The Dentist Money Show | Financial Planning & Wealth Management

What can brown do for you? In the early 2000s, UPS unveiled a new way to navigate its routes. The idea seemed too simple to be effective, but it drastically improved productivity and saved the company millions of dollars. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese & Ryan compare the attributes of a well-run shipping company to those of a good financial plan and explain what it means to have an effic...

What is the role of a good advisor? It depends who you ask, which is part of the problem with the financial industry—there's no real consensus. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese & Ryan explore the spectrum of services offered within financial planning and how some advisors fall short of expectations. They also explain the difference between performance-based and advice-based planning.

When will you have enough money to make work optional? Are you building the right mix of assets? Is your tax rate minimized? Do you have the proper amount of insurance? In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese and Ryan introduce a periodic table of twelve key indicators called Elements® which gives dentists a straightforward way to answer the some of the most difficult questions about their financ...

Do you know how your advisor gets paid? If not, there's a good chance your best interest is taking a back seat to handsome commission checks and all-expenses-paid vacations. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese and Ryan describe a hypothetical DSO where production incentives are out of whack and patients are getting the raw end of the deal. Then they draw a comparison to the way many financial...

How is it possible that the average dentists retires later than the average American? Income can't be the reason — dentists are among the highest earners in the country. And you can't put all the blame on personal spending when there's an entire web of variables to consider. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese & Ryan cover five main reasons dentists have a difficult time holding onto their in...

Milton Friedman, Peter Lynch, Warren Buffett. When financial advice comes from a nobel laureate, a legendary mutual fund manager, or an Oracle of Omaha, people tend to listen. But do they really understand the context of the advice? In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese and Ryan dissect quotes from five famous economists and clarify the intended message of each. They also explain how the princi...

Are your investments protected from conflicts of interest? What is the relationship between your advisor and the custodian of your accounts? In this Dentist Money™ episode, Reese & Ryan discuss the role of a custodian, why it matters who your custodian is, and how investors have lost fortunes by trusting the wrong people. They also explain how custodians get paid and provide tips for protecting yo...

Are you hesitant to invest your extra cash? If that emergency fund has turned into an emergency fortune, it's probably time to let your money spread its wings in the market. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese & Ryan discuss findings from a Vanguard study which compares two common approaches to investing large amounts of cash: Lump Sum Investing and Dollar Cost Averaging. They explain the tra...

Should you pay someone else to do a job you can handle yourself? As a practice owner, you might struggle to know when it makes more sense to outsource or keep things on your own plate. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese and Ryan explore the fundamentals of trade, specialization, and opportunity costs, and how economic lessons taught to fifth graders can help dentists improve their net worth.

Do you know what's happening in your front office? Has your staff been properly trained to offer appointments, ask for payments, and deal with cancellations? In this Dentist Money™ episode, Reese welcomes Laura Hatch, founder of Front Office Rocks, an online resource for dentists who need specialized training for their team on all aspects of the front desk. Laura discusses the four most common cha...

Have you ever made a financial decision on the grounds that "everyone else is doing it?" When all the facts aren't readily available, human nature is to follow public opinion. But the herd can lead you off a cliff if you're not careful. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese & Ryan reflect on recent financial trends that led mobs of people to the poor house. They also provide a list of common in...

Let's say you have an extra $30,000 in cash. You can pay down a loan with a 6% interest rate or invest in a retirement plan which could return anywhere from -10% to +10% this year. What should you do? In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese and Ryan dive into the not-so-simple answer and explain why a lot of people get it wrong. They also weigh in on the pros and cons of cost-driven investment po...

Marketing pioneer John Wanamaker said, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." As a practice owner, you might feel the same way. The challenge of measuring marketing results can be especially difficult for small businesses that have plenty of questions and not enough time to answer all of them. In this Dentist Money™ interview, Reese welcomes Wend...

Remember the last time your retirement account took a hit? A lot of people do. You might have questioned the quality of your portfolio and the competency of your advisor. (Your concerns might have been valid by the way). Regardless of who or what's to blame, losing hurts, and behavioral psychologists have spent years researching how pain avoidance can influence major financial decisions. In this e...

Do you ever wonder if you're overlooking simple business fundamentals that could take your practice to the next level? Do you struggle to articulate your priorities as a business owner? While the decisions you make throughout your career are endless, there are basic principles that give the best business leaders an edge over the competition. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese welcomes Tanner...

Did you know the average American wastes 55 minutes a day, or about 12 days a year, looking for things they own but can't find (Newsweek)? If it's lost keys, you could be late for your morning staff meeting. If it's important financial information, the setback is likely more severe. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese & Ryan discuss common ways dentists lose money simply because they don't kn...

Reese welcomes Denise Leleux, a leading expert on end-to-end client experience whose 26-year resume includes a position as VP of Global Customer Experience at eBay where she mentored top business leaders and managed a team of 6,000 employees. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Denise draws on her client-communication expertise and the observations she's made while in the chair at dental practices...

How much is an hour of your time worth? In terms of earning potential, it could be anywhere from a few hundred dollars to over a thousand. You can quantify it with a little bit of math. But salary aside, how much value can you really place on your time? Afterall, once an hour is spent, you can't ever get it back. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese & Ryan explain three core principles dentist...

Dentistry is what you do, but money is what you make. And unless you keep an eye on overhead, just making ends meet might be hard enough. In this episode of the Dentist Money™ Show, Reese Harper welcomes CPA, Andrew Schwartz who works with hundreds of dentists and understands the science of overhead distribution. He explains how much dentists should spend on staff, when you know your margins are t...

Saving is only one part of the retirement equation. Whether you've already reached the end of your career, or are still in accumulation phase, you'll need to know how to spend down assets in the right order to get the most out of your nest egg. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese & Ryan talk about which accounts to pull from in the early years of retirement, how to keep your tax rate down, di...

Do you know your net worth? Not just an estimate, but the actual amount? And do you know what it was last quarter? What about your personal spending? How much of your income is used to support your lifestyle every month? Unless you know the answers, your path to successful retirement will be left up to chance. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese and Ryan provide solutions for tracking the mos...

When is it time to get an estate plan? Or, if you already have one, how often should it be reviewed? And how do the requirements of an estate plan differ if you're a dentist? Wills, trusts, tax planning, asset protection—not  the most exciting topics to bring up at family dinner. But the same people who join you at the table will be glad you planned ahead and kept them from having to track down al...

Did you hear about the dentist who lost his shorts in a scam? No? That's because nobody likes to tell the world they got hosed by a con artist. But it happens—a lot. And unless you know the warning signs, you might get wrangled into the same type of deal and put your retirement on the line. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese and Ryan respond to a special request from a loyal listener who ask...

A few hundred here, a few thousand there. Overspending on insurance, loans, supplies, staff, benefits, and personal life may seem insignificant in the short run—a lot of dentists make enough money to cover the cost. But over the course of a career, those costs can add up to millions and downgrade the quality of what should've been a great retirement. In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese and Ry...

Real estate can be an excellent investment. But many dentists delay their retirement by doing the wrong deal at the wrong time. What are the biggest mistakes that dentists make with real estate? In this episode of Dentist Money™, Reese & Ryan give five examples of real estate deals that often turn good investments into massive setbacks. They also provide a list of questions to ask before purchasin...