3 Steps to Building a Solid Financial Foundation – Episode #404

Building a secure foundation that supports your money decisions doesn’t require constant stress about finances. Follow these three steps to reduce your money worries even as you find greater enjoyment in life’s meaningful moments. On this episode of the Dentist Money™ Show, Ryan and Matt explain how to lay the groundwork for a financial house that will stand the test of time.

Show Notes
DA Today – June 2023

 

 

 

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Podcast Transcript

Ryan Isaac:
Hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Glorious Dentist Money Show, brought to you by Dentist Advisors a no commission fee only fiduciary, comprehensive financial advisor. Just for dentists. Check us out at dentistadvisors.com. Today on the show, Matt and I discuss an article that Matt Mulcock wrote himself for the new shiny illustrious dentist money newsletter. Check that out at dentistadvisors.com. Three steps to building wealth for dentists. My favorite part of this conversation was the section about asking questions and the story that Matt told in the beginning. So, many thanks to Matt for going through the efforts of putting pen to paper, so to speak. More like fingers to keyboards and spending time in studio with me is such a good time as always, if you have any questions for us, just go to dentistadvisors.com. We’re happy to point you in the right direction. Thanks for being here everybody. Enjoy the show.

Announcer:
The Dentist Money Show is brought to you by Dentist Advisors, where we recently launched an affordable subscription service called the Dentist Money Membership, which a lot of dentists are using to support their personal financial strategies. To learn more about the Dentist Money membership and get started, visit dentistadvisors.com/money.

Announcer:
Consult an advisor or conduct your own due diligence when making financial decisions. General principles discussed during this program do not constitute personal advice. This program is furnished by dentist advisors a registered investment advisor. This is Dentist Money. Now here’s your host, Ryan Isaac.

Ryan Isaac:
Welcome to the Dentist Money Show, where we help dentists make smart financial decisions. I am Ryan and I’m here in the beautiful new studio. Matt. What’s up buddy?

Matt Mulcock:
Yo, Ryan, it is an amazing studio.

Ryan Isaac:
What changed actually?

Matt Mulcock:
A lot. They painted the walls. First of all, let’s acknowledge that we are sitting in the same room together. I texted you yesterday. I feel like I like had this spiritual experience where I texted you.

Ryan Isaac:
Did you feel my presence in the state?

Matt Mulcock:
I honestly, I’m not kidding you. I was sitting, I don’t even know what I was doing. And like you just came to my mind.

Ryan Isaac:
Whoa.

Matt Mulcock:
And I texted you. I said, hey, you landed, and like yeah, you just landed.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. The… Has the eagle landed was the actual…

Matt Mulcock:
Has the eagle landed? You said, yeah, just landed. I was like the one of those moments, I think the tires hit the tarmac…

Ryan Isaac:
And you felt it?

Matt Mulcock:
And it hit me from, I don’t know. I felt…

Ryan Isaac:
I was in the middle… So, you know those times in the plane when you’re so tired and you actually can fall asleep anywhere and you don’t realize you’re about to land ’cause everyone has their windows shut…

Matt Mulcock:
And then it hits.

Ryan Isaac:
And then it just, again, startles you…

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, we just talked about this.

Ryan Isaac:
Just talking about, being startled really easily. Oh it jolted me awake pretty hard. You felt it?

Matt Mulcock:
I did.

Ryan Isaac:
Thanks for welcoming to your beautiful state of Utah.

Matt Mulcock:
You’re here for a couple days. You’re going to a concert tonight?

Ryan Isaac:
We’re gonna see a concert tonight, man. Shout out to Thrice ’cause they listen to this podcast. Actually, you wanted to hear a funny story.

Matt Mulcock:
Shout out to our…

Ryan Isaac:
Hold on, we’re gonna tell a funny story. I have, I don’t know if this will make it in the cut, but I’m gonna tell this anyway. Anytime I ever meet anyone famous, I am the biggest idiot in the whole world.

Matt Mulcock:
You’re fanboy.

Ryan Isaac:
I can’t think of anything normal to say to anybody. I have some really awkward stories, but one of them, the band I’m seeing tonight is from Orange County and a few months ago I saw them at the airport at John Wayne Airport. I landed and they were coming off a European tour and okay. We’re gonna shout out Jess on this too. We’re gonna say what’s up to Jess. Because Jess, is a giant Thrice fan. She’s seen them 20 different times. She has tattoos of some of their song lyrics. So I’m walking out and I see them standing at the curb. They have their equipment with boxes and they’re band named Thrice stenciled on all this stuff. So I see them, I sent a text to…

Matt Mulcock:
You start sweating.

Ryan Isaac:
I did. I sent a text to Jess. I was like, oh my God. I’m standing here by Thrice. And then she sends me a picture of her tattoo of this song lyric. So I walk over. The first genius thing I think to say is, are you Thrice? [laughter] As they’re sitting literally with a dozen boxes with their name on it. And they were so cool and they’re like, “Oh yeah. Hey man, what’s going on?” They shook hands and I was like, “Oh, I’m gonna go. I’m gonna come see you soon. Really excited for that.” And then what’s the next totally normal thing I do. I pull up my phone…

Matt Mulcock:
Of course.

Ryan Isaac:
And I show them a picture of Jess’s tattoo.

Matt Mulcock:
Not your tattoo.

Ryan Isaac:
Nope. Do I give them context about why I’m showing them a picture of a blurry small picture…

Matt Mulcock:
Probably not.

Ryan Isaac:
Of a little scribbled song…

Matt Mulcock:
Could have been Googled.

Ryan Isaac:
I don’t tell them what this is. I don’t tell them that it’s their song lyric and my friend loves them and I just go, my friend loves you, and she has a tattoo, and it’s like a thing and I’m just showing them and they were like, “Okay, cool.”

Matt Mulcock:
Cool man.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Thank you very much and then I just walked away. And then I was like “What is wrong with me? What is freaking wrong with my brain?” Short circuit.

Matt Mulcock:
‘Cause you’re a huge fan of them. Seems like you just saw a random famous person or do you do it with random, famous people as well?

Ryan Isaac:
I had a celebrity fitness crush on a… It was like my celebrity crush that I met like this is seven or eight years ago.

Matt Mulcock:
Same thing babbling and.

Ryan Isaac:
And it was so bad.

Matt Mulcock:
Bumbling.

Ryan Isaac:
It was so bad. Anyway, we’ll save that for another story.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s awesome.

Ryan Isaac:
Matt, you wrote an article recently in… This is the new Dentist Money newsletter.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
What’s it called Officially?

Matt Mulcock:
It’s called DA Today.

Ryan Isaac:
Who came up with that?

Matt Mulcock:
I don’t know.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s not good.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s great. I like it.

Ryan Isaac:
You’re a talented team of people naming it.

Matt Mulcock:
We are.

Ryan Isaac:
So DA today…

Matt Mulcock:
Which by the way, comes out monthly, but it’s called DA today. I actually like, I really do. I think it’s a good name.

Ryan Isaac:
So first one came, first edition real fast. Can anyone, I don’t even know, can anyone just subscribe to DA today?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. In fact, you go to dentistadvisors.com slash the month. So in this case, the first one just got released, so go to dentistadvisors.com/june. And it gets you to the home, the landing page.

Ryan Isaac:
Dentistadvisors.com/june.

Matt Mulcock:
I actually don’t know. I’m trying to see. Maybe on there you can subscribe too, I’m not even totally sure on that, but you can, oh yeah subscribe now. So down to the bottom of that, you can subscribe or again, you just go to the landing page on the website.

Ryan Isaac:
So if you are not subscribed, go subscribe to the monthly newsletter DA today.

Matt Mulcock:
Every time we do this, whenever we do a show and or Facebook Live and we say, go to subscribe, I always feel that like a YouTuber that’s like, Like and subscribe.

Ryan Isaac:
Like and subscribe, it helps the algorithm.

Matt Mulcock:
Like and subscribe.

Ryan Isaac:
So just helps us out.

Matt Mulcock:
Exactly. So like just go do a review. We don’t ever talk about that enough.

Ryan Isaac:
We don’t. Please… Okay. So you wrote an article, and this is what we’re talking about today. It’s called Three Steps to Building a Solid Financial Foundation. I just wanna point out, this is written by Matt Mulcock, CFP, CEO and Senior Advisor.

Matt Mulcock:
I thought we were gonna try to avoid that one.

Ryan Isaac:
CEO and senior advisor of Dentist Advisor.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
So I want to add to this, start off the story because I think this is a really interesting, it’s an interesting story of the timing this year about foundations. But what, okay, so what made you, why this, why did you write this article? What was… So usually when we do content, it’s because something topical is going on. It’s like a frequent discussion. It’s a client thing. Something on your mind. What made you do like a foundation thing?

Matt Mulcock:
This in particular I wish there was a better story behind this of like why we came up with this. It was really just… I mean, the story…

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. You were squatting 650 pounds one morning.

Matt Mulcock:
No. No. No.

Ryan Isaac:
And then you’re like, okay.

Matt Mulcock:
No. So, we’re trying, I think with the newsletter, the goal is to have a theme every single month.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
That coincides with the elements, right?

Ryan Isaac:
Oh. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
And really pertinent financial topics. So it, because this was our first one we thought talking about financial foundations building a good foundation.

Ryan Isaac:
Totally.

Matt Mulcock:
That then when we started talking about that in our planning meeting for the newsletter, it got me thinking about this story from earlier this year of this… If you have not seen it, you have to go see it. Have you seen this video that I referenced?

Ryan Isaac:
I think I’ve seen that video. This feels like a year where a lot of this happened, especially where I live. It happens all the time.

Matt Mulcock:
California. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s still happening in my town right now.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Slides, like houses just slow.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
This was in Draper, Utah. So a little suburb of just.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, was it the video at night?

Matt Mulcock:
Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, dude, that was creepy.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. So the story basically is, there was these two homes built on this hillside in Draper, Utah. For those of you that don’t know, it’s just a little bit South. It’s a suburb South of Salt Lake. There was these two houses up on the hillside. Luckily the city of Draper had already uncovered, or I think what had happened was there was some signs. The homes had just been built.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh. They already know they were brand new.

Matt Mulcock:
They’ve been built like brand new, brand new houses.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh my gosh man.

Matt Mulcock:
Within a few months of them being built, the homeowners who’d already moved in, families there, just living their normal life, they start to notice some things in the foundation.

Ryan Isaac:
Wow.

Matt Mulcock:
There’s, these weird cracks and they’re like, this home is way too new for this to be happening. Right? So they contact the city, contact the builder, whatever.

Ryan Isaac:
Luckily.

Matt Mulcock:
Luckily, because city comes out, they check all the stuff, all the foundation, everything, all the soil, and they realize that it’s, they deem the house uninhabitable. They’re like, you have to get out.

Ryan Isaac:
So just pausing right there. This feels like a whole topic of, how many times do we ignore red flags in life?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
I’ve seen stuff in the house, houses I’ve lived in before, and I’m like, that’s probably normal [laughter]

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I’m like, oh, there’s a crack in the foundation, this house was built 1970 but that’s probably fine.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s probably normal. That’s a really interesting kind of tangent that there’s probably cracks in things that we, in life in general that we will tend to ignore for whatever reason. So it’s, it just feels really ’cause after having seen the video.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
It feels really lucky that they actually did something about that.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I think I’m guessing because you’re right. I do the same thing. I look at…

Ryan Isaac:
Like that’s fine.

Matt Mulcock:
My office has been flooding for six months through the window.

Ryan Isaac:
You’re like it’s probably just a normal course of nature.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. That’s one of the things. It’s also, I think this is actually also pertinent. It’s like even when you know there’s a problem.

Ryan Isaac:
You don’t wanna know.

Matt Mulcock:
Do you really?

Ryan Isaac:
You don’t wanna know.

Matt Mulcock:
Like you address it?

Ryan Isaac:
That’s like when my entire ceiling last summer was leaking from the AC unit that was up in the attic and I was just like, it’ll probably just fix itself.

[laughter]

Matt Mulcock:
Isn’t that funny? I do the same thing with my window. I know it’s not, but I’m too late. It’s not a big enough… And this is it. It’s not a big enough problem to me to like…

Ryan Isaac:
Until it is.

Matt Mulcock:
There’s too much attrition. There’s too much friction. I know it’s a problem, but I also have a nice fan down there that I stole from my buddy that I’m like, I’ll air it out in another day two.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s probably gonna be fine. Until my daughters were having a party one Friday night and there was water dripping down the stairs and I just look at the ceiling and then I had to cut out the whole thing.

Matt Mulcock:
It became so much.

Ryan Isaac:
And then it was a full AC replacement anyway.

Matt Mulcock:
Exactly. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. So yeah. Lucky that they actually did something about it because after having seen the video, it was like, well, what would’ve happened if they were just sleeping one night and they had never addressed this?

Matt Mulcock:
They’d be at the bottom of the mountain.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Covered.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Covered. Who knows what would’ve happened.

Ryan Isaac:
Totally.

Matt Mulcock:
I think the good thing is, but the reason they probably said something is because A, they’re brand new houses meaning… Meaning if it’s a brand new built house, you’re like something’s not, that’s not normal. Also, they probably were like, we’re on a hillside. If the foundation’s not going well we gotta do something about this, right?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
So then, so they go tell the city, they deem it uninhabitable sometime. I think it was something like nine months later. It was earlier this year. So the houses sat there.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, but they left when they were uninhabitable.

Matt Mulcock:
They were all out. They had to get out. They had to get out.

Ryan Isaac:
They were like required to go.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep. So they got out, they, the city marked it all off, couldn’t be anywhere on the property. Earlier this year, I think it was probably around January, February, the houses started to slide. It got to a point where the neighbors came out and started filming it. So there’s all these different angles of both houses at the same time basically cracking. It’s a crazy video. You should go look it up.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. That’s insane.

Matt Mulcock:
And the houses just crack literally down the middle, fall off the side of the mountain and slide down to the bottom. Just in this big heap.

Ryan Isaac:
So scary.

Matt Mulcock:
Just crumbled to the bottom. So.

Ryan Isaac:
At the same time, the same night.

Matt Mulcock:
Pretty, yeah, same night. Both houses.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s insane.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s kind of wild.

Ryan Isaac:
And that’s after a winter of super heavy rain and so much snow. I guess here it’s all snow.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. The winter did not help.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. So much water.

Matt Mulcock:
What I thought was interesting. So they go, obviously the builders, I’m not naming their name. It’s easy to find, but that’s not what this is about. The builders obviously have a PR nightmare on their hands. Right? So they’re having to answer all these questions. The company that built the homes, this is what they cited as the issue. Unique geographical features and the soils on which they were constructed. And I was like, my approach.

Ryan Isaac:
A hill.

Matt Mulcock:
I was like.

Ryan Isaac:
A dirt hill.

Matt Mulcock:
A fancy PR way of saying the foundation sucked.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. We’re running out of room in the Salt Lake Valley and we just crammed a couple houses on a dirt hill that we shouldn’t have.

Matt Mulcock:
Exactly. Didn’t do a great job maybe checking the foundation, built this house on it, so.

Ryan Isaac:
Didn’t check the foundation. That was the key takeaway from the story that you… Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. To me, if your house is crumbling after 18 months of being built and fall into the side of the mountain, I’m like, clearly the foundation was not there.

Ryan Isaac:
Didn’t start in the right place.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. So my whole thing, it’s not a far reach here is, so what I write in here is you can have the perfect light fixtures, you can have the perfect tile in your bathroom.

Ryan Isaac:
Finishes. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
All the perfect finishes, all the nicest furniture. But you don’t have that foundation, that house is going down. None of that matters.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
And then obviously how that translates to far finances.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. So it’s crazy. I was thinking when I read that story, I was thinking in Southern California this year. That was a huge huge problem from the rains that we got. You guys got the snow? We got all the rain and it is like still going too, which is really crazy.

Matt Mulcock:
I thought California was supposed to be moderate weather.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s what I thought too.

Matt Mulcock:
But the last few years it’s been one extreme or the other.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s like total extremes. It’s insane.

Matt Mulcock:
From wildfires or houses falling off the mountain.

Ryan Isaac:
So all through Southern California and all these towns, there has been huge cliffside erosion and it’s kind of wild actually. Like you walk under these cliffs and you see these houses where these big concrete like bearing walls that are the foundation of their houses are just exposed. And in my town and all through, a lot of beach towns, they’re just like, they’re just falling into the ocean.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, I’ve seen videos.

Ryan Isaac:
You’ve seen videos of them.

Matt Mulcock:
They crumble. They just slide off and they’re in the water.

Ryan Isaac:
In San Clemente still this week there… This one sucks because it’s like some of the most beautiful real estate in the whole country. It’s gotta be, these people’s like areas and it’s just eroding down the hillside. It’s like covering the train tracks now. The trains can’t run. It’s like pools are coming down like people’s entire yards, man.

Matt Mulcock:
I actually just heard one of the big like really big insurance companies, I don’t remember the name.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Pulled out, won’t insure houses in southern California.

Matt Mulcock:
Won’t insure houses in California anymore. They just pulled out.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. And like, great. Make it harder for us. That’s perfect. Yeah, perfect.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, because they’re like, it got so bad. They’re like, we can’t, we’re going broke.

Ryan Isaac:
It needs to be more expensive in California. So I’m glad that they’re doing that.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I mean if there’s anything about California that needs to happen is it needs to get pricier.

Ryan Isaac:
It needs to be more expensive. Yeah. So less competition, more expensive coming…

Matt Mulcock:
Because that totally is what happens?

Ryan Isaac:
Well, it’s crazy. So I thought about the same thing happening where I live and I think like, well when people build those houses, like you knew it was on a cliff, but they were far enough back. I started thinking like in your story, the foundation was clearly a problem from the very beginning. Like it was built on a very problematic foundation.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, within months. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
And then people, we all do that with money too. Like, we build very shallow, problematic money foundations like right off the bat. But then sometimes I think you can do all the homework and due diligence and whatever it takes in the beginning to build a good foundation. Like these homes on the cliffside. Some of these are like neighborhoods that have been there for a long time. Decades.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
And I’m sure when they were built they felt like they were so secure and far away. And it just got me thinking that even really good plans, sometimes even a really good foundation can get changed by circumstances out of your control in life.

Matt Mulcock:
And very quickly. Right?

Ryan Isaac:
And like overnight.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Totally. I think the other concept here, we’ve talked about this before, but this whole idea of like progress versus destruction, right? Meaning like how’s… And this is in any aspect of life, right? Whether it be fitness, money, building a house, building a business, building, a practice you, it takes so long, right? To build that net worth up or build that practice.

Ryan Isaac:
So long.

Matt Mulcock:
Hit that first seven figures in the collections, whatever it is. It takes so long and it can be destroyed overnight.

Ryan Isaac:
Overnight. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Like that’s kind of the unfairness of all of this.

Ryan Isaac:
It is. And those things can be outta your control. I mean, it’s like the three big ones are like death, disability, divorce. Big things in the economy. Speaking of people’s practices…

Matt Mulcock:
One big mistake.

Ryan Isaac:
One bad investment. So yeah. Your story. And then even I, it just got me thinking of like, even well-built foundations that were built to last for a long time can be disrupted by something out of your control, like overnight. And then that’s part of like revisiting how to rebuild a foundation, which is like the three things you hit in this article. So we can get to those. But this is a really interesting story, man. It sucks to see it happen.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. It was a bummer. And I, like, I, the first thing I thought of when I saw it was like, man, I hope those people were taken care of from the builder. Like prior, I’m guessing they would be. As far as like they, did they get a new house.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, I know.

Matt Mulcock:
What… You know, they’ve got a loan on that thing. What do you do now?

Ryan Isaac:
I know. I know.

Matt Mulcock:
So that…

Ryan Isaac:
It’s kind of crazy that it was like nine month process to be like, yeah, you shouldn’t live here.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. And then it just sat there vacant for nine months. So.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh. Oh. It’s sat there vacant for nine months.

Matt Mulcock:
After…

Ryan Isaac:
They had left sooner than…

Matt Mulcock:
They had left.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay, good.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep. Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
Well let’s hit the three keys. The first one is probably like my favorite one of these. So you can go, I’ll let you kind of like go through these at the pace, but…

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
And I like this first one.

Matt Mulcock:
I wouldn’t even say like…

Ryan Isaac:
I have something here.

Matt Mulcock:
I guess the one thing to say here is I wouldn’t even say these are like, this isn’t the list, right?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
You know, like, I think these are three components of building a financial foundation, but it’s not an exhaustive list. Right?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
These are just things…

Ryan Isaac:
It’s not the 36 tips to building a good foundation.

Matt Mulcock:
No, those are coming later. My birthday’s coming up in the fall.

Ryan Isaac:
Are you 36?

Matt Mulcock:
I’ll be 37.

Ryan Isaac:
Really 37.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. And we’re gonna do 37 tips…

Ryan Isaac:
37 tips.

Matt Mulcock:
For something. Okay. So the three questions again, not an exhaustive list, but the first one I thought of was start with the right questions.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. I love this one.

Matt Mulcock:
I feel like I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Whether it be in client calls or when we’re doing presentations or doing podcasts or writing or whatever, I’m always thinking about like the power of, I do think this is probably somewhere in like truly step one of you’ve gotta be asking yourself the right questions. And the example that I give, and again, this is something I’ve been thinking about a lot of when it comes to money. If you went to up to someone, a dentist and said like, what is the one question that you think is the question the most important question around money, right? Or financial planning. I think in most cases, it’s gonna come down to when can I retire?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. When am I done? Right?

Matt Mulcock:
When am I done?

Ryan Isaac:
When am I done? Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
I think that’s…

Ryan Isaac:
That’s Probably the biggest, most common.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s the biggest, most common question we get, right? When can I retire? I think most financial planning is kind of built around that question most advisors are gonna like even the ones that are the good ones, right? Are gonna be talking about that question.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s how the software is built?

Matt Mulcock:
Software Is all built around it.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s how the Software is built.

Matt Mulcock:
And I think again, it’s not to say it’s not a good question, it is an important question.

Ryan Isaac:
No. I mean, it is the main logistical question of like a career in saving money and investing and building wealth in the first place. Yeah, but…

Matt Mulcock:
Sure. I just feel like… But, I don’t, I…

Ryan Isaac:
But it kind of sucks.

Matt Mulcock:
It does suck. Especially ’cause we work mainly with what, 40 year olds, right? Yeah. Is our average client age 39.

Ryan Isaac:
Man, I wish I was 40 again. It’d be so great to be that young.

Matt Mulcock:
Remember those days? [laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
Do you remember those days?

Matt Mulcock:
The good old days when I was 40?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
You just turned 43.

Ryan Isaac:
Three. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Mid forties.

Ryan Isaac:
Gray beards coming in.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s weird.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I had a gray beard when I was…

Ryan Isaac:
Shocking.

Matt Mulcock:
30. So I think again, it’s an important question. I don’t think it’s the question.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
And here’s the thing. I think the risk of this being the main question. Or a foundational question versus let’s call a furniture question.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
If we’re gonna go off the analogy. I think the risk there a little bit is it gets you in a different, like I think financial planning done right, is finding a balance of planning for the future For sure. But living in the moment.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
And I think if you ask if this is a main question for you of when can I retire? It takes you out of the moment. It’s like you’re 39 years old, or 43 years old, or 36, right or 26.

Ryan Isaac:
Feel like a brag. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I wanted to flex on you.

Ryan Isaac:
You’re super old and I’m 36.

Matt Mulcock:
You’re 43, I’m 36.

Ryan Isaac:
I’m 26.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
You’re freaking old.

Matt Mulcock:
I totally get it.

Ryan Isaac:
How old anyone is.

Matt Mulcock:
But I feel like it takes you out of the moment.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, it does.

Matt Mulcock:
It pulls you into, and I don’t think it’s super motivating to be honest.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s not motivating.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s a motivating question.

Ryan Isaac:
No, when I hear that question, I mean, it is a rational good question. Because that’s the logistics of saving money and earning money in a career.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
But it strips away like all of the purpose of it.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
Because then your whole life is boiled down to like, then everything becomes a math equation.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Your whole life is a math equation. Like you need to spend this, and so you have to have this much, and so you gotta save this much. And then there’s your math equation and then that’s it.

Matt Mulcock:
And…

Ryan Isaac:
That’s the…

Matt Mulcock:
So it’s empty.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah it’s empty it feels really boring.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s a little bit of empty it’s hollow.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
I think of like this go to, I think it puts pressure on you to have an answer. Meaning let’s say you go to a 21 year old and just graduating college, and you’re like, what do you wanna do with your life?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Like, they feel pressure to have an answer.

Ryan Isaac:
To have an answer. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
And it’s like, you shouldn’t have an answer.

Ryan Isaac:
Well, what does it feel like at 40? I mean, I’ll tell you like at 40, you’re still just like, wait, what have I been doing?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
What do I wanna do? [laughter] Yeah. I mean it…

Matt Mulcock:
But it’s like, you’re fine to not have an answer.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s fine to not have an answer that pressure. Yeah. Totally.

Matt Mulcock:
So all this to say, I think there are better questions to start with.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. Yeah. I like that.

Matt Mulcock:
Again, not an exhaustive list, but here are the three that I think are really critical.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay.

Matt Mulcock:
To get you started thinking about this. So even when you’re listening, you’re like, if you even just like, we just talked about this, right? The power of writing. So take these three questions and truly try to answer them. Take your spouse or your partner, your family, answer these questions. So number one, why is money important to me? Like, that to me is a foundational question that gets you more in the moment and thinking about your values.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
More than when can I retire?

Ryan Isaac:
I’m curious about that, like how… We were talking about this earlier. Like when someone sits down and they ask you a question like that, or they’re like, what are your goals? How do you get your… How do you actually really think about that question? ‘Cause I think if you just cold ask someone that why is money important? There’s usually like a few answers like, security, lifestyle.

Matt Mulcock:
Sure.

Ryan Isaac:
Like, how do you get really thinking about that? We were talking earlier about associating with values, like what…

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
Outside of money, what’s really valuable to you in life? What are your core values? And I don’t know, what do you think about how do you get someone really thinking about that question?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. So like, when I’m in a conversation, I ask this question to my clients all the time.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay.

Matt Mulcock:
Right when they first come on board.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
And this is the very first question we start with in our very first meeting together.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
And you’re right. You start off with some of the basic answers which is like security or…

Ryan Isaac:
It’s like knee jerk. Just like, you know what you’re supposed to say.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. The best question I think to follow up with is just tell me more. So like, I think it’s one of those things where you’re gonna start at the surface and it’s like, okay, tell me more.

Ryan Isaac:
And when you say, security.

Matt Mulcock:
What does that mean to you.

Ryan Isaac:
And then tell me more. And then yeah it gets you thinking like, I actually don’t know what I mean by maybe I don’t even care about security. Maybe I don’t… Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Or just what does that mean?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. What does it even mean?

Matt Mulcock:
So to your point, if you’re writing this right, if you’re thinking about this and you’re not in a conversation and you’re saying, why is money important to me? Write your first three or four or five answers. Just basic surface level security, family.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Whatever.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Vacations. And then follow up with yourself. Write down after that is what does that mean? So security. Okay. What does security mean for you?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Describe security.

Matt Mulcock:
Describe security.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. So restate that first question. What does money mean…

Matt Mulcock:
Is also why is money important to you?

Ryan Isaac:
Why is money important to you? Okay. If someone’s listening to this and you really want to get the most outta this podcast, then you should pause and grab a notepad, grab your journal.

Matt Mulcock:
Let’s take a break. You know what, we’re gonna take a break.

Ryan Isaac:
Everyone grab their journals.

Matt Mulcock:
We’re just gonna sit here in silence.

Ryan Isaac:
Not really like writing things out is, okay. So why is money important to you? Okay.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
Cool.

Matt Mulcock:
Next question. And again, these are just example questions that are a bunch more, but what needs to happen in the next few years for me to feel like I’m making progress?

Ryan Isaac:
Ooh. Yeah. Like, and then it’s like, define progress. What is that? Is that more net worth? Is it a bigger checking account balance?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. What are you optimizing for?

Ryan Isaac:
More collections.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s like less maybe it’s less income and it’s more time away from the practice.

Matt Mulcock:
We just talked about this earlier, right? Yeah. Maybe I need to learn how to spend my money.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Maybe I’ve been we talked where it’s like one of the underrated challenges of being an advisor for certain types of clients, there’s gonna be people out there being like, I wish this was a problem for me. But I truly do think when you are in this accumulation mode for so long.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
You’re saving, you’re squirreling away. You’re so locked into the spreadsheet. At some point, I think a challenge really does become for us, hey, go enjoy this.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Buy something.

Matt Mulcock:
Go buy something.

Ryan Isaac:
We were talking about this earlier. It’s actually surprising to me the percentage of people that struggle with that.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
I would’ve thought that’s a very small minority of people who have a problem spending their money, like guilt free. But it’s a lot of people.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. It’s a lot of people.

Matt Mulcock:
And the older you get, like, my dad struggles with this he’s in his seventies.

Ryan Isaac:
You get closer to that like finite level where you’re like, well, there’s no more income coming in. I’m not working anymore.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Well, and you’re in a mindset your whole entire life of saving.

Ryan Isaac:
Save, save, save.

Matt Mulcock:
I gotta think about this. I gotta think about the consequences of if I spend this money, I can’t spend it elsewhere.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Right? As you get older and it’s like, even you see like my dad, it’s like he’s financially independent, very easily financially independent, and he still struggles with money. I think it’s a very underrated challenge. And again, I think this question gets to that. So what needs to happen in the next few years for me to feel like I’m making progress. It also, again, is more here and now.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s like what’s important, these kind of build on each other.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
What is important to me about money and what do I need to do to bring these values more to the forefront of my mind?

Ryan Isaac:
What was the question again? What do you feel like you need to do to make progress in the next… Was there a timeline?

Matt Mulcock:
What needs to happen in the next few years…

Ryan Isaac:
Okay.

Matt Mulcock:
For me to feel like I’m making progress.

Ryan Isaac:
I like the timeframe on that. A lot lately in my client calls, I will just, ’cause I’m trying to make sure we’re talking every few months.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
Which if you are client listening, please schedule.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. [laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
Some people don’t like to meet.

Matt Mulcock:
Please call me.

Ryan Isaac:
Some people don’t like to meet. It’s kinda fun.

Matt Mulcock:
I actually got in trouble. I’m gonna… You know who you are.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay.

Matt Mulcock:
SB.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay.

Matt Mulcock:
I got in trouble for good reason, but I made a comment one time, a couple months ago or something about how I have talked to clients before, and this is true, like multiple times a month.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Or whatever. I didn’t give enough context. I was like, “I do that in situations where my client is like going through a transition, bringing on an associate.”

Ryan Isaac:
They’re reaching out. Like we gotta talk in a week.

Matt Mulcock:
They’re reaching out to me.

Ryan Isaac:
We gotta talk in a week.

Matt Mulcock:
Exactly.

Ryan Isaac:
We gotta talk in a week. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
And I’m like, “Hey, we’ll talk as much as you want.”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
I had a client, listen to it.

Ryan Isaac:
Like, why not me.

[laughter]

Matt Mulcock:
And he’s like, “Hey dude, I haven’t talked to you in like three months.”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
And I was like, “I’m… ”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
“Call. It’s fine. I will.”

Ryan Isaac:
Totally.

Matt Mulcock:
But I felt so bad.

Ryan Isaac:
Schedule as much as you want. That’s normal.

Matt Mulcock:
As much as you want.

Ryan Isaac:
Three months is like in the industry talking to an advisor every three months is actually insane.

Matt Mulcock:
Talking to an advisor more than once a year.

Ryan Isaac:
Once a year, once every couple years is actually insane.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
We wanna talk to our clients. We like it.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, that’s totally true. What I was saying, I like the time thing on that because when I end calls, I like to recap our tasks and things we’re gonna work on and just frame it as like, what do we need to do in the next three months?

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
What’s important to get done? And to your point earlier, what might be important to get done is to put in the pool, or…

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
To buy the boat or…

Matt Mulcock:
Great.

Ryan Isaac:
Take the vacation like that. What’s important just to do in life in general in the next few months. I like the timeframe on that.

Matt Mulcock:
By the way. This is, I think perfect for your practice as well. Like living in what we’d call like 90 day worlds for your practice. That’s what we’re trying to do here at Dentist Advisors, like as a… From a business standpoint, is can we live in 90 day worlds? There’s actually studies show.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. [laughter] Studies show.

Matt Mulcock:
There’s study…

Ryan Isaac:
You can say whatever you want if you preface it with studies show.

Matt Mulcock:
I preface it with studies show. Don’t question me.

Ryan Isaac:
Go ahead and make it up. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
But there… Don’t question my sources ’cause I don’t have this off the top of my head.

Ryan Isaac:
I don’t know where this came from…

Matt Mulcock:
But I know there are studies that show…

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
That human brains actually after 90 days of working on something, or… That’s as far as we can actually go.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh really? Oh.

Matt Mulcock:
In a lot… Before we lose focus.

Ryan Isaac:
Whoa.

Matt Mulcock:
So whether it be a business setting or in case for money, it’s like we literally have to kind of live in 90 day worlds.

Ryan Isaac:
So I like that. Define what progress means to you and put a timeframe on it. And I think the shorter the better.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
I mean, it’s always good to know like where we’re headed, big picture, longer term, but…

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
I mean, especially for a dentist and owner of a practice, there’s so many moving pieces and decisions that are constantly being made around business and money and all that kind of stuff that put it in a three month timeframe.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Three months. And again, this…

Ryan Isaac:
What do you need to get done in the quarter.

Matt Mulcock:
This question references few years…

Ryan Isaac:
Yep.

Matt Mulcock:
I think you could break that down.

Ryan Isaac:
Easily.

Matt Mulcock:
Into 90 day worlds.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
But even saying a few years is so much more motivating than saying, “When am I gonna retire?”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
When you’re… Even when you’re 50.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Even when you’re 10 year or a decade out or 15 years out, working in these shorter timeframes builds momentum is so much more motivating for people.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. And it’s easier to grasp and I… And to not box in the term progress. What progress do I need to make? Progress can be spending your money.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
It can be buying something.

Matt Mulcock:
Exactly.

Ryan Isaac:
Doing what…

Matt Mulcock:
Whatever is a…

Ryan Isaac:
Whatever’s important to you.

Matt Mulcock:
Whatever’s important to you.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes.

Matt Mulcock:
This goes to the last question, which is, am I using my money in a way that…

Ryan Isaac:
Okay.

Matt Mulcock:
Improves my life?

Ryan Isaac:
And what’s improve?

Matt Mulcock:
And what does that mean to you? Again, these are so unique to you.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s not always just like…

Matt Mulcock:
It’s not a math equation.

Ryan Isaac:
Adds more money. It’s not always math. It’s not always what adds more money to the balance sheet or the bank account.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
Or the income or collections or anything.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
I think that last question, if that’s the only one you used, that alone to me is much more of a foundational question to build on than, when can I retire?

Ryan Isaac:
We’ve been talking a lot about the exercise of finding there’s so many online and you can just do these anyway. You just find a list online of core values.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
And list like 10 of them. Try to prioritize top 10, one through… Number one is the most important. And then ask yourself, what money decisions are you making in your life and how do they correlate to these things?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Are they aligned or are they not?

Ryan Isaac:
Are they aligned? Maybe you’re the person who really values time, but you’re still working five, six days a week and you’re actually growing multiple locations because you feel some pressure. You’re just doing culturally what’s the… Where the pressure comes from to just build a huge… A big business bigger and bigger. When to you having less money and more time is more important. And then there’s like this anxiety because you’re not putting your financial decision making energy into your highest core values. So…

Matt Mulcock:
I also think it’s really important, like context is important when going through your values or answering these questions. Meaning doing it either by yourself or no more than you and your spouse.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, right. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
The reason I say that is because I think if you were… Like let’s say you were to do this with an advisor, or a consultant, or a professional of some kind. I think there’d be this… And I think this is kind of life when it comes to stuff like this. You feel there’s pressure to like answer in a certain way.

Ryan Isaac:
You have the right answer.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. That’s why I think like for example, I think personality test can sometimes be massively flawed.

Ryan Isaac:
Enneagram seven.

Matt Mulcock:
Enneagram nine.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay.

Matt Mulcock:
Right? Enneagram three over there.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s got a three. I don’t remember that one…

Matt Mulcock:
We got Victoria in the office here our newest advisor, she’ll be on soon?

Ryan Isaac:
What was a three?

Matt Mulcock:
Three’s the achiever. She’s like the bad…

Ryan Isaac:
Good. Someone’s gonna get something done around here.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[laughter]

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Exactly.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. All right. Good.

Matt Mulcock:
But I do think there’s like, ’cause when you were just saying that about like, “I want to build out these three locations or I wanna go do this or this”, I think it’s really critical to be… Or introspective to say, “What’s driving this?”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Is it status, is it wealth? Is it…

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Which of Those are okay.

Matt Mulcock:
Which is totally fine.

Ryan Isaac:
We’re talking about necessarily, you can… Status can be a value.

Matt Mulcock:
It can absolutely be a value.

Ryan Isaac:
Buy those cars, and those purses, and those clothes, and those shoes.

Matt Mulcock:
Absolutely.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
I’ve talked to people who grew up super poor.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Right? That could not afford… They had to check to… Like when they went to the grocery store. Right? They were so nervous. Their… And they were told from their parents their whole life, “We can’t afford that.”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
So it made them a value of theirs now is like, “I’m gonna go spend on whatever the heck I want and I want everyone to know it.”

Ryan Isaac:
And why? You know what’s… It’s really cool. I was… This was probably a year ago in my neighborhood. I had my car windows tinted.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
And there’s a guy who does it in his business in his house. I went to his house and it’s this like sick house in these hills. Huge garage. Like six cars, like Maseratis, and all these, his kids drive like Maseratis to high school, huge house. Kinda like a flashy, showy dude. But it was actually like really…

Matt Mulcock:
And he did this from window tinting?

Ryan Isaac:
I don’t know. You never know where people get their side.

[laughter]

Matt Mulcock:
We’re not totally sure.

Ryan Isaac:
You never know where people get his side.

Matt Mulcock:
He’s a crypto trader on the side. Of course.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s… Yeah. I’m actually surprised at how much family money is in people’s lives.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Anyway.

Matt Mulcock:
Old money.

Ryan Isaac:
But what was cool about this though, ’cause he was talking about this and like how much stuff was around, he was actually saying he’s like the same thing. It was really, it was really cool that it was very, genuine of him because he was saying, he was telling me the story of how he grew up in this like, kind of rough part of LA and he used to play alone as a kid in this like, abandoned lot where all this junk like junkyard lot. Used to play in that they were super poor. And he was telling me, he is like, yeah man, it’s crazy. I grew up and just having all this stuff makes me feel safer. And he’s like, I just want my kids to have some brand name car.

Ryan Isaac:
I don’t know why I just wanna do that. I want like this huge house and I want this stuff. And he’s just like, look it, it’s piled everywhere. I don’t even care about it. It’s piled everywhere, but it just makes me feel good. I thought it was really genuine. ‘Cause it wasn’t like posturing or anything, but it’s true. It’s like, well that drives you then that gives you some sense of safety. It’s up to you to determine like what’s healthy or not. But like that drives you. So you have to respect that and make that a priority someday.

Matt Mulcock:
And there are responsible ways to do that.

Ryan Isaac:
There’s responsible ways to do that.

Matt Mulcock:
But there’s also responsible, you can take any value and say there’s a responsible. So for example, let’s go to the other side of the spectrum. One of my main values is family. Right? And spending time with my kids. But I can take that too far. Like to the point of like, I don’t work. ‘Cause I’d rather hang out with my family.

Ryan Isaac:
Like, which sounds fine but…

Matt Mulcock:
I would love it, but it’s not responsible ’cause I don’t have…

Ryan Isaac:
It’s not responsible ’cause your family needs someone to work.

Matt Mulcock:
Someone has…

Ryan Isaac:
Someone’s gotta work…

Matt Mulcock:
To work and make money to be able to do that. So I’m just saying that, who am I? Who are we to tell that? Or who’s anyone’s to tell that guy what’s right or wrong…

Ryan Isaac:
What you should or shouldn’t be doing.

Matt Mulcock:
From a value perspective. I think the problem with this type of discussion sometimes is again, there’s like the shame, this blame like, I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t value X, Y, or Z thing. Bull crap. Value what you want. It’s up to you, own it. And then build your, off that foundation. Build your financial plan off that.

Ryan Isaac:
It reminds me of an episode I did with Dr. Brian Harris on the Dentist Are People Too Show and he was talking about how for so much of his career he had this conflict internally because… So many people know who he is but he has built this giant brand around his cosmetic dentistry. People are flying all over the world. He’s booked out like months and months. Like a whole year. People are flying in to come see him.

Matt Mulcock:
He’s a good dude too. Like, I can, yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, Brian is awesome man. But there was a point in the conversation where he was saying his whole life, he’d always be like, what’s, what’s your biggest value? What’s most important? He’d be like, time with my family time. Because that was what you’re supposed to say.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s what you’re supposed to say.

Ryan Isaac:
And he’s a great dude. He’s a…

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, I just said it. Maybe I was just supposed to say that. I don’t know.

Ryan Isaac:
No but like, he’s a great dude and he’s a great husband and he is a great dad. And like he does love his family. He cares about them. But he said he got to this point in his career where he is like, I stopped feeling shame about the fact that I loved to work. Because what he would do is he would go home and it’d be Friday or Saturday night and he’d be working. And, but he loved it. He was being, it was like giving him energy and he was really fulfilled from it. But then he was conflicted ’cause he’s like, I’m family is the most, a lot of time with family is the most important thing. And then you’d feel all this conflict and then he’s like, I gotta to this point where.

Matt Mulcock:
Cognitive Dissonance.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. And he is like, I gotta this point where I was like, no. You know what, like building something in my career as an entrepreneur, giving to my community, my patients my customers is like, that also fills me. And that’s okay if it fills me as much as being with my family. And he’s like, when I finally let that go, he is like, my family time actually became so much more like stress free and I wasn’t feeling like conflicted. Why? I was like working on my business on a Saturday night.

Matt Mulcock:
He felt much more intentional and more present.

Ryan Isaac:
He’s more intentional. And then the guilt like kinda went away. Totally. So I like that.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s a great point.

Ryan Isaac:
Who’s to say what’s right or wrong? Like you just, anyway. That’s really cool.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s a good point.

Ryan Isaac:
We’re still on number one.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah We gotta we gotta blow through this.

Ryan Isaac:
Tad we Gotta go.

Matt Mulcock:
Tad. We gotta roll. All right.

Ryan Isaac:
We gotta go Tad.

Matt Mulcock:
I don’t know what time we’re at, but we blown through it…

Ryan Isaac:
I started a clock probably 10 minutes in and we’re at 27 right now.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, we’re good.

Ryan Isaac:
0:36:19.2 Ryan: And, and we probably started, I probably started like 10 or 15 minutes in, so. We could be hitting 40.

Matt Mulcock:
All Right. Let’s blast through this.

Ryan Isaac:
Number two.

Matt Mulcock:
So we hit overall, let’s just recap ’cause we spent so much time on that. Number one is start with the right questions, right?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
We’re not going to recap the questions. And then number, so number two, get organized. So this is more, I think these two, number one and number two is kind of like, number one is more of the qualitative stuff.

Ryan Isaac:
It Informs number two.

Matt Mulcock:
It informs and then number two is more of the quantitative. Like you just, we talk about this all the time you, you’ve gotta get organized. It’s the least sexy truest financial thing that you can do. It’s like you gotta get organized and people like… So people will come to us at events sometimes and they’ll be like, what should I invest in?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s like, have you been tracking your net worth?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Like do you even know how much money make?

Matt Mulcock:
Do you even know your cashflow? Do you know how much money you make.

Ryan Isaac:
What money you spend every month? Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
It is so funny.

Ryan Isaac:
You want like which ETF you’re supposed to buy.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, exactly.

Ryan Isaac:
Dude, that’s number 20 on the list right now.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh yeah. Or farther. Yeah. What’s so funny about dentists just speaking of that is they rarely know what their income is. They always know what their collections is, right? If you ask a dentist what are your collections, they’d probably be able to tell you.

Ryan Isaac:
Or what the relationship of those two are or should be.

Matt Mulcock:
Sure.

Ryan Isaac:
How they yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
But it’s like how much money do you make? Oh, my collections were 1.5 last. No, no, no. How much money do you pull out of that? That’s an organization type question. Not what ETF should I be investing in?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. It’s like the least sexy part of financial planning. That’s probably the most, it’s like when I think about stretching.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, don’t even get me started on stretching.

Ryan Isaac:
Now that I’m an old man, I’m like.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh my gosh.

Ryan Isaac:
Dude. Stretching has to be one of the most important, underrated, easiest things to freaking do.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes. And I hate it.

Ryan Isaac:
To improve your health and overall wellbeing. Like 10 minutes a day while you scroll.

Matt Mulcock:
Vastly improve your life. Like.

Ryan Isaac:
Keep scrolling while you stretch. But like, it’s some of these like really unsexy simple things that, you know, they just get overlooked because they just don’t feel like the big shiny selling points. And organization is a thing that you have to like stretching, you gotta keep doing it. You don’t do it once. It’s like in our system. So…

Matt Mulcock:
I do, I stretched once in like all of June. Once a month.

[laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
You stretched once. I stretched when? About ’97. It’s like summer of ’97. I stretched so good.

Matt Mulcock:
That was a good summer. I was so flexible.

[laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. It’s like, you know, in our business if you’re not familiar, you go to dentistadvisors.com and see the elements. That’s our system of organization. And that’s a system that requires attention and maintenance throughout the whole year. Some categories you can organize once a year, put in a new value once a year, maybe an insurance policy, a value of a building or a practice. But then other things require attention. Like every quarter. It could be spending savings rate, net worth updates. They require more attention. It’s a thing that requires maintenance and ongoing upkeep. But it’s not very fun or sexy.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s not.

Ryan Isaac:
But it’s like the underpinning… You can’t make any good decisions if you’re not organized in like, any health is the same way. You have a goal to like what? Reduce blood pressure or lose weight or something. It’s like if you don’t know…

Matt Mulcock:
Gotta measure.

Ryan Isaac:
The factor. Yeah. If you’re not measuring anything in your life about movement or food patterns or then you can’t know what to change or fix at all. What’s working or what’s not. You don’t know.

Matt Mulcock:
Even more simply, it’d be like I come to you and I’m like, Ryan, because I would come to you as my friend.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. This is something you would probably say.

Matt Mulcock:
I’d be like, “Ryan, I wanna lose weight.” And you’d be like, “cool. How much do you weigh?” I don’t know.

Ryan Isaac:
I don’t know. What do you eat? I don’t know.

Matt Mulcock:
I have no idea. So it’s the same thing.

Ryan Isaac:
You gotta just have some data.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. And there’s a whole law around this. Is it Perkins Law? Like what gets measured improves. You’ve gotta measure these certain things. Do you wanna improve your net worth. You want to fix your cash flow, you want to fix something, some aspect of your practice.

Ryan Isaac:
Measure it first.

Matt Mulcock:
You gotta start measuring it. New patients in the door, you gotta measure it. So this is the I gave like… There’s four if you’re doing nothing but these to start, if you’re not organized right now, here are four kind of, I think again, not exhaustive list. But things you could easily start doing today, tomorrow. Number one, create and track your personal financial statement.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. Balance sheet.

Matt Mulcock:
Balance sheet.

Ryan Isaac:
People usually will only do this when they have to get a loan and then they’re like, “What are your assets?”

Matt Mulcock:
And then they call us.

Ryan Isaac:
And the bank makes you. And then they usually calls me like, “Can you just do this?” And then we can. It’s like, “Yeah, here’s the sheet use it”

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, exactly. But you can do this on a piece of paper. It’s everything you own minus everything you owe. Those two things.

Ryan Isaac:
Net worth. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Net worth. And if you start tracking that on a regular basis, I recommend every quarter. Again, what gets tracked. What gets measured improves.

Ryan Isaac:
Measured gets improved.

Matt Mulcock:
You’re gonna start tracking that. All of a sudden you’re gonna start making better decisions. It’s gonna start improving.

Ryan Isaac:
And it’s funny how just awareness will actually change that. Sometimes you just try it’s like spending, you track your spending. Just being aware of what you spend will force you to start making changes.

Matt Mulcock:
Exactly.

Ryan Isaac:
You don’t even have to follow some psycho budget.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah ’cause it just creates awareness.

Ryan Isaac:
Just being aware of it…

Matt Mulcock:
Exactly.

Ryan Isaac:
You’ll make different choices. Just being aware of something. For sure.

Matt Mulcock:
And I’ve we’ve talked about this. I’ve seen this in my own life. I’ve seen this with clients. I’ve gotten to a place with clients where it’s like, they’ll be like, you’re, you know they’re having spending problems. To the point where they can’t save anything. And like “Matt, we know we spent too much money.”

Ryan Isaac:
It’s a problem.

Matt Mulcock:
They’ll say, “I know you’re gonna tell us to get on a budget.” And I’m like, no I’m not. But here’s what we’re gonna do. We are gonna set up a monthly meeting for the next three months. You guys are going make a commitment to meeting weekly during that period of time together. And all you’re gonna do is track your spending. That is it.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. What do we spend?

Matt Mulcock:
No shame. No blame, don’t care about categories…

Ryan Isaac:
No changes.

Matt Mulcock:
Zero changes. Just start tracking. And I’m not kidding you. After three months, almost every single time they come back and they’re like, “Holy cow. We just started making better decisions.” ‘Cause you’re more aware.

Ryan Isaac:
Food tracking is the same way.

Matt Mulcock:
Food tracking is huge.

Ryan Isaac:
They’ll always tell you the same thing. Don’t change anything. Just track what you’re doing for two to four weeks. And so you have a baseline.

Matt Mulcock:
And then you’ll be blown away how much you’re eating. [laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
You’re like, what?

Matt Mulcock:
Holy cow.

Ryan Isaac:
Come on.

Matt Mulcock:
How much is in that donut?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. But since I don’t live here every time I come to Utah, just shout out to Dunford Donuts.

Matt Mulcock:
Of course.

Ryan Isaac:
‘Cause they listen to the show.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, of course.

Ryan Isaac:
Chocolate on chocolate Dunford.

Matt Mulcock:
Thrice, Dunford. Yeah, yeah we got some big listeners.

Ryan Isaac:
Thrice listening and Dunford. That’s my favorite thing. And they’re at every gas station, thank goodness.

Matt Mulcock:
They are. Okay. Next thing. Regularly reviewing your practice P&L. Your…

Ryan Isaac:
So underrated.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Just tracking your P&L on a regular basis to know where your cash is going. What’s being spent.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s the single most important document for a practice owner is the P&L. And I think it’s probably the least understood piece of information. Dentists really… They can drill into their numbers of hygiene, production per hour and AR and all these things. But a P&L feels really foreign to most people. And it’s usually it’s because usually there’s not someone in your life, even your CPA or bookkeeper it’s not part of their typical service model to walk through your P&L frequently with you. So people just don’t do that much.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. They really don’t. And again, very powerful. This is the spending side of but on the practice.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. And again, for clients listening, call your advisor and be like, let’s just once a year, look at my P&L together. I love doing that. I think it’s one of the most informational pieces of data to look at.

Matt Mulcock:
And when it comes to the P&L, also key here is get an organized and detailed P&L we see…

Ryan Isaac:
Good chart of accounts.

Matt Mulcock:
So many crap ones. Yeah. Have a good chart of accounts, is consistent that has the categories that you need.

Ryan Isaac:
We can give you some examples. If you…

Matt Mulcock:
We can totally give you examples.

Ryan Isaac:
We can send you some examples of good chart of accounts.

Matt Mulcock:
There’s only seven main categories you need to make sure that are broken out and…

Ryan Isaac:
Detailed.

Matt Mulcock:
You’re tracking. Let us know. We can totally help with that. Okay. We already hit this monitor your personal spending. We mentioned that. And then the last one I mentioned here is take time to get proper insurance policies and estate plan.

Ryan Isaac:
Jeez. That’s a whole other episode.

Matt Mulcock:
If we’re talking that financial planning is like your vegetables topic of life, getting organized is the next version. And then insurance and estate planning is like the ultimate figure measure.

[laughter]

Matt Mulcock:
It’s like really the reason I put it here is because it is that. No, it’s something that no one wants to talk about. It is low risk from a frequency standpoint of needing to use an insurance policy or an estate plan. But it is such a massive consequence if your. And it is really straightforward if you just take some time to get it in place.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s easy to know how much life insurance to own, how much disability. Again, those are like annual things. They don’t need to be revisited every month.

Matt Mulcock:
No.

Ryan Isaac:
But once a year you should talk with your advisor about how much insurance you carry because you either might need less than you’re paying for or you might need more depending on changes in your life.

Matt Mulcock:
Exactly. And estate plan needs to be reviewed every few years.

Ryan Isaac:
For most people it’s really simple.

Matt Mulcock:
And then if life changes, you have a new kid, divorce, something like that. Yeah. You need to review it, but it’s just something that take the time, get it done, and you’re gonna feel a lot better.

Ryan Isaac:
Totally.

Matt Mulcock:
From a risk standpoint. So those are the main things to start doing from an organization standpoint.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. That was number two?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. But we’re gonna hit three and we’re gonna blast.

Ryan Isaac:
What’s number…

Matt Mulcock:
Tad is gonna cut some stuff. We’re fine.

Ryan Isaac:
Tad is gonna cut my Thrice story. My airport Thrice story.

Matt Mulcock:
He’s gonna cut your Thrice story.

Ryan Isaac:
No. He’s not because we mentioned it…

Matt Mulcock:
We just mentioned it. It’s what we do.

Ryan Isaac:
Haha Tad tricked you.

Matt Mulcock:
We make Tad jokes.

Ryan Isaac:
Well he can cut that too.

Matt Mulcock:
We’re sorry Tad.

Ryan Isaac:
He can cut that too.

Matt Mulcock:
He’s like I’ll just keep cutting in whenever you say Thrice.

Ryan Isaac:
He’s like, I cut whatever I want, dude. Thanks Tad.

Matt Mulcock:
We make his life pretty hard.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, we do.

Matt Mulcock:
Here’s the thing. We’re together in person. We don’t have this a lot. So we get going and…

Ryan Isaac:
He’s running.

Ryan Isaac:
Tad is like Ryan can’t come in more than once a year.

Ryan Isaac:
Just stop talking. I know stop talking.

Matt Mulcock:
Okay. Number three, prioritize your practice. So what I mentioned here is what I said earlier. We get a lot of questions at events or on consults or whatever, where a common question is,”Hey, where should I invest my money?”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. What’s the best investment?

Matt Mulcock:
What’s the best in investment? Right? And so again, I, we’ve talked about this so many times of we don’t know anyone’s personal situations listening right now, unless you’re a client, we probably do.

Ryan Isaac:
We can assume.

Matt Mulcock:
We can assume.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
But we don’t, so generally speaking, it’s hard to give general or specific advice in a general setting. However, I will say generally, if you are on the fence of I’ve got x number of dollars extra leftover and I’m in the first, let’s say the first 10, 15 years of my career.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. First half.

Matt Mulcock:
Generally speaking. Yeah. Especially first five. You said first half.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, sorry.

Ryan Isaac:
10 to 15 would be like first half.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. So first half of your career, right?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Early career for sure.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes. If you, generally speaking, if you’re in the first half or early in your career, you should be putting that, like if you’re on the fence of like, should I go buy this ETF? Should I go put this or.

Ryan Isaac:
Pay down debt.

Matt Mulcock:
Pay down debt. Should I go like…

Ryan Isaac:
Buy some insurance. Some whole life insurance.

Matt Mulcock:
Buy some… Buy insurance. Whole life insurance.

Ryan Isaac:
Some more crypto or…

Matt Mulcock:
should I, my brother-in-law’s option strategy training course. Or should I be putting it into marketing or consultant or CE.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s the answer.

Ryan Isaac:
New people. New associates.

Matt Mulcock:
New people.

Ryan Isaac:
New hygienists.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
If you can find them.

Matt Mulcock:
You can find a hygienist, but put it into your practice.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes.

Matt Mulcock:
Your payout from that will almost always be much higher…

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Than anything else you do.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Dude, I always think like, what’s the best investment? I’m like, well, you own something that pays like 47% profitability.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
So I kind of think it’s that one.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Maybe that, by the way.

Ryan Isaac:
Just keep doing that one.

Matt Mulcock:
That 99% of the population.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Cannot mimic.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Well, and they’re like, well, I work in it. So that’s why it’s so like, okay, stop working and it pays you 20.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
It pays you a 20% dividend.

Matt Mulcock:
But again, understand every year your P&L and you’ll know that.

Ryan Isaac:
It pays you a 20% dividend without you working every single year. And it’s so steady that, banks will literally give you like seven figures in 7 days.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
They’ll just give you money hand it over first to keep growing this thing.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. It’s like the reason why.

Ryan Isaac:
Like, that’s the thing.

Matt Mulcock:
Private equity is clamoring to get into this space.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Why does all the big money want your business?

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s because you’re already sitting on like the best investment…

Matt Mulcock:
A gold mine.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
But start treating it like that. Start treating it like an investment.

Ryan Isaac:
Cranking out.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s money, money machine.

Matt Mulcock:
It honestly can be. And it’s the best investment… Just print the money and sniff it guys.

Ryan Isaac:
Print and sniff it.

Matt Mulcock:
Exactly. [laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
All right.

Matt Mulcock:
We have to get a sniff money reference in here.

Ryan Isaac:
Build a good foundation, ask good questions.

Matt Mulcock:
Get organized.

Ryan Isaac:
Get Organized.

Matt Mulcock:
Prioritize your practice.

Ryan Isaac:
Prioritize your practice. Dentistadvisors.com/june.

Matt Mulcock:
June.

Ryan Isaac:
The article is there.

Matt Mulcock:
So every month, like, we’re gonna release this every month, obviously. So every single, it’s, we try to make it as simple as possible.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
So if you wanna read the newsletter without subscribing, just go to dentistadvisors.com/ whatever month you wanna read.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
It’ll be released, I think kind of the, I think we’re shooting for like the first week of every month.

Ryan Isaac:
Super cool. And, everyone is gonna write different things and yeah. That’s really fun.

Matt Mulcock:
Everyone has their homework. Yep. So everyone.

Ryan Isaac:
Everyone’s got homework.

Matt Mulcock:
Where we gave their homework. You gotta go write, answer those questions.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes.

Matt Mulcock:
Right?

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. Thanks Mattie for the time.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s always great Ryan.

Ryan Isaac:
Writing the thing. Thanks to everyone listening. If you have any questions, you can go to dentistadvisors.com and click the book free consultation link and chat with a friendly dental specific advisor today or maybe, probably like tomorrow or like the next day…

Matt Mulcock:
I mean, you probably can’t get on the same day. Couple of days.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s probably like in the next two days, but it’s very soon.

Matt Mulcock:
You can get on this week.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s very soon. And you can talk to someone who only works with dentists, which is really helpful. Okay. Thanks Matt. Thanks for everyone, for listening I’ll catch you next time on another episode of the Dentist Money Show.

Getting Organized