March 11, 2020
Erik went to a conference in Las Vegas, so I'll let him blog about it:
I've been following the White Coat Investor for over 4 years now. He is an emergency physician in SLC who has a financial blog and a couple of finance books for physicians. This is his second conference; the first was in Park City and did not qualify for CME. I figured this conference would be good to attend since it is closer and I could get CME for attending; my company also reimbursed me for the trip. My plan was for the whole family to go, but as the date grew closer, Amy didn't like the idea of taking the kids out of school and spending all day in a hotel room. It didn't help that the day I left the President banned any incoming travel from European countries because of the coronavirus. On the drive to the airport, the kids kept asking why I was leaving. I felt a little guilty, but all communication from WCI indicated that the conference was still on. After a brief, turbulent flight, I got my rental car, checked into my hotel, and went to bed to wake up early for a 7:30am start the next morning.
The hallway, breakroom, and conference room. They didn't look exactly like this, but you get the idea.
March 12, 2020
After a nice complimentary hotel breakfast with the same old-fashioned doughnuts as the Candy Cane Inn, I drove about 10 minutes to the Paris Hotel to check in for the conference. I received a bag with about 10 free books on various physician finance topics. Our meetings were in the large ballrooms capable of seating just under one thousand people. Apparently, only about 500 of the 700 attendees registered in person because of the panic from the virus. The WCI (Jim Dahle) said that they would be live streaming video from the conference if anyone wanted to watch online instead of attend in person. Jim kicked off the conference by reviewing articles from the literature about burnout and physician wellness. Interestingly, burnout is more common among females and people who already have some degree of anxiety. Burnout is also contagious. The best treatments involve strong relationships at work and at home and taking care of yourself by accomplishing goals and exercising.
Jim Dahle is the White Coat Investor.
Rick Ferri is a famous financial advisor and author.
I ate lunch at the Creperie inside the Hotel. The Monte Cristo crepe tasted like lunch meat, but the blueberry-lemon crepe was good.
Other presenters talked about burnout or finance to some extent or another. One talk was about maximizing retirement contributions to minimize taxes. There was a panel discussion about how to obtain disability and life insurance and what to consider when purchasing them. Another presenter talked about saving enough to retire early and live a luxurious lifestyle, which requires saving at least 50% of your income. Someone discussed wellness with respect to sexual health; I was impressed that one study found decreased levels of wellness and a higher risk of suicide among people who have "friends with benefits" and experience one-night-stands. One presenter talked about financial planning for your family and mentioned that students who excel in high school but perform in the lower half of their class at Ivy League colleges tend to perform poorly in life. The most famous speaker was Rick Ferri. He is a financial advisor who regularly writes for financial publications and has appeared on many financial tv shows. His topic consisted of explaining the reasons behind market swings and why he insists on a simple portfolio of 3-4 low-cost, indexed mutual funds.
Most of the free books we received were written by people presenting at the conference. I got Jim Dahle and Rick Ferri to sign my books.
March 13, 2020
Ready for the second day of presentations. Was I tired, or do I just look like that now because I'm old?
Most of the talks I attended this day were about wellness and burnout. I think I am becoming more interested in burnout recently; I even volunteered to become the "Wellness Champion" at work to help those feeling stressed. The training for that also gave me CME. The first presenter of the day talked about burnout from difficult cases. He talked about his experience losing a couple pediatric patients and his struggle to get help from colleagues and from the employee assistance program. Another speaker shared several resources for taking self-assessments to help us understand how we deal with difficulties; she said that burnout is caused by high levels of responsibility with low levels of control. A panel discussed their experiences of dealing with burnout by retiring early from medicine or cutting back to part-time. One presenter suggested identifying the cause of burnout instead of labeling someone as burned out. He recommended finding joy in our work: joy in others' achievements, joy in being grateful for what we have, and joy in the most difficult aspects of our job. This day's famous presenter was Phil Demuth; he is a financial planner like Rick Ferri who has written articles and appeared on many tv shows. Phil works closely with Ben Stein, and the two of them have written several books together. He spoke about the importance of owning stock and investing aggressively (owning more stocks than bonds).
At the end of the day, I met my parents for dinner and a show. We walked over to Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris for a fancy dinner. Afterwards, we walked down the strip the Mirage. There were quite a few people out walking even though the President had declared a national emergency earlier that day due to the coronavirus. It took longer than we thought to get around all the escalators, skywalks, prostitutes, drunks, pimps, beggars, and tourists. We made it just in time to watch The Beatles: Love by Cirque du Solei. The show was a little weird, as most Beatles songs and Cirque du Solei shows are. There was dancing, acrobatics, stunts, swinging from the ceiling, odd characters, VW beetles and buses, kids riding a flying bed, tricycles powered by phantom boots, model trains pulling lights, brick walls "exploding" because of a war, light projection animations of the Beatles, bubbles, and lots of confetti at the end. I think I now have a good idea what it was like being on drugs in the 60s.
The sea scallops were creamy with a hint of salt and onions.
My peppery filet was undercooked by 1-2 levels. The fries were not great.
No need for acid when you're watching Cirque du Solei.
March 14, 2020
On the last day of the conference there were even fewer people in attendance due to concerns about the virus. About a week after it was over, we were notified that 2 conference attendees tested positive for COVID-19; one had a fever while the other had a scratchy throat. I made sure to wash my hands and use hand sanitizer as often as possible, but even I felt a little paranoid about having a dry throat. I attended a few panel discussions this day. One panel suggested ways to save for retirement and for kids' college. Another panel discussed ways to teach medical students and residents about burnout and finance. A presenter talked about meeting with an attorney to create a trust for estate planning. The next speaker proposed saving enough to retire early as an option but to keep working full-time. Another speaker suggested what to do during a market downturn: ignore it. The second to last presenter talked about minimizing taxes. Many topics became somewhat redundant by the end of the conference.
Phil Demuth works a lot with Ben Stein (Bueller...Bueller?).
I met my parents for a lunch break at the Boulangerie. We walked around the Bellagio since I had some extra time. The botanical garden inside Bellagio was decorated for the Chinese New Year. It looked really nice, but we left pretty quickly because of the annoying music. We caught the end of the Bellagio Fountains show as we headed back to the Paris. I gave my parents my suitcase so that I wouldn't have to wait for it at baggage claim that evening.
Ham and Gruyere Quiche for lunch with Napoleon for dessert. The top layer of the Napoleon was so stiff that any effort to cut it ended up squishing the entire pastry.
Jim gave the final presentation for the conference. He talked about malpractice; he told us that 2% of lawsuits actually end with a decision against the physician. Of those cases, a ridiculously low number of payouts are above the doctor's malpractice policy limits. Overall, it was pretty encouraging. I returned to the airport to catch my flight back home. The plane was more than half empty due to travel restrictions and generalized panic. I made it home safely to my family sickness free (for now).
