The Retirement Insurance Policy Every Dentist Needs

 

Announcer:
Hello, everyone. Welcome to The Millionaire Dentist podcast, brought to you by Four Quadrants Advisory. On this podcast, we break down the world of dentistry finances and business practices to help you become the millionaire dentist you deserve to be. Please be advised, we do speak with an honest tone and may not be safe for work.

Casey Hiers
Hello, and welcome! This is Casey Hiers, back at The Millionaire Dentist podcast in studio with co-host Jarrod Bridgeman.

Jarrod Bridgeman
Casey, I'm so glad to see you again. I'm just so happy to be here with you, and I wanted to thank you for taking me out on a birthday date yesterday.

Casey Hiers
You're being so nice; I feel like this is a setup.

Jarrod Bridgeman
Yeah, we want to celebrate the day of your birth, so...

Casey Hiers
I appreciate that.

Jarrod Bridgeman
And this time, we actually went to a restaurant that wasn't too embarrassing for you. One time I made Casey go to a brunch place...

Casey Hiers
It was like a cute... it was like a cute little tea room.

Jarrod Bridgeman
Yeah, and it was all... everything was pink, bright pink inside.

Casey Hiers
We were the only dudes in there.

Jarrod Bridgeman
We were the only dudes and the youngest people.

Casey Hiers
Yeah. Food was good.

Jarrod Bridgeman
I picked it especially because I thought it'd be funny.

Casey Hiers
Mm-hmm.

Jarrod Bridgeman
Yeah.

Casey Hiers
It was entertaining and delicious, but, yeah, no. Happy belated birthday.

Jarrod Bridgeman
Thank you, thank you. Today, as always, we're going to be talking about practice owners and dentists. And how we sometimes play that role... we can kind of sometimes call ourselves a retirement insurance policy.

Casey Hiers
It's interesting. So many practice owners are looking for a way to grow that money. Lightning in a bottle, right? Real estate, crypto, their buddy who's in private equity, this, that, and the other. Everybody's looking for that thing. I hear that all the time. You probably hear us talking about that a lot, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman
Yes. Uh, you know, it all kind of reminds me... there's this old SNL, Saturday Night Live sketch with Charles Barkley where he owned his own, like, retirement bank account thing, and so people, you know, give him their money, and he's like, "You got a 50% chance of hitting it big or 50% chance of losing everything." And all he did was he would call you and ask you, "What's your favorite color between red and black?"

Casey Hiers
I have met Sir Charles in person, but I have not seen that sketch.

Jarrod Bridgeman
I'll show it to you later.

Casey Hiers
Well, that makes me think about uh, Chevy Chase's Vegas Vacation.

Jarrod Bridgeman
Oh, yeah.

Casey Hiers
Addicted to, like, growing that money. "Pick a number between 1 and 10." He just kept losing. So many... I mean, a lot of people I speak with, unfortunately, um, they're successful. They've built successful practices. They've got some money. But they're looking for that next thing. And it's almost an addiction, which it's fascinating. You know, you can go back to the rabbit or the turtle. And, you know, sometimes consistency rules the day versus those bursts.

Now, that being said, yeah, we hear all the time some very good stories of navigating opportunities and investing and growing some things. But I've also talked to people who they've maybe hit, and then they've... for every one they hit, they failed four times. And when they look up, they're like, "I would have just been better off, you know, investing in the S&P 500, which has been up, you know, in 69 years, double digits."

Jarrod Bridgeman
Well, kind of going with... You brought up Vegas. That's, you know... sometimes people come back and say, you know, "Well, I won $100,000." Okay, but how much did you actually come out ahead?

Casey Hiers:
Mm-hmm.

Jarrod Bridgeman
You know? $5,000. "I spent $95,000 to get the $100."

Casey Hiers
Yeah. And really, the crux of today's topic is, when you look at something comprehensively and have an overarching strategy where everything's pulling in the same direction, there are opportunities to end up retired with eight digits. It is very attainable, yet the same people who think that might be pie in the sky are trying things that are completely pie in the sky. Like, just throwing things against the wall, hoping something sticks...

Jarrod Bridgeman
And every once in a while, something will hit a little bit, and they get that endorphin and uh, you know, all the the good feelings about it. And that kind of makes them... that's the addiction part of it.

Casey Hiers
Oh, when the roulette ball falls on my number, and it has many times, it feels really good. And then I'll spend the next period of time chasing that same feeling and whittling those winnings down, right? And sometimes investment strategies for practice owners kind of feels like a game of roulette, and it's just such a gamble, but...

Jarrod Bridgeman
'Cause as you said, like with the turtle and consistency, like, turtles aren't that sexy. Rabbits now, have you seen Zootopia?

No, but! Like, the the idea is that, you know, consistency and slow and and and slow and and methodical isn't a hot, sexy item that you're just like... you don't feel the gratification immediately. But you look up a year later, and you're like, "Oh, interesting." Five years later... You know, it's... you'll be, you know, people are so happy after they have done that and have kept to it. But it's not the same thrill.

Casey Hiers
To us, like, boring is sexy. It's not easy. A lot of work goes into it on our end.

Jarrod Bridgeman
What are some other un- intangible benefits and things that can come from being a part of this, you know, for your career?

Casey Hiers
Well, our clients tell us the two main benefits are, one, their money is better, and number two, their mindset is better, right? Stress, uncertainty, those things are fr- are hard for practice owners. They carry that bag most of them for a career. Here's another factor a lot of practice owners tell us: when we ask them how much money they think they need to retire, 75% of practice owners undershoot that number. But it's incredible when we just look at basic data, and we see sort of their current lifestyle...

Jarrod Bridgeman
Yep.

Casey Hiers
What they're saving, and what they need to save to main- maintain a lifestyle.

Jarrod Bridgeman
Yeah.

Casey Hiers
And typically, they undershoot that. That's a dangerous combination when there's not a lot of certainty with retirement; there's not a really clear plan, you just got cheerleaders saying, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Clients that have been with us 4-5 years, on average, their income goes up 62%. 62% increased income for those clients that hit that five-year mark and beyond, and that's...

Jarrod Bridgeman
And that's not changing how you practice.

Casey Hiers
No.

Jarrod Bridgeman
You know?

Casey Hiers
No, we're not experts in in uh, the clinical. We know the clinical, but we're not experts in it. We don't change the way people practice. And retirement savings is up 547%, right? I mean, that right there is really important.

Jarrod Bridgeman
And that's five years in.

Casey Hiers
Investing is just one arm of what we do, right? When you have someone that is controlling taxes and investing money and making sure- here's the key- that you stay on the path year-in and year-out and avoid the mistakes, avoid the landmines, the pitfalls, the traps, all those things that practice owners tell us, "I feel like I have a target on my back; everybody wants money from me," and we help those people avoid those things.

But, again, chasing returns is not what we're about. But it's about how do we help them capture more. And when you can do that, that's important. Most people just hand money to their investment advisor and say, "Go grow it," and they do. That's cute. We help find it, source it, help me save more. "It's really hard for me to save $45,000 a year. Casey, how can I save $110,000? You keep saying that; it's frustrating." Well...

Jarrod Bridgeman
Well, and there are things that, you know, outside of the the investment side, as you said, we have other, you know, arms of our company, and that's like the accounting side that will go through, and they are proactive in terms of finding things in your state or for, you know, federal that can help you maximize your tax savings, or maybe you're you're uh, you set up your LLC incorrectly.

Casey Hiers
Yeah, that's true.

Jarrod Bridgeman
You know, there's all kinds of things that can help yearly. It might sound not that much, but when you add together these 10 different things that were done wrong by your previous CPA, that comes up quick.

Casey Hiers
So many practice owners, if they don't know this, 'cause we find it and tell them, but so many of these people, they've got these target-based, just, "Here's the date," um, they're on autopilot, but the lack of certainty in retirement with practice owners, we talk about it all the time. It's frustrating for me because the older I get, pattern recognition is really important, and the patterns that I see in dentistry with practice owners is undershooting what they actually need, having no strategy, having little certainty, and not really knowing what their investments are, yet loving real estate and crypto and all these all these things...

Jarrod Bridgeman
Yep.

Casey Hiers
...that there can be some upside to, done the right way with a proper balance, but that should not be, again... so many... so many folks, their practice and their cute investing schemes are the cake, right? That needs to be the icing on the cake. You need to do all these other things well, be able to capture it and grow it. But like, who wouldn't want a retirement insurance policy? Like, we call ourselves the "DSO Kryptonite."

Jarrod Bridgeman
Yep.

Casey Hiers
We help practice owners be able to have a great practice where they don't even really need to consider selling their soul to DSOs. Every now and then, it makes sense; we've talked about that. It's not a blanket statement, but for the most part. With retirement, same thing. Like, why wouldn't somebody at least want to have some more certainty and understanding of what they could be doing? It blows our minds. Again...

Jarrod Bridgeman
I wanted to ask a real quick question for you. You'd mentioned how many, you know, 75% or whatever it was, that is kind of underestimated how much they need for retirement. Do they also kind of underestimate how quickly time moves as an adult? Like, people... I feel like people are like, "Oh, I can... I'll take care of that later," or "That'll be, you know, down the road," and then all of a sudden, you look up, and it's been 10-15 years.

Casey Hiers
Yeah, I think that's a symptom a lot of practice owners have because they are producing, they're collecting, they're seeing big numbers, there's money moving around, so they think eventually it'll work out. Normally, that, like, age... the milestone birthday, a lot of times at age 50, a lot of practice owners, and I've talked to them maybe three years ago, and they call, and they've got a little different tone to their voice. I think reality has set in, right? We're bulletproof when we're younger.

Jarrod Bridgeman
Yep.

Casey Hiers
And generally speaking, I'm a pretty positive, content person.

Jarrod Bridgeman
Yep.

Casey Hiers
But when you're talking about money and retirement, you should be the opposite. You need to be poking holes in it. What could be better? Like, can my current team do better? Well, push them to do better. Don't just take their cute, kind words of, "You're doing great, keep it up, you're doing great." What does that mean? That's really important.

Jarrod Bridgeman
Casey, for folks out there who like hearing what you have to say and want to learn more about us, learn more about the, you know, the basic groundwork of, like, mastering the business side of dentistry, you and your team, as, you know, most of our listeners know, we do events all across the country, you know, continuing education events that are tied with a whiskey tasting and some dinner and stuff like that. But what key thing would you say to someone listening right now that's like, "Why are you waiting? Like, pitch me something."

Casey Hiers
Well, it's not even... here's the bottom line. We'll talk to anybody; we don't work with everybody. Like, we are very selective with who we work for... work with. We are very selective with who we decide we want to help and fits the mold. But it really comes down to: can we help them, who has the most opportunity? But, you know, we'll talk to anybody.

Jarrod Bridgeman
That's right.

Casey Hiers
Reach out. I mean, what's the worst that's going to happen? You find out that, wow, not even Four Quadrants Advisory can help me achieve more because I'm being all that I can be. That is a great result!

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Folks, we're going to be coming to Kansas City and Springfield, Missouri on October 1st. After that, we'll be in Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tennessee. We're going to come into Athens and Savannah, Georgia, and Charlotte and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, all through November. I'm excited for you guys to go to these new places, some places we've never been before, and really talk to some people who really could, you know, hear the good word.

Casey Hiers
Hey, it's a fun night regardless.

Jarrod Bridgeman
All right, thanks, Casey.

Announcer
That's all the time we have today. Thank you to our guests for their insight and for sharing some really great information. And thank you to you, the listener, for tuning in. The Millionaire Dentist podcast is brought to you by Four Quadrants Advisory. To see if they might be a good fit for you and your practice, go on over to fourquadrantsadvisory.com and see why, year after year, they retain over 95% of their clients. Thank you again for joining us, and we'll see you next time.