Managing your medical school loans is one of the most important first financial steps that a medical school student or resident needs to take care of. You need to have a student loan plan of action. Our guest today, Ben White, from https://www.benwhite.com/, wrote what I consider to be THE book on student loan management, called Medical Student Loans: A Comprehensive Guide, (get it for free at https://www.benwhite.com/studentloans/. When he started thinking and writing all about medical school loans there just was not that much information out there. He understands some of the history behind medical school loans, how things have changed, and has suggestions for how to handle the changes that could come in the future. He considers student loans to be a "gateway drug for personal finance education." For a lot of students, the moment that the monopoly money becomes real is the first time they have really been forced to confront these issues. We talk all about medical school loans in this episode. If you still have loans or work with students or residents that do, this is a an episode you don't want to miss. See the full show notes at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/

This episode is brought to you by 37th Parallel Properties. https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/37parallel There is a substantial body of evidence supporting commercial real estate investing. Through the years, as I gained a deeper understanding of the asset class, I added more and more to my portfolio. But, unless you want to manage it yourself, the real trick is to find a trusted investment sponsor. As one of the good guys in the industry, 37th Parallel Properties is a partner I trust. They’ve been around for more than ten years and still maintain a 100% profitable track record with clear reporting, and excellent educational content. Many of my readers have invested with 37th Parallel, and so have I. I’ve been happy with my investment and they now have a diversified multifamily fund available. So if you’d like to check them out, hop on over to 37th Parallel Properties.

Should you raid your Roth IRA to pay off your student loans? No, I think raiding your Roth IRA for any reason is a bad decision. You only get so much Roth space in your life. Raiding the Roth IRA for anything except retirement is not a good idea because that money is compounding tax-free for years, and the longer you let it do that, the more valuable that benefit becomes. But the Roth IRA has other benefits too. It is great for estate planning. Even with the recent changes in the estate tax laws, you can still stretch a Roth IRA for 10 years after you die. So basically it can double in value before anyone has to take anything out of it. Plus you can name a beneficiary for it, so rather than having to wait for it to go through a will and go through probate and become public, it just goes straight to the beneficiary. It is also very good in almost every state for asset protection. Money in retirement accounts is generally not touchable in the event of an above policy limits judgment that isn't reduced on appeal. That is another great reason not to raid your Roth IRA, especially to pay off a loan that goes away when you die. We discuss this question of raiding your Roth IRA in more depth in this episode as well as discuss the state of this podcast in the last year including the best and worst episodes we've put out and a long rant on podcast guests and questions. Leave your comments about this episode at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/ 

This podcast is sponsored by one of my favorite partner companies, Earnest https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/earnest  You can 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. Now, obviously, the shorter your term, the lower your interest rate. They're not going to pass you off to a third party servicer. They're not going to penalize you for making any of your payments early. Plus, your family's protected with loan forgiveness in the event of your death. Similar to the federal student loan programs, but obviously with a much better interest rate. You can refinance anything from $5,000 to $500,000 which is a much wider range than most of these companies offer. So check out earnest today at www.whitecoatinvestor.com/earnest You get 500$ cash back when you refinance.

This episode we discuss advantages and disadvantages of investing in private real estate access funds. What are the advantages of access funds over syndicated real estate deals? How much of your portfolio should be invested in private real estate funds? These are the types of questions that we discuss in this episode with Alan Donenfeld, founder of CityVest. https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/cityvestarixa

Regular readers and listeners will know that I have been investing more and more in real estate the last few years. I am not a big fan of owning direct real estate and all the hassle that goes with that. But real estate can be a great addition to your portfolio. Most of the private real estate funds require an initial investment of $250K+. That is not feasible for most physicians, not to mention people typically want to dip their foot into real estate funds with a smaller amount of money. The big value of access funds is they provide you an opportunity to invest in private real estate by providing access at a decreased minimum amount. For those interested in investing in real estate this can be a great oppoortunity.

If you want to hear more about these types of investments that are discussed in this podcast, make sure you are signed up for the White Coat Investor newsletter https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/free-monthly-newsletter/. You may already be part of our newsletter, but you may not be signed up for this Special Real Estate Opportunities list. It is totally free. You can opt out at any time. I'm not going to spam you. If you notice in any email I send you there is a real estate opportunities newsletter at the bottom that you can add. If you want to hear about these sorts of investments, I'll send you details as soon as I hear about them, so you can be one of the first to know.

Sponsor
This podcast is sponsored by Bob Bhayani at https://drdisabilityquotes.com/ 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!

As you become more financially literate, you realize all the financial mistakes that you were making. Some of those mistakes are more challenging to fix than others. This is particularly true within your taxable accounts. In this episode we help a couple of readers solve their financial mistakes by getting out of poor investments, like expensive mutual funds and individual stocks. We talk about whether it is worth it and what it will cost you and ways to lower that cost. You can view the full show notes and transcription here https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/ We play a bit of catch up with listener speakpipe questions (you can record your questions here https://www.speakpipe.com/whitecoatinvestor). Questions in this episode include: the 199 deduction for S Corps, contract negotiation from the employer side, disability insurance from Principal, strategies to avoid exit taxes if leaving the USA, value vs growth funds, joining a private equity group, recharacterizing Roth IRA contributions, Roth IRAs for your children, and paying down your mortgage as a PSLF side fund.

This podcast sponsor is Earnest, https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/earnest , 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 or 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 will always be protected with loan forgiveness in cases of death or dismemberment. The minimum amount to refinance is $5,000 and the maximum is $500,000. 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. I would encourage you to take that $500, put it towards your loans, and pay them down a little bit faster.

It is possible for you to retire a millionaire. In this episode I interview 7 of your colleagues who have become millionaires before retirement. They share how they did it and what advice they have for you. See the full transcription at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/classic-blog/ They are dentists and physicians in varying specialties. People just like you. In 5-30 years they have built a net worth off 1 to 5.5 million dollars on incomes ranging from 80K-1 million annually. Some had six figure student loan debt upon leaving training. None received a big inheritance. Some are business owners. Most invest in real estate. All of them had a plan. You need a plan in order to become a millionaire. Listen to this episode to learn how to create your plan, how these doctors became millionaires, and how you can too.

This podcast was sponsored by Pattern Financial Consultancy https://whitecoatinvestor.com/pattern. Pattern is the company behind Matt Wiggins. 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's talking about and he 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 can't 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.