Storage Rental

One of my more inane monthly expenditures has been a small storage unit.  When first rented following the closure of my office nine years ago, it seemed a necessity.  I had financial records, employment records, books, more office supplies than I could give away, a large photocopier, a tall cherry red bookcase from Ikea, oodles of books.  And then I retired from the job that followed, with contents of desk drawers that belonged to me, not the hospital.  Some $18K in fees later, I am paying monthly to house stuff that I don't want.  The statute of limitations on financial records has lapsed, not that I could find any if requested.  The medical records were stored elsewhere and destroyed when the required storage time elapsed.  It's time to divest of the storage fees.  The only item that I know I want is that bookcase which will house quite a lot of books in my bedroom.

In the meantime, I have emptied most of my home files and made a commitment to myself to clean the basement, partly to have a single storage area in my home and partly for a form of end-of-life planning so my survivors do not have to pay somebody to do this. 

At three boxes a week, I can now see the floor of that storage unit.  Much has gone to shredding.  Office supplies need a home, which for now is two baskets in the lower hall.  My Franklin Planner accumulation has gone to a mixture of shredding and paper recycle.  Diplomas of various types have just come home, a closet to be identified for their indefinite storage.  I remain on schedule for the end of the year.  What to do with the money saved?  It will be something celebratory.

Weekly Planning

It's been some 25 years since I first read Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  The type of goal setting that he described came fairly naturally to me, though my lists were too long and not categorized well enough.  One piece of advice that permanently changed was time perspectives.  While I always had what I should do today and what I need to do this semester and what am I pursuing toward graduation, my planning had always been day to day.  His guidance changed the perspective to a week.  So now I have a semi-annual list of projects in categories compiled every June and December.  But instead of the Franklin Planner approach of day to day, the perspective has been to incorporate parts of six months into each week.  I think that is a much better goal breakdown.  Seven day blocks have been the norm since Biblical times, probably for a reason.  Each Sunday morning, excepted only for yontiff, I look at the six month projects and determine what I should be able to do this week.  Activities for the week that are part of that six month effort get a colored highlight.  Each night I take the weekly list and select a daily array of stuff that I need to select from, as the list always exceeds what I can do, but urgencies get done and non-urgent priorities get pursued. 

So this week I should be able to complete my third day trip, either to New York or the Harley Factory in plain old York.  There is a meeting with my financial advisor who helped me computerize my assets.  I need to review my Medicare Part D program.  Clearing my upstairs study has not gone as well as some of the other initiatives because the weekly projects seem to lack the task specificity of the others.  My weight has gone nowhere though I have done reasonably well on the intermediate steps to lose those ten pounds.  I keep weekly records and while I have not lost any, my weight and waist circumference have remained static for two years. 

Come next week, we return to December, that semiannual review of what has gone well, what fell short, what merits continuation, and what directions should get revised.  But overall, it's been a useful system.

Ready for Work

It's still early, my second cup of coffee dripping from the Mr. Coffee discounted Keurig brewer.  A Black Tiger Extra Bold K-Cup splashed with Cinnamon Dolce Cream International Delight creamer that has a longer refrigerator life than real milk.  My morning usually starts something like this.  The electric toothbrush has already done its work, other grooming and dressing for the pageant of the workplace will come shortly.

There is still about an hour before I actually have to turn on the ignition, put on KYW Newsradio 1060 to hear Traffic on the 2's so that I get to Mercy Philadelphia Hospital in advance of the first patient.  I sort of outline the day's tasks:

1. Morning at the 52nd Street Satellite location
2. Update the February Billing so I can submit it next week
3. Assign a couple of consults to my Resident
4. Maybe contact somebody from the Leonard Davis Institute about a Research Project
5. See whoever comes into the office
6. Round in the hospital
7. The usual phone calls
8. Maybe catch up on prescription faxes

Everything adds up.  There is stuff to do at home as well, particularly polishing this week's Torah reading project for which I left myself too little preparation time and decide how I want to spend my monthly outing the following weekend.  I used to plan all this every Sunday in my Franklin Planner but now that would be a hopeless task so I use some morning time to outline what I should be doing during each day.  Some interruption usually arises and my own dedication to schedule has never been faithful so what I intend in the morning rarely reaches completion by quitting time.  At least I start today reasonably rested, not irritated with anything or anybody, and generally ready if not enthused to tackle the various short term tasks and long term projects.

Prosperity

Each day I trudge off to Mercy Philadelphia Hospital to take care of whoever somebody asks me to see.  Insurance companies pay them for what I do.  In exchange a deposit of a larger sum than I've ever earned before finds its way to my account at PNC Bank biweekly which then accumulates until the Washington University tuition payment becomes due.  When I take $60-100 from the cash machine every couple of weeks for my own expenses, the balance on the receipt seems to grow most of the time.

Yet I do not live differently or even have these proceeds earmarked for anything in particular other than those relatively finite tuition payments.  Prosperity has both a reality and a mindset.  "Who is rich?  One who finds pleasure in his portion." [Pirke Avot 4:1]  There is a challenge to earn that income, a satisfaction inherent in acquiring skill and applying it for a purpose that has value.  Accumulating money, though, should never be an end in its own right.  There are funds for personal maintenance, investments in the future, protection for the might happen, some for generosity to others, and some for indulgences that bring their own pleasure but are of low priority.

Earning this comes at the expense of time and energy.  The day usually starts while still dark outside and ends while darkness has reappeared.  Much of the time is spend with patients and junior colleagues, which may be a form of indulgence in itself, considering what most other people do for their livelihood.  For all the strains and periodic pressures, I am hard pressed to think of anything else I would rather be doing from one day to the next.  Maybe having a little more protected time to write or to do a research project without patients coming at me randomly in some form.  But for the most part the means of earning income has its own personal satisfaction so spending those proceeds on my own hedonism is probably less of a goal for me than for others who accumulate their extra funds in a more onerous way from which they have a greater need of escape.

As I approach a year and a half of salaried employment, I find myself less generous rather than more in my tzedakah.  I still give the same amount, allocated each month with a note of appreciation to every recipient.  But the donations no longer occur on time, instead getting clustered into a few at a time.  I've not given to United Way or my alma mater or even the WashU Hillel, not because of any reduction in fondness for them but because of competing strains on more limited discretionary time.  I've made an effort to schedule some time with myself, usually to go out for breakfast on either a Saturday or Sunday morning.  This may be a concession to more money, since in the past I would go to Sweeney's Bakery around the corner on Saturday morning for a $1 coffee and on Sunday to Einstein Bagels with my 99 cent refill mug and my Franklin Planner to look over the week.  Now the breakfast is only one day but more ample.  It has been my custom for a couple of years to go to a place I've not been before once a month.  Usually it is someplace local like a new store but now I travel a little farther on a day trip once a month with a budget of about $100, maybe a little more if I start doing overnight excursions this coming spring. And if I get a performance bonus I would like to replace the ordinary tub in the main bathroom with a jacuzzi.  My concession to creature comfort that I would not have otherwise afforded myself.


Yes, prosperity is a mind-set.  Frugality a beneficial habit that has served me well and is unlikely to undergo drastic revision by a larger savings account.

Shabbat Prep

End of the work week, end of the summer.  Very early on Friday morning with a few tasks separating me from a shabbat respite, or if not a respite, then a change of pace.  I made the foundation of dinner:  flanken and Israeli couscous with sauteed onions and mushrooms.  Then some cauliflower to parboil before lichtbentschen.  When I get to the office, I will put my coins in the Pushka, then bring the pushka to my car, as this is the final Friday that I expect to be in my office.  Maybe I will empty the Pushka, put the coins in the TD Bank coin counter and write a check for the proceeds to the Hebrew school like I usually do at the start of their school year.  It will probably be the final tzedakah check from my office account.

On Fridays I do a double portion with my Franklin Planner, outlining both Friday and Saturday anticipated tasks.  I also think about where I will attend services, usually Beth Emeth for Kabbalat Shabbat and AKSE on Shabbat Morning.  This week I also need to pick up some mini-challot, either from Trader Joe's or Safeway.  Come the end of the workday, the tasks will close, the majority typically not done, to be half-heartedly restarted when the sun goes down Saturday and more vigorously shortly after sunrise on Sunday.

While shabbos is different, is it really better, as people tell me it should be?  Definitely a difficult question to analyze, but for now I'm content just leaving it different.