I want to give you a comparison to what’s been happening on Wall Street for decades – the manipulation and leveraging of the small individual investor.

These are your normal investors, who put their money on Wall Street through Index Funds or Mutual Funds, or through their retirement accounts in 401(k)s, IRAs, etc. All of those constructs are on Wall Street, and are where the big hedge fund players manipulate the money. As long as the market’s going up, everyone’s happy and making money, so no harm no foul (even though they’re still leveraging your money.)

Now, when there’s a correction or something happens that reveals what’s really going on – as with the GameStop situation – then the spotlight is on the industry and all kinds of people want to come out and legislate against it.

Look, I’m happy that the renegade Reddit people took on Wall Street. But will they get to take it on forever? No, big money is going to win out the lobbyists. The politicians will speak like they’re going to save the individual mom and pop investors, but it’s not going to happen.

They’ll make a few new rules and the game will change a little, but nothing will fundamentally change.

The same thing has happened in the healthcare industry, big time. Over the last several decades, particularly with the 2010 onset of the Affordable Care Act, big medicine has essentially been taken over by the government. This was done through insurance companies and private equity (big Wall Street Money) consolidating, taking soloist doctors and putting them in big-box affiliations with hospitals.

I’m not going to call it good or bad – it just is what it is, and that’s a democratization of the industry. Whereas many years ago the financial friction of seeing a doctor or going to a hospital kept many people without access to care, it’s all about access to care today. And now, doctors have to see more patients at a lower cost because consumers won’t put up with high costs.

The same thing is happening in dentistry right now, with the same players.

The government is going to play harder since it’s trying to encompass all forms of healthcare in one box. Realize that this is coming. You need to choose where you’re going to position yourself, especially if you’ve got some years to go before you can exit your current profession.

If you default to sitting back and grinding away, you’ll watch your margins go down over time until you either go out of business, or get swallowed up by someone else who will make you an employee. 

Now is the time to get your house in order and determine your game plan, your plan B – how you’ll build additional pathways for securing your family, wealth, and lifestyle without relying on one single form of income.

I’m doing a webclass on this topic Thursday night, where I’ll cover the recent craziness and the path forward – you can reserve your seat here.

No matter where you are in your career, there’s no time like today to start making those decisions. But don’t do it solo, in a vacuum – you’ve got to be around other people that help sharpen your clarity to help you make the right decisions.