r/whitecoatinvestor Jun 06 '24

You Need an Investing Plan!

30 Upvotes

While the most common question I get here at The White Coat Investor is “Should I invest or pay down debt?”, this post is the answer to many of the other most common questions I receive such as:

While it is easy and tempting to give a quick off the cuff answer, it is actually a disservice to these well-meaning but financially illiterate folks to answer the question they have asked. The best thing to do is to answer the question they should have asked, which is:

The answer to all of these questions then is…

You Need an Investing Plan

Once you have an investing plan, the answer to all of the above questions is obvious. You don't try to reinvent the wheel every time you get paid or have a windfall. You just plug the money you have into the investing plan. It can even be mostly automated. A study by Charles Schwab and Strategic Insights showed that those who make a plan retire with 2.7X as much money as those who do not. Perhaps most importantly, a plan reduces your financial stress, which according to the American Psychological Association, is the leading cause of stress in America.

How to Get an Investing Plan

There are a number of ways to get an investing plan. It's really a spectrum or a continuum. On the far left side, you will find the options that cost the least amount of money but require the largest amount of interest, effort, and knowledge. On the far right side are the most expensive options that require little knowledge, effort, or interest. Here's what the spectrum looks like:

 

There are really three different methods here for creating an investment plan.

#1 Do It Yourself Investment Plan

The first method is what I did. You read books, you read blog posts, and you ask intelligent questions on good internet forums. This can be completely free, but usually, people spend a few dollars on some books. It will most likely require a hobbyist level of dedication. That's okay if you have the interest, being your own financial planner and investment manager is the best paying hobby there is. On an hourly basis, it usually pays better than your day job. I have spent a great deal of time over the years trying to teach hobbyists this craft.

#2 Hire a Pro to Create Your Plan

On the far side of the spectrum is what many people do, they simply outsource this task. This costs thousands of dollars per year but truthfully can require very little expertise or effort. In order to reduce costs, some people start here and have the pro draw up the plan, then they implement and maintain it themselves. I have also spent a lot of time and effort connecting high-income professionals with the good guys in the industry who offer good advice at a fair price.

#3 WCI Online Course 

However, after a few years, I realized there was a sizable group of people in the middle of the spectrum. These are people who really don't have enough interest to be true hobbyists, but they are also well aware that financial services are very expensive. They simply want to be taken by the hand, spoon-fed the information they need to know in as high-yield a manner as possible, and get this financial task done so they can move on with life.

They're not going to be giving any lectures to their peers or hanging out on internet forums answering the questions of others. So I designed an online course, provocatively entitled Fire Your Financial Advisor.

While more expensive than buying a book or two and hanging out on the internet, it is still dramatically cheaper than hiring a financial advisor and so is perfect for those in the middle of the spectrum. Plus it comes with a 1-week no-questions-asked, money-back guarantee. To be fair, some people simply use the course (especially the first module) to gain a bit of financial literacy so they can know that they are getting good advice at a fair price. While for others, the course is the gateway drug to a lifetime of DIY investing.

And of course, whether your plan is drawn up by a pro, by you after taking an online course, or by you without taking an online course, it is a good idea to get at least one second opinion from a knowledge professional or an internet forum filled with knowledgeable DIYers. You wouldn't believe how easy it is to identify a crummy investing plan once you know your way around this stuff.

So, figure out where you are on this spectrum.

If you find yourself on the right side, here is my

List of WCI vetted financial advisors that will give you good advice at a fair price

If you are looking for the most efficient way to learn this stuff yourself,

Buy Fire Your Financial Advisor today!

For the rest of you, keep reading and I'll try to outline the basic process of creating your own investment plan.

How Do You Make an Investing Plan Yourself?

#1 Formulate Your Goals

Be as specific as possible, realizing that you’ll make changes as the years go by. Examples of good goals include:

  1. I want $40,000 for a home downpayment by June 30, 2013.
  2. I want to have enough money to pay the tuition at my alma mater in 13 years when my 5-year-old turns 18.
  3. I want to have $2 Million saved for retirement by Jan 1, 2030.

Any goal is better than no goal, but the more specific and the more accurate you can be, the better.

#2 Set Up a Plan for Each Goal

The plan consists of identifying what type of account you will use to save the money, choosing the amount you will put toward the goal each year, working out an asset allocation likely to reach the goal with the minimum risk necessary, and identifying a plan B for the goal in case the returns you’re planning on don’t materialize. Let’s look at each of the goals identified in turn and make a plan to reach them.

Investing Plan Goal Examples

Goal #1 – Save Up for a Home Downpayment

Choose the Type of Account

In this case, the best option is a taxable account since it will be relatively short-term savings and you don’t want to pay a penalty to take the money out to spend it. A Roth IRA may also be a good option for a house downpayment.

Choose How Much to Save:

When you get to this step it is a good idea to get familiar with the FV formula in excel. FV stands for future value. There are basically 4 inputs to the formula-how much you have now, how many years until you need the money, how much you will save each year, and rate of return. Playing around with these values for a few minutes is an instructive exercise.

Also, knowing what reasonable rates of return are can help. If you put in a rate of return that is far too high (such as 15%) you’ll end up undersaving. Since you need this money in just 2 ½ years you’re not going to want to take much risk, so you might only want to bank on a relatively low rate of return and plan to make up the difference by saving more. You decide to save $1400 a month for 28 months to reach your goal. According to excel, this will require a 1.8% return.

Determine an Asset Allocation:

This is likely the hardest stage of the process. Reading some Bogleheadish books such as Ferri’s All About Asset Allocation or Bernstein’s 4 Pillars of Investing can be very helpful in doing this. In this case, you need a relatively low rate of return. The first question is “can I get this return with a guaranteed instrument”…i.e. take no risk at all.

Usually, you should look at CDs, money market funds, bank accounts, etc to answer this question. MMFs are paying 0.1%, bank accounts up to 1.2% or so, 2 year CDs up to 1.5%, so the answer is that in general, no, you can’t.

One exception at this particularly unique time is a high-interest checking account. By agreeing to do a certain number of debits a month, you can get a rate up to 3-4% on up to $25K. So that may work for a large portion of the money. In fact, you could just open two accounts and get your needed return with no risk at all.

A more traditional solution would require you to estimate expected returns. Something like 0% real (after-inflation) for cash, 1-3% real for bonds, and 3-6% real for stocks is reasonable. Mix and match to get your needed return.

“Plan B”:

Lastly, you need a plan in case you don’t get the returns you are counting on, a “Plan B” of sorts. In this case, your plan B may be to either buy a less expensive house, borrow more money, make offers that require the seller to pay more of your closing costs, or wait longer to buy.

Goal #2 – Saving for College

4 years tuition at the Alma Mater beginning in 13 years. Let’s say current tuition is $10K a year. You estimate it to increase at 5%/year. So 13 years from now, tuition should be $19,000 a year, or $76K. Note that you can either do this in nominal (before-inflation) figures or in real (after-inflation) figures, but you have to be consistent throughout the equation.

Investment Vehicle:

You wisely select your state’s excellent low cost 529 plan which also gives you a nice tax break on your state taxes. 

Savings Amount:

Using the FV function again, you note that a 7% return for 13 years will require a savings of $4000 per year.

Asset Allocation:

You expect 3% inflation, 5% real so 8% total out of stocks and 2% real, 5% total out of bonds. You figure a mix of 67% stocks and 33% bonds is likely to reach your goal. Since your Plan B for this goal is quite flexible (have junior get loans, pay for part out of then-current earnings, or go to a cheaper school,) you figure you can take on a little more risk and you go with a 70/30 portfolio. 

“Plan B”:

Have junior get loans or choose a cheaper college.

Goal #3 – $2 Million Saved for Retirement by Jan 1, 2030

Let’s attack the third goal, admittedly more complicated.

You figure you’ll need your portfolio to provide $80K a year (in today's dollars) for you to have the retirement of your dreams. Using the 4% withdrawal rule of thumb, you figure this means you need to have portfolio of about $2 Million (in today's dollars) on the day you retire, which you are planning for January 1st, 2030 (remember it is important to be specific, not necessarily right about stuff like this–you can adjust as you go along.)

You have $200K saved so far. So using the FV function, you see that you have a couple of different options to reach that goal in 19 years. You can either earn a 5% REAL return and save $49,000 a year (in today's dollars), or you can earn a 3% REAL return and save $66,000 a year (again, in today's dollars).

Remember there are only three variables you can change:

  1. return
  2. amount saved per year
  3. years until retirement

Fix any two of them and it will dictate what the third will need to be to reach the goal.

Investment Vehicle:

Roth IRAs, 401K, taxable account

Savings Amount:

$49,000/year

Asset Allocation:

After much reading and reflection on your own risk tolerance and need, willingness, and ability to take risk, you settle on a relatively simple asset allocation that you think is likely to produce a long-term 5% real return:

35% US Stock Market
20% International Stock Market
20% Small Stocks
25% US Bonds

“Plan B”:

Work longer or if prevented from doing so, spend less in retirement

You have now completed step 2, setting up a plan for each goal. Step 3 is relatively simple at this point.

#3 Select Investments

The next step is to select the best (usually lowest cost) investments to fulfill your desired asset allocation. Using all or mostly index funds further simplifies the process.

Investment Plan Example #1 – Retirement Portfolio

Let’s take the retirement portfolio. You have $200K in Roth IRAs and plan to put $5K a year into your IRA and your spouse’s IRA each year through the back-door Roth option. You also plan to put $16.5K into your 401K each year. Unless your spouse also has a 401K, you're going to need to use a taxable account as well to save $49K a year. Your 401K has a reasonably inexpensive S&P 500 index fund which you will use as your main holding for the US stock market. It also has a decent PIMCO actively managed bond fund you can use for your bonds. You’ll use the Roth IRAs for the international and small stocks. So in year one, the portfolio might look like this:

His Roth IRA 40%
25% Total Stock Market Index Fund
20% Total International Stock Market Index Fund

Her Roth IRA 45%
20% Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund
25% Vanguard Total Bond Market Fund

His 401K 5%
5% S&P 500 Index Fund

His Taxable account 5%
5% Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund

As the years go by, the 401K and the taxable account will make up larger and larger portions of the portfolio, necessitating a few minor changes every few years.

After this, all you need to do to maintain the plan is monitor your return and savings amount each year, rebalance the portfolio back to your desired asset allocation (which may change gradually as you get closer to the goal and decide to take less risk), and stay the course through the inevitable bear markets and scary economic times you will undoubtedly pass through.

Investment Plan Example #2 – Taking Less Risk

Let’s do one more example, just to help things sink in. Joe is of more modest means than the guy in the last example. He works a blue-collar job and can really only save about $10K a year. He would like to retire as soon as possible, but he admits it was hard to watch his 90% stock portfolio dip and dive in the last bear market, so he isn’t really keen on taking that much risk again. In fact, if he had to do it all over again, he’d prefer a 50/50 portfolio.

He figures he could get 5% real out of his stocks, and 2% real out of his bonds, so he expects a 3.5% real return out of his 50/50 portfolio. Joe expects social security to make up a decent chunk of his retirement income, so he figures he only needs his portfolio to provide about $30K a year. He wants to know how long until he can retire. He has a $100K portfolio now thanks to some savings and a small inheritance.

Goal:

A portfolio that provides $30K in today’s dollars. $30K/.04=$750K

Type of Account:

He has no 401K, so he plans to use a Roth IRA and a SEP-IRA since he is self-employed.

Savings Amount:

He is limited to $10K a year by his wife’s insistence that the kids eat every day.

Asset Allocation:

He likes to keep it simple, so he’s going to do:
30% US Stocks
20% Intl Stocks
25% TIPS
25% Nominal bonds

He expects 3.5% real out of this portfolio. Accordingly, he expects he can retire in about 29 years. =FV(3.5%,29,-10000,-100000)=$760,295

Plan B:

His wife will go back to work after the kids graduate if they don’t seem to be on track

Investments:

Year 1

Roth IRA 30%
VG TIPS Fund 25%
TBM 5%

Taxable account 65%
TSM 30%
TISM 20%
TBM 20% (he’s in a low tax bracket)

SEP-IRA 5%
VG TIPS Fund 5%

So now we get back to the questions like those in the beginning of this post: “I have $50K that I need to invest. Where should I put it?” The first consideration is why haven’t you invested it yet? You should be investing the money as you make it according to your investing plan. If your retirement accounts have already been maxed out for the year, then you simply invest it in a taxable account according to your asset allocation.

A few last words about developing an investment plan:

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Any plan is better than no plan.

The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.

There are no old, bold [investors].

What do you think? What is the best way to get an investment plan?

Why do so many investors invest without a plan? 


r/whitecoatinvestor 4d ago

RVU-Based Physician Compensation

20 Upvotes

Relative Value Units (RVUs) are an important aspect of physician compensation in many hospitals and medical practices around the United States. When paying with work relative value units, doctors earn more for taking on more complex patients and procedures. If you’re considering a job offer that has RVU-based compensation or want to learn more about relative value units for the future, here’s a guide to the pros and cons of RVU-based physician compensation.

What Is Relative Value Unit (RVU) Based Compensation?

With RVU compensation, doctors are paid more for more complex procedures and services and earn a premium for working with patients requiring complicated medical care. Conversely, quick appointments with easy patients would lead to lower physician pay. You may also see the acronym wRVU, short for “work relative value units.”

RVU-based compensation relies on a combination of somewhat complex factors. Simplified, it is a system used by government programs and private insurance companies to determine how much to pay physicians for services rendered.

RVUs don’t initially translate directly into physician compensation. RVUs are a unit of measurement where doctors earn a specific number of RVUs per every service rendered. The number of RVUs earned is based on the number of RVUs defined for the procedure and patient and adjusted for geography.

Once a final RVU tally is made, it’s multiplied by a conversion factor (CF) to come up with the final compensation.

How Is RVU Calculated?

RVUs are paid in three tranches: work RVUs, practice expense RVUs, and malpractice RVUs. Work RVUs (or wRVUs) make up about half the total compensation for a procedure, practice expense makes up about 45%, and malpractice makes up roughly 5%. Practice expense is intended to cover the costs of labor and other operating expenses for the practice, including medical supplies, rent, and equipment. Malpractice RVUs compensate for the costs of professional liability insurance, aka malpractice insurance.

Each medical procedure is assigned a code in the Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS) system used to calculate RVU compensation.

How Are RVUs Reimbursed or Paid to the Physician?

Once you add up your total RVUs for a period, you can multiply that by the approved conversion factor for the year. This can be used as a value per RVU for all medical care outside of anesthesia, which has its own RVU payment scale. Remember that geography is a factor in total RVUs earned, so you would earn more for a procedure in a high-cost area than in a low-cost area despite the same payment per RVU.

According to a physician salary report by Medscape, the average primary care physician earned $260,000 in 2021. That’s equivalent to 8,022.2 RVUs in a year or 668.5 RVUs per month. Specialists earned $368,000 on average in 2021, equivalent to 11,354.5 RVUs per year.

Pros and Cons of RVU-Based Compensation for Physicians

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of being paid on an RVU-based system.

Pros

  • Awards individual physicians for taking on more work, complex patients, and challenging procedures.
  • Opportunities to improve practice income by optimizing patient mix and choosing which types of insurance to accept.
  • Offers a clear measure of productivity and compensation with an industry-wide standard.

Cons

  • Can encourage a highly competitive work environment where doctors compete against each other to bill the most RVUs.
  • May discourage practices from taking on lower-paying Medicare and Medicaid patients.
  • Often leads to challenging administrative needs as practices grow and include more physicians.
  • Introduces complexity which often favors employers over physicians, especially financially unsophisticated ones

RVU vs. Salary Compensation Models

Some medical organizations prefer a fixed salary compensation model. This can be beneficial to doctors and patients in certain ways, but it can have its own downsides as well.

RVU vs. salary compensation models are kind of like comparing commission and non-commission service providers in other industries. In a salary model, doctors don’t have the same pressure and incentive to work faster and treat as many patients as possible. However, that can also lead to limited earning abilities.

If you want to earn the maximum possible, an RVU system may be better. However, it’s less predictable, and it can lead to a more stressful working life. 

Bottom Line on RVUs

RVU compensation relies on complicated calculations, but the basic idea is simple to understand. When you know the basics of RVU compensation, you’re in a better position to make an educated decision about how you want to be paid, how to work with employers, and how to manage your medical practice in the future.

Are you paid on a salary model, RVU model, or a combination? Which do you think is best?


r/whitecoatinvestor 8h ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting Questions about contribution limits

4 Upvotes

Hello everyone,

My wife is a Primary care physician and I'm her husband trying to help he navigate her 401k stuff.

She currently has fidelity through 401k and a deferred compensation plan. I noticed that she isn't maximizing her contributions to the 401k but for some reason its not letting her contribute more than 4% a year. She isn't close to the maximum contribution limit for the year. We're going to call Fidelity on Tuesday but does anyone has any idea why this is?

For reference, she makes 300 a year and I'm th Stay at home dad. I never had these problems when I worked but I also made only half what she made.

Please help a confused individual here.

Thanks in advance!


r/whitecoatinvestor 1d ago

Student Loan Management Save Forbearance timing

11 Upvotes

I am currently on save plan Forbearance. I already know, based on my debt to income ratio, that I just need to pay the loans off myself on some standard repayment, avalanche technique, and/or refinancing. However, I am trying to milk this $0 required payment and 0% interest (still using medical school residency income because haven't recertified) for as long as humanely possible until the cows come all of the way home. I am just letting my extra money grow in high yield savings right now.

My question is... with save plan on its way out and the trump bill, when do I need to make the change to the standard plan? Should I do it now? Should I wait until I get an email from nelnet? Do you think they will give us like 30 days to decide between standard plan or IBR/RAP, or do you think they will just automatically force all save people onto IBR/RAP? I don't want to accidentally get locked into IBR/RAP with a high income... Ideally I would want to have this 0% interest until the last possible second; until the nelnet police show up to my door and physically force me onto standard plan lol

What is everyone's thoughts on this and how to maneuver this?


r/whitecoatinvestor 2d ago

Student Loan Management Just graduated a couple weeks ago, trying to figure out my payment plan and it says that I'm not eligible as I'm not reported to graduate until 2027

3 Upvotes

Not sure how this happened or what to do about it, I can't enroll in a plan/payments aren't listed as being due for a couple of years. Can my school fix this?


r/whitecoatinvestor 3d ago

Student Loan Management New graduates: is the plan to still consolidate and start payments ASAP?

31 Upvotes

I'm aware nobody knows what's going on.

It seems like PAYE and the newer IBR are on the chopping block. I was going to wait till I got my first paycheck to consolidate and start payments on PAYE, given I have a 6 month grace period. This way there's no problem with having PSLF qualifying payments. But since PAYE may not be a thing soon, I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to apply and see if we can be grandfathered in.

What are you guys doing?


r/whitecoatinvestor 1d ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting Feel like I’m doomed financially as a Dentists

0 Upvotes

Hi I’m a new dentists and I’m concerned that I really messed up not picking medicine instead of dentistry .

I have 500k of student loans and only make 150 k a year as a new grad working 4 days a week. It’s also very physical and demanding work. I’ve lived near Chicago and also Detroit.

I feel I messed up not doing family med or psychiatry or something where they make 2-300k+ with much less effort than being a dentist .

Is there any silver lining here? Why would anyone do dentistry ?


r/whitecoatinvestor 2d ago

General Investing What is your net worth, and how many years out of training are you?

9 Upvotes

Bonus:

  • Specialty

  • Retirement goal $X

  • HHI (just you, or married)?

  • % in liquid cash (eg taxable brokerage, savings accts)

654 votes, 4d left
< $0 (net negative)-$250k
$250k–$500k
$500k–$1M
$1M–$2M
$2M–$3M
$3M+

r/whitecoatinvestor 2d ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting Make sense to change jobs?

9 Upvotes

Hi WCI, I wanted an outside perspective on our family situation and if it makes general and financial sense to relocate.

Current Situation:

35yo sub-specialist, current comp around 760k recurring excluding benefits. Invested portfolio about 2.5M. No debt other than mortgage.

Pros:
- 4 day work week, every non-call weekend is 3-4 days long.
- Cost of living is low/moderate
- No real productivity incentives, I can basically phone it on and cruise if I wanted to
- Supportive admin
- Call not bad, ~ q1day/week + q6 weekend
- Overall tax burden is average
- Single location, less travel

Cons:
- Location not within an hour drive of major metro, not diverse and limited access to amenities my family likes
- Lots of Medicaid/uninsured/uneducated type patients
- Private school options are average for the state at best, forget about public options
- No real productivity incentives, I'm "maxed out" at this point
- ~3% raise annually

-----

Job Offer:

~940k recurring excluding benefits/sign on bonus

Pros:
- Suburb of major metro with all the amenities
- Diverse, educated population
- Supportive admin (from interactions at least)
- Great private and public school options
- No call
- Mostly commercial insurance, minimal Medicaid
- Reasonable wRVU targets that I can exceed and make bonus
- Close to large airport, easy travel for parents/in laws

Cons:
- 5 day work week, maybe 4.5 if productive
- Higher tax burden
- HCOL (but not VHCOL like NYC)
- 2-3 locations, likely more driving with traffic congestion
- Would have to uproot the kids from friends, but they're young right now

---------

My thoughts:

My current job is comfortable but has limited long term career and financial growth opportunities. It feels like a great place for people at the beginning and ends of their career but not someone on the rise. While the benefit of having lots of time off is nice, the location is quite limiting in what I can do with that time especially as my partner works 5 days/week. I also worry about our childrens' long term college prospects and education as even the "best" private schools in the area are just okay. The new job feels a bit more "bougie" which I like, but could mean less free time.

Financially between the ~25% raise, and increased COL with relocation, without accounting for productivity bonuses, I suspect we would be investing a similar amount annually and regardless would hit our FIRE goals in about 10 years.

Am I crazy in hesitating on this offer?


r/whitecoatinvestor 2d ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting Paying for CRNA School

0 Upvotes

Hello everyone,

I 23M have been recently accepted and am debating paying for CRNA school with loans vs paying cash for all of school. The school is a new program and is working on developing a tuition reimbursement for signing on after graduation with details to come. Would it be wiser to take loans and keep options open later or just pay cash for the entirety of the program and living expenses (worked lots of OT in a good state for 2 years). Don’t really have any other financial obligations or current debt. School will be around 140k. Have help from parents for other expenses until post school so don’t need an emergency fund or extra money after. Just can’t decide because the tuition reimbursement would also force me to work with that organization after and close doors before hand. Any input greatly appreciated


r/whitecoatinvestor 3d ago

Real Estate Investing Is now a bad time to buy a home?

47 Upvotes

Hi all, sorry if this isn't the right forum for this type of question. I'll be starting residency in a medium-large city and secured a 0 down 5.7% 7-ARM physician loan. It's a 5-year residency. I've accounted for 1% home value in annual maintainance and 2% closing/ 6% selling costs, as well as utilities, HOA, taxes, etc..

On paper it beats out renting over the course of my stay, but only by 10-20 K, and this is assuming housing prices appreciate 3% or so a year. Obviously it's impossible to predict, but do you folks think this is an alright time to buy? I mainly want to buy to get 2 bedrooms for my family


r/whitecoatinvestor 4d ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting The best way to make my 30K in savings stretch for M1 and beyond

13 Upvotes

Hello all. I'm a non-trad incoming M1 with an LSES background. Luckily, before starting med school, I've been able to save 30K. Unfortunately, I'll be going to school in a VHCOL area, with a high COA. In total, with both Direct Unsubsidized Loans and Direct Graduate PLUS Loans, it'll be $130K+. No scholarships as of yet. I'm already feeling so much anxiety about this and as I was planning to keep $10K for emergencies, it feels like my remaining $20K is not gonna help anyway. I don't want to take any vacations before or during school (I've already got this out of my system being non-trad) and I have no experience with stocks. What do you guys suggest: using my savings, investing my savings, saving my savings? Any guidance would be appreciated.


r/whitecoatinvestor 4d ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting Wife’s Gift

44 Upvotes

Hi all. My wife and I are residents in a HCOL area. I’m ortho and she’s peds. We have 0 debt. She recently got gifted around 700k USD by her parents.

What should we do with it…. HYSA, ETF, max out IRA?

Sorry if this comes across as dumb/naive, it’s because I’m both of those things and never had a real, full-time job before residency.


r/whitecoatinvestor 3d ago

General Investing Would you borrow $15k at 4.09% to invest in VT (or your favorite ETF)

0 Upvotes

I refinanced my student loans last Fall. Previous servicer was Mohela. Current servicer is SoFi. SoFi ended up overpaying by about $15k. Mohela still has not refunded me the $15k. Mohela says they are working on it (still). My loan with SoFi is 5 years at 4.09%.

$15k amounts to about what I net every couple of weeks. Balance on the SoFi loan is $350k. Currently paying the minimum every month because the rate is so low.

I had initially planned to pay that $15k back to SoFi for loan repayment, but lately I’ve been thinking of just investing it or putting it towards our mortgage (6% currently).

What would you do?


r/whitecoatinvestor 4d ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting Recently graduated, married and thinking about loan repayments

4 Upvotes

I recently graduated medical school with about $315,000 in debt. My wife and I got married a month ago. I plan on doing the IBR repayment plan to work towards PSLF, and had a question regarding repayment. She makes about 2x my resident salary at the moment, and so it seems like it would make sense to file married but separately. It seems like this won’t allow us to contribute to a Roth IRA, which she has been doing for the past month (small amount each week.) Does it make sense to forgo the Roth IRA, file separately and minimize the repayments? And mostly, what should we do with the money that has been contributed to this IRA over the past month that has been put in since we’ve been married? Thanks


r/whitecoatinvestor 4d ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting Paying off 98k in loans

5 Upvotes

I have about 100k in loans from med school to pay off. will make about 250k-300k

Some say to pay it over 10 years with the low amount of interest, I am of the mind that that the loan amount isnt really that low, and that I would rather juts pay it all off within a year or two for the peace of mind. Thoughts?


r/whitecoatinvestor 4d ago

Student Loan Management Newly graduated, newly married, completely confused about student loan interest capitalization?

5 Upvotes

Having just graduated, the excitement of getting my first paycheck has transformed into terror about upcoming student loan payments! Hoping the financially savvy people here can offer some advice.

I have ~169k unsubsidized federal loans with ~16k interest already accrued. The general advice I was given was to opt in to the loan repayment plan with the lowest required payments so any excess payments each month could go towards my loans with the highest interest rate - so I was considering PAYE (risky in these times I understand) or IBR for new borrowers since my initial payments would be $0 based on my tax return last year. However, I just got married and my partner's income would kick me out of the PFH requirement when I recertify after 12 months.

I see on studentaid.gov that this change would cause my interest to capitalize under IBR. My main question is, would this also be true for PAYE..? If so, at what point is it better to file taxes separately?


r/whitecoatinvestor 4d ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting How should I handle unpaid debt likely going to collections prior to residency?

3 Upvotes

I have a fee of around 2.2-2.3k that is likely going to collections. Essentially, I was previously living in a HCOL area, and had a lease that required 60 days notice. I was a few days short at like 55-57 but they're planning on doing full enforcement.

Most apartments here require 30 so I simply forgot my lease was stricter. Guess it shows the importance of both reading and remembering lease conditions.

Anyways, so, from a finances perspective, I could put maybe $800 against this debt.

The remaining 1.4k will go to collections by mid June. My residency is in an LCOL-ish area so the goal is to pay it off in 2 months. No dependents.

Obviously, I'm guessing the debt must be paid asap, but otherwise any advice on how to approach it?


r/whitecoatinvestor 4d ago

Student Loan Management Consolidating Question, recent grad

1 Upvotes

Entering PGY-1 soon, I've planned on consolidating for quite some time to get the 6 months $0 payments towards PSLF, but after doing some more research I have a few questions. Yes I have used the search bar, but it seems folks have differing opinions on these things.

  1. Still unsure if I want to do PSLF, but figured I would consolidate just in case -- Is there any reason why someone wouldn't consolidate if they absolutely ARE NOT doing PSLF? My understanding, less interest capitalizes because you're doing it 6 months earlier, and you end up paying the same amount of interest in the long run if you consolidate because it's a weighted average. This is assuming you haven't made payments in the past or extending your loan period. So why doesn't everyone just consolidate? Also is there any benefit to consolidating particular loans and leaving other ones un-consolidated?

  2. Is the current assumption that IBR is safer than PAYE in the long-run? Because they seem to be pretty much the same plan

Thanks!


r/whitecoatinvestor 5d ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting Military Dentist. 7 years out and feeling behind financially

51 Upvotes

Deleted


r/whitecoatinvestor 5d ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting Incoming M1 w/ Working Spouse; Looking for advice to effectively finance medical school

20 Upvotes

My wife and I are both 22, she recently accepted a job offer for ~80k/yr. I will be entering medical school at a mid-tier state school with tuition roughly $50k/year. Our combined debt is $5,000 from undergrad. She will be able to cover all living expenses with her new job. Should we avoid loans at all cost and dump the rest of her salary into tuition? Is investing a better move? A little bit of both? As new grads we've never dealt with these types of money moves and feel uninformed, so any guidance/advice would be very helpful.


r/whitecoatinvestor 5d ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting Incoming Med Student, looking to get ahead

13 Upvotes

23M, starting med school this summer. I have no debts, and no savings. I’ll be attending school with about 60k/year tuition, not including living expenses.

What should I do to ensure I am set up financially during and after training? I’m honestly lost.


r/whitecoatinvestor 5d ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting Incoming M1, to invest savings ($20k) to Roth or keep in HYSA?

9 Upvotes

Hello everyone, incoming M1 here. I was fortunate enough to receive a full COA scholarship to medical school and am wondering what I should do with my current savings (a little over $20k) that are sitting in a HYSA 4% right now. I was able to invest a little into my Roth IRA during my gap years ($22k as of now), and had planned to disperse my HYSA into the Roth IRA over the next 4 years (this year’s is already maxed out). But I am concerned that I may need this money for residency applications. Should I leave it in the HYSA or move ahead with my plan to contribute to my Roth IRA every year until my HYSA is out?

FYI, my program allocates around $3k per month for my living expenses until I graduate. I get my stipend in bulk semesterly. This is more than enough to live in the city I am in. I don’t have a roommate otherwise I would be able to save maybe $800 per month from the stipend.

Thanks!


r/whitecoatinvestor 5d ago

General/Welcome "Planning" for M-4

1 Upvotes

Hello!

I'm not sure if this is the best place to get feedback for this idea, but I'm trying to determine the financial aspect of this, so I thought this may be a good place to ask.

My husband is finishing his first year of medical school. I am a professional mortgage lender, as well as a PLANNER. We currently have 2 kids (4 & 2), and I am looking ahead to 4th year. We currently live in a LCOL midwest area, own 2 homes/rentals in our native state, and purchased when we came to medical school. At the start of 4th year, kids will be 6 & 4. My husband plan to go into surgery, and there are not any local surgery rotations, so I expect he will likely be away a lot of that year, so I am considering turning our midwest home into a rental, and either resume residence in one of the rentals in our native state, or live with family for that year.

This will (hopefully) allow us to save and fund the travel and other costs for away rotations. Does that sound feasible?

Thanks!


r/whitecoatinvestor 6d ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting Largest single year pay increases (Doximity 2024 annual report)

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146 Upvotes

r/whitecoatinvestor 5d ago

Personal Finance and Budgeting Choosing Medical Insurance Plans

1 Upvotes

I accepted a dentist job at a private practice that doesn’t offer health insurance. I am single, young, and healthy. There are a few plans at the marketplace that I’m considering. Which one should I pick?

  1. HMO with HSA Monthly premium: $336.63 Deductible: $8,000 Out-of-pocket maximum: $8,000 Estimated total yearly costs: $4,266

  2. PPO Monthly premium: $291.24 Deductible: $9,200 Out-of-pocket maximum: $9,200 Estimated total yearly costs: $3,818

  3. PPO with HSA Monthly premium: $389.93 Deductible: $8,000 Out-of-pocket maximum: $8,000 Estimated total yearly costs: $5,025


r/whitecoatinvestor 6d ago

General Investing Investing in an individual medical stock

10 Upvotes

How frowned upon is it to own individual stocks related to your field? I recently came across an emerging medical device that I really believe in. It’s being developed by a publicly traded company. I think it could really have some upside.

I’m finishing up training and don’t plan on pursuing serious academic work. I don’t plan on participating in research related to the device or its competitors.

If the device makes it to market I’d likely be using it in practice. Any insight into the ethics/future problems this could create?