It was during the darkest year of my life when I discovered the FIRE movement and learned about financial independence. I learned about it from a blog post titled The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement written by a guy that was calling himself Mr. Money Mustache.  That article resonated with me like few things ever have. Something inside of me clicked and it’s not an exaggeration to say that my life hasn’t been the same ever since.

I’d just found something that would help me go from broke and unemployed to financially independent in about 13 years. I’ll retire early when I’m 49 years old, all because I learned about one simple concept called Financial Independence.  And just like we tell our friends and family whenever we find a great new restaurant, or find a binge-worthy show on Netflix, I want EVERYONE to know about financial independence.

If you’re like most people, financial independence is your ultimate financial goal.  The road to a financially care-free lifestyle requires planning and dedication and even a bit of luck.  But you may need to fix your finances today, before you can plan for a financially secure tomorrow.

The first draft of this post was about the financial challenges my wife and I face while raising our family of six on a single income. But something about that draft didn’t feel quite right. I was taking the same approach so many others do when discussing this topic. I focused too much on money and not enough on the other sacrifices that get made.

Achieving FIRE is something many people aspire to achieve – but these goals require a lot of hard work. It can be difficult to retire early when you simply work for someone else throughout your life, so many early retirees guarantee their independence through investments and by starting their own businesses.

The burnout rates in practicing physicians and physicians in training (medical students, residents, and fellows) are simply alarming. The problem seems to be getting worse with the decreasing autonomy, unhelpful/encroaching administrators, and the ever increasing financial burden of our student loans.

While you may think that physician burnout only impacts doctors, evidence shows that it unfortunately leads to bad medical care for our patients, too.  With that big of a problem, what would you think if I told you that financial independence may have the power to save our physicians?

Let’s dig in.