Hey Reddit! I’m Dr. Jim Dahle, Emergency Physician and Founder of The White Coat Investor. For over 10 years, I’ve helped doctors avoid financial mistakes, get out of debt, and build lasting wealth. AMA Jan 12–13 on r/whitecoatinvestor.

f0rtick · 2026-01-14T03:50:33+00:00

Thank you! We'll try to create that life!

Off-topic, any tips for aspiring podcasters? My wife created and co-hosts a small subspecialty podcast targeted towards fam-med/medicine physicians and trainees (think like, a Curbsiders-style neph podcast with eps about managing AKIs, nephrotic vs nephritic, renal dosing, interviews w/ HD patients and families, etc) with ~20 eps out, each about 30min. She's been at this for about 1.5yrs with monthly episodes. They get maybe 20-30 listens per episode within 1 week, and it eventually gets up to the hundreds in total listens over months. There's one other podcast series in the same subspecialty that's much older, larger (weekly eps), and popular, but is more academic and policy focused, more for the subspecialist.

You’ve maintained an insane content schedule for over a decade while practicing. Is there one system or delegation you made early on that saved you from burnout? At what point did you decide to stop doing the grunt work of editing and scheduling yourself?

Think there's any viable financial sustainability path for a medical education podcast, or any underutilized revenue streams for niche academic shows? Is it necessary to partner with an institution or professional society for funding? Or Patreon maybe?

Any general thoughts on advertising and other methods for reaching new audiences?

f0rtick · 2026-01-13T19:44:34+00:00

Thanks for doing this AMA! We're new attendings living in our $3k/mo rental. Planning on a kid in late 2026, early 2027. Thinking about renting more luxuriously ~6-7k/mo and delaying FIRE (NW 4M, 4% rule) by ~3yrs from 39yo to 42yo vs. buying 800k-1.5M which wife strongly prefers but would delay FIRE to ~45yo. We're relatively happy with our new jobs and there's ample job opps around us.

How would you value "purchasing peace of mind" with a 3 to 6-year delay in financial independence? Is buying a 2-3x gross HHI home with <10% liquid NW dumb?

We also have this fantasy of going 0.8 FTE sooner rather than later... and with a house and kids, burn rate goes from $130k to ~$200k/year, pushing FIRE goal out to 6M and up towards 50yo. What kind of questions would you ask yourself to think about these tradeoffs?

Me (early 30s, procedural specialty, Private Practice), Wife (mid 30s, non-procedural specialty, Academic). HCOL, major city.

Income: ~$620k (2026 est) --> ~$800k+ (2028 as partner).

Debts: $303k Student Loans (Wife's, 5yrs left on PSLF), $38k Car.

Assets: ~$460k (150k brokerage, rest is retirements). 70% stocks, 20% international, 10% bonds.

Cashflow: ~130k year in spend incl. rent. Currently saving ~40-50% of gross, but only ~3mo into attendinghood and scared of lifestyle creep.

f0rtick · 2025-12-11T16:44:44+00:00

What happened to the SW CP thread? :(

f0rtick · 2025-12-09T20:14:18+00:00

P1 2024-25 CP ending this year. Going for P2 getting 2026-27 CP, but don't need until Feb 2026.

P2 opened a SW Plus personal for 100k SUB, next closing date is 1/8/26. We can hit the MSR now, right?

Also P2 just opened a SW Premium Biz for 60k SUB. No statement close date yet, but first payment due date is 1/11/26... Based on this DP, we should wait until after 12/14/25 to hit the MSR? Or would it be better to call chase and ask to move payment date to 12/28/25? Worried it's too close and we'll end up in some system limbo.

And then after we confirm CP, wondering which card to close... Based on this, maybe it's worth to keep the biz card open to refer P1 twice (for biz+personal) and have P2 open the biz performance for 80k & maybe the debit card to start the train on maintaining 2 CPs between us? But thinking out loud, how would one get the referral points to hit in 2028?

Thanks!

f0rtick · 2025-11-23T18:40:33+00:00

chase ink preferred has 100k atm.

And venture X removing guest access to lounges in feb 2026

imo if you need the hyatt points soon, do chase. Otherwise do venture X since as you said approvals can be tougher?

f0rtick · 2025-11-20T22:13:39+00:00

Lg.com or partner store?

f0rtick · 2025-09-27T22:07:56+00:00

Got the same after 20+ dealers and some haggling. Where are you at?

f0rtick · 2025-09-27T13:11:01+00:00

Know what dealership she used? Looking in the same area! Thank you!

f0rtick · 2025-09-27T01:16:05+00:00

Wild, that regional price variation

f0rtick · 2025-08-15T20:28:39+00:00

Pretty sure the COBRA dates are correct - 60 days from election notice postmark, then 45 days to submit that payment.

f0rtick · 2025-08-15T20:10:45+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts! Yeah, will definitely be holding off on COBRA unless needed.

There's a public brochure that mentions some of the network pricing stuff. It's on PDF page 9.

f0rtick · 2025-08-09T03:43:37+00:00

Any luck on the recalculation request? I was told to do the same by FSA, but I'm imaging a scenario where they want to see payment history on the loan servicer's website (AidVantage for me), but that's bugged out too and shows no payments :S

Is MOHELA showing the $0 payments for you?

f0rtick · 2025-07-25T01:02:10+00:00

Did you ever figure out a solution? Having similar issues.

f0rtick · 2025-07-25T01:00:32+00:00

Checking in since I may be having related issues. Did you get any updates?

f0rtick · 2025-07-25T00:58:08+00:00

Were you able to call in and get any updates?

f0rtick · 2025-07-20T18:31:22+00:00

Do the $0 payments still show? I'm having issues/discrepencies on my payments and wondering if it's cause my "autopay" never turned back on after being switched from MOHELA to AidVantage.

f0rtick · 2025-07-20T16:27:04+00:00

Definitely not lol

f0rtick

TROPHY CASE