The Number One Reason You Don't Control Your Time

There is this generation-old construct of going to work in a career/profession until we're in our sixties – the typical dentist retirement age – in which we get access to social security, Medicare and all that the government provides for us. And not until that moment is when we’re supposed to start living the “good life”, the retirement life.

I think for most of us listening, that is an outdated way to look at life.

A New Model – Evolving Toward Freedom

We don't have to go by the old constructs of a certain timeline or a certain age. You can evolve throughout your life. You can pivot, adapt, and change your course whenever it best fits you.

Even if you attended years and years of school to learn a specialized technical skill in healthcare, engineering, accounting, etc., you don't have to stay in that one mode your entire life.

This is counter to what we've been taught. For generations we were to stay in a profession for 30-40 years and then you retire. That's totally different from today.

But how do you pivot? How do you change when you have put so much time into a certain skill set?

Learning to Have Enough in Your Dentist Retirement Planning

First you’ll have to realize how much is enough. There comes a point when you realize, what you want and need isn’t more money. Once you figure out a stopping point (how much expenses you’ll want to keep throughout your life – this is your burn rate), you’ll then calculate the number, the specific amount of capital that is enough to sustain the lifestyle you want. 

This is why it’s also important to determine how much your capital can produce. Without the ability to create consistent returns, it’s impossible to know “how much is enough”? 

When you're working in your business or practice, you have equity in that business. Until you sell it, that equity stays there. During that time you are the one managing that equity. You're getting the best return from it because you're actively involved in that business. You are hands-on and that's what you do when you start out in life. That's what we all did.

But how can you transition your life to one where your capital, whether it's in a business or in other investments, works for you at least as hard as you worked for that capital?

That's the issue most people don't take the time to resolve so they never make that transition. They take their hard-earned, disciplined capital and just put it in savings. They put it into the financial markets, traditional tax-deferred vehicles, with financial advisors, and any other traditional accumulation retirement models. These are so common yet it gets them nowhere.

You might have some pile of money stored somewhere, but when you get to the point where you want to “retire” and you want to have freedom and choices, you’ll look at this capital base with doubt. It might be one million, two million, or even eight million BUT you still don't know if it's enough.

No one's taught you how to make sure that it will pay for all your expenses no matter how long you live. Yes, you've been very good about working for the money, but you don't know how to make the money work for you.

How I Learned to Make Money Work for Me

How much is enough is determined by how well you can make that capital base work for you. I was fortunate to start learning this when I was in my early twenties before I even had a dentistry license. I did both simultaneously (there’s a key lesson there).

I got my license and increased my skill set on trading time for dollars, serving patients in this way, but I also learned how to start building a capital base on the side.

Most of you didn't do that, and that's okay. I was fortunate, found the right people, did some things that got me ahead. What I do today is help people like you to take the capital you have, wherever it may be, and help you start to organize it and start to learn how to focus on getting that capital working for you.

I don't do it for you. I'm not a fiduciary. I'm not a financial planner. I'm not licensed to do that. I'm not licensed to do any of that for you. I'm licensed to be a dentist and that's all I want to be licensed for. But I do know how to be a guide.

Everybody Needs a Guide in Their Dentist Retirement Planning 

You are the hero of your life. Every hero needs a guide who can help show you the way from where you are to where you want to be – having your capital work for you. It’s then that you can start to make the decisions that so far you've been afraid to make.

There’s this fear of not having enough, fear of messing up what you already have. The baggage we have in our own life is well known to us. And as much as we don't like it, as much as we wish we could move out of the hole that we're in, what we know is more familiar and we want to stay in familiarity. That’s where a guide (who’s an expert at what you want) can help you overcome that fear to get out of what’s familiar and what will get you to where you want to be.

Most are afraid to make the move because they might mess that up. But I know where you are, I know how you feel. I was the same way.

I was forced to make some decisions in my life because of my daughter's health situation. It all turned out good but it made me step up to the plate and ask,

“What is important in my life? Do I just need to build more capital, a bigger practice, more practices, OR could I take the capital I'd already acquired and turn that into capital that could work for me?”

When I made that decision to step away from my practice for my daughter's benefit, it turned the table for me in a very positive way. I could then focus on taking the capital I had and making it work for me. I didn't have to go back to work anymore.

I still do things today. I love and enjoy what I do. I still make money, but I make a lot more money just being a steward of my capital.

I had a relatively smaller base some 20 years ago but I have now extrapolated that into a sizable capital base where I don't have to do anymore work. I can now do what I want to do.

And that's what freedom and choices are about. It's not retiring, it's not quitting, it's not selling and going fishing or playing golf. You can do all those things, but what you want is to have the options to spend time with your family, to make those precious memories while your health is still good.

Don’t Wait, Start Gaining Back Freedom Today

You don’t have to wait until you are in your sixties – the typical dentist retirement age. No, way too late. That’s the wrong model. What's holding you back is you just don't know how to do it. 

You're smart, you're capable, you've got where you are through hard work. BUT what got you where you are today is not going to get you where you want to go. Just working harder and longer is not going to do it. And you don't want to do it that way anyway. You're already burning out and possibly running out of time.

There is a proven pathway. You just need a guide. You need a guide who's been there, done it, understands you and can bring to you the education, the frameworks, and the ability to implement a game plan suitable for you.

You design it, we help you, we show you. We don't do it for you. We do it with you. That's what Freedom Founders is about, and that's what I encourage you to look for in your life.

Who are Your Guides?

It may not be me, and that's okay, but don't do this alone. Find somebody who understands you, who has lived the life that you want to live. Find someone who is authentic and transparent, not selling you a line of goods, or just some promises of future outcomes that have never happened for somebody else.

Find the proof. Has that person done what you want to do and have they helped others actually do it?