Jim's 80-year-old mom just graduated from college. And it got him thinking about how valuable an early financial education can be to the rest of your life. Let's talk about it more below in August's financial tip of the month.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

	Free Financial Crash Course – This live virtual event is your fast track to financial clarity. With a simple, proven plan, you can be debt-free within five years and well on your way to becoming a multimillionaire. You've worked too hard, and sacrificed too much, not to be financially successful. Join Dr. Jim Dahle on August 19 at 6 PM MT for the roadmap to create the life you imagined when you chose this career. Register for Financial Crash Course
	WCICON26 Speakers Announced – Invest in your future by dedicating time to focus on your financial well-being and personal wellness, supported by an outstanding lineup of expert speakers at the Physician Wellness & Financial Literacy Conference. Join your White Coat Investor community for the best CME-eligible conference of the year in Las Vegas, March 25-28, 2026. Early Bird registration opens September 1st! See WCICON26 Speakers
	WCI Medical School Scholarship – The application is open until August 31st! We're looking for volunteers to judge submissions and welcome reader donations. Over $70,000 in cash and prizes awaits the 10 grand prize winners. Thank you for sharing this with any medical students you know. See All Scholarship Detail

MARKET UPDATE

Data sources: Morningstar and SPGlobal

US stocks didn't perform quite as well as they did in June (5.08%) or May (6.35%), but hey, they were still in positive territory. The Magnificent Seven continues to soar. Nvidia became the first company to ever reach a $4 trillion market valuation, and a few weeks later, Microsoft did the same. Plus, the S&P 500 keeps on setting new records.
Though we speculated last month that the Fed could cut interest rates in July, it did not. But maybe it will in October or December. Either way, growth stocks continue to put up impressive numbers.
Bitcoin is on a four-month winning streak. It also surpassed the $120,000 limit for the first time in July. Crypto is king for now.
So far, the US economy hasn't sustained long-term damage from the Trump administration's tariff policy. But will what appears to be a weakening job market begin to turn the tide?

REAL ESTATE OPPORTUNITIES

Black Swan Real Estate – This values-driven, vertically integrated company delivers strong returns through a private equity structure. With over 1,600 doors and $375M in AUM, Black Swan's investment model charges no fees and offers two distinct options: a fixed return model or an infinite rate of return model.

Wellings Capital – Helping accredited investors passively grow and protect their wealth with a diversified portfolio of carefully vetted recession-resistant commercial assets, such as self-storage, mobile home parks, and RV parks. Accepting new investors with a $50,000 minimum.

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

FINANCE FUNDAMENTALS

10 Timeless Financial Principles for Doctors

1. Insure Well Against Financial Catastrophes

2. Create a Budget and Spend Intentionally

3. Save 20% of Gross Income

4. Live Like a Resident for 2–5 Years Post Training

5. Don't Mix Insurance and Investing

6. Negotiate Your Contracts Well

7. Use Tax-Advantaged Accounts

8. Pay Cash and Avoid Debt

9. Follow a Reasonable Investing Plan

10. Stay the Course

Having a high income by itself won't guarantee the "good life" you've envisioned. If you're feeling overwhelmed with your financial life, join Dr. Dahle for a Financial Crash Course on August 19th.

BEST OF THE MONTH

Best of WCI

How the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' Act Will Affect Doctors – Everything you need to know (both the good and the bad for doctors and trainees) about this significant piece of legislation.
Trump Accounts – What to Know About This 'Baby Bonus' from the One Big Beautiful Bill – Another byproduct of the OBBBA, will these new $1,000 accounts be worth it for newborns?
What Does It Mean to 'Adjust as You Go' in Retirement? – There are hundreds of retirement withdrawal rules out there, but hopefully, this article will make you feel better about your own decumulation plan.
Stuff You Should Take with You When You Leave Your Job – WCI columnist Margaret Curtis breaks it all down for you.
The Emotions Behind Short-Term Trading: The Other 5% of Your Money – We debut a new WCI series that focuses on alternative investments and whether they're worth it. This guest writer talks about how much he made (and yeah, it was significant) doing short-term trading.
What's Been Your Biggest Splurge Recently? – Content director Josh Katzowitz talked to a bunch of WCIers for this column. Everything from a Paris trip to a Louis Vuitton purse was on the list.
Try a Mini-Retirement – WCI columnist Erik Hofmeister is practicing for the real thing.
Why You Have a 65% Lower Chance of Being Declined for Disability Insurance (If You Use a WCI-Approved Agent) – There is nothing that bothers us more than a suggestion that WCI is selling out doctors. So, let's talk about a couple of recent accusations.
Performing a Personal Financial Health Audit: How Is Your Financial Health? – Joshua White makes his WCI columnist debut with this piece on how and why you should audit your financial health.
5 Ways to Retire with $5 Million by Age 55 – Here are five different ways to get there—only one of them involves winning the lottery.

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.

#430 – Backdoor Roth: Standard and Mega (Sponsored by SoFi)
#429 – Impact of the Big Beautiful Bill on Student Loans (Sponsored by SoFi)
#428 – Estate Planning and Passing Wealth to Your Children (Sponsored by SoFi)
#427 – Dealing with a Disability Claim with Attorney Ben Glass (Sponsored by Laurel Road)
#426 – A Deep Dive into HSAs (Sponsored by SoFi)

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

#233 – Dual Doc Couple Pays Off Half Million in Loans While One Stays at Home and Finance 101: Geographic Arbitrage (Sponsored by Mortar Group)
#232 – Med Student Graduates Debt Free with Limited Parental Help and Finance 101: The Pennies Issue with the Backdoor Roth IRA (Sponsored by Bob Bhayani at Protuity)
#231 – Dual Doc Couple Saves $100K for Retirement During Residency and Finance 101: Plan Documents for Employer-Provided Retirement Accounts (Sponsored by Wellings Capital)
#230 – Radiologist Hits Early Financial Independence and Finance 101: The Three Pathways to Wealth (Sponsored by Bob Bhayani at Protuity)

Best of the Web

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

Breaking Down the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – If our article on the OBBBA wasn't comprehensive enough for your taste, check out the one by Ben Henry-Moreland at Kitces.com. They didn't get it out as fast as we did and it's written for financial planners, but since many of you function as your own financial planners, you can probably handle it.
The Unspoken Rules About Salary That Hold Doctors Back – Half of doctors make less than half the median salary for their specialty. If you're one of them, you better really like that job.
Tax Deductions: Above the Line, Itemized, and Neither – A piece by Harry Sit doing a nice breakdown of the various types of deductions, particularly relevant given OBBBA.
Wall Street Is Challenging the Low-Cost Investing Revolution – Investing can be basically free, but it doesn't have to be. Better have a good reason to pay more than 10 basis points for an investment.
The Ovarian Lottery – Yes, market timing matters. But not the kind you think.
Want to Live Longer? You Better Start Moving–All Day Long – The more you move, the longer you live. Don't get so busy earning and investing money that you forget to do the things that let you live long enough to have to worry about spending it all.
Should You Give a Potential Employer Your Desired Salary When Asked? – The best part of this article is the list of answers that don't give it.
The Best Leading Indicator of Wealth – Congratulations, you probably already have it or soon will.
Many Think Doctors Are Overpaid – Use this article the next time you hear it.
Dr. James Dahle AMA – Reddit had fun this month with Jim's Ask Me Anything. While it's over, you can still read the responses, including a bunch of political questions for those into that sort of thing.

TIP OF THE MONTH

By Dr. Jim Dahle,
WCI Founder

My thoughts recently turned to the lifelong benefits of education.

I had a special experience this month as I proudly watched my 80-year-old mother walk across the graduation stage and receive the college diploma she has been working hard on for the last decade.

Like many of your families, education is a relatively new thing in my family line. One grandfather was a miner and the other was a farmer. My father was the first in his family—and the only one of his siblings—to get a college degree. My mother is one of 12 children who grew up in a two-room farmhouse. She is only the second of those twelve to get a college degree.

Yet all six of their children graduated from college, and five of the six so far have an advanced degree. When I asked my mother what advice she would have for young people about their education, she emphasized how much more valuable it would have been to her to have done it in her 20s instead of her 70s.

So it is with financial education. The earlier you get it, the more dividends it pays. In our society, the combination of financial literacy and financial discipline is so rare that possessing them both is like having a superpower. You continually look around and wonder why everybody else can't see what you can see and do what you can do. As time goes on, you not only stop worrying about money but you find yourself able to be ridiculously generous and use money to make a great difference in the lives of others. It feels good to afford to do things the right way when running a business. It feels good to provide your child opportunities in their 20s that your parents could never have afforded. It feels good to anonymously help an ill neighbor.

What facilitated all that? Financial education in early career.

Wherever you are in your career, get your financial education now. I think a decent initial financial education consists of reading something like four books. Consider a book on personal finance, such as The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need or Personal Finance for Dummies. Then, read a book on investing, such as The Bogleheads Guide to Investing or The Investor's Manifesto. Third, read a book on behavioral finance, such as The Psychology of Money or How to Think About Money. Finally, read a book specific to physician finance, such as The White Coat Investor: A Doctor's Guide to Personal Finance and Investing or perhaps The White Coat Investor's Financial Boot Camp. If you read and internalize the information in those four books, you'll know more about how the financial world actually works than most who call themselves financial advisors.

Now, you need a written investing plan. Whether you create it yourself with the help of online forums like The White Coat Investor Forum, Facebook group, or subreddit; take an online course like Fire Your Financial Advisor; or hire a financial planner to help you draft it, completing your written financial plan is the culmination of your initial financial education. Then, all you need is some continuing financial education each year. Make that one financial book a year and several blog posts or podcasts a month, and you're good to go.

This stuff really isn't that hard. It isn't that complicated. Tens of thousands of doctors and other high-income professionals like you have figured this out, and you can, too. I called up a cardiologist recently that I had never met to help me manage a complicated a-fib patient. After we figured out how to help the patient, he thanked me for his financial education. Imagine how much that is worth to a young cardiologist. So, once you get yours, pay the favor forward. This information is worth literally millions to a young doctor.

Financially educated doctors are better doctors. They're better physicians, parents, and partners. If we work together, we can get rid of the reputation we have as financial idiots, crush burnout, and bless the lives of those with whom we associate. Get your financial education and see the dividends show up in your own life.

The White Coat Investor

Past Newsletters

July Newsletter – Are You Actually Receiving the Value a Financial Advisor Provides?
June Newsletter – Understanding the Basics of Investing
May Newsletter – Living Life Right Now (and Spending the Money to Do So)
April Newsletter – Tax-Loss Harvest, But Don't Worship at the TLH Altar
March Newsletter – Helping Your Fellow Docs Save for Retirement

Click here for all past newsletters.