r/whitecoatinvestor

Just curious. Whenever I look at past posts, it’s always, “an employed doctor typically makes more but a dentist can out earn a doctor through business ownership”. The topic that never seems to get discussed are the doctor business owners and comparing them to dental practice owners.

I also had no idea how many business opportunities are out there for doctors too. From opening a practice in your specialty to being a medical director for IV businesses and med spas to owning medical rehabs and starting supplement companies. There seems to be a wide range.

So out of curiosity, comparing a doctor business owner to a dental business owner, which one typically makes more?

Edit: I also know people will say, “it depends” but looking at the big picture, which one seems to have the best ROI? For example, dental seems great but when you compare all the expensive equipment, how much dental insurance is paying out, etc., it could be low or high. It’s also very area dependent. A dentist owner in California likely doesn’t do as well as a dentist owner in the middle of Kansas. Would a doctor that is able to start their own practice and is a direct of a few IV companies and med spas generally have a higher chance of succeeding and better opportunities throughout the country?

Edit 2: I meant physician. As someone going into dental, I just always assume if someone needs a doctor, it’s a physician.

My wife is transitioning from a salaried associate to a partner at an orthopedic group in Washington State. The group is giving her the option to stay on W-2 or switch to K-1.

Our situation:

• Her income: ~$400K as a physician partner
• My income: ~$350K, W-2 only
• Combined: ~$750K
• Washington State (no state income tax)
• Heavy retirement investors — maximizing tax-deferred space is a priority for us

Questions:

1. At our income level, is W-2 or K-1 clearly more favorable, or is it genuinely close?
2. Given our focus on retirement investing, does K-1 become more attractive purely for the higher contribution limits?
3. Any physician-focused CPAs you'd recommend who specialize in partnership tax structures?

Thanks in advance!

Hello,
Recently signed up with hospital for locum ER coverage. I already am working a few gigs and decided to add this one to supplement income.

This Locum’s gig is 3x harder than my worse gig. And the pay isn’t much different or special considering that it is 1099. I did one shift but I’m considering quitting. I haven’t signed up for any future shifts.

Should I just tell my locum job that I want to walk away? They say give them 2 months notice but then again I haven’t signed up for any future shifts.

My wife and I are both physicians in our early 40s with W-2 jobs. Our combined annual income exceeds $900,000 ($700,000 for me and $200,000 for my wife). Aside from dividends from our brokerage accounts, our only income comes from these W-2 jobs.

I work in an outpatient private practice and am contracted to take call for the local hospital. The call pay is approximately $900 per day. These fees are paid directly to our practice, which then compensates me through W-2 wages. Of my $700,000 total earnings, about $150,000 comes from this hospital call work. I don’t need this additional income and would be comfortable using it (or redirecting equivalent funds) to maximize tax-advantaged retirement accounts, such as a cash balance plan, Solo 401(k), or SEP IRA.

I will hit the cap for SS thru my W2 employment so I assume the only additional taxes would be medicare tax for employer and employee?

I’m considering opening a sole proprietorship or S corporation to handle my hospital call income and income from online surveys. From a tax standpoint, does this make sense? My goal is to legitimately deduct business expenses related to these activities. I’d appreciate help thinking through the pros, cons, and overall strategy of if anyone has explored a similar situation.

Hi all, I’m leaving my current job this fall, and I have a pension that is not vested. It will continue to accrue interest at 5% for 4 years after I leave. Would you recommend leaving it there or transferring to my IRA? My IRA is well managed and seems to have good returns but I’m not sure. Currently $42k in the pension. Thanks!

I recently bought my first home (yay!) but now have a $5k mortgage for the next 15 years. 5% rate, 625k original loan balance.

Wife and I are making about $475k ($350k for me, $125k for her). I'm a hospitalist.

At this point I kind of feel trapped by this mortgage and want to be done with it as soon as I can, at which time I'd drop to 0.7 FTE. After maxing out all our retirement accounts would it be foolish of me to just dump everything extra into this and trying to pay it off in 5 years?

In considering own occupation disability, I haven't found many anecdotes of people getting claims covered. Has anyone had to file a claim and what was the experience like? I'm worried it might be extremely difficult to get claims covered.

I am going into dermatology. I am not sure if I want to work in academics and pursue PSLF or private practice. I took a research year between M3 and M4 so I consolidated a chunk of my loans and I’m currently in IBR payment for those loans. I’m trying to decide if I should consolidate all of my loans and go into the new RAP payment plan and start making low payments while my income is still quite low. Does anyone have any advice? I think just not knowing if I want to pursue PSLF is the biggest thing for me. Of note I’m in about 400k of debt.

I recently received and offer, and was told that after signing the contract they will send sign on bonus agreement. I asked it to be put in the main contract agreement but they refused to make any changes. Is this a normal process?

Hello, finally starting attending job this summer and I wanted to make sure my plan/thought process was correct for my goals:

5yr residency, 1yr fellowship -> all in forbearance
Pursuing PSLF, 50/120 qualified months (zero $ in payments)
340k at 6.4%
Salary 450k, job eligible for PSLF, and also offers 20k*5yrs in repayment

Received the SAVE discontinuation email in July. Was planning on riding out the forbearance period and sign up for IBR in September when I actually start the job.

My goal is to pay lowest total amount in loans. I liked IBR over RAP due to income cap, slightly lower monthly payment (3.5k vs 3.75k) and similar total amount paid. I was also hoping to buy back the forbearance months at the end of my PSLF term if it continues to exist at that time.

What do you all think, is this a sound plan? Should I just sign up for the IBR now? Thank you in advance!!

Hello WCI community! Hoping for a little advice for my current situation with my current financial advisor.

I am a newly graduated fellow starting an attending position in Sept 2026, and my wife is currently a PGY6 out of 7 surgical resident. As such, our HHI will be ~$480K starting in Sept (obviously prorated since it will only be for the last few months of this year). I have been following along with WCI for some time, and I feel as though we have a pretty good investing/saving/budgeting system in place. Currently, we contribute enough to company 403b to maximize the match, max out backdoor Roth IRAs (which is way to go based on our combined income), have $18K in an emergency fund that we continue to contribute to/grow, are opening a 529 plan for our new baby, and are transitioning our loans from SAVE to IBR this month with plans to both continue pursuing PSLF for both of us. Our investment accounts are all with Fidelity and invested in broad index funds with 75%/25% US to international split.

A parent passed away while I was in medical school, leaving a small 6-figure life insurance payout via a Trust account, and that account was managed by a financial advisor who is a family friend of sorts (via another family member's workplace). It has now aged out of a Trust and exists in a Wells Fargo general brokerage account, that is still managed by this financial advisor. He is a wonderful person, and has generally done a great job, generating ~18% returns since 2023. However, based on past statements, he incurs a 1.35% advisory fee, which I believe is simply 1.35% AUM (though it does not say this explicitly). Additionally, the holdings are invested in what seems to be an overly complicated manner - 75% ETFs, 25% mutual funds with about 14 different funds involved (total market, S&P, emerging, etc).

As our HHI jumps markedly in Sept, I am trying to get a better hold on our whole picture and how to best manage our investment accounts. I specifically am wondering whether to "fire" this advisor and how to approach it.

1. 1.35% AUM fee seems quite steep. Should I simply negotiate this in some way?

2. I feel these holdings are needlessly complicated, and I am wondering if I should simply convert them all into a combination of FSKAX and FTIHX (which is what our other retirement/investment accounts are with Fidelity. However, I imagine that would incur a large tax bomb, and I am not sure that is worth it?

3. I feel comfortable managing pretty much everything, but could certainly benefit from a 1-time yearly consultation meeting of sorts. Perhaps I should just ask him for this?

4. Ultimately, I do not feel I want to continue with Wells Fargo, and I would rather just move everything to Fidelity, where I currently have things. I imagine this would involve "firing" this individual? Or is it conceivable he could work as my advisor in a consultation manner, while still allowing me to move the account to Fidelity?

Thank you again for all the advice!

Hey everyone, trying to get a sanity check on the new Trump Accounts launching this month. I know individuals can't deduct contributions. But businesses can write off up to $2,500 as an employer benefit.
I run my own business. A quick search makes it seem like a Sole Proprietor can’t do this, but an S-Corp can if the owner is a W-2 employee. Is that accurate? Or can I stay a Sole Prop, hire my 11-year-old child to do basic office tasks, and have the business deduct the $2,500 contribution on Schedule C? Curious to hear from any business owners who have mapped this out yet.

Is there any reason to not leave forbearance and start making PSLF-qualified payments under RAP?

It seems like the most financially reasonable plan at this time. I also worry about the unknown-unknown’s (like potential for poor administrative management or court challenges).

Longstory short, I invested 6k into Sealed Pokemon Product 2 years ago (extremely irresponsible). Somehow it worked out and now everything is worth 20k. Can sell the collection for 18k cash (have a buyer).

My initial thought was to hold my pokemon collection throughout medschool. But it is way safer to place those funds on my retirement account (VOO, QQQM, and some IBIT).

Sooooo… what would you guys do in my situation.

Before this, I sold 5k worth of my collection and have been spending it on trips, skydiving, and other fun hobbies. But I had enough fun, want to do something smart/responsible.

I’ll be living with my parents throughout medschool. They cover every expense (except tuition, which is $100,000 for the whole 4 years).

Already have my loan set up (DIRECT PLUS LOAN).

EDIT: Should I cover my first year expenses right now? I could theoretically pay for a whole year. Will end up with no cash afterwards.
Also, i’m 22 years old. Don’t know if this information is relevant 😆

Newly graduated hem onc fellow and not starting my attending job until October. Are there any good paying medical side hustles that I can do before then? WFH preferred but will travel if need be.

I’m absolutely freaking out. I am starting at MSU CHM in August and I had come to terms with the insane cost as I am considered out of state but I just found out it will be ~80k more than I expected.

Maybe I’m dumb but I didn’t realize summer semesters are a whole separate semester to pay for and that they didn’t include that in the budget they gave me for the first year. So when I chose them over another med school, I used the first year budget (they only included Fall/Spring) x4 plus what I expected them to raise tuition by each year. Doing that it was less expensive but adding on summer semesters its much more.

I will have 440k debt when I graduate medical school plus 25k from undergrad (without considering interest throughout med school). Im interested in ophthalmology and while I am a high achieving student, I also know how insanely competitive it is. I’m just overwhelmed, I did everything right but I feel like I’m financially devastating myself if I actually go through with this. I mean with interest I will have like 700k+ in debt when I’m an attending?!

I come from a middle class family with zero doctors or family support. Only 200k will be federal with the new limit, the rest private.

Tldr: I will have ~480k debt when I finish med school. I’m most likely doing ophthalmology. Do I go forward with this?

Edit:
Thank you all, I feel a lot better. I’m going to go through with it while looking into the VA HPSP scholarship.

Hello. I'm in my early 30s, currently make ~200k+ in my corporate job, and am starting medical school in less than a month. My decision is made but I would like perspective on how best to navigate the next few years

I have ~300k in stocks (260k is in tax advantaged/deferred accounts). I have 30k in cash.

I have 90k in federal loans from a masters. My school is about 50k / year, so I'll run into the federal loan cap. I was going to take out purely federal loans before this change and forgot about the cap. I'm looking at private lenders now and the interest rate is 2% lower. Obviously I'd be foregoing the federal protections, but I also don't have much choice

My thoughts:

• take the private loans now so I benefit more from the lower interest rate
• Don't cosign because I don't want to straddle my wife with debt she won't be able to pay off (she's not on a high paying career path)
• We want to have a child in the next year or two so I should take more loans to cover that expense (don't touch cash unless absolutely necessary)
• My investments will probably increase enough over the next 8 years I'll be at 0 NW

Any feedback or advice is greatly appreciated

Hi all, I am struggling to figure out the best solution at the moment. I feel very stuck in what I can take out via loans and need some reassurance on what to do.

I am going into my first year of my DO program. As of right now, I have taken out the $50,000 max for the federal loan and now I am looking to take a $55,000 private medical student loan through Earnest with about a 12% apr. This has a cosigner on the loan and am just trying to figure out a plan moving forward. Any thoughts on where to go with this?

1. Refinance later on?

2. Pay it off as soon as possible once we get to the attending level?

3. Is this amount of money and interest almost normal for student loans at this amount?

I will be taking out ~65k/year in private loans and $50k/year in federal, my MD school is not offering any financial aid and I'm paying for everything myself (no co-signer/family support). I'm trying to compare loan options but I'm confused on what I should be looking for?

For example, these are some from the same lender's rate check I'm looking at right now:

Option 1 - 5 years fixed, fixed payments, 5.53% APR, monthly payment $25.00 in school, $1,536.79 out of school, 36 months of grace + up to 48 months for residency and fellowship post-residency

Option 2 - 8 years fixed, fixed payments, 5.59% APR, $25.00/mo in school $1,043.14/mo out of school, same thing as 1 for grace period

Option 3 - 10 years fixed, fixed payments, 5.62% APR, $25/mo in school $880/mo out of school

Option 4 - 5 years fixed, no payments in school, $1574/mo out of school, 5.63% APR, same grace period (or 8 years fixed, no payments in school, $1,070/mo out of school, same grace period)

Option 5 - 5 or 8 years variable, 5.04% or 5.09% APR, $25/mo in school, 1488 or 1002/mo out of school, same grace period

There are a couple other very similar options. What do people usually do in terms of the number of repayment years, and can anyone help me visualize what my budget during and after residency would look like with these student loan payments? I currently make $35k/year and have never had a lot of money so paying $6000 in loans (1500x4) each month seems absolutely insane but I know when I'm an attending I will be making a solid income. I'm strongly interested in peds.

It's been hard to find advice that helps my situation, especially since my life plans/goals aren't the same as most other people's. I'm not planning on ever buying a house. I might adopt a kid/kids much later in life once financially stable but won't be having my own. I don't want a luxurious lifestyle, I just want to be able to comfortably pay my bills and not feel super stressed about money like I have my whole life so far.

Any advice on how to pick a private loan would be much appreciated thank you!