White Coat Investor

Great work! This might be unpopular among the HN crowd, but I think you can monetize this further by bundling this with an advising service. This idea of FIRE has been spreading beyond techies/Internet nerds and into other highly paid professionals like doctors. [0]. The main difference is that non-programmer professionals generally don't get a thrill out of min/max-ing financial projections. Such people might be willing to pay a few hundred dollars a year for someone to generate this kind of analysis with them and simply execute on it each year. Similar to how people pay for CPAs. My employer actually pays Goldman Sachs to provide a similar service for its employees (no commission, fiduciary advisors) but their tools suck compared to this. [0] For example https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/, https://www.physicianonfire.com/

Bogleheads is probably the best resource in my opinion. It's easy to read and very accessible to everyone. If you want a few more resources you can try - https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/ - targeted mostly at doctors and other high earners but can be useful - https://old.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/ - subreddit about achieving financial independence and retiring early. It's a bit boring but the financial advice is pretty sound and never really changes. You can probably just read the sidebar or skim when you're bored. Once you read the "Getting Started" and "Index Funds" on bogleheads, I'd suggest https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio . It shouldn't take long, and by that point you should at least be able to understand enough to set up your investment accounts with some confidence.

"None of my friends who are outside of med school believes in the stress and depression as they only see the high salaries and good life doctors are living but doesn't see the stress until you enter the field," Grass is always greener on the other side. I will encourage you to explore more your options between medicine and IT and make sure you are not afflicted with same syndrome as your friends. Medical profession has a good reputation and doctors are held in high regards in non-medical professions. I will suggest leveraging this reputation and respect to get yourself into a good position in non-medical profession if you don't want to practice as a medical doctor. Don't squander it away by becoming an entry level drone in technology industry. Another alternative may be to consider medical profession as means to achieving the end you want. Tough it out for a few years, achieve financial independence as quickly as possible and then do what you want to do in technology whether medical related or not. Have you heard of White Coat Investor http://whitecoatinvestor.com? He is an ER doctor who started blogging about personal finance from doctor's viewpoint. He seems to have become quite popular in finance area with books and speaking engagements specially targeted at medical professionals. It seems he is drawing almost $200K from his finance-related side activities on top of whatever his ER compensation is. You could follow on his footsteps. Suck up and be a medical doctor for…

That applies to so few people though. Most people who buy it are just wasting money. In my experience, immigrants with few assets who don't know better are targeted by immigrants of their own race (since they're presumed to be more trustworthy). https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/appropriate-uses-of-permanent-life-i…

There's no one-size-fits-all type of advice because everyone's situation is very different. There are some great resources available online to get started though. This one [1] is for physicians but could also apply to everyone. The bogleheads [2] and their wiki page are also great resources for these topics. [1] http://whitecoatinvestor.com/the-proper-ratio-for-retirement-tax-diver… [2] https://www.bogleheads.org/

If you're healthy enough to swing a high-deductible health plan, consider maxing out a "stealth IRA" aka health savings account. With a $3,350 individual / $6,750 contribution limit, it's a great tax-advantaged account that can be treated just like a Traditional IRA. If you use it for medical costs, which you are likely to have in retirement, you get tax advantage on both ends. http://whitecoatinvestor.com/retirement-accounts/the-stealth-ira/

Wow, thanks so much for taking so much time to leave such detailed feedback! I'd love to chat more in real-time if you're willing. You can reach me at my hn username at livefortunately.com to schedule some time that works for you if you're interested. Some selected responses. | 1. Help estimate life insurance needs for folks. Yes! This is completely on vision and part of why we founded the company (my co-founder is an actuary). We have plans to do a gap-analysis style life insurance recommendations - your needs decrease as your savings grow. He's written on right-sizing your insurance (though income replacement style) at the white coat investor [0]. | Have you used Financial Engines at all? Yes! I actually worked (indirectly) with Bill Sharpe early in my career, and one of the founders of FE is an advisor of ours. | Is it Monte-Carlo based? If it's MC, then what data is generated and how? Yes. We license our simulations from the same place that many hedge funds and the insurance industry get theirs. It's the best in the business. | Look at how Open Social Security handles it. There is a year and a reduction percentage. He fills in defaults from the Social Security Trustee report, since they are required to estimate it based on current law I didn't know. Thank you, this is super helpful and informative. | Open Social Security uses five different mortality tables... Forced early retirement. Yes! This is also part of the core product vision. It's just a bit tricky in…

Lots of reading (books, blogs, etc.) has been helpful for me the past few years and it seems like I pickup new things all the time. A few things I use/reference: - YNAB (You Need A Budget) - budgeting/tracking app, plus lots of great content on how to use the software and generally manage your budget/expenses - /r/personalfinance subreddit - checkout their wiki [1] and flowchart [2] in particular for a really helpful overview - For investments I use spreadsheets to track allocation, targets, etc. - Bogleheads wiki - investing, heavy on index funds, low fees, etc. - Whitecoat investor - a lot of good content, mostly aimed at high income earners plus some content specific to medical doctors [3] - A variety of books - there are a lot of good ones out there 1. https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics 2. https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics#wiki_graphi… 3. https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/new-to-the-blog-start-here/

I realize this headline is meant to be inflammatory (look at those entitled people who get it all!), but this practice already exists for medical doctors: http://whitecoatinvestor.com/personal-finance/the-doctor-mortgage-loan… Basically: "you're about to have a high income and—as a class—have a very low default rate. We'll let you put 0% down and not count your student debt against you". Usually before you get your first paycheck (just need to show them the contract). FWIW I'd argue that tech workers are—financially speaking—much more varied than doctors, who generally exit residency, get a position (sometimes in a new city) and see their income skyrocket. So I can't say this is perhaps as justifiable an idea as it is for new doctors, but I can buy the rationale for certain workers. If you're in the boat of "I could afford a mortgage around here, but would take years to save a huge downpayment on these prices", the doctor mortgage can be a great thing. Not least of all because it's not always savvy to make a big downpayment: http://themortgagereports.com/18520/20-percent-downpayment-risk-mortga…

Doctors don't seem to be driving the majority of the costs. After adjusting for inflation, doctors don't make much more than they did in 1984, yet the percentage of GDP spent on healthcare has almost doubled since then (and the real GDP has also doubled in that time). For example, see [1] where a general surgeon made an average of $118,689 in 1984 and a family practitioner $84,256. This would be $358k and $254k in 2024 dollars. Today in 2024 they make on average $423k and $272k respectively [2]. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4192917/ [2] https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/how-much-do-doctors-make/

Learn statistics, or talk to more doctors. https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/how-much-do-doctors-make/

Here is the list of programs for those interested. https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/not-so-common-debt-forgiveness/

> That said, it is certainly not the case that US doctors average $1m/yr in salary. There are some doctors that make that much or more, and different specializations make different salaries on average, but the overall average is more like $225k/yr. The average primary care physician makes $265K/year. Among specialists, the average is $382K/year. Not sure where where you're getting an "overall average" of $225K. In fact, the blended average is $352K/year. Source: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/how-much-do-doctors-make/

On some quick googling the mean debt at graduation from medical school is about 250,000 (this includes undergrad). This number is trending upward. There is also the opportunity cost of 4 years additional school and 3-7 years of getting paid 60-70k. Most doctors end up making between 265k and 382k per year, this varies wildly (from pediatrician on the low end to brain surgeon on the high end). Here is a good article: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/how-much-do-doctors-make/

"Residents can work up to an average of 80 hours per week. The aforementioned general surgeons work an average of 60.78 hours. Meanwhile, orthopedic surgeons work an average of 54.17 hours per week, and plastic surgeons operate just under 50 hours per week." https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/how-many-hours-do-doctors-work/#:~:t…

The "Catch" with whole life is the expected returns are lower than term life coupled with clean, insurance free investment. You also have a entire industry of sales people spreading misinformation about how the policies work: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/debunking-the-myths-of-whole-life-in…

I just learned about Direct Primary Care a few weeks ago from the White Coat Investor podcast [1]. The doctor interviewed does a direct pass-through on lab expenses. MRI's get done for hundreds (not thousands or tens of thousands) of dollars, basic blood work costs single dollars (and I think one common test was under $1). It's a whole different world of medical care in which your medical insurance becomes more like every other insurance product out there - only used for significant events not the mundane day-to-day stuff. [1] https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/what-is-direct-primary-care-podcast-…

Seems like yes? https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/expense-ratios/

Spouse of a third year resident here. My wife has volunteered at several primary care (i.e. generic doctor) clinics in Manhattan and nearby area (Queens, Astoria, Brooklyn and even in Boundbrook, NJ). These are all owned by the doctors. She worked in all kinds of operations of a clinic from billing, sending prescription, taking patient history, etc. Back-of-the-napkin calculation based on my wife's experience -- if you are a primary care (generic) doctor in a highly populated area and you see ~40 patients a day and each patient pays $100/visit. $100 * 40 patients * 22 days per month of work * 12 months = $1056000 (about $1 million USD) We are using $100/patient/visit and that's being very conservative. Most of these doctors would encourage the staff/volunteers who do the billing to put as many relevant billing codes as possible in the system (e.g., if someone comes in with a cough, they'll try to bill for anything related to cough symptom although they already knew it's just for seasonal allergy). This is necessary also because a lot (not all) of the patients are on medicare/aid and the reimbursement from medicare/aid is not as good as the ones from the private insurance companies. The cost of the labor is mostly just one assistant or at most two for ~$20-$30/hour max. Not sure about the insurance cost (but we assume that it would cost ~$20-$30K/year for malpractice insurance?) and renting the clinic (some docs do own the clinic). All in all, we believe that having your…