By Dr. Jim Dahle, WCI FounderThe White Coat Investor turns 10 years old today, so we're going to be celebrating this milestone for the rest of the month. Happy Birthday to us! What a long, crazy journey it has been! None of this would be possible without you, the White Coat Investor community, so thank you today for your trust, loyalty, and support.
Early Days of the White Coat Investor
Here are the first words that showed up on this site:
“Welcome to The White Coat Investor. The blog and site are just getting off the ground. I want the site to have quality static pages independent of any future blog posts, so I've really been working hard on those for now. I've been learning a lot about blog software, widgets, plug-ins, affiliate agreements, advertising, and PayPal as I assemble the various pieces of what I hope will become a successful blog for busy physicians interested in managing their financial affairs well. I've finished the about page, contact page, books page, and websites page. I hope to work on the various static tax and investment pages over the next week. So take a look around and see if you can find anything useful.”
That was pretty much it. The entire first post. As you can see from the first post, it was a business from day one. Didn't make any money in 2011, though, and hardly any in 2012. It probably wasn't worth the time and effort I was putting into it until at least 2014 or 2015 and didn't surpass my clinical income until 2016, the year I went from full-time to 3/4 time. The “static pages” were a dumb idea, too. I think the blog got a little better after that first post, and its readership grew and grew. Here's what the first five years looked like:
Many of you have never seen what the site looked like originally. Here's an example from its first week:
First Subscriber
Just for fun, I went back to find our first subscriber. Dr. Josh Laird subscribed on May 19, 2011, two days after the blog started. That's a full four days before my mother even subscribed. (Funny story, if you fell for the 4/1/21 story about “My New Tesla“, don't feel bad. My parents didn't realize I hadn't really bought one until a phone call a week later.) I asked Josh to share a few words about his relationship with The White Coat Investor over the last decade:
The First White Coat Investors!
“Back when I first subscribed to WCI I was about to finish medical school. At that point in time I had over $230K in school loan debt. I was highly stressed over this amount of debt and sought sources other than what was available at my medical school to have a plan of attack to discharge this debt. I had joined the Bogleheads forum which was an incredible tool but also very intimidating. I came across several of Jim's posts which seemed to resonate with me.
Once WCI was started, I immediately jumped ship in preference of a website with curated content and easily searchable topics. WCI helped me to build my financial knowledge tremendously. I was able to knock out that debt in 2 years after residency. By following the principles of WCI, I have been able to build my net worth to close to 7 figures easily and reduce my financial stress. I was also able to knowledgeably pick disability insurance and avoid high fee financial advisors. I even avoided buying a whole life policy!
After reading the website posts for years I'm still surprised that Jim is able to find topics that are relevant to me and keep us on the right track. I'm also shocked at how large the empire has become. Thanks to Jim and all of the WCI team for everything you guys do. Keep up the amazing work.”
The Timeline
For those who are relatively new to The White Coat Investor, let's go over a timeline of all the fun stuff that has happened with it over the last decade.
- May 2011: Blog is Born!
- December 2011: Started Twitter and Facebook page
- January 2012: First made >$1,000 in a single month
- January 2012: First speaking gig (Detroit), made $500 for 2+ days of time
- January 2012: Mentioned on CNN– 28,000 pageviews in a single day, not exceeded for 6 more years
- February 2012: First Newsletter sent out
- September 2012: Clinical partners aware of WCI and supportive
- March 2013: Formed an LLC
- October 2013: Attended FinCon and learned how online entrepreneurship works
- November 2013: First made > $5,000 in a single month
- January 2014: The White Coat Investor book published
- September 2014: Hired Cindy (Business Manager)
- January 2015: Gave half the business away to Katie
- February 2015: Hired kids as models
- May 2015: Started the WCI Scholarship
- June 2015: Afton (model # 4) born
- September 2015: First had 100,000 users on the site in a single month
- October 2015: Major Site Redesign
- October 2015: WCI Forum started
- January 2016: Dropped night shifts, a major motivation for me to work, save, and invest
- August 2016: Cut back to 3/4 time clinically
- January 2017: Incorporated
- January 2017: Started the WCI Podcast
- March 2017: Youtube channel started
- March 2017: WCI Network started- Physician on FIRE joins
- May 2017: Dahles pay off their mortgage
- November 2017: WCI earns > $1 million in a single year
- November 2017: Passive Income MD joins WCI Network
- January 2018: Hired Jill (Content)
- January 2018: Fire Your Financial Advisor online course launched
- February 2018: Dahles achieve financial independence
- March 2018: First WCICON in Park City
- June 2018: WCI Subreddit started
- July 2018: Hired Michelle (Social Media)
- August 2018: WCI Facebook Group Started
- August 2018: Cut back to 1/2 time clinically
- October 2018: Started Pinterest and Instagram accounts
- January 2019: First hit 1 million pageviews in a single month
- February 2019: Financial Boot Camp book published
- April 2019: Financial Educator Award begun
- April 2019: The Physician Philosopher joins the WCI Network
- May 2019: Hired Wendel (audio/video)
- November 2019: Episode of severe blogger burnout, almost quit
- March 2020: Hired Brett (COO), first full-time staff member
- March 2020: WCICON Las Vegas
- March 2020: CFE 2020 online course launched
- May 2020: Hired Chrislyn (Conferences)
- July 2020: Hired James (CTO)
- September 2020: Hired Emily (Books, Content)
- October 2020: White Coat Investor pre-med scholarship fund endowed
- January 2021: New WCI 401(k)
- January 2021: Guide for Students book published
- January 2021: Hired Andrew (Student Loans)
- February 2021: Financial Wellness and Burnout Prevention Course launched (CME for FYFA)
- February 2021: Milestones to Millionaire Podcast
- March 2021: WCICON21 is a smashing success as a virtual conference
- March 2021: > $1 million in books given away to medical students
- March 2021: CFE 2021 online course launched
- April 2021: Launched StudentLoanAdvice.com
- April 2021: Hired Lauren (SEO)
- May 2021: Launched the White Coat Investor Store
- May 2021: 10-Year Anniversary
Whew! I'm exhausted just putting that all together. It's been a wild ride for sure.
Advertisers
We also wanted to take a moment to say thank you to our longest-term advertisers:
- Josh Mettle (Mortgages)
- FPL Capital Management (Financial advice and retirement plans)
- MR Insurance Consultants (Disability insurance)
All three of them have been with us for over 9 of our 10 years of existence! Thanks for your support. You know a company has top-notch products and services when it can span a decade serving thousands of White Coat Investors who continue to refer them to friends, colleagues, and family.
Free WCI Swag!
As part of our celebration this week, we're going to be doing some giveaways and some special promotions. There will be some great WCI swag from the WCI Store given away every day across all of our platforms, and one grand prize winner will even receive a WCI online course of their choice. Winners will all be announced on this blog on Tuesday, May 25th.
Daily Contests
If you want more chances to win, be sure to participate across all of our platforms.
- Today's contest is super easy to enter. All you have to do is leave a comment below this post talking about how WCI has helped you over the years. We'll select three winners to get a free WCI T-shirt.
- Tuesday: We'll select three winners from among those who sign up for the free WCI Newsletter on Tuesday. They will each get a WCI Journal, WCI Pen, and WCI Sticker of their choice.
- Wednesday: Post on Instagram describing how WCI has helped you over the years. Include the tag #wcianniversary and you'll be entered to win one of three sets of all three WCI books.
- Thursday: We'll be giving away a WCI Yeti Tumbler to three people who leave a review of the WCI Podcast on Apple Podcasts on Thursday.
- Friday: We'll be giving away a free WCI T-shirt to three people on Twitter. All you have to do to enter is post how WCI has helped you over the years and include the hashtag #wcianniversary.
- Saturday: Lest those who prefer Facebook to Twitter feel left out, it's the same deal. Post on Facebook (not in the WCI Facebook group) how WCI has helped you over the years and include the hashtag #wcianniversary to enter to win one of three WCI T-shirts.
- Sunday: This is Forum Day. There will be one thread on the WCI Forum, one thread on the WCI Subreddit, and one thread in the WCI Facebook Group. Post how WCI has helped you over the years in that thread and you'll be entered to win a WCI T-shirt.
- Monday: Watch the Milestones to Millionaire video posted on Youtube this day, subscribe to the WCI Youtube channel, and leave a comment on that video to enter to win one of three WCI T-shirts.
Grand Prize
The grand prize winner (WCI online course of your choice) will be chosen from all of the other winners. 8 Contests to enter. 24 chances to win. Enter them all to maximize your opportunities, then watch the blog next week to see if you won.
What do you think? Want some free swag? How long have you been reading The White Coat Investor? How has WCI helped you over the years? What has been the biggest surprise to you?
Happy Ten Years! The knowledge I’ve gained from this website has helped me rapidly pay back student debt and invest in the future for me, my spouse, and our children. The blog has also helped me avoid being sold bad financial product and waste my hard-earned income on unnecessary fees and expenses. Thanks for everything you do! Keep it up!
I can’t begin to express how much WCI has help me get out of the clutches of being taken advantage of by Northwestern Mutual and getting out of whole life insurance and out of $31,000 in credit card debt. But not only that but after taking the Fire Your financial advisor course I have a written financial plan and am feel very confident about accomplishing happiness now and for the rest of my life. My family and I are forever indebted!
WCI blog and podcast is heaven sent for all physician’s and physician spouses for life and personal finances. The information, examples, and suggested links are a tremendous value. I have recommended and referred so many other high income earners to WCI and it has been positively life changing. I really appreciate all of their candid and trust worthy information for us financial and life learners. Thank you for giving back!
Thanks so much, and Happy Anniversary! I have been following your blog for about a year now, and I have taken the Fire your Financial Planner course. You have helped me take over my finances and really understand them. I went from paying AUM fees for having someone manage my money to doing it all myself, and I am so happy about it. (Of course the interesting part is that the financial advisor I fired was my sister; she wasn’t too happy with me at first, but now she is glad that I have learned so much!) Keep up the great work!
Congratulations Jim. It’s been a wonderful ride. Sincerely, Jim
Prior to WCI, I knew that saving for retirement was important, but I had no idea HOW to do it. All the different account types and investment options seemed very intimidating at the time. Thanks to WCI, I now know what I’m doing, have a written IPS, and have a net worth of 1.5mil, 7 years out of training. Thank you so much!
Congrats! You’re ahead of where we were 7 years out!
WCI congrats. That is incredible. I have learned so much from your site and your podcasts and youtube channel. We have read the books and joined conferences. I have tried many other sites and podcasts but your is still the “GO TO”. I wish there was table of contents for all your info. Our kids even know your name. Thanks for the years of help and all the recommendations. I do feel like you are on our side!
I was about to step into an relationship with a financial advisor that would have benefited him greatly. I was fortunate to have a thought to search for a review of this financial advisor days before we were to meet. I was horrified. That search lead to an introduction to the Bogleheads and then to WCI. I probably only use 20% of what WCI teaches but its 100% of what I need.
Thanks fo distilling the important personal finance concepts into a usable format and then repeating them ad nauseam until they become applicable and until I can understand them.
I found the WCI network during my senior year of residency. I was earning small amounts of money in Amazon gift cards by watching presentations on QuantiaMD when I came across several interesting financial presentations by Jim Dahle. I enjoyed his presentations so much I decided to buy his book. I liked his book so much I decided to follow his website. I liked his website so much I decided to attend his conferences. Thanks to all of the information I have learned since then, I was able to pay off over $400,000 in student loans 3 years after residency, reach a net worth of $1 million 4 and 1/2 years out of residency, and start a lecture series on finance and wellness for medical students and residents. Thank you to Jim, the Dahle Family, WCI employees, WCI members, and everyone else involved with this amazing project! It has changed my life for the better as well as countless others, and it will continue to do so long into the future!
Glad that time I spent putting those QuantiaMD presentations was worthwhile for at least one person!
Congratulations WCI. In the past 10 years, the baseline financial literacy of the average physician has multiplied at the same rate of his business, because of his business.
I started reading in 2011 after Jim posted on the Military Medicine forum of SDN, “I started this blog about personal finance for doctors, check it out if you’re interested.” I mostly went to the website everyday for months before I realized it would be easier to subscribe and get sent an email whenever there was a new post.
In 2012 I sent Jim an email asking whether I should do the new Roth TSP or stick with conventional (chose Roth). The next year I left the military and utilized the advertisers for DI quotes.
Though I do have a forum account and have been to one WCICON, I’m mostly just a lurker. I just can’t get into all this new-fangled social media. I was really intrigued in the early years by the voyeuristic look into all the details of the Dahle family and WCI finances, and was kind of sad when the money got really good and he closed the books on us.
I have not yet reached FI, and I just can’t bring myself to start a side-hustle. I like the idea of FIRE, but I also like nice things and have many children. I did make an ill-advised foray into private real estate based on the blog; we will see how that turns out.
Thank you for your advice and entertainment over the years. You have earned and deserve every penny of your empire.
That crazy level of hypertransparency was a lot of fun while it lasted, wasn’t it? But both potential personal and business factors made it impossible to maintain.
Hi Jim,
Thanks for everything that you do! I was in my 2nd year in residency when WCI was born and the mission really resonated with me. I have been following all the WCI commandments and general advice as well as educating myself with other books/websites(Bogleheads, etc). My milestones, heavily due to WCI are as follows:
2013-Graduated residency with ~25k in 401k and savings. No debt due to parents funding education.
2017- Hit the $1M mark in net worth due to living like a ‘resident.’ Saved/invested approximately 50-60% of my gross pay.
2020- Hit the $2M mark in net worth. Continuing to live like a resident, but starting to loosen the purse springs a little bit.
2021 and beyond – Hoping to have enough to FIRE by 45($5M); still have a few years left to invest wisely and continue being a disciple of WCI.
Tremendously enjoy the blog; and my numbers are based on a primary care doc ‘hustling’; but just a combination of regular ‘w2’ work and 1099 locuming on the side. If I can do what I did just by following the general guidelines, it really shows how powerful these principles are. Live like a resident, carve out a good chunk of your income to investing, have a plan, and ‘buy/splurge’ on things that make you happy.
Pretty simple formula. Thank you Jim and enjoy continued success on WCI!
Your website helped encourage me to get disability insurance as a resident. Thank you!
It was 2016 and I had just started fellowship in the military. My wife came across your blog through a FB forum. Although we had no debt due to HPSP, we were newlyweds with barely 40K in emergency funds and no real assets otherwise. We had no formal education on finances. After spending a few hours a week learning about finances through your website, we started following the guides.
Now it’s 2021 and we are rapidly approaching a net worth of 500K. We save 20% of our gross income and invest in a three fund portfolio via Roth TSP, backdoor Roth IRA x2, and taxable account. We still live very much like residents because honestly a resident’s salary is more than enough. Given your sage advice, we were able to avoid the “whole life” peddlers and stayed off the hedonistic treadmill. We are on our way to likely be “super savers” once I am out of the military and have a private practice job.
I am thankful every day that my wife was smart enough to recommend your website. You truly did help get us a “fair shake” that we deserve.
Congrats, Jim.
You’ve obviously done an outstanding job of building WCI. By any measure.
I was struggling to get out my message to fellow physicians and still am. I’m so glad you came along and achieved the vision I glimpsed back in 2006. I never had the ambition or ability to do 1/10th of what you have done. Still don’t. You should be very proud of what you have created.
I too got exhausted just reading the list of milestones. And I didn’t even do them!
My wife used to hate it when I read investing and personal finance books. I would scream “no” “that’s terrible advice” “ugh, horrendous.” Then I read your first book when it came out. I yelled “yes” “that’s right” “I agree.”
She and I were amazed and I’ve been a fan of your work ever since.
We found WCI in med school or early residency and made it a priority to pay off all student loans during residency. Now we have a written investment plan that we prioritize before any major spending, which includes maxing out our tax-advantaged accounts, and we’re on track to hit our FI number within the next few years. We love WCI!
Hi Jim,
I discovered your site several months ago when my cousin told me he was moving back to Utah and was looking for ED positions. I knew you were practicing somewhere in Utah and started searching for you to give him a referral. I found WCI in the process of searching for your personal contact info. In the end I had to have my mom reach out to your mom to get your personal #. =) I was glad to hear that my cousin, Nelson Diamond, MD, ended up getting hired by your group.
That personal stuff aside, I started reading your website and subscribed to the WCI blog and newsletter. I read your WCI book. As the administrator for a group of physicians, although I do not have the income of our physicians, I still do well financially and have learned a lot of valuable lessons on how to further improve my personal financial health through WCI. I have shared this information with the physicians in our group so they can also learn from the information WCI is presenting. I know that by having physicians who are financially stable it makes our practice a lot more stable because they are not as stressed out about finances, leading to less turnover and more job satisfaction. This leads to better patient care and better business success for us as a practice.
Always great to hear from you Aaron. Nelson is going to make a great addition to our group. Another personal connection with him is he was best friends with a canyoneering buddy of mine. Even without those connections, he was an obvious top choice and we’re lucky to have him.
Sorry if all your docs are now negotiating harder with you for higher pay!
Jim,
Thank you a million times over. I discovered your site after completing residency 4 years ago, when I didn’t have any clue as to how to manage $420,000 of student debt, save for a down payment for a house, automate retirement savings, shop for term life, etc. Your site and your Fire your Financial Advisor course have put me on the right track, and as equally important, taken most of the stress out of my finances. I used to lose sleep over my lack of financial plan, but now I know if I “stay the course”, it’ll all work out just fine. Thanks again and cheers to another decade!
Holy cow, I can’t even begin to tell you what a positive impact WCI has had on my family’s financial life. Just this month, you helped us save about $11,000 on our mortgage over the next 5 years by re-running an old refinancing post and prompting me to finally refinance. Over the past 5-6 years that I’ve been reading, I’ve fired our financial advisor, taken control of our investments, rolled over our traditional IRAs, started backdoor Roths, moved our 529s, and a lot more. Your help and advice has been amazing!
I am new, and so far the biggest influence WCI has had is my shift in mind set. We are still in Med school but looking forward to more lucrative days and making some well informed choices in the future!
Thank you for all you do to help this community. As a lowly pediatrician with an educator husband, We have been able to become financially independent at the age of 51 despite many mistakes through the years including credit card use, big mortgage, expensive car payment, and waiting much longer to pay off loans than I should have. We are now contemplating retirement vs. slowing down within the next 5 years and are financially set for either.
You sound like you’d be a great guest on the Milestones to Millionaire podcast. Consider applying:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSen5lNsP_9Hgg5wLgL8l-TQiBREbS8jRpjVm_eBOeEuIgrMjQ/viewform
I am definitely considering that!
WCI made me realize how Edward Jones was taking advantage of me and that investing is simple and boring. Finding this out early in my career was crucial.
WCI has helped me make better decisions with my money and my life. Everything I do I check here first to make sure I am making the right decision.
Love this – thank you!!! WCI has been so incredibly helpful for me over the past couple of years! From catching up on the podcast episodes, as well as reading several thorough and insightful articles on the blog, my husband and I have learned to FIRE our “financial advisor” (pun intended), set up term life and disability insurance through Dr. Disability Quotes (Adam has been awesome to work with!), and learned to invest through our retirement accounts and HSAs. I’ve recently started projects to help other PAs as well on their financial journeys! Thank you for your hard work and for sharing your wealth of knowledge over the years. Congrats on 10 years!
I almost made the mistake of signing on with them. Couldn’t believe the big mistake I almost made.