By Dr. James M. Dahle, WCI Founder
Reddit offers a fantastic platform to discuss anything you like. It calls itself “The Front Page of the Internet,” and it has a fairly tight moderation policy and anti-commercial culture. Users (Redditors) love the anonymity it provides and the ability to upvote and downvote various responses. The more they help others and create great posts, the more karma and followers those Redditors acquire. Reddit is divided into literally millions of subreddits on nearly any subject you can think of. Subreddits can be divided by size using the number of members. The vast majority are very small:
- Very small: <500 members
- Small < 5,000 members
- Medium < 25,000 members
- Large < 100,000 members
- Very large < 1 million members
- Mega > 1o million members
As an example, the top 50 subreddits all have more than 13 million members.
Top 10 Investing and Financial Subreddits for Doctors
Today, we're going to talk about the best subreddits for doctors. Being a financial website, our first list is all about financial subreddits.
#1 The White Coat Investor (r/whitecoatinvestor)
- 29,000 members
OK, we're a little biased here, but this is a great place to get reliable, high-income professional-specific financial information in the Reddit format. Plus, it includes lots of links to useful WCI resources. This is only one of several White Coat Investor communities, but it has a number of advantages over the others:
- Fastest growing community (50%+ year over year)
- Skews younger (lots of students, residents, young attendings)
- Almost zero advertising (that's the Reddit way)
- Anonymity (we don't even know who some of the moderators are in real life)
You can check out our other communities including the WCI Forum, the WCI Facebook group, and the Finance and Investment subforum we co-host with StudentDoctor.net. But I wouldn't be surprised to see you come back to the subreddit.
#2 Bogleheads (r/Bogleheads)
- 234,000 members
Lots of Bogleheads don't even know there is a Bogleheads subreddit because the regular forum is so much larger. The tagline is Passive Indexing Community for Long-Term Lazy Investors, which I don't like much. Bogleheads aren't really lazy; they're just data-driven. Some Bogleheads prefer the subreddit precisely because it is smaller than the regular forum. Like all of Reddit, it skews a little younger than standard forums, too. (More Redditors are in their 20s than any other decade, but I expect that will change as the years go on.)
#3 Personal Finance (r/personalfinance)
- 17.6 million members
Hard to leave such a huge subreddit off the list. This is actually the largest financial subreddit. The big downside? Most people there are not dealing with the first-world problems that you are. It's a good place to hang out if you want to feel good about your financial situation, though.
#4 Wall Street Bets (r/wallstreetbets)
- 13.8 million members
How can you not include the infamous Wall Street Bets subreddit in any list like this? Of course, the way to use this subreddit is to learn what NOT to do when investing. This subreddit is full of uneducated, speculating, performance-chasing YOLOers who happen to love meme stocks. Of course, that's also what makes it fun.
#5 FIRE (r/financialindependence)
- 1.9 million members
This is where the FIRE folks hang out on Reddit. It's also a great place to gain perspective and see just how easy the road to FIRE is as a physician.
#6 Fat FIRE (r/fatFIRE)
- 356,000 members
However, if you want people that you can probably relate to a little better, check out the Fat FIRE subreddit. These folks want to retire with an income more like the one you earn, rather than reuse their Ziplock bags and paper towels and pick up their groceries with their bike trailer.
#7 Passive Income (r/passive_income)
- 317,000 members
A great place to hang out if your interest is passive income. Side gigs, unusual investments, whatever, there are lots of fun topics there.
#8 Student Loans (r/StudentLoans)
- 271,000 members
Still have student loans? This is a great place to talk about them, learn about them, and develop a plan to crush them. (And if you don't get everything you need from the subreddit, you can always book a consult with StudentLoanAdvice.com.)
#9 Real Estate Investing (r/realestateinvesting)
- 1.7 million members
There are other real estate investing subreddits, but this one is > 4 times as big as any of the others. You can discuss all things real estate here.
#10 Tax News and Discussion (r/tax)
- 178,000 members
It might not be the most exciting subject, but here's a place you can ask your tax questions—and you'll actually get them answered accurately. These people love taxes! Not sure it is as good as the older, smaller Fairmark forum, but it does seem to be a lot more active.
10 Best Non-Financial Subreddits for Doctors
Had enough of finance for the day? Let's try some non-financial topics.
#1 Medicine (r/medicine)
- 439,000 members
Just like there is MedTwitter, there is also Meddit and this is where you find it. This is the biggest physician-centric subreddit there is. Tons of people, tons of topics.
#2 Residency (r/Residency)
- 171,000 members
This one is aimed at residents. There are frequently financial topics. Not sure how residents have time to get on here—perhaps they're all on slow call nights.
#3 Medical School (r/MedicalSchool)
- 652,000 members
Not to be outdone, the med studs are here too. The fact that there are more members of r/medicalschool than r/medicine tells you a lot about the average age of a Redditor. There's a dental school version too, although it has less than 27,000 members.
#4 Medical Questions (r/AskDocs)
- 471,000 members
Want to do telemedicine without the liability or the pay? Here's your chance. Beats me why so many doctors are on this subreddit, but they certainly are.
#5 Dentistry (r/Dentistry)
- 103,000 members
Not to be outdone, the dentists have their own place to discuss their favorite topics. If you don't like how public that one is, there's a private one too, but you have to apply. Don't be jealous, physicians have their own private subreddit if standard Reddit anonymity isn't enough for you.
#6 Emergency Medicine (r/emergencymedicine)
- 70,000 members
Most specialties have their own subreddit: Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, Cardiology, Radiology. You name it. But EM and radiology seem to be the largest. That's probably because they're the best specialties—or, at least, they generate the best stories and pictures (even if EM seems to be dropping in popularity). Or maybe they just have more time to spend on the internet. At least they didn't get banned like OB/GYN.
#7 Physician Assistants (r/physicianassistants)
- 60,000 members
Other medical professionals all have their own subreddits too: Nurse practitioners, CRNAs, Physical Therapists, Pharmacists. They're all there.
#8 Doctors of Gaming (r/doctorsthatgame)
- 2,400 members
Don't like doctor subreddits because they don't spend enough time on video games? Don't like gaming subreddits because there aren't enough doctors there? Try this one. Did I mention there's a subreddit for just about everything?
#9 The Significant Others to the Medicals (r/MedSpouse)
- 10,000 members
There's even a place for your spouse to hang out and complain about you and your career. Haha, just kidding. I mean, they get the support they're not getting from you. Kidding again. Kind of.
# 10 STD (r/STD)
- 25,000 members
You can ask and answer all your favorite STI-related questions here! In fact, there are subreddits dedicated to all kinds of diseases: Cancer, heart disease, and stroke. There's even one for rare diseases. It's very small.
If you have enjoyed WCI Reddit, go check out some of these other great communities on Reddit. If you haven't yet been to the WCI subreddit, today's the day!
What do you think? Which is your favorite WCI community? What is your favorite subreddit? Comment below!
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