I recently received some sincere, but brutal criticism from a regular reader in the form of a book review. Brutal criticism is the most useful type you can get, although I confess I prefer getting it in a private email than an online review. Some of it is worth a response and discussion. The rest of it simply represents a limitation of any blogger- when you get personal you can only share your own experience rather than that of someone whose life is quite different from your own. This blog, however, has a great mechanism for overcoming that limitation- about 1/3 of the posts I run are guest posts. More on that in a minute. First, I'm going to post the relevant sections of the review (I left out the nice things she said about the book/blog) with my comments:
So why only three stars? [WCI] just rubs me the wrong way, probably unintentionally.
It's definitely unintentional. Why would someone want to rub someone else the wrong way intentionally? At any rate, three stars are better than one!
Constantly referring to spouse/wife, as opposed to simply “spouse” and he never includes “husband” or “partner.” Perhaps his view is that physician families always consist of two parents and two or three kids in a nuclear family. Even in Utah I am sure there are diverse and nontraditional families, and the undercurrents in his book and blog would be perhaps uncomfortable for them.
I'll try to use “spouse” and “partner” more frequently. But I don't have a husband! There are certainly plenty of diverse and non-traditional families in Utah, although I'm confident the numbers pale in comparison to large cities on either coast given that I haven't seen a case of sickle cell anemia in years. Obviously I don't think physician families always consist of two parents and 2.2 kids. In fact, I don't know anyone with 2.2 kids. š
He castigates people to move to low-cost areas but never addresses the reasons people might need to live in a bigger city (diversity, for example.)
I'm not sure how to address this any more than that people who choose to live in a location with low pay, high taxes, and a high cost of living will need to spend less money on something else-like retiring early, buying toys, paying off a mortgage early, taking expensive trips etc. The reason(s) someone may choose to live in an expensive location are largely irrelevant to a personal finance blog. I really don't care if it is to take care of an elderly parent, to have a unique aspect in a practice, to be near a cultural group, for the quality of schools, for nice weather, or for “diversity.” If you want to get rich fast, then you need to make a lot of money, spend very little, and invest the difference wisely. If you want something else, that's fine too. Most physicians can still afford to have a reasonable life even in an expensive place.
He occasionally addresses childless readers but never female-headed households, single parents, couples that are not married etc. He does not address folks who have to work part-time due to family concerns.
Most of the topics I address don't care much about how many kids you have, your marital status, or how many hours a week you work. Personally, as someone who works 28 hours a week at one job and perhaps about the same at my other job, I think I know a lot about part-time work!
Additionally, he has very few women guest writers on his blog and seems to dismiss lower pay for female physicians as largely a myth. It would be great if he would try and reach a wider audience. Maybe this is his world in Utah, but it would be more welcoming if he realized that the rest of the world is often different.
Having lived and practiced medicine in several states and on four continents, I'm quite aware the world has a great deal of variety. However, let it be known that every single guest post submitted to this blog by a female regular reader or financial professional has been published and I have solicited at least a dozen more that were never sent in. I wish this reviewer, who is clearly intelligent, who is a talented, articulate writer, and who obviously has a useful viewpoint to share would have sent in a guest post, rather than just added a book review complaining about the lack of them! I also can't figure out where I ever mentioned anything about lower pay for female physicians or the lack thereof. (If someone knows, please point it out in the comments; I probably ought to address it.) I don't doubt the averages do show lower pay for female physicians, since they show that for nearly every profession for reasons that are widely researched, debated, and published elsewhere. However, I've never been part of a practice where that actually occurred. My female colleagues and I were/are all paid exactly equally in residency, in the military, and in my current partnership.
There are several assumptions in both the blog and book that may make this book less than useful for certain kinds of docs. [WCI's] discussions of retirement investing seem to assume that his audience has the option to save 55k yearly in retirement accounts through work. For employed physicians this is rarely true…..
I will readily admit I think many docs would often be financially better off in an ownership rather than an employee situation, at least from a retirement plan standpoint. An independent contractor can easily set up an individual 401(k) ($53K in 2015, perhaps $55K in 2017), a personal defined benefit/cash balance plan, personal and spousal (sorry, not partner unless partner has his own income) Backdoor Roth IRAs, and a Health Savings Account. An employee may be stuck with only a non-matched 401(k) or 403(b) ($18K in 2015) and a backdoor Roth IRA. If that's all you have, and you aren't interested in picking something up on the side, and you need to save more than $23,500 per year ($30,500 if 50 or older), then you're going to have to use a taxable account. That's just the way Congress has written the law. Of course, there are benefits of being an employee too- like not having to pay for your own benefits and having your employer pay half of your payroll taxes.
However, I don't see how this readily admitted bias of mine actually makes it hard for employees to learn about how they should invest for retirement. The only topics I can think of adding would be how to build around a lousy 401(k), which is covered daily on The Bogleheads forum and how to invest in a tax-efficient manner in a taxable account, which I cover frequently.
…and he gives short shrift to what may be major issues with private 457s, the option beyond the 401k for employees.
I haven't written a lot about 457s, but I have written about them. The main issue with a private 457 is that if the hospital goes out of business, your retirement account disappears since it is accessible to your employer's creditors. Unless my employer was really in bad shape, I'd probably still use a 457 available to me, but it would be the first money I spent in retirement.
He gives bonds, bond funds, and munis short shrift and minimal treatment (although he has thankfully changed his assertion that there is no place for munis in a physician portfolio) possibly because he has access to the G fund for his portfolio and thus little interest in bonds.
This is where I got really impressed with the reviewer, who has clearly read a great deal of my writing. I am guilty as charged to most of this particular criticism. My initial post on munis was critical of them for the reason that at the time I wrote it, I bought into the belief that bonds should preferentially be in a tax-protected account. I subsequently realized/learned that probably isn't true for many of us. And if it isn't true for you, and you're in a high tax bracket, well, munis (and I bonds) are what should compose a good chunk of your fixed income. I recently had a big post about muni bonds vs bond funds and did a lengthy review of a book about nothing but bonds. My own portfolio is nearly 100% tax protected, and the G fund does make up a large chunk of my fixed income. That certainly isn't a reason not to write about bonds. I don't own whole life insurance, and I write about that all the time.
Finally, he seems to assume that most people want lots of stuff but need to restrict themselves so they do not retire penniless. This may well be true, but others are really not materialistic but really want freedom very young (those of us who believe the boat owns us, not the other way around.) For those physicians this is not the right book or blog.
Maybe I'm biased, but I think it is safe to assume that MOST people do want lots of stuff, or at least the newest shiniest stuff. And I certainly do think that those who want lots of stuff need to restrict themselves so they don't retire penniless. I find it rather funny, however, that I'm now seemingly being accused of being a spendthrift. The usual criticism, at least until the recent posts on “Loosening the Purse Strings,” is that I'm way too much of a cheapskate. In fact, until 2014, the most expensive item I had ever bought brand new cost a very low four figure amount. I'm not exactly a flashy materialistic guy (although I confess, I did buy the boat.) The truth is I don't care what you spend your money on. If you wish to be financially independent early, then spend your money on investments (I know I've spent a lot on them in the last 10 years.) If you want to be debt free, then use your earnings to pay off your loans. If you want a boat, then spend your money on a boat. If you want a fancy car, or fancy vacations, or to give tons of money or time to charity, then you can also do that. You can define “the good life” however you like. But you can't do it all; there simply isn't a limitless supply of money, even for doctors. Saying this isn't the right blog for you if you prefer to retire early instead of buying a boat seems a bit of a stretch, especially since the blog's author could retire (if he wanted to) in about the same time period and on the same income as Mr. Money Mustache (whose blog you might enjoy if your main financial goal is to retire in your thirties and live on less than $30K a year for the last 60 years of your life.)
This is a great book for the right audience- a beginning investor, preferably male, with a traditional family who lives in a low to moderate cost state. Others may need to look elsewhere for advice on their particular situation.
Ouch! Readers, help me out here. If you are female, have a non-traditional family, or live in a high cost state, send me a guest post about how your financial situation is unique and how you have dealt with your unique challenges. I certainly don't want this to be a blog that is only appropriate for traditional physician families in the fly-over states. Personal finance is both personal and financial. Blog readers in general love posts that reveal a little bit about the writer and the personal aspect of finance. It makes it easier to relate to the information and think about our own lives in a little bit different way. But I can't write something personal about a situation I haven't lived. I have to rely on you, dear reader, to do that. If you would be willing to share your story, here are the guest post guidelines. Here are some possible topics that would be great for a guest poster to address because I will never be able to do so effectively:
1) Unique financial aspects for dentists, attorneys, accountants, pharmacists, mid-levels, small business owners, veterinarians, podiatrists, optometrists, and two physician couples.
2) How to be successful financially despite living in a high-cost of living area
3) How to make sure you (as a female doctor) are paid what you're worth, no matter your gender
4) How to deal with the financial aspects of divorce
5) The financial aspects of being a single physician parent
6) Financial upsides and downsides of living with an unmarried partner
7) Estate planning or asset protection issues for singles or unmarried couples
8) How to open your own single physician/dentist/attorney practice
9) Financial issues of DINKs (Dual Income No Kids)
10) Estate planning when you are single without kids
11) Taking care of elderly parents living nearby or in your home
12) Going from an ownership practice to an employee practice or vice versa
13) How to get decent investment returns while still complying with Sharia Law
What do you think? How else can this blog be more inclusive? What other topics would you like to see a guest post on? Comment below!
“Others may need to look elsewhere for advice on their particular situation.” LOL–Where else, might I ask? Perhaps that reviewer should suggest some other book or blog which matches this one, or perhaps she would like to come up with one of her own. Her comments have little to do with the accuracy of the blog and are primarily related to her own personal preferences and style. As Abraham Lincoln said, “you can please all people some of the time, and you can please some people all of the time, but you can never please all people all of the time.”
In any case, I am just one of perhaps thousands of physicians who owe a serious debt of gratitude to WCI for this accurate, up-to-date, comprehensive, well-written, (and, might I add) free source of advice which has transformed my financial and personal life. Thank you Jim!
Agreed. This and the Bogleheads forum are easily the most accessible and helpful resource for personal finance online. Perhaps it is because I am of the aforementioned “traditional family” variant, but I’ve never read that much bias into any of the posts. While it may be well-written, this review strikes me more as someone with an axe to grind against a “traditional lifestyle” than an actual book review.
Keep up the good work!
I can’t say it better than Doctor K, thanks Jim.
Please keep the personal details in the blog. Maybe it’s a little off-putting for the reviewer, but I think of your story more as a model of good financial behavior.
Agree with Dr. K – this blog has helped me so much in getting my financial life organized.
WCI number 13 is quite tempting. As a muslim two physician family we have wrestled with that question once or twice. I tend to be the go to resource for a lot of my friends when it comes to finance and some of them are more conservative so it can be frustrating when they tell me they wont do this or cant do that when clearly it makes financial sense.
Religious convictions, like all convictions, cost you money. I am going to give the idea of a guest post on this subject some serious thought as it is unique and intriguing.
I found the criticisms amusing. Basically, the reviewer wants a book that caters to her specific needs. That’s called doing extensive research and applying the data to fit your own personal situation. It is simply impossible for your book to address all her specific interests.
I have greatly appreciated your blog and book. It is truly a wealth of information. Also, many of the comments and questions have fleshed out the blog articles. However, I’m savvy enough to understand that not everything applies to my goals and beliefs just because it makes financial sense. As you alluded to in you response, personal finance is, well, personal.
I’ll see if I can get my English major physician spouse to tackle one of your topics but don’t hold your breath. You see, my wife/partner doesn’t find this dry stuff that interesting. Perhaps you could write a more interesting literary book with excellent plot and prose that incorporates all these financial topics so it would suit her tastes?
Good idea. We could call it 50 Shades of Personal Finance.
I was thinking more along the lines of Dickens: A Tale of Two Financial Plans. However, fine literature is in the eye of the beholder, so 50 Shades of Personal Finance could work too!!
50 Shades of Green! Green! You had it and you whiffed š
Such criticism is inane. THE WCI book and website are phenomenal resources for any investor. We would only have wished this info was so easily available decades ago; my favorite was random walk by malkiel and bogle on funds. Both teach you all you really to need to know about investing
I thing some of the traditional family, male dominated criticisms are spot on. THE WCI was an important tool for me to convince my Haitian born, ER Partner, black spouse/wife that her relationship with Northwestern Mutual Life was not in her best interests (especially for investments). Although she appreciated some of WCI’s content, she did comment that it would be much better in Creole or at least French. As a Jewish lawyer, I would appreciate perhaps some references to the Talmud please. Thanks in advance for your efforts…white bread. š
One of my favorite money quotes is from the Talmud: Divide your money into 1/3 reserves, 1/3 real estate, and 1/3 business. Bonds, real estate, and stocks. Lots of wisdom there.
The Chinese apparently think the Talmud is a secret business manual:
http://www.newsweek.com/china-pushing-talmud-business-guide-69075
This reminded me I’d been planning on buying the book – off to do so now!
I fully agree with the above comments. I can’t get all of the advantages in personal finance and investing that WCI gets since I’m a unmarried primarily not self-employed DINK living with my same-sex partner and we both have student loans at 50-100% of our annual salaries, but I have gotten a huge value from this site and the book. I would definitely recommend it to a single female parent whose only income is on a W2. It won’t perfectly match everyone’s situation, but for the target audience of high-income professionals, it definitely beats a Suze Orman book or the advice of my former “adviser” at Northwestern Mutual.
I’m a female physician who was the first in a family to go to college. I paid for the entire education with work and loans. Ultimately I spent quite a bit on school and was trying to manage my debt with no understanding of basic finances. No one in my family could help me due to lack of experience and so I initially believed the hype commonly heard on medical school campuses “pay the loans slowly…let them out live you.”
This blog has literally changed my life. The amount of information available for free is incredible. It does not all apply to me personally but the parts that do have been essential to paying down debt, understanding how to save for retirement and sleeping far more soundly at night.
I agree with Sarah. I am a female PHD, (actually a scholar of racial/gender inequality in the labor force), husband is an MD who switched careers mid-life from a VMD. Like Sarah, both of us were first gen college grads with little preparation for the complex financial decisions that came with professional careers. We were trying to figure out how to pay both vet and med school debt, save for our son’s college AND save for retirement. Found the WCI on Boglehead’s forum and it was a like a lifeline for us–finally someone who could speak directly to our needs. We will pay off all loans this year (6 years after a fellowship) and are well on our way to a secure retirement. We saw expensive financial advisers–none as helpful as the (free) WCI and the Vanguard Boglehead approach.
I am widely published and serve as an editor on several key journals in my discipline as well as for a series published by the Library of Congress. As an academic editor, the first rule of critique is this—you can’t criticize a work for what it is not.
Believe me I am sensitive to the feminist critique and have fought that battle over work place issues for 20+ years now. But never have I found this blog to be offensive in any way. Quite the opposite. Kudos to the WCI who has helped so many of us!
Wow…to think writing from your own personal background and experiences to help others would be viewed in such a way. I’m not sure how you could think to be so exclusive.
More realistically, keep up the good work WCI. I’m intelligent enough to translate your writings to my own situation and apply your advice accordingly. I understand that your views may be “tainted” from your own personal life experiences.
Sometimes people take the idea of inclusiveness too far. I’ve never thought of your writings as offensive. I’ve only seen them as an effort to help others based on your own life observations. Not saying the critics suggested style of writing would be wrong–just unnecessary.
While i feel most of the above comments are spot on, there is something to be gained from the criticism. I believe your intentions are to help as many “white coats” as possible and thus as you look at future posts, id try to find times where these concerns can be met. I wouldnt take too much offense from the review for reasons noted by others.
Absolutely. I highly value the criticism. I’ve got thick enough skin to not take something like this personally (those who think I’m offended have apparently not spent much time in the comments section of the whole life threads.)
I am a female physician. This blog has helped my spouse/husband and I out immensely. I’d say we are non traditional, he is a stay at home dad to our 3 kids. We made some mistakes in the past before we found the blog. We have corrected them and are on a good path now. I would hate to think of where we would be with out the WCI, and bogleheads, which I found through this blog. Keep up the good work!
I guess I qualify as sort of non-traditional – Late 50s female primary care doc, raised my child as a single parent, got married a few years ago.
I’m a big fan of WCI, found you by reading John Bogle –> Bogleheads –> WCI. I’ve worked part time since my child was born, valuing the extra time over more $$. I’m kind of amazed at what I’ve saved, maxing 403b, mostly avoiding credit (with a bit of HELOC abuse paying for private college) and “staying the course”. Wish I would have known earlier about index funds (bye-bye to GM stock in 2009…) and ERs. I remember looking at 403b options and thinking 0.1 and 1% ERs were close to the same. Ah, to have been smarter then!
Thanks for all you do, wish I could’ve read your book 30 years ago! I feel lucky to be in a position to continue working part time because I enjoy my patients and the intellectual challenge, but knowing I can afford to retire if the quality metrics get too obnoxious. (And if the Supreme Court does not make ACA nonfunctional in my state)
Hi, Jim et al.
I read the review on Amazon and actually found the reviewer’s comments to be thoughtful and not entirely unfounded. The reviewer started out as positive and congratulated WCI for the good work he is done. IMO, posting only the criticism allows one to take it out of context.
I guess because I am a white, married dude with two kids, living a traditional, somewhat frugal life like the author, perhaps I did not look for another perspective. Future editions (or blogs) could remedy that, and Jim does well to encourage such.
I would add that more so as a participant in other venues, WCI occasionally comes across as dogmatic and sometimes unwilling to see all sides of an issue, on matters of opinion and debate. I believe he is very passionate about whatever he does, and that also comes across.
Overall, Jim has done a terrific job with his blog and book and no doubt helped many colleagues along the way. He should be proud of his accomplishments and realize that the old adage of not being able to please all
the people all the time is correct. When you are in the public space as much as he is, he will encounter some criticism. It’s all good, IMO. š
Yes, it certainly can be taken out of context. But in the interest of space, and the fact that there is little to be gained by posting any praise, I left all that stuff out of this post. (I did mention that fact at the beginning, but blog commenters seemed more interested in unnecessarily defending me then talking about what topics the blog has not yet hit. I did, however, get a great guest post today from a reader that will run in a few weeks. I’m hoping I get more.)
My dogma got run over by your karma. š You know what the hardest part about being on the internet is? Getting your tone right. Very tricky stuff.
Jim, many commenters have already mentioned the fact that you cannot please everybody and that there may always be opposing points of view. But in aggregate the facts (and opinions) you present help the mass audience a lot more often than not. Even if some readers do not agree with a statement or a context you present, it gets people thinking about their own situation – which is what they should be doing anyway. I agree that “getting your tone right” is an ongoing challenge with this media, but however you choose to adjust your writing, I sincerely hope it does not dilute the valuable messages you convey. After reading many personal finance books, I find your book and posts to be a lot more applicable to my situation, even though my consulting business is much different than the medical profession. Great work ā please donāt change the dosage!
While I agree with some of the critiques by the reader, most of them seem a little harsh and biased herself (assuming it is a her). I do NOT agree with EVERYTHING WCI does/recommends. (oh the heresy!) However, I have the intelligence and educational background to weed out things I agree and disagree with as it relates to my own personal situation. I don’t know if you planned the recent female posts ahead of this critique, but there have been a few recently, and Dr. Mom constantly comments on your posts. Hopefully this financially intelligent reviewer can put aside her bitterness toward life and re-evaluate her critique.
I am increasingly enjoying the comments and learning from them, but one reason that I like this blog is that the author’s situation fits mine very closely, even though I have some non-traditional elements (and my favorite charity is my family). Frankly, if there is a post that clearly doesn’t apply (e.g. paying off student loans), then I just delete it.
I guess I could write a post on living with an unmarried partner…but there really isn’t that much different…save as much as you can, spend as little as is comfortable, etc.
I thought the same about being unmarried, until I saw this article:
http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/10/pf/taxes/girlfriend-tax-break/
Yes, but that exemption pales in comparison to the lower tax brackets for the married single earner household, and is fazed out anyway at very high earning levels.
She doesn’t make much, but she makes too much for me to deduct her. Also, one thing that we’ve found is that it’s a bigger “bang for the buck” for her to deduct the kid than me.
As Liz Weston says in her intro to the Ten Commandments of Money:
āIn any case, I hope as you read this book youāll find my suggestions, guidelines and advice to be helpful. But despite my phrasing this advice as commandments, you shouldnāt take what I, or any other financial pundits has to say as gospel. Do your research, investigate your options reflect on your own situation and use your common sense. Employ what works for you- or, as recovering alcoholics would say, āTake what you like and leave the rest.ā
Keep up the good work. While I rarely comment, I have been reading the blog since almost the beginning. No other financial blog I’m subscribed to has yielded as much “bang for the buck” as WCI. Most of your articles have value for my situation, and I’m not even a physician. I really don’t understand the criticism that your advice doesn’t help people retire early. I have been following the bogleheads/WCI for about 4 years now, and have gone from a negative net worth of over -$100,000 to a current net worth of over a half a million, all with a combined salary with my wife equal to that of an average physician (two pharmacists). We plan on working part time in about 5 years and probably retiring completely around the age of 40-45. This blog has played a part in that ability. Don’t be too hard on yourself about the above criticisms. You can’t please everyone.
Having a +$600k change in net worth over 4 years is amazing, assuming $200k combined salary. That either implies huge market or home valuation gains or a Mr. Money Mustache style frugal lifestyle.
I read an article recently about an atheist group in Wisconsin that’s suing a school to remove angel statues from a memorial that celebrates the life of a beloved educator who had passed on (the family evidently already agreed to remove a cross that was part of the memorial). This kind of thing is utterly ASININE. People need to get a life and stop taking some kind of slight or personal offense when there is no offense intended *whatsoever*. These individuals scream for tolerance/diversity, but shriek in offense when someone else’s race/faith/culture/politics/sexual mores rub *them* the wrong way.
Was I put off by Dr. Susskind’s occasional references to his Jewish heritage when I read his book “The Black Hole War” recently? What does being a Jew have to do with black holes? Nothing!! But by including some of these details in his narrative, it made for a richer and more personal reading experience (although I have other beefs with his book). I guess I should write Dr. Susskind and ask him to remove those references. Or better yet, petition him to include additional references in his book to make it appealing to a more “diverse” readership. Why he didn’t make more references to blacks, Hispanics, Asians, heterosexuals, homosexuals, bisexuals, transgenders, democrats, republicans, libertarians, atheists, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Jedis, etc. is completely beyond me! Shouldn’t they be able to read about black holes, too?! (okay, I’ll stop with the sarcasm).
I’m going to make a stab here. Could your critic *possibly* be a left-leaning/liberal female who is simply “rubbed the wrong way” because of conclusions/judgments she’s made about who you are and how you lean? Maybe she has a beef with your conservative state of Utah (which she apparently likes to reference more than once)? I don’t know, but I think he or she is CLEARLY missing the forest for the trees here. This is a blog (and book) about PERSONAL FINANCE. That’s it. Any half-way educated person is going to take anything they learn and apply it to THEIR OWN circumstances as they see fit. Okay, rant over.
Still, as others have pointed out (yourself included), his/her critique has evidently been the impetus to explore new ideas/topics. So for that I’ll thank the critic…and I’ll try not to take offense where none may have been intended :).
i don’t agree with the criticisms at all. I’m a young single female lawyer with no kids in Southern California and I find this blog and the book immensely helpful.
File this criticism under “when you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras.” This truism is obviously biased towards non-zebra habitats, but it is still the best advice for someone in North and South America to follow.
I have a hard time seeing bias in things such as avoiding adviser fees, tax minimization, and the advantages of index fund and 529 savings for (kids, grandkids, or whomever else the IRS will let you fund). Sometimes, people see bias in things that clearly have no bias (or at worse simply reflect the world as it is, not “how it should be”).
Another possible post for the minority of readers could be “how to handle a high-value government pension.” Governor Rauner here in Illinois pointed out that there are individuals (all doctors at government-run hospitals) receiving $400,000 + annual pensions payments. There are tools to look up CalPERS pensions (the highest go to doctors at state-run hospitals (http://www.mercurynews.com/salaries/pensions/))
Most of us won’t have government-provided pensions, but some will and some will accrue very large benefits under this system. How should that individual evaluate their risk? Are they made in the shade or do they face the potential for a write-down on past pension promises, how should they plan?
They’re probably made in the shade, but it’s a good idea to have a nest egg on the side anyway, just in case.
My husband posts here regularly. He told me that I should write something and showed me the Amazon review. We are a non-traditional family and the advice given on this site has been wonderful. It is very true that I was severely underpaid coming out of residency for 5 years working at a private clinic. It was only choosing to go to a huge corporation as an employee that I got equal wages to my colleagues and increased pay times four (geography matters a lot too).
I have noticed that you have never addressed the cost/benefit analysis of sex reassignment surgery and how it might impact a physician and his/her partner/spouse/husband/wife/gerbil and how gender identity and sexual preference should impact asset allocation in a 401K.
Other than these blatant omissions, your blog is fine.
I’ll be waiting for your guest post on the topic.
Oh please, it wasnāt THAT bad! I went back to the Amazon review and overall it is helpfully critical. Youāve got to admit she makes some fair points. You should be pleased that she is giving you more material for the blog to evolve! Afterall how many more posts could you write on the benefits of passive investing? In fairness to the blog though, it is a relatively young blog, and the topics sheās suggested are very specific. It makes sense to cover a baseline first, as youāve done with your traditional assumptions, before you get into unique variations.
Iām not sure what she means about financial considerations for female-headed households. Could she mean single physician mothers who have full custody of their children or have elderly/disabled family member dependents? Iām sure there are men in the same boat. I donāt think the financial considerations for either would be different, so perhaps she is equally gender-biased. But I am in a ātraditionalā situation so I donāt have that perspective and Iāve never had to think about it. Hopefully she will read this one day and elaborate. It will be a good lesson for me.
If she sent it to you in an email, would you have taken it as seriously?
I agree that she made some fair points, included lots of nice things I did not quote due to lack of space, and was very helpfully critical.
And yes, I absolutely would have taken it seriously in an email.
In case readers aren’t sure (and a few even emailed me thinking # 13 was a joke), I really am hoping for guest posts on the topics listed in the post. I’ve had at least a dozen requests over the last year for Islam-compliant investing strategies.
The problem with 13, as I tried to address it, is that like all other religions and its followers there are wide ranges of accepted, tolerated and forbidden practices. Tailoring a strategy based on religion requires one to know what version and how strict one is about it.
For example, usury is forbidden in Islam. A majority of moderate muslims believe that that means ALL kinds of interest is forbidden and yet they choose to participate in an interest based economy as a necessary evil. Some choose to avoid it in their personal life and go to great lengths to get ‘sharia compliant’ mortgage loans, while others like myself figure that usury and interest are two separate and distinct topics and we can sort it all out in heaven (or hell) but for now I would rather save a buck (Yes muslims are as materialistic as any other people).
Anyway I am thinking about it and may end up trying my hand at that guest post.
I think it would be great. You would be the fourth one this post has generated so far. I had a request for one tonight at a conference I’m speaking at- how to get a great deal on a nanny while in residency/fellowship (and getting the right deduction).
The best 20 bucks I ever spent was buying the book random walk down wall st
With that I knew the mkts are crooked and a very uneven playing field
So I indexed to wealth at the lowest cost
This book should be read by all here, there is an abridged version
WCI, I think you do a great job and I’m glad you write from personal experience. I find that when people start to write about things they haven’t lived through they miss some of the details that apply. What you write about will apply to a large number of white coats, but not all of couse. However, I like that you have others that can write about things that applied to them. It let’s me use the things that apply to me and file the rest away for later if it’s ever needed.
All the military stuff is noise to me, but I have 2 generations before me that that it would apply to. Same thing with all the employee w2 and employer match info as I own my own offices, with my partners, (the other kind though.) It’s still good information, and helpful to most, even if it doesn’t apply to me.
Keep writing about what applies to you and let other post about what applies to them. It’s the best way to get advice; from those who have done it, not just theorized about it.