There is a huge issue with student loans in our country today. I think it is currently at $1.7 trillion. That is almost half of the annual federal budget. One out of six Americans over the age of 18 have student loans. We have discussed many times on the blog and podcast the huge student loan burdens that physicians and dentists are dealing with. In this episode I interview Travis Hornsby, a student loan expert at https://www.studentloanplanner.com/wci. We have a great discussions about unique ways to manage your student loans and techniques that you have probably not heard of before. We talk about who needs to seek out formal student loan advice and who probably doesn't. Managing your student loans takes into account retirement contributions and how you file your taxes. It can be very complicated and advice from the professionals at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/student-loan-advice/ is just a few hundred dollars but can likely likely save you thousands of dollars in interest and other costs associated with your loan. Listen to this episode to learn techniques for managing your loans and to better understand whether you need to seek professional advice for your student loan burden.
This podcast is sponsored by Bob Bhayani at drdisabilityquotes.com. They are an independent provider of disability insurance planning solutions to the medical community in every state and a long-time white coat investor sponsor. They specialize in working with residents and fellows early in their careers to set up sound financial and insurance strategies. He is very responsive to me and to readers having any sort of an issue, so it is no surprise that I get great feedback about him from our readers and listeners. If you need to review your disability insurance coverage to make sure it meets your needs or if you just haven’t gotten around to getting this critical insurance in place, contact Bob at drdisabilityquotes.com today by email info@drdisabilityquotes.com or by calling (973) 771-9100. Just get it done!
We want to inspire you to crush your student loans. One of the worst parts of being a doctor, dentist, or attorney is this massive student loan burden that you have to build your early financial life around. When I speak to groups of residents or medical students, almost all the questions are about student loans and student loan management. In this episode we interview 6 listener who have paid off their 100K+ student loan debt burden in less than 5 years. They did it with a range of incomes and amounts of student loan debt but you will notice some similar themes throughout the interviews. See the full transcription here https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/
This podcast sponsored by Bob Bhayani at drdisabilityquotes.com. They are an independent provider of disability insurance planning solutions to the medical community in every state and a long-time white coat investor sponsor. They specialize in working with residents and fellows early in their careers to set up sound financial and insurance strategies. He is very responsive to me and to readers having any sort of an issue, so it is no surprise that I get great feedback about him from our readers and listeners. If you need to review your disability insurance coverage to make sure it meets your needs or if you just haven’t gotten around to getting this critical insurance in place, contact Bob at drdisabilityquotes.com today by email info@drdisabilityquotes.com or by calling (973) 771-9100. Just get it done!
There are non-qualified stock options and incentive stock options. They are each taxed very differently. A listener joined a startup and was offered shares of stock in the company. If his company is acquired by a larger company he wanted to know who those stock options are taxed. Are all the taxes paid at the time of acquisition? Is it in the capital tax bracket? Is there a way to mitigate these taxes in any special way? In this episode we talk about the two different stock options and how they are taxed. You can see the full show notes and transcription here https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/. It gets complicated. In non-qualified stock options you have to pay your full ordinary income tax rate on the difference between the two prices and pay payroll taxes. For the incentive stock option it depends on whether you are subject to the alternative minimum tax. Most doctors don't deal with stock options very often but if this situation applies to you, you will find the answers to how you are tax on those stocks in this episode.
For everyone else I still answer lots of listener and reader questions in this episode too. If you are considering medical school I discuss the choice of where to go to school. If you are trying to understand the mega backdoor Roth IRA better, we address that in this episode, as well as deferred compensation, paying tithing, and refinancing student loans in residency.
Sponsor
This podcast sponsored by Bob Bhayani at drdisabilityquotes.com. They are an independent provider of disability insurance planning solutions to the medical community in every state and a long-time white coat investor sponsor. They specialize in working with residents and fellows early in their careers to set up sound financial and insurance strategies. He is very responsive to me and to readers having any sort of an issue, so it is no surprise that I get great feedback about him from our readers and listeners. If you need to review your disability insurance coverage to make sure it meets your needs or if you just haven’t gotten around to getting this critical insurance in place, contact Bob at drdisabilityquotes.com today by email info@drdisabilityquotes.com or by calling (973) 771-9100. Just get it done!
Daniel Kesten, an estate planning attorney and a speaker at the WCICon 20 in Las Vegas in March, is our guest on this episode. We have a great discussion concerning everything you need to know about getting started with your estate planning. See the full transcription here https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/ . Do you need a lawyer or can you do it on your own? If you need one, how do you find the right estate planning lawyer? We talk about pros and cons of probate, wills versus revocable trusts, the five fundamental decisions to make when formulating your estate plan, and other ancillary documents you may need. We get into tax topics like gifts taxes, estate taxes, generation-skipping transfer tax, state estate taxes, and inheritance taxes. We discuss whether you need a life insurance trust, reasons to make lifetime gifts, step up in basis, and why repealing of the estate tax could be bad for doctors. Daniel really gives it to us straight. You will know the next step you need to take in your estate planning after listening to this episode. Daniel is going to be a great addition to the White Coat Investor Conference March.
Sponsor
This podcast sponsored by Bob Bhayani at drdisabilityquotes.com. They are an independent provider of disability insurance planning solutions to the medical community in every state and a long-time white coat investor sponsor. They specialize in working with residents and fellows early in their careers to set up sound financial and insurance strategies. He is very responsive to me and to readers having any sort of an issue, so it is no surprise that I get great feedback about him from our readers and listeners. If you need to review your disability insurance coverage to make sure it meets your needs or if you just haven't gotten around to getting this critical insurance in place contact Bob at drdisabilityquotes.com today by email info@drdisabilityquotes.com or by calling (973) 771-9100. Just get it done!
This week is continuing financial education week. See more information and resources to get financially literate at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/. I do this week every year with book reviews on the blog and podcast to encourage you to get financially literate. I view getting financially literate as reading a handful of books and getting a financial plan in place, whether that involves taking an online course like my Fire Your Financial Advisor https://whitecoatinvestor.teachable.com/p/fire-your-financial-advisor, or meeting with a good financial advisor who gives you good advice at a fair price, or just drafting up your financial plan yourself. I consider that your initial financial education. Your continuing financial education is following a good blog or podcast and reading one good financial book a year. I'm obviously partial to mine, but there are other good physician specific podcasts and blogs out there that you can follow if you like. And I share recommended books on the blog and podcast this week. If you've never read a finance book, I would start with the ones on my recommended list. The ones I review during continuing financial education week aren't always the ideal first book that you should read. Maybe the first book you should read is either the White Coat Investor or the White Coat Investors Financial Bootcamp, but I can't just have people read that every year.
We also offer some sweet deals to give you a little more encouragement to become financially literate. For this week only, if you buy our Fire Your Financial Advisor online course, we're going to give you the online version of the 2018 Physician Wellness and Financial Literacy Conference for free. That is basically an $800 value for just $499. This offer is good through Monday, December 2nd at midnight.
Sponsor
This podcast was sponsored by Pattern Financial Consultancy https://whitecoatinvestor.com/pattern . Matt Wiggins is an experienced specialist in disability and life insurance for physicians. I’ve sat down with Matt, face to face, and talked about doctors and insurance. He knows what he is talking about and can get you a high quality disability insurance policy that you can trust to deliver should the worst happen. Doctors get disabled all the time. Don’t think it cannot happen to you. If you don’t have a disability insurance policy now, or just need a second opinion on whether or not your current one is still right for you, contact Matt today at https://whitecoatinvestor.com/pattern.
A contract is just a vehicle to set expectations. But understanding those expectations is very important. We discuss what you need to know about negotiating a contract in this episode. See the full transcription at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/ A contract discusses the physician's time and job responsibilities. Along with how they will be compensated, what benefits are provided, and what happens when that employer-employee relationship is terminated. Having a solid understanding of all these things will make a difference in your efforts to build wealth. Not to mention the benefit of negotiating that compensation so you ensure you are paid what you are worth. In this episode I interview Jon Appino from Contract Diagnostics, a long time advertiser that has helped many WCI readers and listeners better understand their contracts and negotiate better compensation packages. This is not an expensive service, a few hundred dollars. Considering how much money we are talking about, especially if it becomes a long-term job, a couple of hundred bucks is money well-spent. Listen to this episode to learn more about contracts, who is qualified to review one, find out what you are really worth, what you can negotiate in a contract, and whether or not you should hire someone to help with this process.
This episode is sponsored by Locumstory.com. A lot of physicians have questions about locum tenens, and locumstory.com is the place for them to get real, unbiased answers to those questions, basic questions like, “What is locum tenens?” to more complex questions about pay ranges, taxes, various specialties, and how locum tenens works for PAs and NPs. And then there’s the big question: Is it right for you? Go to locumstory.com and get the answers.
Our guest this episode is an asset protection attorney. See the full transcription here https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/ A lot of readers and listeners had questions about the cost to value for asset protection. We discuss the cost of asset protection and the value of proactive asset protection planning with Brian Bradley of Bradley Legal Corp. He shares tips and questions to ask as you are identifying an asset protection attorney to work with. The first line of defense is insurance and then reducing your liability as much as possible. After that we start looking at asset protection strategies of what exemptions you can receive in your state and then jurisdictions in regards to trusts, whether that is domestic trusts, offshore trusts, or a hybrid bridge trust. This won't be for everyone but certainly as your financial life becomes more complicated, as you become more wealthy, as you take on more risks with businesses and investments, it may behoove you to find an asset protection attorney.
This episode is sponsored by Sofi https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/sofi . Hundreds of white coat investor readers have refinanced their student loans with SoFi over the years for two reasons. One, they make it really easy with their great tech solutions online so you can find out your rates very quickly and get through the process with minimum pain. Two, they give great rates. People compare them to a lot of their competitors, and they end up going with SoFi because SoFi so often the lowest rate out there.
If you apply at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/sofi, not only will you get paid $300 if you close the loan, but you will get a lower interest rate as well. They also have a fantastic medical and dental resident program, with $100 monthly payments. If you’re worried that you can’t refinance your loans because you’ll end up with a huge payment, SoFi has a program to help you during your residency, that you still get those low payments just like you would get in an income-driven repayment program but save money on the interest that is accumulating.
Deducting your business vehicle sounds like a great way to lower your tax bill. Unfortunately it is probably not going to be a significant deduction for most doctors. For starters W2 employees cannot deduct a car or business mileage. You don't own a business so you cannot own a business vehicle. A business can buy a car if it is going to use it at least 50% for business purposes. Regardless of the percentage of time you use your car for business purposes, business owners can still deduct their business miles. Deducting business miles is worth $.58/mile in 2019. That is not insignificant and can really add up. I discuss the rules of business vehicle tax deductions in this episode to help you decide what you can deduct.
I also answer listener questions about how businessmen making millions avoid paying taxes, being on Tricare and using an HSA, what to do with the TSP when you retire, what to do with the whole life insurance policy your parents bought you, and how the pro-rata rule affects the mega backdoor Roth IRA. See the show notes at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/
This episode was sponsored by Bob Bhayani at https://drdisabilityquotes.com/ They are a truly independent provider of disability insurance planning solutions to the medical community nationwide. Bob specializes in working with residents and fellows early in their careers to set up sound financial and insurance strategies. Contact Bob today by email at info@drdisabilityquotes.com, or by calling (973) 771-9100.
Have you ever dreamed of retiring from medicine in your 40s? In this episode we interview a doctor who actually did retire recently at the age of 43. Of course long time readers will know the Physician on Fire (https://www.physicianonfire.com/) well. But he retired completely from medicine this summer after going part time a couple of years ago. We talk about what it is like as an early retiree in this show. We discuss how he is paying for health insurance, what he is doing to continue to find meaningful activities for his time, and how his relationships with his wife and children have changed now that he is home all day. We also talk about how he retired early including what his savings rate was, how he invested, how he decided he was financially ready to retire, and what he would change about his journey to financial independence if he could go back and do it again. If you are thinking early retirement might be for you, listen to this episode to learn how to do it and what it could be like. See the full show notes at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/
This episode is sponsored by SoFi https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/Sofi . Hundreds of white coat investor readers have refinanced with SoFi over the years for two reasons. One, they make it really easy with their great tech solutions online so you can find out your rates very quickly and get through the process with minimum pain. Two, they give great rates. People compare them to a lot of their competitors, and they end up going with SoFi because SoFi so often the lowest rate out there. If you apply via at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/Sofi , not only will you get paid $300 if you close the loan, but you will get a lower interest rate as well. They also have a fantastic medical and dental resident program, with $100 monthly payments. If you're worried that you can't refinance your loans because you'll end up with a huge payment, SoFi has a program to help you during your residency, that you still get those low payments just like you would get in an income-driven repayment program but still save money on the interest that is accumulating. Check out SoFi today https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/Sofi
Setting financial boundaries with your parents is challenging. These are the people that took care of you for the first 18 years of your life. But that doesn't mean that you are indebted to them for the rest of their lives, to provide for them regardless of their financial choices. A listener asks about helping her parents financially who have already declared bankruptcy once and are in debt again. Most people that have debt problems don't actually change their behavior. They didn't get into debt because they can't do math. It's not a math problem, it's a behavioral problem. They can't live within their means. They don't know how to manage money and that is why they are back in debt. I can understand why you would want to help them, but what you need to keep in mind is how you help them because you can certainly make things worse. We talk about how to help people financially in a way that helps them be successful and keeps your finances safe in this episode. It is possible to do with set rules and clear boundaries. See the show notes at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/
We also answer other listener questions in this episode including how long you should hold a bond fund, what an admirable nest egg for 5 years out of residency is, whether you should diversify out of fear for devaluing US Dollar, and putting together a contingency document for your spouse in case of your sudden death.
Sponsor
The Principals at DI4MDS https://www.di4mds.com/have collectively been advising physicians, business executives and other professionals for over 40 years, utilizing knowledge and resources to take care of their life & disability insurance needs. Experience and relationships enable them to secure specialty specific disability and practice overhead insurance policies for residents, fellows and practicing physicians with special discounts and favorable underwriting. They have established numerous guaranteed approved disability plans for residents and fellows and high earning specialists with disability benefits up to $250,000/mo. Their expertise extends to military physicians and are honored to assist those who serve our country. They have guided physicians through the claim process enabling them to collect over $1M in benefits in 2019. They can be reached at info@di4mds.com or 888-934-4637.
There are some aspects of finances that are unique to resident physicians. It is really during this time that you are putting on the training wheels and learning to manage your finances before the big money comes in. We interview a resident in this episode and discuss cashflow/budgeting, filling out a W-4, doing Roth or tax deferred retirement accounts when going for PSLF, seeking student loan management advice, disability insurance for a two resident couple, and dealing with an HSA when switching between programs after your intern year. See the full transcriptions for this episode at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/
Sponsor
The Principals at DI4MDS https://www.di4mds.com/have collectively been advising physicians, business executives and other professionals for over 40 years, utilizing knowledge and resources to take care of their life & disability insurance needs. Experience and relationships enable them to secure specialty specific disability and practice overhead insurance policies for residents, fellows and practicing physicians with special discounts and favorable underwriting. They have established numerous guaranteed approved disability plans for residents and fellows and high earning specialists with disability benefits up to $250,000/mo. Their expertise extends to military physicians and are honored to assist those who serve our country. They have guided physicians through the claim process enabling them to collect over $1M in benefits in 2019. They can be reached at info@di4mds.com or 888-934-4637.
The Mega Backdoor Roth IRA allows you to contribute an additional amount into an Roth IRA due to the fact that some employer 401k plans allow after-tax contributions. Listen to this episode to see if and how you can take advantage of this opportunity. See the full transcription and links to everything talked about in this episode at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/
Our podcast today is sponsored by one of my favorite partner companies, Earnest at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/refi Save money on your student loans by refinancing with Earnest. The cool thing about Earnest is that you can choose custom terms to fit your budget. You can pick your exact monthly payment. You can select fixed or variable rates. You can even choose your custom term. The shorter the term, the lower the interest rate. They are not going to pass you off to a third party servicer, nor penalize you for making any of your payments early. Your family is always protected with loan forgiveness in the event of your death. You can refinance anything from $5,000 to $500,000, a much wider range than most of these companies offer. Check out Earnest today and get $500 cash back when you refinance.
Every doctor and other high income earner wants to reduce their investment taxes. Our podcast guest, Phil DeMuth, is just the man to help you do that. See the full transcription and links to everything discussed in this episode at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/ Phil is the managing director at Conservative Wealth Management, LLC, http://phildemuth.com/ where he enjoys working with "high net worth clients and saving them from the depredations of the financial services industry." He is the author of 11 books, my favorites being The Affluent Investor and The Overtaxed Investor. We really focus on taxes in this episode, especially investment-related taxes. Phil says that doctors are ducks in a shooting gallery. We are the most vulnerable people in terms of taxes and we need to learn to defend ourselves as best we can. In this episode we look at all the tax reducing tactics like maximizing the use of retirement accounts, using tax efficient investments in your taxable accounts, getting your asset location right, making sure your dividends are qualified and that your capital gains are long-term, depreciating real estate, tax loss harvesting, donating appreciated shares to charity to flush those capital gains out of your portfolio, getting a step up in basis at death, etc. Which of these tactics will make the most impact? Listen to this episode to figure it out.
Contract Diagnostics http://contractdiagnostics.com/ is a long-term advertiser with us here at WCI. I love this company as they’ve helped hundreds of WCI get a ‘fair shake’ when it comes to reviewing and understanding their employment contracts – its 100% they do there. This is a company that specializes in physician contract reviews – specialization is something we can all appreciate here. All contracts are reviewed by an in-house attorney and presented in a simplified way back to you. Using custom documentation, compensation data, and times from 6am to 8pm they make it easy for you. All packages are flat priced so you know what you will pay upfront – residents and fellows can even make interest free payments over time. They have a new 'Compensation Review' offering coming soon for those of you happy in your positions as well. So look them up today – contractdiagnostics.com or 888-574-5526. They've have helped many of your WCI colleagues.
See the show notes for this episode at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/ One listener asked about how to rebalance his portfolio. A lot of people still get confused about this. He said rather than sell from the oversized asset, and transfer the proceeds to the undersized one, he has always just invested additional funds out of pocket and purchased more of the smaller one. He wanted to know if he was making a mistake. I encourage people to look at their portfolio in its entirety and not at individual accounts when rebalancing. I think most people will find in the first half of their career at least, that it is very rare that they have to sell an appreciated asset in a taxable account in order to rebalance. Most people will find that they can rebalance with just the new contributions, especially in their first decade of saving. And especially if they have been reading the WCI blog or listening to the podcast, they probably have been maxing out some significant retirement account and can do their rebalancing inside those accounts. I recommend you do your rebalancing inside the tax deferred accounts with new contributions if possible. We get into more details on this as well as answer questions about buying a home while still having student loans, using leveraged ETFs in order to maximize tax loss harvesting and donation of appreciated shares, deducting travel expenses, how to start a taxable account, and negotiating an employment contract.
Our sponsor today is Earnest, https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/refi one of the student loan refinancing companies. Save money on your student loans by refinancing with Earnest. Choose custom terms to fit your budget, like pricing your exact monthly payment or selecting fixed and variable rates. Earnest precision pricing matches your custom term with a custom interest rate, saving you even more money when refinancing. You won't be passed off to a third party servicer, nor penalized for making payments early. Your family is always protected with loan forgiveness in cases of death and dismemberment. The minimum amount to refinance is five thousand dollars and the maximum is five hundred thousand dollars. So the chances of you being outside those two limits is pretty low. If you sign up to refinance your loans and complete a refinance you will get $500 cash back. So, refinance your loans today with Earnest.
Michael Kitces is the brains behind Nerd's Eye View, https://www.kitces.com/ which I believe is the most widely read website aimed at educating financial advisors in the world. He blogs for advisors who are serious about their craft, the ones who actually view this profession as a calling and want to get better at it. He wants to teach them how to be a more successful advisors and how to serve their clients better with more expertise. He believes that most harm inflicted on clients by their advisors doesn't occur because of malice or greed but out of ignorance and he wants to help provide a higher standard for competency. We discuss financial advisors acting as fiduciaries and what training we should expect our advisors to receive and what services they can provide. We talk about assets under management fees and whether we will see the end to them in our lifetime or not. We discuss conflicts of interest and advisors trying to specialize in different types of clientele. But he really wanted you to take away from this discussion that you have to get pretty far down the line of investing portfolios before the growth rate of your portfolio is larger than the impact by just spending less than you make and figuring out how to grow your income. It always comes back to the basics. See the show notes at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/financial-advisors-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-with-michael-kitces-podcast-124
Sponsor
This episode is sponsored by Set for Life Insurance. https://www.setforlifeinsurance.com/ Set for Life Insurance was founded by President, Jamie K. Fleischner, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF in 1993 which she started while attending Washington University in St. Louis. They specialize in individual term life, disability and long term care insurance. They work on the client’s behalf to shop around to find the most suitable products at the most cost-effective rate. Set for Life is first and foremost a client-centric company. They listen carefully to the needs of clients. Because of the volume and exceptional reputation of Set for Life Insurance, as well as the relationships they have developed over the years, Set for Life clients have access to special services not available elsewhere in the industry. This includes special discounts, gender-neutral policies (saving women significantly), priority underwriting handling and, on some occasions, exceptions in the underwriting process. Contact Jamie at Set for Life Insurance today.
Host, Dr. James Dahle, is a practicing emergency physician and founder of the White Coat Investor Blog. Like the blog, the White Coat Investor Podcast, is dedicated to educating medical students, residents, physicians, dentists, and similar high-income professionals about personal finance and building wealth, so they can ultimately be their own financial advisor—or, at least know enough to not get ripped off by a financial advisor! We tackle the hard topics like the best ways to pay off student loans, how to create your own personal financial plan, retirement planning, how to save money, investing in real estate, side hustles, and how everyone can be a millionaire by living WCI principles. Learn more at http://whitecoatinvestor.com/
"Aren't all the Democratic candidates going to cancel student loan debt? I'll just wait, because if I pay them back and then they cancel them, I'm out of luck." Now for some of you this might sound crazy but this is the thought process for many people right now. Should people be changing their student loan plan based on the discussion of canceling and forgiving loans that politicians are currently having? We discuss this question in today's episode. But bear in mind presidential candidates make a lot of promises that they don't keep. We have a long history of that. Plus a lot would need to happen for this to take place like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren being elected and then getting a plan to cancel student loan debt through Congress. But even more than all that historically legislature like this does not favor the top 1% of income earners in our country. As a physician the chance that any kind of forgiveness or cancelation of student loans will really make a difference in the amount of money you owe is very low. We also discuss in this episode gender neutral disability insurance policies, VTI or VTSAX in a taxable account, what to do with a traditional IRA, disclaimers for physicians giving personal finance lectures, when to cancel your disability policy, dealing with multiple 401(k)s, and the most tax efficient investment to put in a taxable account. See show notes at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/will-the-politicians-cancel-your-student-loan-debt-podcast-123/
Sponsor
Our podcast today is sponsored by one of my favorite partner companies, Earnest. Save money on your student loans by refinancing with Earnest. Go to www.whitecoatinvestor.com/refi to get $500 cash back when you refinance with Earnest. The cool thing about Earnest is that you can choose custom terms to fit your budget. You can pick your exact monthly payment. You can select fixed or variable rates. You can even choose your custom term. The shorter the term, the lower the interest rate. They are not going to pass you off to a third party servicer, nor penalize you for making any of your payments early. Your family is always protected with loan forgiveness in the event of your death. You can refinance anything from $5,000 to $500,000, a much wider range than most of these companies offer.
If you forgot to live like a resident for your first few years as an attending physician, it isn't too late. In this podcast episode I interview Dr. Disha Spath, of the https://www.thefrugalphysician.com/ who did just that. They were stressed about money and making limit progress towards being debt free, so her and her husband made some drastic changes in their life. The result? They paid off $208,000 in student loans in 17 months. How did they do it? Focusing on the big expenses; housing, cars, and food. They tried to be intentional in their spending, ensuring that they were spending on things that brought them joy. Doctors are in the top 1- 5% when it comes to income in this country. If anyone can afford to not be frugal, it should be a doctor. But we also know that you can always out spend your income no matter how large. Listen to this episode to hear a discussion on spending tips for things that people spend a lot of money on and how you can maybe spend a little bit less. Choosing to be generally frugal and selectively extravagant will help you build wealth and live the life you want.
This episode is sponsored by https://www.setforlifeinsurance.com/ . Set for Life Insurance was founded by President, Jamie K. Fleischner, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF in 1993 which she started while attending Washington University in St. Louis. They specialize in individual term life, disability and long term care insurance. They work on the client’s behalf to shop around to find the most suitable products at the most cost-effective rate. Set for Life is first and foremost a client-centric company. They listen carefully to the needs of clients. Because of the volume and exceptional reputation of Set for Life Insurance, as well as the relationships they have developed over the years, Set for Life clients have access to special services not available elsewhere in the industry. This includes special discounts, gender-neutral policies (saving women significantly), priority underwriting handling and, on some occasions, exceptions in the underwriting process. Contact Jamie at https://www.setforlifeinsurance.com/ today.
Dealing with self employment taxes can be a little tricky. In this episode I discuss quarterly payments or a way to avoid making them if you have W2 income as well to avoid penalties by being in the safe harbor. Bear in mind, what you pay in advance or what is withheld, may have little to no relationship to how much tax you actually owe. So I discuss what we do in our monthly financial plan to ensure that we have adequate money to pay our tax bill come April 15th. Spoiler - investing your money set aside for taxes is a bad idea. You really don't want to owe money to the IRS. They have a lot of rights that most lenders do not have, like being able to garnish your paychecks, take money out of your bank account, and send you to jail. We also discuss your term life insurance needs and how to invest that insurance money in the unfortunate situation that you become the beneficiary of a term life insurance payout. Other questions we answer are about paying off debt vs investing, self directed IRAs, mutual funds vs ETFs and dealing individual stocks. See the show notes at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/
Today’s episode is sponsored by CommonBond. http://commonbond.co/wci CommonBond has worked with thousands of doctors to help them refinance their student loans, save money, and get out of debt more quickly. And since your financial needs are unique, CommonBond has flexible plans along with award-winning customer service. CommonBond also offers best-in-class borrower protections, like up to 24 months of forbearance – just in case you run into any financial difficulties and need to press pause on your monthly payments. Best of all, listeners of this podcast will receive a $550 cash bonus when refinancing with CommonBond. Head over to CommonBond http://commonbond.co/wci to see your new rate and claim your $550 bonus.
Ever thought about doing a medical mission trip? My 15 year old daughter and I went to Honduras this summer to spend a week assisting in a local hospital. This episode I interview her about that trip and what effect the experiences there had on her. I also share an interview I did with an Honduran doctor where we discuss the difference between practicing medicine there versus in the United States. The audio isn't awesome from that interview conducted in the Honduras hospital but you can see the full transcription at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/ If medical missionary work interests you, you'll find this episode helpful in knowing what it can be like. I also answer some listener questions about financial advisor fees, including TIPS in your portfolio, VTSAX vs VTI, becoming an S Corp, and using Vanguard target date funds in a taxable account. Remember if you have a question record it at https://www.speakpipe.com/whitecoatinvestor and we will answer it on the podcast.
This podcast is sponsored by Pattern Financial Consultancy. Matt Wiggins is an experienced specialist in disability and life insurance for physicians. I've sat down with Matt, face to face, and talked about doctors and insurance. He knows what he is talking about and can get you a high quality disability insurance policy that you can trust to deliver should the worst happen. Doctors get disabled all the time. Don't think it cannot happen to you. If you don't have a disability insurance policy now, or just need a second opinion on whether or not your current one is still right for you, contact Matt today at Pattern at https://whitecoatinvestor.com/pattern
Be sure to sign up for our newsletter at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/free-monthly-newsletter/ It has a lot of great stuff including blog posts that don't show up anywhere else, a collection of the best stuff published on the web in the previous month for docs interested in personal finance, and a market report without any BS predictions about the future. It is free and you can unsubscribe anytime if you don't like it.
This episode we interview Robert Farrington, the founder of thecollegeinvestor.com, https://thecollegeinvestor.com/ where he provides lots of information for young investors, for indebted people with student loans, and millennials in particular. Robert, Mr. Money Mustache, and myself started our blogs about the same time, though both of theirs are bigger than mine. His message is about getting out of student loan debt and starting to invest. Whether it's millennials or not, his goal is to help people navigate the complex world of student loan debt, so that they can build wealth as early as possible. We discuss the order of operations for paying for college. There are nine basic ways to pay for college. You should max out each of them before moving on to the next step. We discuss each of those steps as well as the repayment plans available. If you are struggling under the weight of student loans this episode will provide you information and encouragement to get rid of those student loans and begin building wealth as soon as possible. To find the best deals for refinancing your student loans go to https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/student-loan-refinancing/
This episode is sponsored by Set for Life Insurance https://www.setforlifeinsurance.com/ Set for Life Insurance was founded by President, Jamie K. Fleischner, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF in 1993 which she started while attending Washington University in St. Louis. They specialize in individual term life, disability and long term care insurance. They work on the client’s behalf to shop around to find the most suitable products at the most cost-effective rate. Set for Life is first and foremost a client-centric company. They listen carefully to the needs of clients. Because of the volume and exceptional reputation of Set for Life Insurance, as well as the relationships they have developed over the years, Set for Life clients have access to special services not available elsewhere in the industry. This includes special discounts, gender-neutral policies (saving women significantly), priority underwriting handling and on some occasions exceptions in the underwriting process.
If you invest in the total international stock market index you may be eligible for the foreign tax credit. As long as your foreign tax paid is less than $300 single, or $600 married, it is a rather straightforward process. However, once that threshold is breached, the more complicated form is required come income tax time. The good news is if you're doing your own taxes, you're probably using tax software, and it does this all automatically in the background. But for those with higher foreign tax form 1116 is required. We discuss this in the episode so if this applies to you, make sure you are getting your tax credit. We also talk about physician mortgage loans, sharing financial information with your surviving spouse should you die, and what the going rate for financial advice is. See the show notes at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/
This episode is sponsored by Locumstory. Have you ever wondered about a different way of practicing medicine? Whether you are burned out, need to change of pace, or want to see the world, Locum Tenens might be that option for you. Locumstory.com is the place where you can get real unbiased answers to your questions. They answer basic questions like what is locum tenens and complex questions about pay ranges, taxes, various specialties, and how locum tenens works for PAs and NPs. Go to https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/locumstory and get the answers.
Make sure you sign up for the monthly newsletter at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/free-monthly-newsletter/ We update you on all the cool things going on at the White Coat Investor. We give you links to all the best stuff that has come out for doctors and other high-income professionals on finances in the last month. We also have a super secret special blog post. I call it the monthly tip, but it is a blog post that isn't published anywhere else. The only way you can get it is by signing up for the free monthly newsletter.
Our guest is Collin Hart, managing director of ERE Healthcare Real Estate Advisors. His company is a real estate brokerage that specializes in representing physicians in the process of selling and leasing back their practice real estate. In this episode we talk about when a physician should buy vs rent their practice space, properly structuring a lease, and exit strategies surrounding practice real estate. For those who are interested in owning their practice real estate or particularly interested in selling it, I think this will be a pretty useful podcast episode.
If you are not going for PSLF and have not refinanced your student loans, you really need to do that and save thousands of dollars. Check out the special WCI deals for refinancing. https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/student-loan-refinancing/
If you are not aware, we have an online course called, Fire Your Financial Advisor. https://whitecoatinvestor.teachable.com/p/fire-your-financial-advisor It's a bit provocatively titled, but the goal of the course is to distill down the most important aspects of financial literacy and help you to write your own financial plan.
This episode was sponsored by Alexis Gallati of Gallati Professional Services http://www.gallatitax.com/. Alexis is not your typical tax advisor. With over 15 years of experience, she has been helping physicians all over the country save money on their taxes. As the spouse of a busy physician, she understands the burden of high tax payments physicians incur during their lifetime. Not only will she create a high level strategic tax plan for you, guaranteeing money in your pocket, but Alexis will proactively work with you throughout the year to maintain your tax plan, prepare your annual tax returns, and represent you in case of an audit. The investment in her tax planning services is a fixed-price agreement and her tax maintenance packages are a flat monthly fee. If you’re tired of complex tax jargon and giving away most of your paycheck to the IRS, visit Alexis’ website at www.GallatiTax.com today to schedule your free initial consultation.
I received a couple of questions about cars in the Facebook group https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/facebookgroup and thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast them. The first one was from a soon to be resident who wanted to know if he should ship his car across the country because he wasn't sure it would survive the cross country drive. It is worth $2000 but needs some repairs to survive residency. There comes a time when you have to admit that a car is "totaled." If it costs more to repair than it is worth, it is totaled. It is time to get rid of it, getting whatever you can out of it. The second question came from someone who is expecting a baby and wants a car with a third row. But he has a lease on a car until February and wanted to know if he should buy the new car anyway and just pay out the lease. Stop leasing cars first off. If you don't have the cash to buy the car, buy a less expensive car. If you don't have the cash to buy a less expensive car, and you have to borrow for it, it ought to be a $5,000 car or less. We get more into the details of these car questions in this episode and hopefully help you make that decision on when to fix the old car or buy a new one. See the show notes for more information at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/
This podcast is sponsored by Sofi https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/Sofi a long time White Coat Investor partner. Hundreds of white coat investors have refinanced with SoFi over the years. If you apply via this link you'll get paid $300. SoFi also lends to medical and dental residents with $100 monthly payments, so it is a great option if you're not getting any sort of a REPAYE subsidy. Sofi has a number of other products as well. They have a personal loan product https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/sofiloan . They have a mortgage product. It's not technically a doctor mortgage, but you can avoid PMI with less than 20 percent down, with it. There is also SoFi Money https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/sofimoney, which is basically a high yield checking account that I've been happy with. Check out these SoFi products today, especially for student loan refinancing, which is what most of white coat investors listeners and readers have used them for. Knocking a couple of percentage points off your interest rate can save you thousands and help you get out of debt months sooner.
Unlike our typical shows where we answer questions people have pre-recorded, this episode will be a bit of a back and forth with a listener who had a lot of questions. She is missing one key element that could answer many of the questions she asks in this episode. It is a written investing plan. 95% of people out there are in the same boat. They come to me with a question of, "Should I buy this fund or this fund?" I'm like, "For what? What's the plan? What's the goal?" Without the plan it is hard to get your finances organized and on track for your goals. We talk about how you can create a written investing plan in this episode. We discuss how to set reasonable goals and what should be your next level in personal finance. Whether you are just starting out in your journey to understanding your finances or you have listened to all 114 podcast episodes before this, I think you will find something valuable you can apply to your financial life in this episode. See the show notes at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/
This episode is sponsored by Alexis Gallati of Gallati Professional Services – Alexis is not your typical tax advisor. With over 15 years of experience, she has been helping physicians all over the country save money on their taxes. As the spouse of a busy physician, she understands the burden of high tax payments physicians incur during their lifetime. Not only will she create a high level strategic tax plan for you, guaranteeing money in your pocket, but Alexis will proactively work with you throughout the year to maintain your tax plan, prepare your annual tax returns, and represent you in case of an audit. The investment in her tax planning services is a fixed-price agreement and her tax maintenance packages are a flat monthly fee. If you’re tired of complex tax jargon and giving away most of your paycheck to the IRS, visit Alexis’ website at https://www.gallatitax.com/ today to schedule your free initial consultation.
The https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/scholarship/ competition is heating up again. This is an essay contest for medicine, osteopathy, podiatry, dentistry, law, pharmacy, optometry, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, CRNA, veterinarian students. Submit your essays to scholarship@whitecoatinvestor.com
The White Coat Investor Financial Bootcamp is out in audio book now. Check it out at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/BootcampAudible