About

About FIRE in Scrubs

Financial independence math for nurses, NPs, PAs, CRNAs, pharmacists and dentists, done at your pay instead of a doctor’s.

FIRE in Scrubs is built by two cofounders: an emergency physician and a registered nurse. FIRE stands for financial independence, retire early, which means having enough invested that work becomes a choice.

Who we are

Mo, the ER doctor

I’m a board-certified emergency medicine attending, writing under a pen name. On RetireAt40MD, I publish my own invested balance every month on the way to financial independence by 40, along with the math behind every decision.

I work alongside nurses, NPs, PAs and pharmacists, and the money decisions in their jobs look a lot like the ones I write about: Is the extra shift worth it after tax? 403(b) or 457(b)? Pay down the loans or invest? Here, I run the numbers and build the calculators.

Brion, RN

Brion is a registered nurse. He reviews the pages written for nurses, writes and co-writes guides, and helps get the site in front of other nurses.

Why this site exists

Most of the FIRE writing we come across is aimed at software engineers or doctors. The math works on any paycheck, but the examples don’t. A plan built around a $400,000 salary doesn’t tell a nurse on $97,550 much. So this site runs the same math at the median pay, typical debt and real work patterns of each healthcare job, with calculators you can set to your own numbers.

A doctor can run a nurse’s numbers and still miss how the job works: how extra shifts get offered, how much night and weekend differentials (the extra hourly pay for those shifts) add, and which benefits matter. That’s why the site has a nurse reviewing the nursing pages.

What we’re not

The site covers six professions, and we’re a nurse and a doctor. For the other five, NPs, PAs, CRNAs, pharmacists and dentists, we’re writing from the outside. Even for nurses, we don’t know your contract, your unit or how overtime gets handed out where you work. That’s why we want people from each profession to check these pages (more on that below).

We’re also not financial advisors, CPAs or attorneys. Everything here is education. It can help you ask better questions, but it can’t see your whole situation.

How we check the numbers

  • Sourced. Pay comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Tax and retirement rules come from the IRS, loan rules from StudentAid.gov and federal regulations, and debt figures from profession surveys and federal student aid data.
  • Recomputed. Every table is calculated from assumptions printed right under it, like a 5% return after inflation in today’s dollars.
  • Dated. Each page says when its numbers were checked. Rules that are changing fast, like the 2026 student loan changes and the overtime deduction, get an “as of” date.
  • Reviewed. When someone from a profession has reviewed a page, the page names them and gives the date. Brion, RN, reviews the nursing pages. For the other five professions, we’re still looking for reviewers.
  • Labeled. When something is opinion rather than fact, it starts with “My take.”

The full process, including how corrections work, is in the editorial policy.

Help us get it right

If you’re a nurse, NP, PA, CRNA, pharmacist or dentist and something here doesn’t match your world, we want to hear it. The same goes for anyone willing to review a page in their own field before it goes up. With your permission, reviewers are named on the pages they check.

Email: retireat40md@gmail.com

We’re an emergency physician and a registered nurse, not financial advisors, CPAs or attorneys. This site is education, not personalized advice. Talk to a professional before acting on anything you read.