Hey everyone, today is just a short post to let everyone know that yesterday was my birthday… now I’m 38 years old. Let’s talk about Getting Older.

It’s been 20 years since I left home to go to college… It’s kind of amazing to me that I’ve spent more time “away from home” than I have “growing up”. That old saying of time passing quickly and “blink and you’ll miss it” ring true.

The day are long… but the years are short…

That said, reflecting back on my time in college, medical school, residency, and fellowship… and now these past 5 years as a young attending, I think I’ve done a pretty good job about staying on course.

There are these two opposing forces that are always at odds with one in another inside of me. There is the one that says “plan for the future, save for retirement” and the other one that says “you’ll never know what tomorrow may bring, don’t regret anything.”

In general, I think life is a balancing act of these two opposing forces. I think when I was younger, the latter half won out — the one who didn’t want to miss out on things and did whatever he wanted. However, as I grew older the former force of planning for the future came to the forefront, especially during my fellowship and early attending years.

Now that I’ve been an attending for a few years and I feel pretty comfortable with where I am — I think these two opposing forces have finally made peace with one another.

Who won?

There is no winner or loser between them persay, I think they’ve just kind of figured out that the “real me” is some portion of both of them — like yin and yang.

I guess what I’m saying is that after getting to positive net worth and putting some more money toward our student loans, I’m more at ease with where we are and where we’re headed. These home improvement projects will be a little costly, but are necessary, and I think we’re on the right track.

Don’t get me wrong, we did spend money these last few years, for example, the California Family Trip wasn’t cheap. However, I must admit I did feel a little guilty about spending so much money without the student loans being gone yet. This year we’ve opted to do more of a staycation approach because of wanting to save money for the house and the student loans.

However, nowadays when it comes to money, I don’t really worry all that much anymore. I think that was the general change that occurred over this last year or so — and now the two opposing forces inside of me are at peace.

TL;DR

Older — maybe wiser?

…but definitely more at peace.

-Sensei

Agree? Disagree? Questions, Comments and Suggestions are welcome.

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