20/20 MONEY: The Business of Optometry

Hello, and welcome to this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today's show is Dr. Britt Gustafson.   Britt is a practicing optometrist in Eden Prairie, MN. The reason that I wanted to have Britt on the show is that she has used her degree as an optometrist to not only provide clinical care to patients in a practice setting, but also by getting involved in the research and development of contact l...

Welcome to this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today's show are Drs. Jimmy Deom and Roya Habibi.   This conversation is a great one because, in addition to both being practicing optometrists, Jimmy and Roya are co-hosts of the popular optometry podcast Try Not To Blink, which I was actually privileged enough to be a guest on a couple of weeks ago. In this episode, we talk about each of their...

On the show today is Amber Banks, co-founder of MW Banks Consulting. What's awesome and unique about Amber is that she has an incredible depth of knowledge and experience in working with doctors to help them make smart financial decisions in their practice based on the financial metrics of their business. In this episode we "complete the life cycle" of a practice by talking about key financial con...

Welcome everybody, to another episode of 20/20 Money! On the show today I have Dr. John Ormando with Uppercut Consulting. John is co-owner of a successful private practice in Rhode Island that is one of the (if not the largest) single-location optometry practices in the country. What's unique about John, though, is something that came to my attention while reading Optometric Management's "Tip of t...

In this week's show, it's all about taxes! You'll learn how our federal tax system works, the difference between someone's "top tax bracket" and what their marginal tax bracket is, and the different types of taxes that you're obligated to pay based off the income that you earn. I'll also share with you different planning strategies to consider whether you found yourself getting a refund or having...

Welcome everybody to the first episode of the newly renamed/rebranded podcast "20/20 Money!" Since inception, this show has been called The Dose as it primarily discussed financial concepts and strategies that would apply to white coat professionals in the dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, and physician landscape. However, as we continued to record episodes, I started to realize that more and more o...

This is part two of my conversation with Michael Pote of The Growth Cooperative. In this conversation we talk about the role that private equity has played in the transition and succession planning of optometry practices over the past couple of years. In this episode we discuss:   What private equity is, how it works and a couple of different ways in which private equity is different than a tradit...

  We've been on a roll lately in having some of our past guests share more of their knowledge and today is no different. This episode is part one of a two-part conversation with Michael Pote. You may remember Michael from episode 8, where we talked about several areas of practice management and what his organization The Growth Cooperative is doing to help optometrists across the country. Today we...

We're back with another episode of The Dose. Today I have another returning guest, Josh Kegley with Retirement Plan Consultants. You may remember Josh from one of our earlier episodes where we talked pretty high level about the retirement plan space and the evolution that practice owners go through as it pertains to the various vehicles that they can utilize to build wealth inside of a retirement...

In this episode we talk about one of the most common questions I hear from optometrists: should I pay down debt or should I be saving for retirement? While every person's situation is different, it's important to understand the one theme and idea that's constant in that equation: the time value of money and compounding interest.   During the show, I'll discuss: How compounding interest works, usin...

Today's show is another solo episode that takes you on my personal journey as I evaluate healthcare options that my family is considering now that we no longer have access to group health insurance through my wife's employer. During this episode I discuss some of the details about how COBRA coverage works, the benefits of an HSA, and how to understand the different plan options provided through ww...

Today is a shorter, solo episode and I talk all things cash. This may seem like a boring topic because cash as an asset class really hasn't mattered much over the past 11 years. We've all been accustomed to seeing the 0.05% (.0005) interest rate in your checking account, so it was basically a lost cause to think about putting your cash to work and actually getting a return on your balance. However...

Welcome to this Episode of The Dose podcast. My guest on today's show is Kevin Wittmeyer, Manager at Slattery & Holman, P.C. here in Carmel, Indiana. For today's podcast, Kevin stops by to discuss how to effectively utilize Cash Balance Plans and the benefits they can have for the right person in the right business. A Cash Balance Plan is a unique and powerful planning tool for your practice, so K...

Welcome to another episode of The Dose. In this episode, I'm joined again by Dr. Jeremy Ciano, an optometrist located in Carmel, IN (where my office is located) and the owner of two practices: RevolutionEyes and Little Eyes, a pediatric practice. Jeremy and I talk again to get "generally specific" about all things related to making financial decisions for optometrists both in their practice as wel...

Welcome to this Episode of The Dose podcast. My guest on today's show is Kevin Wittmeyer, Manager at Slattery & Holman, P.C. here in Carmel, Indiana. Kevin stops by to discuss the advantages of Donor Advised Funds and charitable donation strategies to consider with legislative changes to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. We also touch on maximizing the efficiency of your charitable donations while still...

Welcome to another episode of The Dose. In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Jeremy Ciano, an optometrist located in Carmel, IN (where my office is located). What's unique about Jeremy is that he has one of the best business minds and ways of thinking about an optometry business that I've ever met, and we leave no stone unturned during this episode. We talk about his journey in optometry and the sta...

A special mini-episode with segments from the Energeyes National Meeting in St. Louis. The Energeyes National Meeting is the annual National meeting for Energeyes, an association exclusively focused on supporting and empowering optometrists that practice in a corporate-affiliated practice model. With nearly 700 members, Energeyes is dedicated to providing mode specific CE and career growth for cor...

Welcome to this episode of The Dose podcast and Happy 2019! I hope you all had a wonderful and happy New Year celebration, and in keeping with the common themes we're seeing on social media, we are talking about goal setting for 2019 in this episode. I didn't want to talk about just the boring financial goals, but also how to measure your overall progress in life and how to get off to best start p...

Welcome to this Episode of The Dose podcast. My guest on today's show is Michael Pote. Michael and I met a little over 4 years ago through a national optometry association and have followed each other's businesses ever since. Michael's exposure in optometry has been primarily as a marketer, but today he is the leader of the Growth Cooperative, a unique organization that helps optometrists around t...

Welcome to this episode of The Dose podcast. My guest on today's show is Josh Kegley.  Josh works exclusively in the retirement planning space and provides multiple services to business owners and their team members. What's unique about Josh is that he's been doing this for the last 15 years and has spent pretty much his entire career in the retirement planning landscape. During our conversation,...

Welcome to this episode of The Dose podcast. My guest on today's show is Matt McNairy and we will be talking any and all things marketing and branding. Matt has had a number of different stops in marketing throughout his career but ever since 2006 has run his own marketing and website design and development firm. What I like about Matt and his perspective is his ability to connect the integrity of...

In this episode of The Dose Adam talks with Dan Zone from Wells Fargo about the many aspects of financing that medical professionals will experience throughout their career. What's truly unique about Dan is that he almost entirely focused on these white coat professionals. Dan's experience has allowed him to see many different financing arrangements and the unique lending circumstances that can ex...

On this episode, I have a great conversation with Brad Cohen. Brad is an estate and business planning attorney with Cohen, Garelick, and Glazier law firm in Indianapolis. What's unique about Brad, though, is his practice is very focused and dedicated on serving the personal and business planning needs of white coat professionals. As we unpack and discuss the specific legal challenges as well as pl...

On this first interview-format episode of The Dose, I have a great conversation with Drs. Antonio Chirumbolo and Matt Gellar of NewGradOptometrey and Covalent Careers . Antonio and Matt are both optometrists by training, but both of them have fully embraced business opportunities and ideas that have stemmed from their clinical and career experience as practicing optometrists. In fact, I learned in...

Welcome to the first full episode of The Dose! For the first episode, the timing of when this was recorded coincided to an article that came out in the New York Times about a situation where a financial service "professional" had taken advantage of unsuspecting clients. Another article by Yahoo! Finance talked about how a couple of former Wells Fargo Advisors had "lifted the veil" on compensation...