Regardless of how close your retirement horizon is, thinking about what you’d like to do (and not do) when you stop practicing medicine can help ensure a fulfilling retirement. We asked several (happily) retired physicians for their eight best pieces of advice about planning for your next chapter.
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You’re a doctor. Great. But what — or who — else are you? An identity outside of medicine is critical for a happy retirement.
“I noticed that as my peers were retiring, if their self-identity was almost exclusively as a health care provider — ‘I’m a physician and nothing else,’ those people had a hard time,” Chuck Daris, MD, a former internist, rheumatologist, and chief medical officer in suburban Chicago who retired just before 2019, told Medscape Medical News.
“You go from being sort of the center of the universe as a physician…and getting all this external validation of what you do every day, and all of a sudden, you’re not that. You’re just another person walking into the grocery store.” A sense of who you are — and what matters to you — outside of practicing medicine will help you segue into a happier retirement.
A critical part of retirement is figuring out your finances well before you hang up your stethoscope. “Read up on Medicare, Social Security, and health insurance,” said Steve Green, MD, a family medicine practitioner in San Diego who retired in 2022. “You may be able to retire before you think…it’s important to have an actual plan.” Doctors can get trapped in the “money accumulation” phase, he said.
“It’s a hard change to say, ‘I have enough money, and now all I have is time,’” he adds. “I say you have the ‘go-go’ years, the ‘slow-go’ years, and the ‘no-go’ years. You want to retire during the go-go years.”
“I had people warning me, ‘You’re so used to being busy, you’re going to struggle with retirement,’” said Green. However, his transition was relatively easy because of his many interests and friends outside of medicine.
“I swim in the pool and in the ocean; I hike; I row competitively; I like to bicycle; and I’ve been golfing badly for years and am now taking lessons,” he added. Green said he’s never had any sense of regret about retirement because he is too busy with his numerous nonmedical interests, hobbies, and pursuits.
Who are your friends outside of work? You may find yourself looking for new ones once you retire. “You need to cultivate a network of other people. You tend to lose the hospital people or clinical people as you retire,” warned Daris, whose hobby is landscape photography. The retired physician belongs to a camera club and has traveled with friends he met there to shoot photos in far-flung locales, including Chile, Patagonia, and Pakistan.
Green has a network of friends through golf, swimming, and rowing. “Socializing and remaining connected is an important part of retirement,” said Daris. “Too many physicians don’t have any network outside their medical network.” Befriending other doctors who have already retired as well as other retired friends is another good stepping stone to forming a retired friends circle.
Green hadn’t planned to work post-retirement but took a part-time position as a member of the board of directors for a healthcare system in northern California. Daris is a part-time surveyor for the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care in the Chicago suburbs. “About once a month, I go out to ambulatory clinics and surgical centers — I get out of the house, and I get to use my medical skills on my own terms,” said Daris. “It keeps me connected — and I have an entirely new network of people I didn’t have before.” Retirement doesn’t have to be cookie-cutter or look like anyone else’s. Take a part-time job, start a side gig, or consult. Only you can do you.
Virginia Hall, MD, a former professor of obstetrician and gynecologist in Pennsylvania who retired in 2018, volunteers twice a month at a free clinic that treats patients who lack insurance; she also chairs a foundation that gave her a full tuition scholarship from her first year of medical school.
“I feel it’s very important to give back and show gratitude,” said Hall. “Don’t think that you’re going to sit there in a rocking chair…I think about, how can I make people’s lives better? I was given the gift of being able to take care of people and I’m not done yet.”
Yet you also want to avoid overbooking yourself. “Don’t overcommit to a schedule,” said Green. “I have some friends who are also retired who when I ask about golf, they literally have meetings all week for various things,” he added. “They still aren’t letting themselves enjoy their free time.
“I lived so much of my life on a regimented schedule where my days were packed. Building in free time and some flexibility is one of the joys of retiring so don’t forget to schedule some. It’s really nice to wake up and think, ‘I’ll go on a bike ride now. That flexibility is enjoyable.”
Finally, plan ahead so you can consider retiring earlier rather than later, said Green. “In medicine, the culture is often to work until you can’t stand up anymore. I think retirement shouldn’t be just the absence of work — it should be something you look forward to and plan for. If you start planning in your 40s, you’ll likely find it easier to save for the retirement you want.”
Kelly K. James is a freelancer, content manager, and author of The Book That (Almost) Got Me Fired: How I (Barely) Survived a Year in Corporate America. She covers health/wellness, business/career, and psychology topics from her home in the Chicago suburbs.
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