Dr. Jim Dahle:
Now, would I recommend that? No. What I recommend, if you have money that’s not in retirement accounts, I would use that for medical school. $60,000, whether you spread that out 15 a year or whatever, and that keeps you from taking out private loans or whether you front load it and use it to pay for the first year so that you don’t have to start taking out loans and that interest doesn’t start piling up on you until your second year. That’s probably what I would do.
Dr. Jim Dahle:
If I was starting med school and I had $60,000, I would use it to pay for med school. You’re investing in yourself. That’s going to be a way better investment than anything you can invest in financially. So, I would use your money to pay for med school. That’s what I’d do.
Dr. Jim Dahle:
Now, whether you do it all at once, or whether you spread it out over a few years to try to improve the types of loans you get, that’s what I would do. But is it possible you can come out ahead through this moral hazard? I’m not saying you’re immoral, that’s not what the word means. It’s an economics term.
Dr. Jim Dahle:
So good luck with that decision, but those are the things to keep in mind as you make it.
Dr. Jim Dahle:
All right. Let’s take a question now about ETFs. This one comes from Tim, who I think all of you know pretty well.
Tim:
Hi, Jim. This is Tim in Salt Lake City. Is it okay to buy ETFs with market orders? I know that you’re supposed to buy when the spread is relatively small, so ideally in the middle of the trading day. But I’ve also heard that limit orders may protect you from things like flash crashes or large spreads. But honestly, putting in limit orders is kind of annoying. So, I wanted to get your take on whether you think market orders are okay, or whether limit orders are worth the extra effort.
Tim:
The second question, a little mini question, is what do you think about buying an ETF by the dollar as opposed to by the share? Now, many brokerages are offering partial or fractional ETF shares. And so, it’s nice to put in just a dollar amount and buy that amount. Is that okay or somehow, they’re getting a hidden fee in there with those? Thanks, bye-bye.
Dr. Jim Dahle:
Tim, that’s a great question. Let’s do the first one first. Limit orders or market orders. When I first started trading, ETFs http://paydayloansmissouri.org is what is technically called. I don’t actually really trade them. I just kind of buy and hold them and occasionally tax less harvest them and occasionally donate them to charity.
Dr. Jim Dahle:
But when you do that, everybody says put in limit orders so you don’t get burned. And so, I put in limit orders. And sometimes it’d execute right away, like when the price was falling and when the price was going up, it wouldn’t execute. And then I’d have to go back in and put another limit order in and put another limit order in, and I’d do it three or four times and end up paying 25 cents more than when I first put the order in. And I was super annoyed about it.