Journal Club 12-17-16

Topics: Poor Doctors, Personal Lines of Credit, Paying Off Debt, Living Mortgage-Free

Every week, I hold a JOURNAL CLUB. After manually filtering through the millions of articles out there, I present a few that I impacted my life this week. This will also help lay the foundation for some of the topics that we’ll dig into deeper on this website.

Here's our Journal Club for the week, enjoy!

• With all the doom and gloom that gets a lot of press these days, it’s probably good for us to take a little step back and gain some perspective. Future Proof MD takes on that tough task in his post, Have You Met a Poor Doctor?

• Have you ever gotten those letters in the mail that say you may be eligible for a personal credit line of $25,000? I’ll be honest, I just throw those away, but I always wondered what the terms are and whether there actually might be a smart way to use them. Doctor in Debt explores that very subject in How a Personal Line of Credit Saved Me From a Cash Crunch.

• One of the big lofty goals that people think about heading into the new year is how they’re going to pay off debt in the new year. Here’s a practical and to the point post on the subject by Some Random Guy Online (who is actually a physician writing about finance in his spare time). Maybe some of these strategies might work for you. Check out 10 Strategies for Paying Off Debt.

• Staying on the subject of paying off debt, Centsibly Rich has this great series where she interviews people who have successfully maneuvered their way out of debt. This week’s story highlights the story of Andrew of FamilyMoneyPlan.com and his story of paying off his mortgage in only 6 years. Check it out in Debt Free Story: What it’s like to be mortgage free.

Here’s something crazy, there are only 2 weeks left in the year! Time does seem to go by so much more quickly with age. (A Scientific American article tackles the subject here. Nice read.) Through a few stories I heard this week, I was also reminded that I’m not guaranteed any more time on this earth.

So it begs the question, am I making the best use of limited time and energy? Personally, that’s something I’ll be really poring over these last couple weeks before 2017 begins.

In other news, my daughter is 3 and a half years old and is starting to understand that this is a very good time of year. We’ve already talked to three different Santas and she’s gotten candy canes from each one of them. Santa is finally her friend this year. I have to say, I’m really enjoying the holidays seeing it somewhat through her eyes.

Hope everyone gets to enjoy the holidays as much as she does!

Passive Income M.D.