Dave Rosen is a climber and ophthalmologist in his final year of residency. And Dave grew up like so many of us: broadly exposed to the importance of money and taught a thing or two about saving, but investing was a foreign concept and his lack of knowledge was a source of shame.
While Dave skimmed over it, he’s no slouch as a climber. He has bagged a pile of double-digit boulder problems up to V12, sent 5.13c, and developed numerous boulder problems, particularly in the South Mountain area near Phoenix where he and his wife lived for medical school for four years. He is hard-working, analytical, and pragmatic in his career and life approach.
In this conversation, we discuss how Dave found climbing from the world of canyoneering, his early exposure to money and how that has markedly changed in recent years, the constant pull of greener grass, working backward from an ideal lifestyle, and the ethical and moral dilemmas of early retirement.
Topics Discussed with Dave Rosen
- Dave’s path from remote canyoneering to double-digit bouldering
- Developing boulders while in medical school
- How Dave learned the value of money and saving early, but lacked education on investing
- Feelings of shame around financial know-how
- Navigating the personal finance information overload: separating the wheat from the chaff of online content
- Why passive investing doesn’t get mainstream media attention
- The importance of being average as an investor
- The fear of getting started as a new investor
- The importance of the written plan
- Dave’s preferred investment plan and asset allocation
- Who should and should not manage their own investments
- Dave’s ideal life of financial independence
- The ethical and moral considerations of early retirement
- The enormous commitment to a career in medicine and the nagging questions over whether it was the correct choice
- Building a career around an ideal lifestyle
- Advice to new investors
- Bonus: Discussion on the financial and lifestyle realities of home ownership
- So much more!
Get in Touch with Dave Rosen
Other Episodes and Posts Mentioned
EP 66: Mike Piper: Down To The Essence Of Smart Money Management
EP 60: What You Need to Know About Financial Advisors with Chris Mamula
EP 57: Lean Out: The Achievement Paradox with Dawn Baker
EP 67: The Real Cost of Home Ownership (and a Life Update)
Books/Resources
If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly (William Bernstein)
Affiliate links are used on this page. If you choose to purchase a linked product, you will incur no extra charges, but we will receive a tiny-baby portion of the sale. Those very small proceeds help us keep the digital lights on around here. We wouldn’t link to a product we wouldn’t buy ourselves.