More Retirement Advice

I thought your “Retirement Tips” article fell short of giving tested, practical advice to the many ACEP members facing retirement questions. It did so precisely because it solicited input from well-known, august, and wonderful over-achieving emergency physicians. It lacked tips from a single, simple, everyday emergency physician who had not achieved national business or leadership success.

My tips would have been quite different. I did full-time clinical medicine for 40 years. Yes, I had volunteer stints in ACEP leadership, but no business or practice leadership. And I’ve been retired for two years now, for real, unlike any of the honored leaders you quoted. Here’s what I would have said:

Plan to retire before they ask you to retire. Night shifts are impossible in your sixties. Your body starts slowing down in your fifties and you’ll have noticeable and significant physical slowing in your sixties, making it harder to keep up the pace of a busy ED shift. Your mental endurance will also decrease. See if you like urgent care or clinics, but realize that that is not emergency medicine (I didn’t like them: busy and boring).

Pick a date and stick to it. Prepare yourself for the realization that you will never be a practicing doctor again, but that you will be starting a different life of your choice. Make sure the mortgage is paid off (my biggest mistake) and the kids are on their way in life. Keep your medical license for a year to be sure you don’t have regrets and want to go back to practice. If you don’t resume practice, most of us will not be able to afford the cost of maintaining a license and DEA registration and CME; surrender your license and be proud of your MD, your FACEP, and your past career.

Focus on your new career. ED docs have many interests; pick some and make a new career. I chose medical school admissions committee and lilac horticulture as my main hobbies; they are just as fulfilling although a bit lonelier, especially since, like in a divorce, many people you cared about fall out of your life. But others will arise to take their place.

Now that you have more time for family, don’t expect them to have time for you. They are busy with their lives and careers. Your spouse, however, can be a wonderful source of companionship and comfort. And grandchildren are so much more interesting and fun than children.

Money is less available, and you have to learn to make healthier financial decisions. Realize this is a new life path, and expensive dinners at the best restaurants are now to be rare treats. That’s life. The biggest problem is getting your still-working friends to realize you no longer have the money to spend like they do.

Travel options open up. I hope you had separate savings for the extensive travel you can do. Travel early and often while your health is good, and inflation hasn’t eaten away your savings. Remember that lying on a beach and reading, while still fun, is no longer necessary to recuperate.

And lastly, don’t count on continued good health. Years of racquetball or tennis or running will show up with damaged and arthritic knees and hips, which will limit your physical abilities and endurance. Plan for it and don’t be discouraged. Do as much as you can.

Retirement can be a wonderful and liberating time of life with the proper expectations. Talk to normal emergency physicians who have done it to find out more.

Mark L. DeBard, MD, FACEP
Columbus, Ohio

Retirement Comes

New fields, new hills, new roads,
Leading I know not where…But go I must!
Strange new sensations lurk in my heart.
Change is upon me!
This fiery feeling, a relentless flame,
To move on, to discover anew, to touch the worlds
I’ve never known.
Is it even too late?

In my gut there is a deep emptiness,
Not for nourishment
But for the life I so loved and cherished!
There is a heavy wave of loneliness, bewilderment
Sweeping over me, consuming me.
Where now is my sense of purpose?

Shay Bintliff, MD, FACEP
Kamuela, Hawaii