Author: Joel Schofer, MD, MBA, CPE
Reader Question – I’m about to be an intern and I’m new to your site. Where should I start?
This is a good question. After 6 years of posts, it can be overwhelming if you are starting fresh. Here is what I’d recommend if you are a new reader.
First, because you are about to be an intern, one of your next career milestones will be to match into a residency. As a result, I’d read this post:
Second, I think you need to understand the current Medical Corps career path, so I’d read these posts:
The New Medical Corps Career Progression Slide – What Does It Mean to You?
Specialty Specific Career Paths
Third, I think you need to get an idea of how to get promoted. Plus, it is never too early to get your record ready. I’d read the Promo Prep:
When it comes time to do your first fitrep, I’d read the Fitrep Prep:
In addition, this is the most popular individual post on the site:
LCDR Fitreps – Language for Writing Your Block 41
The earlier you get your financial house in order, the better, so I’d read the TSP Guide:
You will eventually need to develop a military bio and CV, so I’d go to the 2nd most popular individual post on the site:
CV, Military Bio, and Letter of Intent Templates
That is a lot to read. Once you’ve digested all of that, I’d browse “The Book,” which is the page where I’ve cataloged all the posts over time and arranged them by subject. Read what interests you:
That is my recommendation, but readers can post other suggestions for what newbies should read. Thanks for writing, asking the question, and reading.
Finance Friday Articles
- 1099 Independent Contractors Can’t Ignore These 11 Issues
- Eight Lessons From Building A Seven-Figure Real Estate Portfolio (And Adding $1M A Year)
- How Much Should You Have Saved in Your 30s?
- How to Improve Your Returns? #InvestLikeAGirl
- Inflation Ahead?
- Is Passive Real Estate Investing Really Passive?
- The Best Inflation-Fighting Investments for Retirees
- The Craziest Market I’ve Ever Seen
- There’s a single New Jersey deli doing $35,000 in sales valued at $100 million in the stock market
- Which Bonds Provide the Biggest Diversification Benefits?
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – Asset Location
Here’s a tip on asset location from one of my favorite blogs and authors, Jonathan Clements from Humble Dollar:
After deciding what investments to buy, we should consider asset location. What’s that? It involves divvying up investments between taxable and retirement accounts. If investments generate large annual tax bills—think taxable bonds and actively managed funds—we’ll typically want to hold them in a retirement account.
Jonathan’s advice is the traditional advice. Put your taxable bonds, like the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) F and G funds, into your retirement accounts. This is what I do. My F and G funds are in the TSP, clearly a retirement account.
I don’t own actively managed funds, and I also don’t invest in real estate investment trusts (REITs), although I have in the past and I think about it pretty frequently.
There is another school of thought, though. The White Coat Investor has a different take. You can read about them in his posts entitled My Two Asset Location Pet Peeves and Bonds Go in Taxable!
Of note, just about everyone says to put actively managed funds or REITs in a retirement account, so you won’t find any arguments there.
If you’re really interested in this concept/discussion, the Bogleheads Wiki on tax efficient fund placement is a great read as well.
1st MLG Surgeon – Summer 2021 – O5/O6
The 1st MLG Surgeon position will become available June 2021. Here is the PD for the position:
All Interested candidates should submit their CV and military bio to me (Joel dot M dot Schofer dot mil at mail dot mil) by COB 30 APR 2021.
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 