I recently became an affiliate for The White Coat Investors “Fire Your Financial Advisor Course”. This site may be paid if you sign up for this course through the embedded links. However, I planned this review before I became an affiliate. I assure you these are my real feelings and opinions. This course changed my financial life. It can yours too.
WCI’s “Fire Your Financial Advisor” course
There are many books, blog posts, and forums that I can attribute to my initial financial education. White Coat Investor’s “Fire Your Financial Advisor” course is right there at the top of what gave me my education. He admits that the title is provocative. However, neither he nor I are anti-financial advisors. That being said, neither of us use one.
This course is for those who want to get a financial education and get a written financial plan and implement it by themselves. In addition, it is also for those who still do want to hire a financial advisor. In fact, in the course he teaches you how to work with one. This course will give you knowledge and tools in order to be able to come to the table with your financial advisor with the education you need to help them build and implement your plan. It will help you get better advice, get a fair price, and also help you understand if you are getting swindled or even bad advice from a well meaning advisor.
The Review
This Course is about 8 hours of video and screen casts. It is not just something you are reading. Dr. Dahle is there speaking to you. There is a pre-test to begin the course. If you are like me, you will fail it miserably. But that’s ok. By the end of the course you will be able to ace the test.
He then breaks it down into every section of what you should have in a full written financial plan. You will learn what each particular section means and how to implement it into your plan. He even has several example plans from real people to help you get started. At the end of each section, you will write your plan for that particular section in your own written financial plan.
I will explain here each section or module that there is in this course and what you can look forward to learning in each section.
1) How to work with a financial advisor
That’s right. This course actually teaches you how to work with a financial advisor. The White Coat Investor and this course aren’t as anti-financial advisor as the title indicates. This section will teach you how much advice should cost and the different ways advisors charge for advice. You will also learn what to look for in an advisor, and how to use them to help you. He also discusses ways to know if you actually need an advisor or if you can do it yourself.
As I have stated before, I do not use an advisor. I have a read a lot of books, blogs, articles etc. I listen to several financial podcasts. However I still feel I needed some help to learn more and to obtain a full written financial plan. This course gave me the knowledge to do so. However, there is no shame in working with a financial advisor and this section of the course will help you do so in an effective manner.
2) Insurance
No financial plan is complete without an insurance plan. There are so many types of insurance out there so it can be hard to keep them all straight. It is especially difficult to know which insurances you do and don’t need and how much you need of each insurance.
He discusses disability and life insurance. Both of these are essential for any dentist or physician that is not financially independent and has people depending on them for income. Which riders are important and which aren’t? Term Life insurance is probably what you need and not Whole Life and he teaches you why.
You also need professional and personal liability insurance. You can not practice without professional liability insurance. This could potentially be career suicide. You also need to make sure you have personal liability built in to your auto and homeowners insurance policies as well as an Umbrella policy stacked on top.
Health insurance is also a must as certain healthcare costs could cause anyone to go bankrupt.
Part of this module will also be about which insurances to avoid and also why you should likely avoid insurance based investment products. Both insurance and investing are integral parts of your plan, but they should usually not be mixed.
Protecting your hard earned assets is essential in maintaining the wealth you build. This section will help you understand how insurance can help you on your path to financial freedom.
3) Housing Plan
There is a whole section dedicated to the purchase of your home? Yep. And rightfully so. You will learn when the best time to buy is, why you should and how you can resist the urge to buy. Interacting with loan officers and realtors may be new to some and he will teach you how to do this. There are several different types of loans you can use including physician loans.
One of the biggest purchases you will ever make is your home. It is important to not overspend, and to do it at the right time. This module will help you understand how to do this and to write your housing plan as part of your financial plan.
4) Student loan plan
I have discussed ad nauseam how important it is to destroy your student loans. The White Coat Investor is the one that taught me this is possible. I am fortunate to not have student loans anymore. So I didn’t even have to write this section of my plan. But for those of you who do still have student loans, having a plan to get rid of them as part of your written financial plan is essential.
You will learn about all of the different income driven repayment plans and also about Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). If you are going for PSLF there are a lot of I’s to dot and T’s to cross and he will help you understand what those are.
Refinancing student loans is a must if you are not going for PSLF. He will discuss this as well as other strategies on how you can pay off your student loans quickly. By the end of this section you will have a written plan on how you too can destroy your student loans in 2-5 years.
5) Spending plan
One of the biggest hinderances to dentists and physicians and other high income professionals not paying off their student loans quickly, and not building wealth at the rate they should is spending too much money. Too many of us see a big paycheck and think that means we can spend a lot more. There is a time and a place to spend more, but only after you have met certain criteria in your plan.
This section will teach you how to budget, and how to “Live Like a Resident” so that you can crush your student loans and get on the path to financial independence.
Too many dentists and others have made a lot of money in their careers but never built a lot of wealth. This section will help you have a plan how you can avoid this and build the wealth you want.
6) Investing plan
Now you are really getting into the meat of the course. There are three sections dedicated to your investing plan. This will really take you from an investing novice to at least competent. This is the section that helped build my confidence that I could invest and manage my money on my own.
Even if you don’t plan on doing this yourself, this section will give you the knowledge and the tools needed to make a plan with your advisor and ensure you are getting good advice. There are a lot of mutual fund, investment, and insurance salespeople out there and this section will help you identify them and fire them quickly. You will understand what good investing is and what it isn’t.
You will learn how to set SMART investing goals, how much you need to retire, how much you need to save to reach that goal. Social Security and college savings will also be part of the plan. He gives you several equations that will help you figure out all of these numbers you need to know such as how much you need to retire, how much you need to save to get there, and how long it will take.
There are many different types of investing accounts that may make your head spin at this point. But Dr. Dahle discusses them all and will really help you understand them. There are several qualified investing accounts like IRA’s, 401k’s, 403B’s etc. Taxable investing accounts are also an important to most of our portfolios and you will learn how to use them to your advantage.
What are mutual funds? How about index funds? What are asset classes? What does asset allocation and asset location mean? Does Real Estate belong in your portfolio? There are so many things to learn and understand. However, I assure you that this course will teach you in a way that you will understand what all of these things mean and how you can implement them into your plan.
This section helped my come up with my investing plan. It is a plan that I am very proud of and I have stuck too and plan to stick to through thick and thin. I am confident I have the knowledge to stick to this plan and have it take me to financial independence.
There is so much more discussed in these three sections that I can’t mention. But rest assured, at the end of this section you will also have an investing plan that makes sense to you and will give you confidence whether you are managing it on your own or with the help of an advisor.
7) Estate planning
Because you will likely build significant wealth, having a plan of what will happen with it after your death is very important. You will learn in this section about a Will, avoiding probate and death taxes, how to gift assets and also about Trusts. The difference between revocable and irrevocable trusts will be taught to you and also which one of those is best for you.
Having a Will, power of attorney, last will and testament, and a trust are likely all important parts of your financial plan. You will learn how and where to get these documents and have a proper estate plan.
8) Asset protection
As discussed in the insurance section, protecting your hard earned assets and wealth is vital. There is no point in building wealth if it will all be taken from you. There are ways to protect yourself. Having proper insurances in place is a huge part of this. However, you will also learn many other valuable lessons on how to protect you and your family.
9) Staying the course
The last section sums up the course and helps you finish up your written financial plan. However, having a written financial plan does no good if you don’t implement it and if you don’t stick to it.
Staying the course means to stick to your financial plan and not veering from it in the case of a Bull or Bear market, or in the case of a recession. There several hardships and other road blocks you will have on your path to financial independence. However if you have a written financial plan and stay the course, you are likely to weather the storm and make it to your financial goals.
Shortcomings of the course
I honestly don’t have many. That is the honest truth. Perhaps you could say the $499 price tag is a lot for some people. But I can honestly say that if he raised the price to $2,000 I would still recommend it as highly and it would still be worth it.
This course is not all you need in order to be financially literate and be able to manage your own finances. You wouldn’t have become a dentist or physician with one course right? Likewise, you cannot gain all the knowledge you need just with this course.
Managing your finances is every bit as important as your day job. However, you never went to school for it. So it is up to you to get a financial education. Reading several books such as those in my recommended tab, reading blogs and other websites and forums are critical in getting an initial financial education. Likewise a continuing financial education is vital to your financial success. We all need to continue to read and learn about how to invest and manage our finances if we want to be successful in the long term.
Conclusion
White Coat Investor’s “Fire Your Financial Advisor” course in an excellent way to help you get a full WRITTEN financial plan. It can also be a huge part of anyone’s initial and continuing financial education. At the end of each module you will write your own plan for that section. At the conclusion of the course you will have a full financial plan.
There will also be a quiz at the end of each section that will help drive home the critical points of that section. You will be able to review your answers and find out even more about the topics. There is also a post test that will help you measure how much you learned in the course.
The White Coat Investor even offers a 7 day money back guarantee. I am confident that you won’t want yo use it though. This course helped change my financial life. It gave me the education and framework to get a full written financial plan. I am confident if I stick to it, I will reach my financial goals and financial independence in the time frame I want to. I believe it will do the same for you. So I recommend you buy this course today. If you use my link I will get compensated and it will be at no extra cost to you. I would really appreciate it. You have nothing to lose (7 day money back guarantee), and a full written financial plan to gain.
You don’t have to be a slave to debt. Together (and with this course) we can become debt free, financially literate, and financially independent.
-Debt Free DDS
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*Nothing on my website is professional or legal advice. I am only sharing information that I have learned and it may or may not be accurate. I am not liable for any problems you may have by following this advice. Please do further research and get professional and/or legal advice about any of these topics. This post likely contains affiliate links. This site could be paid for clicks or purchases made through these links. See my disclosure here.
