Even if you or your partner aren't taking the reins of financial planning for the family and are content to be less involved in the journey to financial literacy and prosperity, your role in money management is still crucial. That's because 1) you might have to eventually take over the family finances, even if it's not your choice to do so, or 2) your input as the "oversight committee" is vital. Need more explanation? Let's talk about it below in November's financial tip of the month.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

	WCICON24 Swag Bag Deadline – Invest in yourself by attending the Physician Wellness & Financial Literacy Conference, February 5-8, 2024, in Orlando. Return home with new friends and a specific plan to improve your financial well-being AND personal wellness. WCICON is known for swag bags filled with items you actually want, including best-selling books. Register now to get a swag bag with your registration (must register by November 16th to receive the swag bag).
	20% Off Courses & Store – Make millions over the course of your career and avoid expensive financial mistakes with the information taught in Fire Your Financial Advisor. Or, accelerate your path to financial freedom with No Hype Real Estate Investing. Enjoy 20% off of courses, books, and merch until Monday, November 6, with Discount Code: GET20
	Financially Empowered Women Virtual Event – Calling all WCI women! Join the Financially Empowered Women Community on Wednesday, November 8 at 6 pm MT for a FREE workshop on how to build a personalized financial plan aligned to your values AND reach both your short and long-term financial goals. To learn more about the FEW and get the event details, click here.
	Free Books for First-Year Students – Apply to be a WCI Champion and make a difference worth hundreds of millions of dollars throughout the careers of your classmates! Even though The White Coat Investor's Guide for Students is primarily focused on medical and dental students, we expanded the program to include US-based PA, NP, Pharmacy, Dental, and Medical/DO Schools. Learn more or apply to be a Champion today!

MARKET UPDATE

Data sources: Morningstar and SPGlobal

"These are the times that try men's souls." –Thomas Paine. It turns out that markets don't always go up. Stocks have given back most if not all of their gains from earlier in the year. While US stocks (large growth like the "magnificent seven" leading the way) are still up over 8% on the year, lots of other stock asset classes are no longer in the positive including value stocks, small stocks, and international stocks.
Real estate and bonds also down year to date.
Bitcoin had a spectacular month and has had a spectacular year. I keep hearing about people piling back into it, but keep in mind it still needs ANOTHER 100% gain to get back to its last high. I think the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried has probably got a lot of investors thinking twice about many crypto investments.
Gold and cash are bright spots on the month and the year.
Don't invest short-term money in long-term assets.

REAL ESTATE OPPORTUNITIES

DLP Capital – An impact investment company focused on creating great returns for investors while doing good for the world. All funds are evergreen, invest in critical workforce housing, and pay preferred returns before DLP takes any management fee. $100K investment minimums are back for a limited time.

MLG Capital – Founded in 1987, MLG Capital invests via a series of funds that target both geographic and asset-class diversification. MLG Capital has consistently delivered attractive, tax-efficient returns throughout its 35-year track record of success. The MLG Private Fund VI is now open for investment.

Please consider these introductions and be sure to do your due diligence prior to investing in any real estate investment opportunity.

STAFF ADVENTURE

Mount Kilimanjaro – A Joyful Journey to the Top of Africa

White coat investors often talk about the difficulty in balancing saving for retirement vs. enjoying life today, while you're still young and healthy enough to do the things you want to do. A big part of finding that balance is being intentional about what you spend your money and time on. Michelle, the WCI Community Liaison, turned 50 this summer and decided this was the perfect year to accomplish something big. So, she, Katie (aka Mrs. WCI), and WCI Director of Sales, Cindy, spent all summer training and headed to Africa in September to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain on the African continent. Despite its reputation among hardcore mountaineers as a "walk-up," climbing above 19,000 feet elevation is not to be taken lightly—not to mention traveling to a completely unfamiliar continent and country. It turns out that the people of Tanzania were the best part of the entire adventure. The women spent seven days and six nights on the mountain in the company of guides, cooks, and porters, gradually ascending to acclimate to the altitude and summiting on the fifth night, starting at midnight.

In the frigid, thin air above 16,000 feet, every step seemed to take both maximum effort and time. The ascent was inspiring and humbling, as the music of the guides' singing simultaneously held the cold darkness and fatigue at bay and ushering in the quiet peace of a sky impossibly full of stars and extending to the curve of the horizon on all sides. The tip of the mountain at Stella Point didn't seem to get any closer in the light of dawn but was eventually reached, and the summit was a more gradual 45 minutes further on. Their time at the Top of Africa lasted only moments, but it was the culmination of months of preparation and planning and, it turned out, only a small part of the adventure itself. The joy was in the journey and in the appreciation of every person, place, and experience along the way.

BEST OF THE MONTH

Best of WCI

Some Sobering (and Scary) Statistics on People's Retirement Preparedness – If you ever worry about not being prepared for retirement, believe us, you're not alone. Some of these stats are frightening.
Which Small Cap Value Funds Are Best for You? – Thinking about tilting your portfolio to small cap value funds? Here are some good options (and some options to avoid).
Is Dentistry Worth It? Comparing It to Being a Pediatrician, a Planner, and a Plumber – Columnist Tyler Scott explores the potential and opportunity costs for a number of careers to see what's worth it.
The Secret to Being Rich Is to Not Buy Anything – Is this an extreme position to take? Well, yeah, maybe so. But there are still plenty of lessons to learn if you're over-spending.
Lessons Learned from a Money Hemorrhage – If you still haven't learned the lesson of overspending, let's remember a near-catastrophe that Dr. Jim Dahle worked through a few years ago.
Hedonia vs. Eudaimonia – WCI likes to keep you on your toes. As one commenter wrote, "Never thought I'd see the concept of eudaimonia on WCI of all places . . . neat."
W-2 vs. Self-Employed – Is it better to take a job as an employee or as an independent contractor? The short answer is "it depends." The best answer may be "both."
The Risk of Retirement – This guest writer started thinking about this topic while on a beach in Hawaii. Now, he's retired from medicine but he's still pondering what can go right in retirement and what can go wrong.
Can You Spot the Unbelievably Bad Financial Advice on These TikToks and Tweets? – Content Director Josh Katzowitz found some real doozies on social media.
The Most Revealing Question – While recently swapping stories with some financial advisors, Jim suddenly had this thought: most people in need of help have the same question.

New Podcast Episodes

Be sure to check out The White Coat Investor Podcast if you haven't yet. 30,000 to 40,000 are listening to every episode. If you'd like to leave a question to be answered on the podcast, record it here.

#335 – Solo 401(k) Questions (Sponsored by Pattern)
#334 – How You're Being Ripped Off by Incompetent and Corrupt CMS Bureaucrats with Dr. Alex Shteynshlyuger (Sponsored by SoFi)
#333 – Investing in India's Stock Market and More! (Sponsored by Pattern)
#332 – Getting a Financial Plan in Place (Sponsored by SoFi)

The Milestones to Millionaire Podcast has short episodes celebrating your accomplishments.

#135 – Opening a Franchise and Finance 101: Tilting Your Portfolio (Sponsored by Withco)
#134 – Primary Care Doc Becomes a Millionaire and Pays Off Student Loans in 4.5 years and Finance 101: Hitting the Ground Running (Sponsored by WCI Financial Advisor Recommended List)
#133 – CRNA Becomes a Millionaire and Finance 101: Disability Insurance (Sponsored by WCI Insurance Recommended List)
#132 – Emergency Medicine Resident Hits $100K in Retirement Accounts and Finance 101: Cash (Sponsored by WCI Surveys for Money)

The Passive Income MD Podcast

#182 – How I Scaled My Real Estate Portfolio to Support Adventures of a Lifetime
#178 – Top 4 Fears of Investing in Real Estate

Best of the Web

Every month we recommend (about) 10 articles from across the web. Thank you to those who send us suggested articles.

14 Biggest Social Media Tax Myths – How many do you believe?
A Financial Conference Worth Writing About – John Stoj highlights Bogleheads 2023 and includes a pic of Jim on stage!
Many Couples Do Not Coordinate 401(k) Matches – You don't have to worry about this if you max out all available 401(k)s, but if you're not, at least get all the matches available.
iShares Defined Maturity TIPS ETFs – Mike Piper writes about these new Blackrock funds. Probably easier to buy than going to Treasury Direct.
How America Fell in Love with the Power of the Free Market – Jim is a big fan of knowing financial history, and there are few teachers as talented as Bill Bernstein.
How to Outperform – You might get "average returns," but you'll do a lot better than the median investor.
FU Money – What is the optimal amount of wealth? Can you be too wealthy. Not new but might be new to you.
We Make $665K a Year and Feel Broke – Ramit Sethi interviews a surgeon family with a spending problem.
Check Before Leaving – Adam Grossman discusses 9 things you should check before retiring.
10 Lessons Backpacking Taught My About Minimalism – Jim should have thought to write this post. There's nothing like toting something around for a week on your back to make sure you really need it.
The Worst Financial Gifts to Give Your Kids – Jim was interviewed on this topic on a podcast.
Building the Ideal Life - Jim was interviewed on the Clipping Chains podcast.

TIP OF THE MONTH

By Dr. James M. Dahle,
WCI Founder

My good friend Mike Piper was assigned a talk at this year's Bogleheads Conference that was designed for the "less involved partner." Almost all of us have one of these. I've got one of these, even though she ran registration at the Bogleheads Conference this year and spends more time on WCI than I do.

In Mike's talk (slides found here), he went over the basics of financial planning that even someone totally uninterested in finance should know. I don't really want to focus on that today. What I want to focus on is just how important of a role the "less involved partner" has. Mike refers to it as the "oversight committee," and that's not just being patronizing. It is very real.

There are a couple of reasons that the less involved partner still needs to be somewhat involved. The first is that something can happen to the more involved partner. We usually think of these as the Ds: death, disability, divorce, dementia, delirium, and I'm sure you could go on and on if you got really creative. But the bottom line is that you may be forced to be the more involved partner when it comes to the finances even if you don't want to be.

However, the second reason is just as important. This is the role of the oversight committee. Mike used an example where the "more involved partner" had the entire portfolio in a single stock. That partnership needs an oversight committee. You might not enjoy finance, but you're still going to suffer the consequences of your spouse's screw-ups.

Katie has functioned as our oversight committee for many years. Most of the time, she follows my lead, but she has certainly used her veto power before. One example is that a few years ago I wanted to add an alternative asset class known as viaticals to the portfolio. Basically, you're buying a diversified portfolio of old whole life insurance policies. Pay a low enough price, and you can get a great return. But best of all, it has zero correlation with stocks, bonds, and real estate. The seller presumably gets a better deal than they would by surrendering the policy too, so it's a win for everyone but the insurance company.

She put the kibosh on that plan. I don't even remember why, but she wasn't comfortable with it. Now, I don't know that anything bad would have happened had we put 5% of the portfolio into viaticals, but I wasn't going to do it if Katie didn't want me to. There have been other ideas I have had over the years that I didn't even bother bringing up because I knew I couldn't float them past the oversight committee. So, we have a relatively boring portfolio of stocks, bonds, and real estate, 85% of which is in index funds.

We seem to have a more and more complicated tax situation each year. Our estate plan doesn't help, now that we're managing an irrevocable trust (that requires its own return) that contains most of the assets that used to be ours. But the main problem is all the K-1s. We had 23 of them this year, and we ended up needing to file in 13 states. Even if I still wanted to do our tax return, Katie certainly isn't interested. So, we've outsourced that for a very pretty penny. But if one of those Ds happened to me, it would be far easier for her to carry on.

The investment management is relatively easy. The taxes and estate planning is the part she'd need help with. But even so, I recently asked her how many real estate investments she wanted to deal with if something happened to me. I was surprised to hear that the answer was none. This suggests that, at some point in the next 20-30 years, we need to be transitioning out of them. I dropped one this year, partially for that reason. The debt funds are relatively easy (especially inside retirement accounts), but the funds that send an 80-page K-1 and require filing in a half-dozen states probably aren't going to be with us forever. If you're investing in real estate, whether directly or indirectly, I suggest you run that question past your oversight committee. It might mess up your grand plan to buy, depreciate, exchange, depreciate, exchange, depreciate, and die if your spouse isn't on board with being a lifelong real estate investor.

The role of the oversight committee is important. Teamwork makes the dream work.

The White Coat Investor

Past Newsletters

October Newsletter - Overcoming Paralysis by Analysis Is Harder Than I Thought
September Newsletter - 6 Lessons Learned While Climbing Half Dome
August Newsletter – How to Stay Rich
July Newsletter – The 'Guaranteed' Path to Physician Wealth and the 5 Ways to Fall Off It
June Newsletter – A High Income Covers a Plethora of Financial Sins