It's incredibly common to assume that saving and investing are about becoming rich; building the biggest pile of money possible. Especially if you're reading about money. But here's the real question: What is all of this money for?
We bring nothing into the world, and we take nothing out of it. Over the course of a life, we're just maintaining things. There's value in thinking less about the pursuit of “maxxing” and more about the quieter art of maintaining. Because you can build all kinds of wealth through relentless, consistent maintenance.
The 90/10 rule is mathematically right for maximizing total wealth over 50 years, but it is operationally wrong for a human being who needs to buy milk and pay property taxes during a four-year bear market.
You know where most of our anxiety and stress comes from? Dealing with Other People. But next time, when someone is giving you a migraine, here are the three Cs of letting it go:
- Didn't cause it
- Can't cure it
- Can't control it
The Senate overwhelmingly passed the largest housing affordability legislation in three decades on Thursday. The bill streamlines environmental reviews, expands financing for affordable housing, and eliminates the requirement that manufactured homes be built on a permanent chassis. That change could cut costs $5,000 to $10,000 per home.
March means acceptance letters are arriving—and that means it's time to start interpreting financial aid award letters. With ongoing uncertainty around federal education policy and student loans, it's more important than ever to make thoughtful financial decisions about college.
The premise of the great American universities today is a difficult one, to say the least. The golden era of autonomy for universities is probably not going to return.
For new doctors: you don't have to go into more debt during residency in order to furnish your home. Here's how to fill your space without sinking your finances.
Roughly, 70% of Americans still identify as middle class, even though only about half objectively qualify. That gap — between who you think you are and where you actually sit is doing a lot of work. “Middle class” stopped being an economic description a long time ago. It became an identity — a story about what kind of life you deserve, what kind of future your kids should expect.
Inflation is a fact of economic life. For people in their working years, modest inflation is manageable. But once you stop working and flip from accumulation to distribution, that same inflation can quietly chew through your savings like termites in a floor joist.
The new report released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that newborn Americans in 2024 could expect to live to 79 on average, with the life expectancy figure having fully recovered from a pandemic-era dip to hit a new high.
100 Hours. One Property. Five Figures Off Your Tax Bill.
Tax season has a way of making you feel like you earned a $300K salary and kept about half of it. You did. That's not a feeling. That's math.
Most W-2 physicians look at their options for cutting that number down and find a short list: max the 401(k), do the backdoor Roth, maybe grumble into the void. What most don't realize is that unlike long-term rentals, short-term rentals offer a path for physicians to take real estate deductions directly against W-2 income without needing to qualify as a Real Estate Professional, which requires 750 hours and essentially a second career.
The STR loophole works differently. Spend at least 100 hours managing the property, make sure no one else spends more time on it than you do, and your losses become non-passive. That means they stack against your salary. Directly.
And here's where the timing matters: under the One Big Beautiful Bill, bonus depreciation was permanently restored to 100% for qualifying properties acquired after January 19, 2025. Properties you buy now fall under that window. The paper losses in year one can be significant.
Leti and Kenji Asakura, the physician duo behind Semi-Retired MD, bought one STR that generated nearly $300,000 in tax shelter on a single property. These are not theoretical numbers. These are two hospitalists who got tired of writing big checks to the IRS and built an entirely different outcome for themselves.
I'm joining Leti and Kenji for a free live training this Tuesday, March 17th at 8pm EST, and we're breaking down exactly how one short-term rental can work for a physician still clocking a full schedule.
You'll walk away knowing:
- How a single STR can generate $30K to $80K in annual cashflow, even with a 60-hour workweek
- How to use the STR tax loophole to legally shelter five to six figures of W-2 income, starting with your 2026 return
- The 3 most expensive mistakes physicians make before they ever buy their first STR
This is a free event. No pitch, no fluff. Just the mechanics, the numbers, and the mistakes worth skipping.
Register here. Tuesday, March 17th, 8pm EST.
See you there,
Jorge Sanchez, MD
Physician on FIRE
