White Coat Investor Podcast

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

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

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 IR

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. Did you know that the White Coat Investor not only has a podcast and a blog but several books that will help you on your way to financial independence. These books cover topics such as asset protection

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 wi

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/  At some point in our financial lives, it will be time to buy a home. A physician mortgage can be a good vehicle for a young doctor who’s just out of school and has a more effective place to use their money than on a big down payment. These loans allow doctors to secure a mortgage with fewer restrictions and a lower down payment than a convention

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 t

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

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 pod

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 be

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. The

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

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 n

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 bound

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/  If you’re looking to Boost Returns, Lower Taxes & Build Wealth, join the WCI monthly Real Estate Opportunities list for tips and strategies to maximize your real estate returns and for introductions to exclusive investment opportunities. Expect educational emails that introduce you to syndicators, fund companies, online courses, and online real estate platforms. Go to https://

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/. If you’re like most doctors, nobody taught you anything about personal finance or investing during your undergrad, professional school, or residency. And even though your family - and perhaps even your business - rely on you to be the Chief Financial Officer, you have never been given the tools to succeed. Enroll in WCI Financial Boot Camp, a FREE educational email series, and learn to convert your high income to wealth. You will learn the basics of investing, saving, insurance, and more. Your high income alone will not lead to financial success, but as always, we want to help you on your financial journey. Go to https://www.whiteco

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 righ

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 in

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 fro

"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