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It's no secret that I, and several other members here, are happy readers of the White Coat Investor blog. Well, now Jim Dahle, MD, has consolidated most of his information about physician finances into one convenient book, aptly named White Coat Investor.
I really, truly, very highly recommend this book! Pretty much to every single medspouse on here. It's an especially good value in the Kindle format, but if you're a hard-copy kind of person, go ahead and splurge -- this book will definitely pay for itself.
The foreward is a very pragmatic nugget of wisdom from another physician turned (repeatedly published and well regarded) finance professional, William Bernstein.
WCI has done a really pretty decent job as a first-time author, breaking down the information he wants to share into a fairly logical format. He takes a few chapters to motivate the need for physicians (and their families) to pay attention to finances: the increasingly precarious position of increasing debt and decreasing compensation that new docs are facing; the allure of achieving a net worth of $1M by age 40 (and stories from several families who did just that); some of the pitfalls of the medical lifestyle that lead doctors to be just the kinds of "underaccumulators of wealth" that the authors of Millionaire Next Door warn against.
Then he breaks into individual chapters for different stages of training. Med students, take note! Residents, check it out! Attending spouses too! The advice is especially pertinent at the beginning of each stage as you set the foundation for the next few years of financial life, but you can also glean something from his suggestions at any time after that training stage has started. (Let me reiterate: If you are changing stages -- just Matched, just got a new job -- then these chapters are an absolute *must read!*)
After this he discusses some nuts and bolts of retirement planning, investing your savings, hiring a planner, minimizing taxes, etc. These chapters are pretty lightly sketched out, and probably should just be taken as a jumping-off point to conduct further investigations. Fortunately he provides a nice reading list at the end of every chapter, including references to his own blog but also a handful of useful books.
I am really glad this book exists. It's the best physician-specific reference I've seen, hands-down. One thing I must note is that WCI seems to have a little bit of trouble with perspective-taking. He made mostly good choices, graduated without debt and makes somewhere in the $250 to $350k range in a specialty where you basically punch in and punch out without worrying about drumming up a client base or taking call. This doesn't describe as many medical families as he seems to think. But if your family has more debt, more income, less income, a more all-consumed dawkter, financial hardship to overcome -- I still think there is a lot of value in this book.
Let me know if I can answer anything specific, I'm not very practiced at writing reviews like this.
I really, truly, very highly recommend this book! Pretty much to every single medspouse on here. It's an especially good value in the Kindle format, but if you're a hard-copy kind of person, go ahead and splurge -- this book will definitely pay for itself.
The foreward is a very pragmatic nugget of wisdom from another physician turned (repeatedly published and well regarded) finance professional, William Bernstein.
WCI has done a really pretty decent job as a first-time author, breaking down the information he wants to share into a fairly logical format. He takes a few chapters to motivate the need for physicians (and their families) to pay attention to finances: the increasingly precarious position of increasing debt and decreasing compensation that new docs are facing; the allure of achieving a net worth of $1M by age 40 (and stories from several families who did just that); some of the pitfalls of the medical lifestyle that lead doctors to be just the kinds of "underaccumulators of wealth" that the authors of Millionaire Next Door warn against.
Then he breaks into individual chapters for different stages of training. Med students, take note! Residents, check it out! Attending spouses too! The advice is especially pertinent at the beginning of each stage as you set the foundation for the next few years of financial life, but you can also glean something from his suggestions at any time after that training stage has started. (Let me reiterate: If you are changing stages -- just Matched, just got a new job -- then these chapters are an absolute *must read!*)
After this he discusses some nuts and bolts of retirement planning, investing your savings, hiring a planner, minimizing taxes, etc. These chapters are pretty lightly sketched out, and probably should just be taken as a jumping-off point to conduct further investigations. Fortunately he provides a nice reading list at the end of every chapter, including references to his own blog but also a handful of useful books.
I am really glad this book exists. It's the best physician-specific reference I've seen, hands-down. One thing I must note is that WCI seems to have a little bit of trouble with perspective-taking. He made mostly good choices, graduated without debt and makes somewhere in the $250 to $350k range in a specialty where you basically punch in and punch out without worrying about drumming up a client base or taking call. This doesn't describe as many medical families as he seems to think. But if your family has more debt, more income, less income, a more all-consumed dawkter, financial hardship to overcome -- I still think there is a lot of value in this book.
Let me know if I can answer anything specific, I'm not very practiced at writing reviews like this.
) in the topic, but when I start getting into the nitty gritty my eyes start to glaze over.
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