How I Ended Up Living in My Car
A fictional short-short story
You wouldn’t think a doctor would end up living in his car. It is uncommon but here’s how it happened to me.
I have one of the few remaining one-person private practices serving working-class people. I’m probably not the world’s greatest doc but I am competent, patient, and kind.
But I made a huge mistake. I intuited that the patient would be fine to just watch and wait — I actually am proud that I don’t practice defensive medicine and order a bunch of expensive, difficult tests prematurely. But the man turned out to have aggressive cancer and he died. The family sued my malpractice insurance, which paid only 3/4 because of some technicality. That 1/4 cost me $340,000, pretty much wiping me out.
My practice has never been very lucrative but as the big providers swallow up more and more patients, my practice has declined while my malpractice insurance premium and other costs have gone up.
Also, the home-owners-association fee for my condo kept going up as did my taxes. And I was still paying off my student loans, not just for medical school but from undergraduate school. To avoid feeling like I was hanging on a thread, I chose to sell my condo, invest the proceeds in an S&P 500 fund, and live in a small apartment in a modest area. But my timing was bad. Although the stock market has risen, I just happened to buy when the price was quite high, so now I am facing a $60,000 loss — huge for me.
I didn’t mind that my apartment was small nor that it was in a dicey neighborhood. But the street noise and especially the intermittent noises from my neighbors wore away at me.
As my practice continued to decline, I decided to not renew the lease on my apartment and, for a while at least, live in my car. So that’s how it happened.
It could be worse. I have found a place to park my car a half mile from my office on a tree-lined street in a safe neighborhood. I get to take the lovely walk to and from my office. My front seat reclines all the way back, so I sleep okay. Little do my patients know.
I read this aloud on YouTube
Marty Nemko is a career and personal coach, and author of 34 books including Soloists: short-short stories about people on their own. You can reach Marty at mnemko@comcast.net
