10 Questions With Dr. Neill Slater

I thought my 10 Questions series was dead as the dodo, but here we are! After years of radio silence, I received two submissions last week.

The first is from Dr. Neill Slater who blogs over at Business is the Best Medicine.

Neill did a swell job with his answers. Read them all. But if you’re in a hurry and only have time to read one, skip to his answer to How is the world going to be better because you lived? And then do what Neill says. The world needs more Neills. I hope Neill will be my friend should I ever meet him. Take it away Neill!

There are approximately 476,492,292,928 personal finance blogs last time I
checked. Why should we read yours?

Most of you shouldn’t. I’m not for everyone. If you happen to be a medical
professional interested in personal finance and the business of medicine, I’m your guy.
Maybe. You could read the White Coat Investor or Physician on FIRE. But if you’re tired
of those larger, more popular blogs written by better-looking men, then try
BusinessIsTheBestMedicine.com.

I’m an ER doctor who is argent a’ trois or FI 3 ways – from real estate income, by the
4% rule, and from business distributions. Because I’m FI, and my blog is not
monetized, I get to say whatever I want. I can write unabashedly about how screwed up
the US Healthcare system is. I can write posts like An Emergency Physician’s Guide to
Working for the Devil. And I don’t even have to write anonymously! But seriously, if I
turn up missing, pass these two words on to the police . . . Blue Cross.

My business and real estate posts might interest you even if you are not a medical
professional. I include my actual numbers in posts about real estate transactions.
Check out The Financial Realities of My First Real Estate Property, a retrospective of
the first rental house I purchased 16 years ago and still own. If you are a high-income
earner, you might also relate to my personal financial material.

Finally, I offer everyone advice on reducing healthcare costs by preparing for
emergency visits in posts like An ER Doctor’s Response to the Financial Samurai’s ER Saga. This
guide helps you choose the most financially responsible place to go should you have a fever, hurt
your ankle, or “accidentally” sit on an Old Spice bottle.

What is one post that you’ve written that you wish would have gone viral?

The Legend of Doc J tells the story of an old ER doctor I knew who suffered the
consequences of falling behind on his taxes. I wish it would have gone viral because I
wrote it as a warning to new doctors and a tribute to an old friend who has passed on.

Why did you start your blog?

Primarily because I ran out of people to talk to about personal finance and business.
After a few years (or minutes), my wife was sick of me talking about it. I wore down my
friends, colleagues, and employees, so I had nowhere to turn but the internet. I guess I
also wanted to help others avoid my mistakes. A little.

What has surprised you about blogging?

How wordy I am when I write. As you can probably tell by my answers, I can’t write
anything concisely. Everything seems to drag on and on. I have to pare down my
writing continuously, and even then, it’s a lot. My record so far is a 10,000-word epic
comparing the breakeven point between a doctor and a physician’s assistant that I had
to split into three separate posts. I’m not even going to link it here because none of you
are going to read it.

How do you stay fit? (If you’re one of those crazy Crossfit people, please don’t
tell me that I suck because I don’t do it. This has happened.)

I hate going to the gym because I’ve never liked gym culture, but I like to work out.
To solve this conundrum, I have done P90X at home since 2008. I’m not lying. I’m on
my third set of discs. When I started, Tony Horton was 12 years older than me, and
now he’s 3 years younger.

I threw a bit of a tantrum the other night because it’s so hard to play DVDs these
days. For the last few years, I had an external drive for my computer, but it finally
crapped out. I bought another, which didn’t work. So, I just purchased an old-school
9.5-inch portable DVD player. It’s a little sad, but at least I don’t have to deal with gym
sweat and people filming TikTok videos between sets.

 
Financial Independence, Investing, and Money

Are you leanFIRE or, fatFIRE or fartFIRE?

Editor note: In case you haven’t heard of fartFIRE: https://www.1500days.com/are-you-leanfire-fatfire-or-fartfire/

I’m fat FIRE without the RE. I still work and save about 70% of my post-tax income.
I wrote a guest post explaining Why I Still Work After Achieving Financial
Independence.

Money first bought me peace of mind when I didn’t have to worry about rent or food,
then bought convenience as it lubricated my life (thanks for the perfect phrasing on the
Choose FI Podcast, Carl). Finally, money bought security for my family. I’m not
interested in most other things money buys these days. As I get older, I care less and
less.

Evil genies aside, what is your investing strategy? Stocks? Index funds?? Real
estate??? Crypto????

I invest in both residential and commercial real estate. I own index funds, bonds,
and a few individual stocks. No crypto. A significant portion of my net worth is in my
private businesses, and I currently hold too much cash (those 5% guaranteed rates are
hard to pass up, and I’ve been too lazy to find somewhere to deploy it). I wrote a post
detailing My Asset Allocation as of the beginning of 2024. If you don’t want to read it,
here is a visual:

What is the best thing you ever bought?

The best thing I ever bought by far was LASIX surgery. I started wearing glasses in
2 nd grade and had contacts by 4 th grade (and this was in the 1980s). By college, I
couldn’t wear contacts anymore (probably because I went ten years without cleaning
them properly). If any of you have ever had to wear rec-specs at the gym (also known
as birth control goggles), you feel my pain. As a graduation present from medical
school, my mother paid for half of the surgery, and I paid for the other half. It was like a
miracle. I could finally see how dirty my shower was. Twenty-two years later, I still don’t
wear glasses (although I actually need them again, da*n it).

What is your worst money mistake?

I have made nearly all the mistakes, sins of omission, and commission. It’s hard to
decide which is the worst, so I’ll go with the most ridiculous one. I bought a 4300 sq ft
house with a pool when I was single and lived alone. I had four bedrooms, five
bathrooms, two living rooms, and a game room with a pool table, dart board, and beer
pong table. I had some epic parties there, but mostly it sat empty while I worked. I had
rooms I didn’t go into for months at a time. Fortunately, when I got married, my wife
convinced me to sell it as she didn’t want to have small children around a pool. Five of
us now live comfortably in a 2500 sq ft house.

Your best friend tells you that he just got a raise at work and is going to buy a new car to celebrate. His current car is in perfect working order. How do you react?

It depends on his finances and passion for cars. A colleague purchased a Porsche
911 GTS in his first year of practice. He had debt and could only marginally afford it.
However, he loves that car like a fat kid loves cake. It has been his daily driver for 6 or
7 years, and he tells me how much he enjoys it every time I see him. He probably
sleeps in his garage when his wife is unhappy with him. He has worked hard, saved,
and invested over the years and is now in a solid financial position. I would tell him to
buy the car 10/10 times in his situation because of how much joy it has brought him.

If my friend couldn’t afford the car, I would call him a dumb*** and a few other choice
expletives, then have him read my post, Navigating the High Cost of New Cars.
I tell my own circuitous automotive journey, from an old truck, to a Porsche, to a Jeep
Trackhawk, and now to a base model Honda Civic, in the post As a Doctor, Why Did I
Purchase My First New Car at 48 Years Old?

Big Questions

How is the world going to be better because you lived?

I’m going to get a little philosophical, but you asked for it. The world is very big and
old, and we are very small and transient. I’m not sure there is much the average person
can do to make the world better, and I’m nothing if not average.

However, I’m not a nihilist (does anyone else hear “Ve vant ze money Lebowski”
when someone uses that word?). I believe the best we can do is try to impact the
people around us. Be kind. Be helpful. Be generous. Raise children who grow up to
be reasonable human beings. You know, the little things. If all the average people do
that, it might make a difference.

Random Silliness

Favorite beer?

I don’t drink much these days, so my current favorite is Athletic Brewing Co.’s Free
Wave Hazy IPA non-alcoholic brew. I’m a Guinness fan, and their new NA selection
isn’t bad, either. Both Becks and Heineken offer drinkable NAs. But let’s be honest.
None of them really taste like beer. They’re all just barely passable substitutes at best.
And don’t get me started on non-alcoholic liquor, which is basically $40 flower water.
My all-time favorite beer is probably Grolsh, which my wife unaffectionately calls
“stinky beer.” Some obscure international favorites include Gron Tuborg from Denmark,
Cisk Lager from Malta, and Czechvar from The Czech Republic. I also have a fondness
for the old-timey cheap stuff my dad drank: Stroh’s, Black Label, PBR, Hamms,
Olympia, and Schlitz (lager, not the malt liquor).

While in my ER residency program in Georgia, I drove my Audi TT to Illinois to see
my family. I filled the back with a variety of cheap beer to bring back to my rugby club
since I couldn’t find all my favorites in GA. My car blew a tire coming through Atlanta in
rush hour traffic, and of course, the spare was under the floor of the back hatch. So, I
had to stack about twenty 12-packs of cheap beer on the side of the road while I changed the tire.
Drivers were honking and yelling at me as they slowly drove past. Unfortunately, this was before I had a
cell phone, and I don’t have any pictures.

Thanks again Neill! Please catch up with Niell over at Business is the Best Medicine.

If you’d like to participate in 10 Questions, mosey on over to here.