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I've never been compensated so well. And I was the Chief Medical Officer of a corporate practice.
Ron’s story begins at the top of the mountain, what many Vets would consider a peak career achievement. Then, he climbed beyond it.
In 1994, Ron opened his own practice in Eugene, Oregon where he practiced alongside his wife, a fellow Vet he met, dated, and fell in love with during vet school at the University of Minnesota.
“When I bought the practice, I signed my signature 68 times. And I realized, oh my God, the paperwork alone's gonna kill me.”
He ran his practice for over 20 years. But the stress of owning a practice grew as his small operation expanded into a 10,000 square foot clinic. "That’s a lot of stuff that can break," he explains, “Owning your own practice, you better be good at fixing stuff.”
He witnessed the industry change. It became harder to practice profitably, and Ron valued his team tremendously, so he always paid himself last. Eventually, he tired of “being on all the time,” and constantly wrangling the myriad of to-dos that weren’t practicing medicine.
“I was burned out, I was tired, I could list the things I didn't like about practice anymore.”
So, he retired… But, as it turns out, he wasn’t very good at that.
After alphabetizing his spice rack one too many times, his wife sat him down for a family chat. “What keeps you from going back?” she asked. “What else do you want to do?”
Ron thought about what he truly loved in vet med. It always came back to the people: clients and teammates. Meeting someone new, sharing stories, forming connections.
Ron toyed with a few different career trajectories. He enjoyed virtual medicine, providing care for everyone from New York billionaires to unhoused people who only had their pet and a bicycle to their name. He even rose through the ranks to become Chief Medical Officer at a pet HMO.
But after six years as CMO, Ron’s dad became ill, and he “retired” once again. “Starting to see a theme here? Still not good at it apparently.”
The face of veterinary medicine is changing, and Roo is putting the power back in the hands of the veterinarian.
One day, Ron received a call from an old friend: “If I can get a surgeon here for the next 3 days, my boss thinks I walk on water,” she told him. And just like that, Ron was back in the game!
Midway through his first-ever relief shift, a teammate asked, “What app are you on?” Ron replied, “You mean like Hinge? Or Bumble?” Um… awkward. He had no idea relief apps were even a thing. She recommended Roo, and he downloaded it on the spot.
Immediately, he was amazed. Wait, I can just do what I want, he realized. Then, he scrolled around the map of Oregon and saw what shifts were paying.
“I could literally walk down the street and make a thousand bucks that day.”
Over the next two years, Ron traveled all over Oregon working relief. Sometimes, he would travel to the coast for a full week; other days, he found shifts he could walk to. Best of all, he always knew what to expect going in, and he always felt supported.
Ron and his wife have a tradition they like to call “Mortgage Days,” where they both grab a shift on the same day and literally pay their mortgage for the month.
It all started during a shift when Ron was asked if he knew any other Vets as they had a double coming up. “Well, I happen to be a married one,” Ron replied.
Not only that, her absolute favorite antique mall in the entire world was just one block away from the clinic. So, Ron pitched it as a romantic weekend: “We'll go up the night before, work a day [together] like old times, we could even stay the next day!” She was sold immediately.
After an incredible (and lucrative) romantic getaway, they realized their combined income, even after taxes, was more than their mortgage payment for the month!
Now, Ron and his wife work a Mortgage Day once a month. To date, they’ve done this eleven times. “And I’ve never had a bad day,” Ron attests.
“If I hand-picked two shifts that were $2,700 a piece, I'm making nearly as much as I did working 5 days a week!”
“The way my brain works, I tend to break my income into the days,” Ron explains. So, he pairs each shift to monthly expenses. One shift may be grocery money, another may go toward a home improvement project.
This has made taxes really easy for Ron to manage. “If I work 5 days, one of those days goes into a high yield tax fund.”
One shift a week goes toward retirement. “I had a very poor retirement as an independent owner,” Ron admits. But with Roo, he’s contributing over $100,000 a year to his retirement account.
“I have a higher standard of living than I ever did.”
“Traveling with Roo has allowed me to get closer with my family.”
Everywhere Ron travels, you’ll find him buying postcards. Cards for his daughters, his mother-in-law, and of course, his wife, all filled with loving, handwritten notes.
It all goes back to vet school, when Ron and his wife first started dating. She hand-made him a colorform with their first love letter, and to this day, he kept it.
“So, the agreement we have is I send her love letters every time I go out of town.”
So what are Ron’s plans for retirement? If he ever gets there, he pictures just gradually working fewer days a week. And maybe doing less surgery.
“My off-ramp, I think, is going to be fairly, hopefully long and slow.”
