Why Aren't Dentists Retiring?

The number of practice professionals who have spent decades of their lives acquiring and maintaining their education, taking risks, and meeting the associated high costs to build a business that provides high-level service to the public is amazing.

Also amazing… how so many dentists and high-income professionals are unable to slow down when they want to. They can’t transition out on their own timeline.

I speak to many professionals every week in their sixties and even seventies who still have to keep grinding because they haven't found a better path for their future.

The blessing of putting in so much work (high effort consistently applied over a long period) is a better-than-average income. Our high income is well deserved. We trade our precious time for it.

But while most high-income professionals live a good life in the present, we rarely focus on how to make our money work for us in the future. That's where our efforts cease to progress. We take for granted the time we have. We never see the end date for our careers because we can “always” make more money.

Many are playing the wrong game. It is dangerous to build reliance on our ability to earn a significant income. Instead, the goal from the start should be to quickly acquire assets that produce income streams that replace the income from your vocation. Unfortunately, this is rarely accomplished. The result is that most are forced to keep making money until they can’t anymore. 

Do you really want to keep working until you’re just too tired to continue? Until you are physically unable due to a bad back, neck, wrists, or other physical limitations? 

The Freedom You Want

I’ve seen it in my life and in the lives of hundreds of other professionals. You can take control of your time to do that which matters most to you. 

You can spend more time with your family and make lasting memories. You can limit your time at work while maximizing the impact you can have through your practice and business. You can pursue new endeavors while creating a positive impact in your community.

It is possible. For me (and other hundreds of high-income professionals) it started with learning how to make my money work for me.

Acquiring the Right Assets

You can do it in many different formats, but I used tangible assets like real estate. Alternative investments outside of the financial markets are harder to invest in, but it is easier to create the constructs with them to allow you to live a life of freedom, especially once you are no longer trading time for dollars. 

Tangible assets provide recurring, sustainable, predictable income. Just like your business, it's an asset. However, unlike your business, you don’t have to actively work on your real estate assets for it to produce income. 

Real estate does require someone to manage it. You can, of course, manage it yourself, but that is not something I currently want to do in my life. I have other people manage it for me.

The key is acquiring assets that maintain value and will continue to produce income while hedging for inflation.

The cost of living can only rise. This will cause much trouble to many who have become accustomed to saving money in a 401(k) or other “passive” investments while under very nominal inflation (like the past 40 years).

It’s a different ballgame today. Inflation is here to stay, and it will cause greater and greater difficulty unless people learn how to invest and steward their capital.

You have made a great living so far. You can also learn how to make your money work for you, but you have to put time and effort into it. You must make a commitment. If it were easy, everybody would do it. 

My foremost recommendation: Find a group, mentors, partners, and other people who have already accomplished investing their capital and creating the freedom you want. Find them and learn from them. That's how you fold time to get to your freedom goals.

I've done this for the last 40 years of my life, and it's served me and my family well. I now serve hundreds of other doctors and their spouses through the Freedom Founders Community. This could be a place for you. I invite you to check it out and see for yourself.