James M Dahle MD - The White Coat Investor: A Doctors Guide To Personal Finance And Investing

Amazon is currently offering over four million books for sale. I am confident that this one is not the best written or the most entertaining of those offerings. However, if you are like many of my readers, spending just a few hours with this book will eventually increase your net worth by hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars. The information contained in this book is not secret. In fact, it isnt even complicated. After you read it, much of it will seem like common sense to you. However, the fact remains that you have spent twenty to thirty years in school and training for your career, and nobody has ever taught you what this book will teach you.

You are probably a lot like me. You are well educated, reasonably intelligent, and either already earning a six-figure income or soon will be. You are a medical or dental student, a resident, a dentist, a doctor, an attorney, a business owner, or other type of high-income professional. You are, or soon will be, an expert in your field. However, you often find yourself a little bit embarrassed by your lack of financial acumen. You have probably already been taken advantage of by an insurance agent, a stockbroker, a financial planner, a realtor, a banker, or a lender once or twice in your life due to your lack of financial knowledge. You may not know the difference between a Roth IRA and a 401(k). You are not really sure what you can and cannot deduct on your tax return. You know you should be saving for retirement and your childrens college but have no idea what step to take next to reach that goal.

If you are like many high-income professionals, you are willing to pay someone else to handle all these things for you. However, you are worried that you are either paying too much for good advice, or worse, not getting good advice at all. Chances are that you are right to worry. Most self-styled financial advisors charge too much or give bad advice. Even if they are a distinct minority, there are still plenty of good advisors out there, and this book will teach you how to find them and hire them at a fair price.

If you, like me, would prefer to save the thousands of dollars per year that you will pay for good advice, this book will get you started down the path of managing your personal finances and investments on your own, and provide plenty of unbiased resources that will provide the continuing financial education you need to competently manage your own financial affairs with only occasional input from financial professionals.

Sometimes, high-income professionals, and doctors in particular, are a little bit embarrassed to talk about money. Getting rich was not our motivation for choosing our profession. However, physicians receive a high income for a reason and certainly should not feel a need to apologize for it. Your high income alone will not automatically lead to financial success. You must convert your high income into a high net worth in order to become financially independent, enjoy a comfortable retirement, and support both your loved ones and your favorite charitable causes. This book will teach you how to do that.

I graduated from medical school in 2003. Up until that point, I had earned less than $40,000 in my entire life. When I came out of emergency medicine residency in 2006, I had a five-figure net worth. I did not have the typical student loan burden, but I did owe four years of my time to the military, which paid me an income below the 5 th percentile for my specialty for four years. This time debt was the equivalent of a few hundred thousand dollars in student loans. My spouse, a stay-at-home mother, and I saved a good chunk of our money, invested it in a reasonable manner, paid down our debts, and by 2013, when I was thirty-eight and she was thirty-five, we were pleased that we had become millionaires. There was nothing hard about what we did and absolutely no reason why you cannot do the same.

Medicine is not, nor has it ever been, the pathway to becoming ridiculously wealthy. However, despite increasing educational costs, decreasing reimbursement, and increasing compliance and liability hassles, medicine can still be a pathway to the good life. Whats the good life? My definition is a life free from financial worries, a career where you make a real contribution to society, a few luxuries along the way, the ability to help others financially throughout your life, and a comfortable retirement at a time of your choosing. Does that sound good to you? Then turn the page and get started.

Brilliantly simple advice for physicians. Much of my financial planning practice is helping doctors to correct mistakes that reading this book would have avoided in the first place.

Allan S. Roth , MBA, CPA, CFP

Author, How a Second Grader Beats Wall Street

A very practical book for physicians (and others) who want a simple, easy-to-follow guide to financial success.

Taylor Larimore

Co-author of The Bogleheads Guide to Investing

Invaluable practical advice about careers and money! This book should be in every career counselors office and delivered with every medical degree.

Rick Van Ness

Author of Common Sense Investing

"This book should be mandatory for anyone in the healthcare field. With its straight forward approach to tackling debt and laying out a financial plan for the future, this book saves the young doctor thousands of dollars and years of trying to figure this stuff out for themselves."

Jeff Anzalone , DDS

Author of What They Don't Teach You in Dental School

"An excellent practical personal finance guide for physicians in training and in practice from a non biased source we can actually trust."

Greg E Wilde , M.D

Jim Dahle has done for physician financial illiteracy what penicillin did for neurosyphilis."

Dennis Bethel , MD

A book that will permanently be on my bookshelf next to my medical texts.

Pamela Summers , MD

"I finally have the knowledge and confidence to say goodbye to my overpriced financial advisor. Thank you."

Todd Bethel , M.D.

This book is a must read for physicians and residents. I will be giving it as a gift to my physician friends, and as a graduation present when their kids are considering the field of medicine.

W. Devin Wolf , CFP

A critical resource for the physician who wants to go it alone or for those who want a deeper understanding of knowledge in physician-specific personal finance.

Joshua D. Nix , MBA

"A fascinating book on financial literacy that should be required reading for both physicians and non-physicians alike. Highly recommended!"

Michael Woo-Ming , MD

Founder, IncomeMD.com

"This is the book I'd like to force-feed physicians and other white coats.

Jim Ludwick , CFP

A complete roadmap to personal financial success."

Jeff Steiner DO,

Author, The Physician's Guide to Personal Finance

This book is a financial guide Id like all of my clients to read. It provides an easy outline for financial success that nearly anyone can follow.

Alex R. Foster

A great book for a physician in any stage in their career. I wish I had this book when I started medical school!

Joshua Smith , MD/MBA

The White Coat Investor provides an expert consult for your finances. I now feel confident I can be a millionaire at 40 without feeling like a jerk.

Joe Jones , DO

"The path to financial success and independence is pretty much the same for all people - earn a good wage, live below your means and invest wisely. However, such broad advice can be lost in the details of actual life and choices. This book does an excellent job specifically explaining how to optimize the choices faced by physicians and others who undergo similar training pipelines."