Tweet
I've been reading Tyler Cowen's "The Complacent Class" and he discusses (among other things) the decline in mobility of Americans - we are moving less often from state to state and county to county. I realized that I am unlikely to move again in my lifetime, unless it is for health or unexpected family reasons (ie, my future adult children need help with future grandchildren, etc). In other words, I don't anticipate having or wanting to move for economic reasons.
Financially I'm also much less motivated than in the past. I've reached a certain level of assets which make me more or less FI. If I could double my income would I move? No. If I could get twice as much vacation would I move? Eh, probably not. If my employer cut my pay 25% would I stay? I might, depending on working conditions. I like my coworkers and my employer and my patients and something pretty drastic would have to change for me to bail. What I could do in the near future is approach my current employer about working less and if they say no... at some point I submit my resignation and do some locums, some telemedicine, some consulting, whatever. I had a dream for a while of working in Singapore for a couple years, bringing the family for the adventure and to help the kids improve their Chinese, but even that sounds like more than I want to take on right now. I had a dream once of being a shining light to help physicians get their finances in order but WCI beat me to it. Good for him, and I'm not heartbroken. I'm not feeling motivated to create big new things... all that work, all that uncertainty. Seriously, another X million dollars wouldn't change my life one bit... we save half of what we make already and I only work 200 days per year (and I don't make as much as many docs) and we have everything we need and almost everything we want.
My own internal debates aside, how do you know if you are content - or complacent? Is there a difference? Is compacency necessarily negative?
Financially I'm also much less motivated than in the past. I've reached a certain level of assets which make me more or less FI. If I could double my income would I move? No. If I could get twice as much vacation would I move? Eh, probably not. If my employer cut my pay 25% would I stay? I might, depending on working conditions. I like my coworkers and my employer and my patients and something pretty drastic would have to change for me to bail. What I could do in the near future is approach my current employer about working less and if they say no... at some point I submit my resignation and do some locums, some telemedicine, some consulting, whatever. I had a dream for a while of working in Singapore for a couple years, bringing the family for the adventure and to help the kids improve their Chinese, but even that sounds like more than I want to take on right now. I had a dream once of being a shining light to help physicians get their finances in order but WCI beat me to it. Good for him, and I'm not heartbroken. I'm not feeling motivated to create big new things... all that work, all that uncertainty. Seriously, another X million dollars wouldn't change my life one bit... we save half of what we make already and I only work 200 days per year (and I don't make as much as many docs) and we have everything we need and almost everything we want.
My own internal debates aside, how do you know if you are content - or complacent? Is there a difference? Is compacency necessarily negative?
Comment