financial blogging world. We are making this move based off our current Medical income. The decrease in work may decrease the amount that we can invest yearly into real estate but we will continue to invest.
Our plan is to continue to actively invest in Short-term Rentals with some Long-term rental properties in the mix, while still fully funding our retirement accountsā¦. Each additional property will decrease our timeframe to Financial Freedomā¦ it just might take a little longerā¦. We are more than ok with that plan.
This is not our first time implementing the work less strategy and it has been great every timeā¦
The first time, was when I took Tuesdays off with Lauren and it was one of the greatest periods of my life.
The second time,Ā was taking weekends off and going full-time Wound Careā¦Ā Worth every penny.
The third time, is right nowā¦. Lauren has Fridays off and I am going to join herā¦ Looking forward to this next stage of our lives.
āEnjoy Your Journey to Financial Freedomā
What do you think? Have you considered working less? Or have you already made the plunge? How would working less impact your life? Let us know in the comments below!