Well… We Made it. 2020 has come and finally went. It was a year unlike any other I have ever experienced. It came with many big adjustments for me to my career, my finances, and my mental well being as I am sure others can also relate to.
I never thought that I would miss things like going out to eat, or to the bar for a drink, or even the awkward small talk at a party. But I missed it all. 2020 was a gentle reminder for all of us to never take anything for granted and I plan to carry that with me going forward.
I started writing this post in preparation for my 2020 financial summary that I do at the end of every year to document my spending habits, income, and investments to hold me accountable going into the new year.
However, as I sat down and began to write. I realized how much has truly happened in 2020 and it felt appropriate to give a 2020 recap before my financial recap as I realize that I have not been nearly as consistent with the blog this Fall/Winter.
In the past, I have dedicated hours and hours to putting together long winded posts about my journey to financial independence, the financial practices I use/recommend to get there, and tips for those interested in traveling healthcare.
So in an attempt to make my material more digestible for my readers and hopefully free up my own time a little bit more, I am going to attempt to shorten my posts. I’m not saying this will always be the case, but it feels that publicly writing it is the first attempt at change.
2020 Work Recap
Thankfully I have been able to work the entire year without getting furloughed, let go, or my traveling contract voided like many of my colleagues. I have been very fortunate on the career front this year and I make sure to remind myself of this fortune often.
In fact, it was the first year that I have worked every week without taking my normal month off between assignments like I had done the previous 2 years.
I started the year working at the same satellite clinic in Arizona that I was previously working at near the end of 2019. I completed 4 separate contract extensions over the course of a year as I continued to work at this clinic.
I plan to break down this contract, these various contract extensions and how I was able to get them during a pandemic in the future. But for now it will have to wait because I never write about my work while I still work for a company for my own job security.
If you’re a traveler or follow my blog, you may be asking yourself “How could he still be working for the same place as a traveler?”
And you would be correct, I couldn’t be working at one location for over a year or else I would indeed lose my travelers status and be at risk of audit. Which could then result in me needing to pay taxes on much of my tax free income and that is definitely not something I want to do.
My one year mark came up this Fall, so I had a decision to make. Either attempt to find another traveling job at least 60 miles away from my current location, find a traveling job in another state or sign on as permanent PT.
Well, this decision was made for me as my contracted hospital had hired a new grad to come fill my position. For reference, I work at a satellite clinic that is attached to a mid sized hospital over an hour away in the middle of nowhere Arizona. I was the only PT at my clinic, so I basically was running my own small practice with my wonderful secretary/admin.
At this time, the job market was picking up but I still was not finding anything in the state that appealed to me. I had options in SNF or hospital settings but I preferred outpatient. I also had options out of state but due to the fact my girlfriend was still finishing up school in Arizona, I preferred to stay. But during a pandemic it is difficult to be picky.
It seemed like the perfect time to take my normal month off of work, collect my boosted unemployment check and wait for the right job to come to me. I was ready. I had the PS4 fired up, my hiking shoes laid out, and my gym had finally opened. I was ready for my yearly time off.
This didn’t come to pass…The new hire showed up with 1 week left in my contract so I could help transition her to my patients, show her the town and help her get used to the clinic flow. Well, things didn’t click for her as a new grad so I extended one last time for 2 more weeks to help work through treatment planning, techniques, and improve her confidence as the sole doctor on site.
After the extra two weeks, things didn’t go well and the clinic began to lose patients, so my boss let her go. I felt bad but it’s hard to run a practice as a new grad. So this left me with another decision to make.
I loved where I worked and who I worked with. It was a lot of driving, but I had full autonomy, the work was fun, laid back, and I didn’t work Fridays. However, I would be taking a large salary cut taking a perm position and I was set on my time off.
But given the circumstances of it being a pandemic, travel jobs were hard to come by in my desired field and this job let me stay near my girlfriend. So I negotiated a pay package and began working a permanent position… kind of.
I say kind of because when I took this job “permanently”, I wanted it to be known up front that I would only be taking this job until June, 2021 as this is when my girlfriend graduates and we likely will be moving states again. This gave my boss a heads up so I didn’t burn any bridges and also was a way for me to negotiate a slightly higher salary since it was basically still a contract job.
This job is now the longest tenured position I have ever had since I graduated PT school in 2017 coming in at about 16 months.
However, I do really miss traveling due to the financial boosts and the exploring of the United States. So I won’t be giving up traveling PT just yet as I plan to continue traveling again in Summer 2021. I need to build a little bit bigger nest egg before I can stop.
2020 Travel Recap
As many of you have experienced, it has been a very frustrating year for travel. We missed out on trips, postponed international travel ideas, missed celebrating family/friends life events, and even missed Thanksgiving for the first time in our lives.
As both of us live away from most of our family and friends, the lack of travel has definitely been isolating for us. However, it has resulted in more quality time for us and slowed our normally frantic pace of living which has been nice some weekends.
The other positive was that due to the number of cancelled trips this year, we have gained some extra credits/vouchers on various airlines and Groupon which will help fund some of our future travel. We also didn’t use much of our credit card miles for travel and accommodation this year which will also help in the future.
But I also can’t say that we didn’t travel at all. Between Covid spikes, we were able to spend a long weekend with my girlfriend’s family in California, a long weekend with my family in Wisconsin, and I was also able to separately get home for an additional 2 long weekends to spend time with family friends.
We also used my girlfriends clinical rotations as mini vacations as I helped drive her to and from both Houston and Albuquerque. This led to three additional weekends spent exploring the areas and going on some amazing hikes.
We also were able to further explore Arizona, venture into Southern Utah and California for some long weekends.
I’ll break down the entirety of our 2020 travel in a future post to show just how affordable we were able to make travel this year.
2020 Life Recap
As much as 2020 has changed for all of us in different aspects of our lives, overall, I have been able to stay in a very good place mentally, socially, and physically.
I, like most, have had a few moments where I broke down as the stress of a pandemic mixed with the political/social reform has hit hard. I have spent increased time this year self reflecting on my life which has been a very important practice for me to stay in a good headspace. I also continue to surround myself with people who want to make this world a better, more inclusive place and will challenge me to do the same.
Socially, I still continue to communicate with the people in my life that matter the most even if it can’t always be in person. Thankfully, my closest circle and surrounding circle have stayed safe through the pandemic.
I continue to date the same amazing girl which may lead to some big future decisions that I plan to document and work through using this platform.
And physically, although I am missing the basketball court, I have been lucky to have access to a workout space throughout the pandemic to allow myself to continue to take care of me.
Conclusion
Overall, 2020 has been a whirlwind but it has still managed to be another great year on many different fronts. I have a lot to be thankful for this year.
Stay Safe!
-Zach
P.S. (0-1 at a short blog post)
To get email updates to the newest articles on the site, feel free to subscribe!
If you have any specific questions, please comment or email me directly at fiscaltherapist1@gmail.com
