By Dr. James M. Dahle, WCI Founder
Feedback, especially negative feedback, is gold in a business like The White Coat Investor. So, we are extremely appreciative of the 3,096 people who filled out our annual survey. Thank you! We learned a lot (including how to better write survey questions to make them easier to answer and to make the data more useful). In today's post, I'd like to share some of that anonymized data that I think you might find interesting.
Who Are You?
First, let's talk about the audience.
Ninety-nine percent of you live in the United States. There are people from every state. Of that 1%, 15 other countries were named, ranging from Canada to Belgium and from Japan to Tanzania.
You range from 20-89 years old. Eighty-four percent of you are currently married, and 71.7% are male and 27.6% female, which surprised me given that our Google Analytics data tells us we're 62%/38%. Either that data is bad, or men were more likely to fill out the survey.
Those who are working make up 79% of readership with 13% in training and 8% retired.
What do you do for a living? Take a look:
Yes, that's right, 13 pages worth of different professions. No surprise to see that 71% of you are physicians and 8% dentists, but I was surprised to see that there were just as many pharmacists as dentists. Maybe we need to do some more pharmacy-specific content. Other professions ranged from pilots to physical therapists to financial planners to probation officers. Every specialty of medicine and dentistry seemed to be well-represented.
Your Finances
Let's talk now about your financial issues.
Most of you are employees:
Many of you have student loans:
But most of you are paying them off fast:
We were disappointed to see that half of you still don't have a written financial plan:
I should be more positive, though. I mean, 48% of you do have a written financial plan, and that still leaves 52% of the audience to whom we can sell the Fire Your Financial Advisor course!
A majority of you are in a two-earner household:
Most of you make pretty good money:
More than a quarter of you are making $500,000-plus but close to one-third are making less than $250,000.
You're pretty wealthy folks, too:
Probably because you don't spend anywhere near what you're earning:
This doesn't surprise us at all, though, as we've been in the upper end of the yellow for a long time ourselves despite earning considerably more. (Sorry about leaving the $200,000-$300,000 range out of this question. Presumably, most of you in that range chose yellow; we'll do better next year.)
Almost 1 out of 5 of you are financially independent:
Although few of you seem to have any desire to really FIRE at a super young age.
Only about 1 out of 8 of you wants to retire before 50, although I guess the data is a little confusing due to our typo.
I talk about doing your own taxes a lot, but most of you pay someone to prepare yours:
How You Invest
The data shows that:
- 99% of you own stocks
- 76% of you own bonds
- 56% of you own real estate
- 18% of you own crypto assets of some type
- 13% of you own small business investments
- 7% of you own precious metals
- 5% of you own collectibles
- 3% of you own commodities
- 2% of you own options
In the last year, the following percentages of you have invested money into the following types of investments:
- Index funds: 89%
- Passive real estate: 28%
- Individual stocks or options: 27%
- Actively managed mutual funds: 17%
- Direct real estate: 16%
- Crypto assets: 15%
- Individual bonds: 14%
Asset allocation ranges from 0% stocks to 100% stocks, with an average of 83%
Real estate allocations range from 0% to 90%, with an average of 9%.
Most of you are DIY asset managers.
I guess that's not too surprising. I suspect if we could somehow survey everyone who came by the site, not just those dedicated enough to fill out the survey, that might reverse.
Lots of you do Backdoor Roth IRAs each year:
But you're certainly not alone if you don't. In fact, the most popular reason people don't contribute is that they don't have to:
- I contribute directly: 33%
- I don't know how to do it: 23%
- I am concerned about potential consequences: 15%
- One of several dozen other reasons: 26%
Most of you carry disability insurance:
I suspect most of those who don't are either FI and don't need it or cannot qualify for it, so I'm pretty happy with that statistic. Again, I suspect the number is significantly lower among casual users who would not fill out a survey.
This one surprised me though:
That's right, 11% of you have a whole life insurance policy. Which is unfortunate, since other surveys I've done show that 75% of those who have purchased a policy regret it.
Burnout Is Really Bad
You have probably noticed our recent push over the last couple of years into more burnout prevention and treatment through courses and coaching, including our new Burnout Proof MD support program. While you can buy disability insurance, you can't buy burnout insurance. Even among white coat investors, the burnout rate is really high.
Looks like we need to continue to focus heavily there to make sure white coat investors stay mentally healthy. We know mental wellness is what leads to a long, fruitful financial life, and we’ll continue to talk about burnout because keeping up with your mental health is such an important part of everybody’s financial journey.
Content and Your Habits
We asked you how you prefer to consume content in general. This is what you said:
- Blogs: 76%
- Podcasts: 70%
- Books: 61%
- Forums: 28%
- Online courses: 26%
- Facebook groups: 21%
- E-books: 21%
- Social media: 19%
- Virtual conferences: 19%
- Newspapers and magazines: 19%
- Live conferences: 16%
I guess I was surprised to see conferences and courses as high as they are. I guess we'll keep producing them! I was also surprised to see Forums come in so far ahead of Facebook Groups and social media in general. You guys know we have a WCI Forum, right? And that dramatically fewer people participate there than in the WCI Facebook group? You should check it out.
When it comes to social media, though, Facebook still reigns supreme. These are the percentages of you that use each platform:
- Facebook: 58%
- YouTube: 51%
- Instagram: 39%
- Twitter: 23%
- Reddit: 20%
- WhatsApp: 14%
- LinkedIn: 14%
- Snapchat: 6%
- TikTok: 5%
- Pinterest: 4%
- Nothing: 2%
A few surprises for me there, but perhaps the most surprising was that only 2% are on nothing at all. Instagram also surprised me. I guess maybe we should put even more effort there. We're actually on all of these but WhatsApp (which I thought was only a messaging app anyway) and Snapchat (hard to put a lot of effort into content that disappears the next day). I think we might have a TikTok channel, but if I couldn't find it, you probably can't either. It's kind of a no-win situation. If I don't dance, nobody will follow. If I do dance, nobody will follow. Thanks for following us wherever you do, though!
You and WCI
It was interesting to find out how you all found WCI. Lots of you have been here so long you can't remember, but of those who do, this is what you said:
Most of you “stumbled” in here while searching for something, but a significant chunk is simply word of mouth. Plus, giving out WCI books is also a great way to introduce people to the community.
Seven percent of you claim to have been here from the beginning. I don't think I believe you, given how much bigger it got in years 2-4 (apparently, nobody started following then!). Still, there are an awful lot of people who have been with us for a long time. Thank you! The great thing about long-term readers is they know your heart and they are more forgiving of your mistakes.
When it comes to what you guys actually use, this is what you say:
The fascinating thing about this to me is how little overlap there is between our audiences. While 69% listen to the podcast and 68% read the monthly newsletter, those are not the same 68%. Facebook groupers may not read the blog, and Forum users may never visit the subreddit. Those on “the gram” may not use Twitter at all. I think this poll does give a lot of insight into who fills out the survey, though. The number of registered WCI Facebook group members is 10X that of registered forum users, but the percentages here are similar. To be fair, you don't have to join the forum to lurk, but you do with the FB group.
The virtual conference format is also surprisingly popular. I guess we'll have to keep doing that! I was surprised how few like the Milestones podcast compared to the regular podcast, given that our most popular episodes of the regular podcast were the ones that were basically like the milestones podcasts!
Connecting You with the Good Guys
Thirty-nine percent of you have used a resource we recommend (i.e., an advertiser). I guess that's no surprise given that only 1.3% do not trust our recommendations:
This was an interesting question to ask. We gave you the option of “yes,” “no,” and “other” and ended up with 13 pages of “other” responses, which ranged from “I clicked ‘other' so I could say ‘Absolutely'” to “trust but verify” to “I don't feel I need them” to “not if there is a kickback involved.” There was actually a ton of great feedback in those responses that we will incorporate.
New Topics
We asked people about content they would like to see. There were tons of responses, but some trends include:
- Estate planning
- Crypto assets
- Spending and investing in retirement
- Real estate investing
- Taxes
There were also a lot of fun suggestions like getting Peter Kim and Mike Piper to debate, surrogacy/IVF costs (any volunteers for a guest post?), and living morally when wealthy. Some also want to hear more about my vacations, for some reason. Then, everyone wants more content aimed directly at them. “More for medical students.” “More for PAs.” “More for retirees.” “More for veterinarians.” “More crypto.” “Less crypto.” “More basics.” “More alternatives.” There were at least two years of blog posts and podcast suggestions in that response! Including some topics I had to Google just to know what they were. Pure gold. Keep them coming. Mostly, people wanted more, more, more. But we also got this sort of feedback from many people:
“Too much content will turn your blog into KevinMD which has become superfluous (like bringing in a bunch of new authors). The important stuff gets diluted down and harder to find/identify. Less frequent posts that are more content-rich yields interesting discussions in the comments and more devoted readership IMO.”
Less is certainly easier than more.
What You Like
We asked what you liked most about WCI. Here are the top responses:
- Honesty
- Trustworthy
- Podcasts
- Consistency
- Everything
- Easy
- Straightforward
- Practical
- Non-biased
- Great high-yield, no-fluff content
- Motivating
- Intelligent
- Transparency
You guys made me cry. Of course, nobody said I was funny. I always wanted to be funny. But I'm really not very funny. Except when I hide in my son's bed when he gets in the shower and then jump out and scare him out of his wits when he comes back to his room. That's funny, I don't care who you are.
Golden Feedback
We asked what we could do better. Most of you said some variation of “nothing.” Aaaahhh. You guys are so kind. A fair number said they wanted fewer ads. Nobody said “more ads” for some reason. Feedback about ads, promotions, products, etc., is really helpful. While we're a for-profit business (always have been and always will be), getting that balance right is really important. Sounds like we need to cut back even more on ads on the podcast and maybe the main site, too. We'll be talking about ways to do that. There were some other nuggets in there like these:
“Feel that standards and investment advice has changed over the years. As the site has become more prosperous, the topics have tilted towards the wealthier.”
Guilty as charged. Now you know why I have been trying to focus more on other WCIers rather than my own financial life.
“Please don’t get too polished. I know you’ve hired a team, and needed to, but keep the direct connection with the reader. Don’t develop the impersonal feel of a magazine.”
“Too many blog posts written by people other than WCI. I come here for his content primarily.”
“More guided conversations in FB group.”
“Comment on the WCI Forum more often.”
I'm not really sure what to do with those, but I'm still answering your emails personally, so that'll have to do, I guess. I certainly can't create all the content and steer all the FB group and Forum conversations. Plus, I want to make sure WCI can survive if I get hit by a bus.
“I feel like Jim has gotten a little too political on the podcast lately. I find myself rolling my eyes sometimes when he goes on his republican tangents.”
“I want to learn finances, not virtue signaling. Return to your religious roots and cut the crap about white privilege, racism, and sexism and having every sentence include “her”—it’s patronizing.
“I can do without the Lesbian articles. I like my financial information without a side of liberal wokeness.”
“Get more perspectives from older physicians that are toward end of career and what they struggle with but also include diverse viewpoints (gender/cultural).”
I'm probably not going to be able to make everyone happy. I guess I'll just be me and let the chips fall where they may. We're still going to push for more viewpoints on the blog and podcast, if for no other reason than so WCI doesn't die with me. But I think there are a lot of people out there who need the WCI message who won't hear it from me. Remember the term “white coat investor” refers to you, not me.
“Some political views don’t necessarily align with mine (I recognize that I lean far to the left), but can easily look past this and still really find the website helpful.”
I wish more were like you. Most of what I have ever learned I have learned from people who did not share my political views, religion, etc. The likelihood of someone's political views aligning with my weird mix is highly unlikely.
“More entertaining podcast.”
That's definitely not me. I'm not going to lie. I still can't believe anyone listens to my podcast. Heck, I can't listen to it myself. But we'll see what we can do.
“Tough to pin it down in a succinct manner but I feel like the recent episodes have a bit too much fluff. I know there’s a thought that WCI podcasts need to be more entertaining but I believe people who follow WCI follow it for Jim’s advice, insight, experience, and dry humor.”
Never mind, we'll keep it boring.
“Jim should stop saying he's not funny, I think he's hilarious :)”
You're weird.
“I think get rid of the salesy stuff. Jim used to be the guy you could send an email and he would reply 3 hours later at 3 in the morning! Still makes me smile. I don't suggest that continues as the site and following are too big. But it's the personal connection directly back to him with trust that sells this site.”
Now, I sleep at 3am. Weird, I know. FI will do that to you. You'll have to wait until 10am to get your emails returned.
Lots of Facebook Forum complaints like:
“Hard to search Facebook forum.”
Blame Zuckerberg.
“The Facebook group is so toxic. People shaming one another for their current step in their journey.”
Maybe blame Zuckerberg for that, too. Or blame yourselves. I dunno why people can't be nice online. It's weird.
“Social media (Facebook) . . . may be a bit too apt to kick out people who voice differing opinions or (allegedly) try to promote some outside product. (Allegedly, because I never get to see the post that people complain about having been removed or having gotten them banned.) WCI Facebook group gets a lot of bad press in other physicians’ groups on FB for these reasons. I would prefer it if the FB group tried to improve its public image by remembering what social media is about and trying to be more tolerant.”
Less moderation, got it.
“The FB group is not so great . . . lots of snarky people on there.”
“Filter FB posts. Too much redundancy.”
“The Facebook group can be redundant and individuals can make me feel negative toward the group as a whole. Very nice job of reducing this recently by WCI admins!”
More moderation, got it.
“More expert involvement in Facebook group.”
“Honestly, the people in the Facebook group are pretty annoying. Not sure if there's a way to better screen them but they continuously give terrible advice. Otherwise no complaints!”
“Better Facebook content.”
“#1 complaint is the FB group—the YOLOs, the terrible and inaccurate advice that a new doc/investor won’t recognize as bad advice (although this has greatly improved with extra moderators and the ban on speculative “investing” talk), and the guilt-tripping from people in the group about ‘the greedy rich' when topics like excessive taxation come up—these people clearly can’t relate to the years of life lost to intense training and shortened lifespan from shift work and stress. I have found the WCI Forum to be a much more useful place but I haven’t yet made it a habit to go there as often as the FB group.”
I'm all ears for a solution here. But I could literally spend 24 hours a day just reading and responding to posts in the WCI Facebook Group. I would hope that group members would have more expertise (and hopefully be less annoying) all the time. Maybe we could add more screening questions to get in the group: “Are you annoying? Do you give terrible advice? Will you just shut up and listen for the first six months?” Who knew the Facebook Group would be such a challenge? Everyone else makes it look so easy. Maybe we need more moderators. If you're interested, email [email protected].
“Producing a more detailed book or blog posts would be interesting to me.”
Longer posts, got it.
“Shorter daily emails.”
Shorter posts, got it.
“Quit saying cocaine and hookers when talking about when your kids get access to their UTMAs.”
Message heard loud and clear. A fair number of you actually said this. Now, I feel bad about it. Someone send me a less offensive phrase to use that conveys the same thing.
“I don't know if it is enough of a complaint to really change anything, but I do feel the quality of some of the guest posts does not match the quality of the site as a whole. I understand this reduces the load on the rest of the WCI team, and the posts might still be helpful to someone, but I can think of a few occasions where the posts didn't sit right because of tone or the message and it just wasn't something Jim would have posted on his own, which might be the point.”
“WCI has made positive strides in improving diversity of voices and blog/podcast subjects to more things that intersect with medicine and finance . . . however, I think there could be more improvement here, especially on occasional slip ups on tone/side remarks.”
Man, this one is going to be tough to get right. We'll do our best.
“Please never retire!”
I'll think about it, but I've already been telling my kids I am retired for the last couple of years. They don't believe me, for some reason.
“This is a silly complaint, but whenever you take questions off the speak pipe, I feel like 30 seconds are spent thanking you for all you do. Don't get me wrong, I am very thankful for WCI!!! You do great work and I enjoy learning everything, but sometimes I think people could be more concise with their thanks to you. This is a ridiculous complaint, I know. For you I'm sure that it feel great to receive the thanks and it is well deserved.”
I've thought about this one. People do the same thing on live call-in shows, though, so we've never cut them out in the past. But you're right, it doesn't need to be said a half-dozen times an episode. Hey everybody, just leave your questions from now on without all those compliments. We could probably do a better job trimming them down, too. Great feedback. Solid gold in this survey, I tell you.
“I know you all know how poor Med students and residents are. Just keep us in mind for pricing structures.”
Remember the online courses and conferences (the expensive stuff) are our premium products. We price them for people whose time is worth hundreds of dollars an hour. The blog, podcast, newsletters, communities, videocasts, etc., are all free, and the books are only $9.99 on Kindle. We do have some plans to develop some courses for med students and residents at a much lower price point, but it's tough to make it pencil out as a business decision. We'll figure something out, though.
“Individual one on one sessions.”
Nope. These folks do that, though.
“Politics consistently GREAT.”
“Keep your personal political opinions out of your posts. They show through lately especially and it's unnecessary and irrelevant to the financial advice you are providing.”
“Less tribal politics.”
Another can't-win issue. People want me to talk about what's going on in Congress but without discussing politics. Maybe I should just tell you what my politics are, so you know and can interpret accordingly. But I'll probably try to be more apolitical. It's tough these days when everything seems to be politicized, including public health measures.
“Would be nice to occasionally go deeper into the math.”
“Be a little more basic—start at the beginning.”
I included both of these because they came in right after one another. Seriously can't win.
“The music theme on the podcast is jarring and makes me tachycardic.”
Several comments about this. I'd love to have a regular listener come up with some (non-copyrighted) theme music for us. Consider this an invitation.
“No need to dis the Teslas.”
You don't know about my Tesla?
I think that's enough of them. I hope you enjoyed spending time with me on the survey. I seriously cannot thank you all enough for taking the time to fill this out. It really means a lot to us and will guide what we do moving forward. Those of you who won the raffles for cash and prizes have all been contacted, so if you have not been contacted, I'm sorry you didn't win. Congrats to Natasha Shapiro who won the grand prize (an online course). The rest of you winners enjoy the T-shirts.
What do you think? What surprised you about the survey? Any other feedback you want to provide? Comment below!
I used to be on the Facebook group but the overall tone and noise of all the negative or misguided comments made me realize I just needed to quit it. I’m happier with just the blog, and if I want to search for other readers opinions, then comments sections or the forum are enough. I’ve learned (from more than just the WCI group) that large groups of people on social media always end up with enough bad apples to make it too crazy or nasty for my taste. Also, as a gay man, I appreciate the diversity of representation as of late. It’s not “being woke” it’s just not being close-minded.
Unfortunately, something about social media (I really only use Facebook) seems to turn too many people into intolerant jerks—I assume it’s the relative anonymity. I’ve left groups supposedly focused on my favorite sports teams or hobbies because of site-Nazis and idiots taking the site over just to shoehorn their personal strongly held beliefs (often irrelevant to the topic under discussion) on everyone. And, yes, I too get tired of people bemoaning the “woke mob” whenever they have to read an opinion from someone with a different perspective or from a different generation. Sigh.
I find it fascinating because Facebook is the least anonymous of them! Reddit and the WCI forum provide MORE anonymity and yet the civility level is higher.
This was a great read! I don’t know why you think you’re not funny, I laughed out loud and snorted quite a bit reading it. I am a consumer of your blog, the podcast and I make sure to read the emails. I also was a virtual attendee of the recent Summit. Had to convert to virtual due to work, would have been great to network in person. Great content there, still going through it. When do I lose access by the way? Agree with comments regarding Facebook group, I’m on there and people do get snarky. Thanks for taking the time to do the survey and always working on improving your content.
It converts over to the online course from the virtual conference, but you always have access.
Regarding whole life, some of us who answered “yes” have kept a policy we wouldn’t buy again but bought long ago. I was nearly 50 when I realized I shouldn’t have bought the whole life policies I did in my late 20’s, but they pay for themselves for now (one is good forever, the other until I am close to 80 – so it really works like term at this point). the cash value is a very small percentage of our net worth and provides my wife peace of mind as longevity insurance (which we don’t need but well worth the price).
Agree. I bought mine 35 years ago – no more premiums needed for the past 10 years. Not worth getting rid of now since most of the benefit is backloaded. But, I would never buy again.
It can make a lot of sense to keep a whole life policy you never should have bought.
Yes, I hope that’s the majority of those.
Very much agree. In retrospect, I wouldn’t buy whole/universal life again but I didn’t buy a very big policy (about $4k/yr for $500k policy) and now that it’s accumulating value and basically paid off I feel ok about it. Also, the ability to convert some policies to a long term care option is nice. I bought a bigger 20 year term policy (also about $4k/yr for $4M policy) when my kids were young and that was what helped me sleep better at night. But I tell my 20-something sons (2 interns) to stick with term.
Enjoyed this article. I am active on the forum. I am not sure why but the level of discussion remains high. I continue to learn a few tidbits. I have gone to 2 conferences. I have acted on some things that I learned at the last one in Phoenix. I also think you are funny and personable.
I sincerely hope you plan to ignore the comment “I want to learn finances, not virtue signaling. Return to your religious roots blah blah blah…..” Nothing wrong with being religious and I am a religious non American female myself. However from history, it’s very evident that religious folks have been the most racist, sexist and just horrible people. WCI is doing a good job of educating people on personal finance. No need to start pandering to those who are prejudiced. Every type of human being is deserving of good things.
I engage with WCI only via YouTube, twitter and the blog.
We’ll continue to work to get the balance right for the vast majority. But there will always be some on both extremes that don’t like where we land. Mostly, we just avoid hot political topics both within and outside the house of medicine.
Could you please make this blog post shorter? But also include more details.
Also, I enjoy your humor a lot. But could you not be so funny as it takes away from the post?
Lastly, I would like more content on Whole life and colored gem stones and investing.
Have a great weekend!
Gotta love the long-term readers.
I feel famous since one of my comments got published. Thanks.
Gotta appreciate your willingness to lay it ALL out on the table for everyone to see. Thanks for that! Hopefully will make your readers better appreciate the balance you attempt to maintain at all times. Can’t please everyone.
Thanks for all you do, as always!
Thanks…
Boy that’s the truth. I even had a complaint by email that scaring my son might cause him to have anxiety and insomnia because I jumped out of his bed to scare him and a bed should be a safe place.
Please, no pie charts! Humans are bad at reading them!
https://www.data-to-viz.com/caveat/pie.html
I know this is a weird hill to choose to die on.
That is a weird complaint, but interesting information.
I am sorry I missed the opportunity to take this survey, but I am glad to see the results, especially those showing that many professions—not just doctors—are regular consumers of WCI info. My kids have criticized me for following WCI because I am not a doctor, and recent content has led me to believe they may be correct. However, the results of this survey tell me that high earners in nonmedical professions are still interested in what Dr. Dahle has to say, so I’m going to tell my kids that I think it’s worth sticking around.
Interesting read, and an encouragement to participate next time.
The interest in your vacations is, I guess, part of a general interest in what to spend money on. I know that topic can sometimes be distasteful but I think some focus on spending, lifestyle, and the tie in with financial planning could be really interesting.
Yes, whether you spend the “extra” on $3K+ purses or heli-skiing, most docs should eventually have some extra to blow.
I would like to propose “weed and strippers” as a suitable alternative! Hahah, if that’s what people are complaining about then you’re obviously doing something right so keep being you. Good advice for you in general, it’s apparently worked very well. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Same problem. It’s denigrating to sex workers and it is no longer PC to denigrate sex workers like it used to be.
I figure there’s no point in offending people unnecessarily. What I have to tell them is usually offensive enough!
If not of WCI, I would have bought index universal life insurance. Lots of my close friends and family selling that stuff, making it hard to say no. Each time I go back and read those articles on index universal life, I am happy I put my foot down. These friends of mine really think they have discovered America’s best kept secret.
Cocaine and hookers should stay. If an adult can’t tolerate the “cocaine and hookers” hyperbole once every hundred or so days in an otherwise bland (but highly useful) blog, I can’t fathom how they manage to step outside their front door.
Concur. It conveys the point of “nonproductive or destructive spending of which the funder would not approve” effectively, entertainingly, and succinctly.
I prefer “blow and hookers” but perhaps this is a generational phrase.
I would say that one theme I see is that people like to hear from, you, Jim the person. You have a voice that is unique, interesting, highly opinionated, and (rarely according to yourself) funny. The more WCI becomes like a generic media outlet, caters to the “average” person’s likes and dislikes (hint: there is no such thing), and avoids expressing an occasional controversial opinion, the more it feels impersonal and bland. I know you are likely trying to set it up so it never offends and can run without you, but a substantial segment of people are only here precisely because of what YOU bring. You can see it two ways: (1) flattering, and (2) an Achilles heel for the eventual exit. Dave Ramsey has the same problem. Without Dave, it’s a totally different show.
It’s an interesting quandary we discuss all the time. What is the business worth without me? Lots of “influencers” out there these days with wonderful businesses that probably don’t live without them in any meaningful way. Similar to medicine in a lot of ways I suppose. A doc sells a practice and retires. Half the patients leave within a year. If that doc sold the practice and moved 10 miles away and started again, 90% of the patients would probably follow. Flattering maybe, but basically decimates the value of a business/brand.
I hope you’re not right but obviously have significant fear that you are.
Am I going to be like Jack Bogle and work in some capacity until I die? Or bail out for the FIRE life before 50. Wish I knew. It would make planning a lot easier! But the business has a lot more value in the first scenario than the second unless we can make it still be awesome without me.
Via email:
I was reading your survey review email this morning, and wanted to try and help give a few replacement ideas regarding the ‘hookers and cocaine’ comments people seem to be upset about:
-Private yacht with 10 friends in Mykonos (to honor your latest Greece trip)
-Rolex and Mercedes
-5,000 square foot home with a pool and hot tub
Even if you don’t like any of my recommendations, the real reason I am writing the email is because I feel bad that you feel bad. I laughed hysterically each time you made that reference because guess what, it’s a true reality!
Hope you have a great Sunday and I look forward to continually growing from your content
Via email:
Good for you for performing a survey (and actually reading it too). The blog has been successful, so stay with what made it successful.
Via email:
Since you want more feedback I figured I should do my part:
I vote you should *keep saying* “cocaine and hookers” in reference to blowing money because that’s the same expression I use and it hilariously drives that point home.
Personally I’m in favor of way less (ideally zero) woke nonsense. By that I mean please try to never reference someone’s immutable characteristics because frankly they don’t matter. I couldn’t care less what color skin or genitals someone has and I find it very off-putting how that’s become the norm in our society today. You recently had a podcast with someone you hired who apparently is a black woman and the phrase you used was something like “someone who doesn’t look anything like me” and I think I audibly groaned. If the best person for a blog post or podcast is a half black, half Asian, disabled veteran lesbian who identifies as a dragon then by all means publish the blog post but other than referring to “her wife” or something necessary from an English language perspective let’s leave the rest of the immutable characteristics out of it.
Regarding the “blog posts for women docs because we’re special” etc: I skim over and skip them within seconds. Ditto for any other “this is how I’m different” posts. Essentially any post, with the author removed, should stand on its own unrelated to what the person looks like. If the math makes sense then great, leave the rest out. For example: a blog post on IVF costs would be great and obviously would be targeted at women who want to get pregnant and their partners so ok, fine, it makes sense there. Also btw I can give you some info there. Painfully expensive, not covered by insurance (not ours anyways). And all women should get their AMH checked immediately unless they no longer want kids. Lesson learned.
Ok that’s enough of a rant.
Of course overall I love your work and I recommend your site to people constantly.
Thank you,
Via email:
What’s wrong with the “cocaine and hookers” usage?! Has it become a socially acceptable way to blow money now? No pun intended.
Since you asked here are a few alternatives:
1. Fast food and video games
2. Donuts
3. Minecraft skins and Legos
4. Fortnight
5. Whole life insurance AND Liberty Tax franchise
“No, I don’t need to spend money on mine craft skins. I can literally make my own,” said my ten year old.
Sorry, I forgot my kids don’t represent your average listener regardless of them being the subject in the squandering discussion.
Personally, I prefer the cocaine and hookers reference.
You could turn this into quite the social media competition!
Alternatives phrase for blowing money in 20s:
Why not use your two love-to-hate items: “Bitcoin and Teslas”
Not quite the same. Cocaine is considered not just a total waste of money but actually harmful to you and societally frowned on. Bitcoin so far has been a fantastic thing to own, actually dramatically increasing in value. Teslas at a minimum provide your transportation, not harmful (maybe safer than many cars) and society loves them. I actually don’t think anyone is offended about cocaine. It’s the hookers part. Somewhere in the last decade or so society changed its opinion about sex workers from one of despisement and looking down on to one of pity and even legitimacy. “Hooker” and even “prostitute” are no longer PC.
Very interesting read. Thanks for sharing!
You might consider a competition with a small WCI prize (t-short, book, etc) for podcast lead in music.
We’d certainly give swag for it.
Man, forum is nothing but right wing political rants lately. Moderators too!
The top 5 topics as I look right now are:
The Long View, Ignoring the noise, and staying the course
How to Retire on Dividends – Brett Owens & Tom Jacobs
Borrowing on margins for down payment
Looking for RE syndications, where are your go to places to find opportunities?
Poll: Where will gas prices peak?
Not sure what you’re reading but those don’t seem too ranty. Maybe the last one could turn political? Dunno.
“Right wing political rants?” Good.
Have you seen what’s happening with our nation lately? I used to be a Democrat, but I’m voting Republican from now on. That’s how bad it’s gotten. I’ll even vote for Trump if he runs again. My 2019 self would be shocked to hear me say that, but I will.
I’ve been a reader since the early days and have learned a lot and credit the WCI with with helping me along my financial journey.
My 2 comments that I would make are:
1. Less Rigidity in your advice. As the saying goes, there’s more than 1 way to skin a cat. One of the things that turns me off about some of the financial gurus (i.e. Dave Ramsey)is a my way or the highway approach. I know personally while I follow a lot of the WCI-mantra I’ve definitely deviated on my own to better fit the needs of my family.
2. More support for the lower paid folks in the high cost of living areas. I feel like often the advice is to say see, there are people in say peds or family med making 1/2 a million a year (on the latest m to m podcast). Or the other refrain is often that say at 150-200k a year you’re making more than the average American. While this is true, the folks who do this made a choice to do that instead of pursuing more lucrative fields and now are punished for it. You often say on your podcast when guests come on that they have the voice of thousands of high income professionals. I think given the voice that you have in this space I think it could be put to good use to advocate for those at the short end of the physician financial stick.
3. Less cross posting. I feel like there’s a lot of recycling and cross posting between the various WCI network sites.
4. Keep the hookers and blow line.
1. Man, I think I’m so flexible at this point that nobody knows what to do. I have far more people demanding a more dogmatic approach than begging for flexibility. As I tell people, take what you find useful and leave the rest. It really doesn’t hurt my feelings if you don’t want to live like a resident and want to drive a leased Tesla. There are consequences to doing that of course…
2. First, I’ve certainly written lots of posts on that topic and hit it multiple times on the podcast. The audience is obviously composed of a broad range of wealth and income. If everything I wrote was for somebody making $150K a year, I’d lose all those making more and vice versa. So I have to mix it up. Second, there’s an awful lot of people in that category that need to ask for a raise, change jobs, and/or seriously consider moving elsewhere, at least for a while. It’s hard for me to emphasize how much easier it is to build wealth making twice as much and living in flyover country than it is in some parts of this country.
3. It’s less now than it has ever been in the last 5 years. You might be noticing the columnists.
4. More seem to like it than dislike it, but if it keeps me from helping someone that could use the help, I’ll readily jettison it.
This survey was super interesting. Thank you for sharing. I’m an attorney myself and my husband is an Ed doc. I’ve been reading WCI for 8 years I believe? Since he chose em as a speciality and I found out you were an ed doc. I manage our finances. I mainly consume via: Facebook forum, podcast (I prefer the milestones to millionaires podcast), and blog post (either searching for a particular topic or browsing articles written by you). Honestly when I first joined the Facebook group I got great advice and it was my absolute favorite way to consume wci, lately the group makes me cringe, which makes me so sad! People are trolling each other and there’s so much sarcasm I can’t tell what’s real? I’m thinking I need to switch to the forum but I’m so used to just browsing Facebook. I wish the trolls and the negative people would just leave the group. Thanks for all you do!
This is more of an indirect thank you. I am a married FP doc in the Midwest with a relatively modest outlook on what my spending should look like. As long as I have a modest house, functioning car and can get away somewhere warm and not overly expensive every winter I’m good. But as much as I am interested in medicine, I HATE thinking about money and financial planning. While I have not heard a single episode myself my husband, who works in finance and loves this stuff, is an avid listener and loves what he learned. He sits me down for a mandatory financial planning and update a few times a year, which is like pulling teeth a bit for me, but obviously necessary. I guess I just wanted to acknowledge that there are maybe other non physician listeners married to physicians that make our lives easier by taking care of finance and investments so that we can just focus on medicine and RNR and burnout prevention when we’re off the clock. And we appreciate them, you and all this info, sometimes very indirectly.
You’re welcome. Thanks for putting up with us “hobbyists!”