Financial Advice Dentists Want vs Financial Advice Dentists Need – Episode 266

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When it comes to financial advice you may think you know what you need—chances are you’re wrong!

Dentists looking for financial guidance often think they know what they need when it comes to advice. On this episode of the Dentist Money™ Show, Ryan and Matt talk about four fundamentals dentists tend to overlook—but are the things they really need to hear.

The rudimentary basics for good financial planning start with these financial pillars. Building real wealth begins by establishing a solid foundation for your long-term financial plan, and that foundation should be based on these four financial principles.

Listen now to find out why good financial planning starts with four critical ingredients.

Click here to take the test and get your CE certificate

 

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Podcast Transcript

Ryan Isaac:
Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining us on another episode of The Dentist Money Show sponsored by Dentist Advisors, which a comprehensive fee-only financial planning firm just for dentists all over the country. Check us out, guys, at DentistAdvisors.com. Today on the show, me and Matt talk about a question we have never been asked before as financial advisors and it’s one of the best questions I’ve ever heard, what do dentists think they need, when they first need a financial advisor, versus what do they really need to achieve their financial goals? Such a good question, and thanks for tuning in, thanks for joining us. If you have a question, you can go to the Dentist Advisors discussion group on Facebook, post a question, we will post an answer, or, if you want to chat with us, got to DentistAdvisors.com and schedule a consultation with one of our friendly dental-specific advisors. Today, thanks for tuning in, thanks for joining us, and as always, the invitation is to enjoy the show.

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 Isaac here with the guy known as the Hollywood Mountain, it is Matt Mulcock. What’s up, Hollywood Mountain Matt?

Matt Mulcock:
Yo, Ryan. I am not known as that, but I appreciate …

Ryan Isaac:
You are in my brain.

Matt Mulcock:
You’re going to beat this into people’s heads as much as you possibly can. As much as you’d like it to stick like Sir Ryan Isaac, host-

Ryan Isaac:
That’s what I’m saying-

Matt Mulcock:
… of The Dentist Money Show does-

Ryan Isaac:
… it’s going to stick.

Matt Mulcock:
… it’s not going to stick, man. We need to figure something else out.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s going to stick and, yeah, if Sir Ryan Isaac stuck, then the Hollywood Mountain is sticking. That’s just happening, okay? It’s a new year, it’s a new you. You look like you’re glowing in this new year-

Matt Mulcock:
I’m glowing in 2021, I am.

Ryan Isaac:
… feeling your resolutions. This episode will come out … it’s early January 2021. 2021 is off to a hot start.

Matt Mulcock:
Hey, if you thought 2020 was crazy, welcome-

Ryan Isaac:
Ooh, the sequel’s even better.

Matt Mulcock:
The sequel’s even better. I was just going to say-

Ryan Isaac:
Wow, there’s much better CGI in the sequel.

Matt Mulcock:
Much better CGI and much better-

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, the stunts are crazier.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, totally. I actually saw a funny tweet yesterday, and it was like, “It’s December 37th, 2020.” Basically, the year has just continued on.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, it just keeps going. If-

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I was going to say, though, it’s January 7th, so I am finishing my resolution today, today’s the last day of my resolutions. I’m failing as of tomorrow based on the studies.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, the stats, yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Right? The stats were saying seven days in.

Ryan Isaac:
We did an episode, new resolutions, new financial resolutions, and we did a webinar on this and a previous podcast on this. Go ahead and search it. I think it was the first one oof 2020 that just came out. Go ahead and take a look at that. We give some tips for changing your environment so you can start to see some results and so you could start to change your internal story about your money and your finances and how you behave with it so, for sure, check that out.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay, Matt, I gave a presentation recently to a group of very fine people and there was a question that was posed I’ve never heard as long as I’ve done this.

Matt Mulcock:
Which is pretty amazing, if you think about it.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, it is amazing, especially when you only work in one niche industry. You hear everything multiple times, which is the benefit of being in a niche, and that’s why you hire industry niche specific people around you, CPAs, advisors, attorneys, consultants, because you just see the same stuff over and over again. Anyway, a question I’ve never heard before and it was so good that that’s what today’s episode is. If everyone’s ready, you’re about to hear the question that has never been asked to us in, I don’t know, I think I start my fourteenth year this year and it’s never been asked. You guys are going to hear it. This is a great question. The question-

Matt Mulcock:
I thought you were going to say, “You’re about to hear the question that’s going to change your life.” That’s what I thought.

Ryan Isaac:
[crosstalk 00:04:07] about to hear the question.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, that’s what I thought was coming.

Ryan Isaac:
You guys are about to hear the question that’s going to change your life.

Matt Mulcock:
There it is.

Ryan Isaac:
There it is. And the question is, this person asked, she said, “When dentists come to you guys to check you out, hire you, what do you they think they need initially versus what they actually end up really needing over the long term or just from your perspective immediately?” When a new dentist comes to us-

Matt Mulcock:
Such a good question.

Ryan Isaac:
… “Dentist Advisors, what are you guys about? I want to hire you. I need an advisor. Here’s what I need,” and that’s a pretty common thing. People often think they know what they need in order to achieve something or they know what’s lacking or they just know what the problem is, that’s human nature, and it’s such a good question because it’s often very different from they actually need. And the spoiler alert that we’re going to get to is what people actually need is a lot more boring and less sexy than what they think they need in the beginning.

Ryan Isaac:
Matt, let’s start with a list of things that dentists think they need when they hire a financial advisor, when they come to us, and this isn’t exclusive and this isn’t probably an exhaustive list, and not everyone, I’ll say, has something in mind. There’s a fair amount of people that hire us and they’re like, “Look, I don’t know what’s going on. All I know is I’m confused, lost, anxious, and worried and I just need some solutions, so you tell me what to do and let’s do it.” Some people have that attitude because they’ve figured that out for themselves, but let’s start there. What are things dentists think they need when they show up for the first time or start talking to us as their solution?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I wrote a list. I’m going to imagine that you and I-

Ryan Isaac:
Ooh.

Matt Mulcock:
… have a pretty similar-

Ryan Isaac:
You got yourself a list, yep.

Matt Mulcock:
… breakdown here.

Ryan Isaac:
Let’s compare lists [crosstalk 00:06:00].

Matt Mulcock:
It’s a really fancy list here on my-

Ryan Isaac:
Your list can beat up my list.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. The first thing that came to my mind when we started talking about this topic, I wrote down, “They think they need a home run,” and I’m talking specifically about investing, and I wrote next to it, “The next Tesla.” They think that they need this investment that’s going to change their life, I’d say, like a get-rich scheme, right, when it comes to investing. They think they need that and they think that’s what we do in a lot of ways, like, “Oh, you’re going to find me that next hot stock.” That’s the first thing that came to my mind.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s a pretty common misconception when people think of a financial advisor or a financial planner is a stock picker. I don’t blame anyone for thinking that because there’s no strict definition of what financial planning is, which is why we built such a pretty rigorous system of defining what financial planning should be, here’s the subjects that should be considered on an annual basis and here’s how they should be measured.

Matt Mulcock:
Financial planning is a very new profession-

Ryan Isaac:
It is new.

Matt Mulcock:
… to be honest, and specifically a profession within financial planning. The 1985 Gordon Gekko type stockbroker-

Ryan Isaac:
Shut up.

Matt Mulcock:
… that’s what people think about a lot of times still when they think about a financial planner. It’s a pretty new … it really is. It’s not like dentistry. It’s pretty new.

Ryan Isaac:
The point is we’re in this environment, and it’s the same story with a new name, Tesla’s the name of today, there were different names a year ago, 10 years ago, and there’ll be different names next year. As of today, right now, Bitcoin also just peaked over $40,000 a coin.

Matt Mulcock:
Whee.

Ryan Isaac:
And, again, it’s not new, it’s not unique, but that’s the context people come to the table with when looking at a financial planner. A, they believe that a financial advisor is just a killer stock picker and they also have the context of “The solution to my financial problems is obviously just growing my wealth through huge returns in really big home run investments.” And so, yeah, that’s a pretty big misconception that people begin the conversation with. Here’s another one. I was going to see if this is on your list, bro, is-

Matt Mulcock:
Bro? Let’s compare lists.

Ryan Isaac:
… “I have to get rid of all my debt as fast as possible.”

Matt Mulcock:
Great one.

Ryan Isaac:
“That’s what I need. Can you help me do that?” Was that on your list?

Matt Mulcock:
Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
Was debt reduction on your list? Pretty common? It’s almost like we both only work with dentists for our careers.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s weird. It’s very weird.

Ryan Isaac:
You’re reading my mind. What do you think about that, Matt? What’s the context, what’s the mind frame, what’s the mindset when people are approaching us with that “Here’s what I need” mentality?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. We’ve talked about this before on another podcast and some Facebook Lives as well around this idea that financial freedom and being debt-free are synonymous. That’s what people think, right?

Ryan Isaac:
Ooh. Yes.

Matt Mulcock:
They think you can’t be one without the other, which as we’ve highlighted before and we talk to clients all the time, that’s not actually true, but talk about something that’s being ingrained in them from literally going back to the creation of the Bible, right, that talks about debt, shout-out to the Bible.

Ryan Isaac:
Shout-out to the Bible.

Matt Mulcock:
But, honestly, you read this books and it’s literally ingrained in us as a society, get out of debt. Dave Ramsey has built his career on “Get out of debt. Debt is evil. You can’t be free …” I think Dave Ramsey goes as far as saying, “You can’t be wealthy until you’re debt-free,” that type of approach. I think that’s what people think. It’s one way of looking at it. Not saying that’s not a great thing to be focused on and getting out of debt-

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, that’d be great.

Matt Mulcock:
… but it certainly isn’t the only way and it certainly isn’t the only way you’re financially free is to be debt-free.

Ryan Isaac:
Does debt-free equally financially free, and that’s a really good question. It’s really ingrained. I also find, you probably found this too, it’s just conventional wisdom that the best path to being financially free, because you’re free of debtors and you don’t owe anyone anything, right, and that would seem like that’s the key, but I find that that’s actually advice given from a lot of other people’s financial people in their lives. A lot of accountants and CPAs might tell their clients the same thing, not maybe having a background in measuring net worth and personal spending and investing and that kind of stuff.

Matt Mulcock:
And not understanding the details and nuance around a dentist’s life.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, a dentist’s life and personal finance, yeah. The moral of the story is, yeah, those things don’t equate, but that’s a very big assumption too. All right, we’ve got home run investment. We’ve got “We’ve got to get out of debt at all cost as fast as possible,” that was mine. Back to you list, what do [crosstalk 00:10:55] on the illustrious mountain? Your list is probably a mountain as well.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. It’s totally a mountain.

Ryan Isaac:
Just to see [crosstalk 00:11:01].

Matt Mulcock:
Another one that I had on here is they think they need another job, and I put specifically real estate. Ryan, I know you and I have talked about this a bunch. I get this all the time. I joke with people at events, when events were actually happening, that, dang, dental school is a long time to go to school and put it in a lot of hours to become a real estate mogul because that’s, honestly, what we hear all the time. They think that the only way to build wealth is by getting this … and I call it another job because it is, building a real estate empire or some other side gig.

Ryan Isaac:
What do you think that comes from? What’s the context or the, I don’t know, the cultural or societal message around real estate specifically as an investment that you think does that?

Matt Mulcock:
I think it started with Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, [crosstalk 00:11:55].

Ryan Isaac:
Richest dad of all dads.

Matt Mulcock:
The richest dad of all dads, Robert Kiyosaki, shout-out. I’ve read that book a couple times. It’s great.

Ryan Isaac:
I did to.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s a good book. I think the first version came out, I want to say, early nineties.

Ryan Isaac:
It was purple and black.

Matt Mulcock:
Purple, yeah, it’s a very cheesy-

Ryan Isaac:
It’s definitely nineties branding, gold, purple, and black.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, it was very nineties. Yeah. But I think real estate, for whatever reason, it seems sexy, right? There’s a lot of appeal to it and I think there are so many people out there like Robert Kiyosaki, and there are several others, that people see, and this is just human nature, but, again, it’s specifically to real estate, people see the end result. They see Grant Cardone or these guys and the see the end result, “Oh, look at him.”

Ryan Isaac:
[crosstalk 00:12:40].

Matt Mulcock:
Sorry. What?

Ryan Isaac:
It’s very public. Yeah, real estate moguls.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s very public, yes. It’s very much out there. They see the end result, right, and they don’t think about the work and time and energy that went into getting to that end result.

Ryan Isaac:
That it’s a total different career. You’re starting [crosstalk 00:12:57].

Matt Mulcock:
Total career change.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s a second job.

Matt Mulcock:
And what I’d say to this is, just to put context around this, we’re not saying don’t invest in real estate.

Ryan Isaac:
No, that’s not the message.

Matt Mulcock:
I think in the context that we’re talking about now is … we talk about what-

Ryan Isaac:
[crosstalk 00:13:08] underestimate it.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Well, and when we talk about this specific context of people coming to us thinking it’s what they need, meaning I can’t even tell you how many people I’ve heard act like that’s the key to their freedom. That’s going to be it. If they just get a couple of rental properties, they’re done. And I think the key there is it’s not as simple as maybe you think it is on the videos you watch on YouTube or the books that you’ve read, that’s not necessarily going to be the key. Again, not saying don’t do it, we shouldn’t explore it and talk about it and figure out a way to make it happen and add it to your portfolio, but, if you think it’s going to be the key to your success and to your financial freedom, I think there’s going to be a chance you’re going to be pretty disappointed at some point.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, it’s just too narrow a way to think about it. And, by the way, as we’re going through these, we’re not like, “Hey, you guys are so dumb. You think it’s this thing,” that’s not the point of this at all. This is just human nature and there’s no way to know this stuff. It’s just a matter of these are the common things that people assume are the ticket, and I think the worrisome part about it is the people asking us these questions, they’re at least asking somebody. They’re saying, “Hey, I need to be a real estate investor in order to get wealthy one day.” At least they’re saying that to somebody out loud and has the chance of learning and the chance of education, the chance of pushback, and the chance of some guidance.

Ryan Isaac:
My biggest worry is that there’s just people … this is why we do this podcast, it’s why we bring this stuff up, this is why we share what we learned from other people, other dentists, is the people who don’t talk to someone about this, right? In their head, they go, “I have to hit a home run investment,” so they go be really speculative and they never run that past anybody and that sucks because that puts people in danger. I was going to add another one that I think is actually maybe a little bit closer than people think is they come to us and they say they just have to get their spouse to stop spending all their money-

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, yeah, that’s a good one.

Ryan Isaac:
… or have to get on a budget, a rigorous, crazy budget. This one feels a lot, to me, like … it’s weird because controlling spending is a massive factor in your future financial freedom because the funny thing is, as you know, Matt, and a lot of people listening to us, the way we calculate financial freedom isn’t just how much money you have in the bank or what’s your total net worth, it’s what’s your net worth, usable net worth, that you’re willing to sell or finance or something, in relation to what you spend? And the lower your spending number, the longer your net worth will take you. On-

Matt Mulcock:
You’re touching on my next list item, so I’ll just … teaser, teaser.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay, yeah, that’s a segue. It’s funny because, on one hand, I’m like, “Yeah, you’re close. You’re getting warmer with needing to control spending.”

Matt Mulcock:
You’re getting there.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s a huge factor, but it also reminds me a lot of … it has the same energy or feeling around someone who wants to jump on a panicky diet fad, you’re like-

Matt Mulcock:
Keto, baby.

Ryan Isaac:
… “I don’t think you can eat 200 calories a day.”

Matt Mulcock:
Pretty sure you might die.

Ryan Isaac:
“I’m pretty sure your brain just waking up in the morning burns more than … I don’t think you’re meant to eat 200 calories a day.” It reminds me of that because it’s a very scarcity, freak-out, we’re going to buckle down, we’re never going to spend money again, we’re going to cut everything at all cost. That’s another people come to us with assuming that’s the key issue. It’s a piece of it and you have to have some balance there, but that’s not the key issue. What were you going to say, though? What’s the segue?

Matt Mulcock:
Exactly what you were just talking about. People come to us thinking that they need … I just wrote an arbitrary amount of money, and I’m saying specifically arbitrary because, Ryan, we’ve talked about this many times, where “I just need X amount of dollars,” right? It’s always a nice clean, round-

Ryan Isaac:
It’s very round.

Matt Mulcock:
… like, “I just need five million. I just need 10 million.” I don’t know about you, Ryan, well, let me throw it to you, what’s the highest you’ve ever heard? Because I’ve got a number that I’ve heard. What’s the highest you’ve ever heard?

Ryan Isaac:
The highest-

Matt Mulcock:
That people say, “I need.”

Ryan Isaac:
… like highest irrational or highest common?

Matt Mulcock:
Irrational. Well, just the highest.

Ryan Isaac:
Irrational … oh, well, I’ll hear 100 million dollars.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, see, the highest I’ve ever heard, I remember the conversation with this dentist, 50 million. It was, “I need 50 million before I can retire,” just an arbitrary number.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, I’ve heard bigger. I just had to one-up you.

Matt Mulcock:
I should have waited. I played that poorly. I played that poorly because what I should have done is made you go first and like, “Oh, really? 100? I’ve heard 250, bro.”

Ryan Isaac:
You just got to Price Is Right me. That’s what you got to do, be like, “Oh, I heard 51 million.”

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, you’ve heard 100 million? I’ve heard 100 million and one, weird.

Ryan Isaac:
And $1. Yeah, arbitrary, and it’s always round millions. It’s always five or 10 or three, I don’t know. Yeah, arbitrary.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Or the opposite of that, I get, “I just need 50,000 a month to live.”

Ryan Isaac:
Sure, arbitrary monthly spending amount.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s like, “Well, is that what you spend?” “Well, no, but it just sounds good.”

Ryan Isaac:
Which it does. That’d be great.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, sure. I’d love to have 50,000 a month. Sign me up.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, I’ll take it. Yeah. What you’re saying is an arbitrary number, that’s the obsession or that’s the goal when it’s not defined, okay.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, the reason I thought of it when you were just talking about this before, how we calculate when someone’s ready, their retirement readiness, it is based off of their net worth, but when someone comes to us saying, “I need …” a specific arbitrary number and it’s usually like, “Well, okay, what thought has gone into that or why do you need that amount of money?” And there’s usually a pause and, “I don’t know.” And more times than not, we joke, but, honestly, it’s like, “I don’t know. It just sounds good.”

Ryan Isaac:
It just sounds good.

Matt Mulcock:
I get that a lot. There’s no thought behind it other than that.

Ryan Isaac:
Shout-out to everyone, though, because it is funny when we have these conversations. Everyone’s cool about it. Everyone’s willing to laugh at themselves a little bit because everyone … “I need 10 million dollars.” Why? And then, after a while, everyone’s just laughing, like, “I don’t know.”

Matt Mulcock:
It just sounds good. And don’t get me wrong-

Ryan Isaac:
Seems like enough.

Matt Mulcock:
… I am guilty of these conversations over my life with my wife. Ryan, you and I have had this exact conversation of … back in the day starting your career out, you have this arbitrary income number that you need to hit to think you’re done.

Ryan Isaac:
I was going to say that.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. It’s like, “Oh, I just need to hit,” for me, early on, it was six figures, “I just need to hit six figures and I’m done. I’m ready to go.”

Ryan Isaac:
And then you hit it and you’re like, “Why do I still not have any money left over?”

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, dang, that’s not as much as I thought. Dang.

Ryan Isaac:
Two six figures.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, I need double that. Okay, now I need triple that.

Ryan Isaac:
Three six figures.

Matt Mulcock:
Now I need seven figures.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s totally true, man. I’m going to go one more. This was actually a topic of the conversation where this question came from and this is where people come to us, again, it’s a little bit of an anxious, panicked energy, thinking that they need to push their career into a place where they don’t probably even want to. For example, single owner, single doc, they’re fine, but they feel a lot of pressure to be like, “I’m never going to make it unless I have a second location. I’m never going to make it unless I’m a DSO, right, because that’s what I see and that’s the pressure.” And they’ll come to us feeling like they have to push their career and themselves into a path that’s not … it’s not good for them or it’s not comfortable, not that it’s bad to be uncomfortable, but it’s forced when it maybe shouldn’t be, and I know a lot of people can relate to this. And so-

Matt Mulcock:
This was legitimately the last one on my list. I’m not even kidding.

Ryan Isaac:
Are you serious?

Matt Mulcock:
I’m not kidding. Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
Hot. There is no sarcasm alert on that one either because that is-

Matt Mulcock:
No. That’s real.

Ryan Isaac:
Geez, that’s amazing. I love how this has gone. And everyone’s here for the bonding moment that we just had. Let’s take a commercial break, but I think what I want to say about this, and then you could say something, too, if you want to add anything to this, the reason, again, to bring up these things is to let … it’s to normalize it, right? We’re just trying to shed some light on what’s common and normal of what people think are the problems and, look, investments, real estate, income, career, what else, spending, net worth, those matter. Those are all very crucial financial planning subjects and they have their place and they have to interact with each other the right way, but not one single one of them is the problem. It’s not the problem. I think what I’m going to give as the answer to the problem, what I actually think is the problem-

Matt Mulcock:
You’re not going to like it.

Ryan Isaac:
… I think it’s going to be different than what you might be expecting, or maybe if you’ve listened long enough, you’d be like, “I know where this is headed, Ryan, old Ryan.”

Matt Mulcock:
Great, Ryan.

Ryan Isaac:
“We know where this is going.”

Matt Mulcock:
Same old story, Ryan.

Ryan Isaac:
Same old Ryan, same old Ryan.

Matt Mulcock:
On The Dentist Money Show, we teach dentists how to make smart financial decisions.

Ryan Isaac:
You’re correct.

Matt Mulcock:
Is that all it takes, Ryan, to make smart financial decisions, listening to our show?

Ryan Isaac:
Matt, it’s a good first step, but to put your financial future on the fast track, the next smart decision is to go to DentistAdvisors.com. What you do there is you click on the Book Free Consultation button right in the middle of the homes screen and then you schedule a time to talk with one of our very friendly dental-specific financial advisors today.

Ryan Isaac:
We have now arrived at the point of the program where we are going to pull back the curtain and unveil-

Matt Mulcock:
Change your life.

Ryan Isaac:
… we are going to change your life with the answer to the question that was posed, what do dentists come to you think they need, but what do they really need? Here comes the answer and, if there’s a drum roll, we can cue, we should do that, but-

Matt Mulcock:
Hit us, Ryan.

Ryan Isaac:
… this is the answer I gave to the group and then saw faces get disappointed and shoulders slump and posture … “We are all on edge, dude.” Everyone’s waiting because I was about to tell them which stock to buy.

Matt Mulcock:
Well, did you set it up the same way we’ve set this up? You’re like, “Just wait for it, wait for it. Here it comes.”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, and they’re all like, “All right, which stock are we buying? Which stock are we buying?” And then I said there’s three things, actually, that I would list as the answer to this question, what do dentists really need, what’s the real problem? And my three things are, number one, organization-

Matt Mulcock:
Boo.

Ryan Isaac:
… number two, tracking progress, and number three, accountability to that tracking and that progress. Those are my three answers to what do dentists really need?

Matt Mulcock:
Can I add another one?

Ryan Isaac:
I’ll stop there. You add yours and then let’s circle back and explain them a little bit in context of the things we said dentists think are the problem.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. The last one can pretty much … there’s details to this that we could definitely hit on, but the three you have, perfect. I’d add a fourth one. The fourth leg of the chair, let’s say, is be patient.

Ryan Isaac:
Ah, patience. Patience.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s the ultimate finger wag, just calm down, I’m not meaning that, but building wealth takes time and, a lot of times, people just need reminders. It takes time to build a career. It takes time to build wealth. Patience is key.

Ryan Isaac:
We’ve got organization, tracking progress, accountability, and patience. I love the patience one because, really, any worthwhile thing in life, it’s doing it consistently and taking little steps over long periods of time that really yield the results that are long-lasting and sustainable. I’m sorry to tell you, you might have bought some Tesla with play money, with 10 grand, maybe you did it with 100, I hope you did, honestly, and I hope you made a lot of money, but that’s not a sustainable strategy because identifying the next Tesla is a difficult job to do.

Matt Mulcock:
The greatest scam that Wall Street ever pulled was thinking that luck is skill.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, man, and we, as humans, do that all the time. We attribute a lot of our luck to skill and it’s forethought.

Matt Mulcock:
I should say it’s making you think that luck is skill, right?

Ryan Isaac:
It’s really true. Let’s circle back. Number one, organization, why do I say that? Well, we listed a bunch of topics that dentists have on their minds. It’s their worry points. It’s a very hot point for them. It’s real estate, it’s investments, it’s spending, it’s debt, I didn’t mention that before, and it’s career and it’s all these things. Those things, as we were saying, those are core issues. They are core. They are central to a good financial plan. They should interact with each other in very sustainable and logical and prudent ways that are very easy to understand. You should know how your investment decisions are affecting your net worth and you should understand how your spending relates to your net worth and you should relate how your real estate investing relates to your net … all these things, there has to be some balance, and the only way to get a picture of anything is to have organization around it.

Ryan Isaac:
You should be able to ask someone or click on something or log in to something and say here’s how this is all interacting for me in my life. None of these things are silos and, especially, it’s a weird paradox, but the more successful a dentist gets in earning money, the more financial decisions get on their plate and the more complex their decision-making gets and then it makes organization, the need for organization, even more crucial and important because, without it, you just can’t see all these moving pieces. And then what happens is we end up placing way too much emphasis on one piece of it because that’s all we see or that’s all we’re feeling because that’s what our emotions are telling us to do and we ignore this stuff. That’s why I say organization, number one. What do you want to say about that, anything?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. What you said is perfect. I think, again, it’s the unsexy truth of what people don’t want to hear. This is always the foundation of anything we tell anyone that hires us is first step is getting organized. But it’s interesting because I actually just had a call last night with a newer client, we were going through a initial strategy discussion, and he would admit this, he fits that mold of he thinks he needs one thing when he really needs another, at least to get started, and one of the things that he needs is organization. We went through our first strategy discussion and it was all about cashflow, his liquidity, all his assets, his net worth, everything. And we started finishing up the call and he finished up and he literally said, “This is exactly what I need. I just need to know where everything is. I need to have this discussion.” He’s like, “I always had an idea of things, of my cashflow or my assets, but I’d never sat down and actually reviewed it.” And it’s so simple, but so powerful, on getting you on track and moving in the right direction.

Ryan Isaac:
I’m glad you brought that up because that just jogged my memory, and something I want to say about this is being organized is not just for a small-time person and it’s not just for a messy person. I’ve had more feedback than I could ever recall or count, I’m sure you have too, Matt, from highly successful, very well-off, financially totally fine dentists who just, once they got organization in their life, in their financial life … it was missing. Despite the fact that they had seven figure incomes or huge net worths and tons of cash and all these things that should indicate to them, or should alleviate their stress, they’re still carrying stress and anxiety because, even though it was a lot, it was abundant, it was messy and they didn’t know how-

Matt Mulcock:
They froze.

Ryan Isaac:
… to face it and they didn’t know how to value it and what to do with it. We are at more ease in our brains, just human brain, when we are organized. Even if we’re getting organized and we’re seeing something on paper for the first time and those numbers tells us the truth, it’s a little hard to hear, you have a negative net worth, you spend too much money, you don’t save enough, you’re not liquid enough, whatever, even if that’s the truth, our brains are wired to feel more at ease at least knowing what the truth is than ignoring it. And so, in money, the phrase ignorance is bliss does not apply, but, man, I could tell you, from so many experiences, even calculating the bad news people are trying to avoid, once they see it, it takes the power away from it, man. It strips it of its power or control over you and then you’re just like, “All right, fine.”

Matt Mulcock:
Now I can control this.

Ryan Isaac:
“Now I can move on, man.” And it does, it relieves a lot of anxiety around that issue, so organization … and if you’re curious what do you we mean when we say organization, go to DentistAdvisors.com and just look through the way that we define financial planning. Look through all the subjects, the way that we’ve defined it, and that’ll tell you those are the places in your life that should be very well organized and it should be calculated and tracked.

Ryan Isaac:
The second thing that follows up on organization is, once you have that data, once you know what do you spend, what’s your net worth, what’s your savings here, what’s your income, what are your taxes, then you have to track how that data moves over time, right? There is no progress in life unless you can show it. You don’t just go run outside and then, a year later, you run the same route and you’re like, “I’m faster,” and it’s like, “Well, did you time it?”

Matt Mulcock:
How do you know that? Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. “No, I didn’t time it, I just feel faster.” No, sorry, bud.

Matt Mulcock:
Not a good example for me, Ryan. I am not a runner, as you know.

Ryan Isaac:
Matt, do you feel faster? You’re like, “No, I feel slow.”

Matt Mulcock:
No, I feel slow, yeah, slow as ever.

Ryan Isaac:
You don’t get to have progress unless you’ve tracked progress, and I’m sorry, that’s the math nerd in me. You just don’t get to until the numbers allow us to have it, okay? The numbers are the final say.

Matt Mulcock:
You don’t just get to have it, people.

Ryan Isaac:
You don’t get, all right. Your gut instinct, that doesn’t count, right? You don’t get it. The numbers have to tell you. If there’s no tracking … and tracking should occur even in mundane things that seem boring. You should track the amount of insurance coverage you have over time. More importantly, you should track your spending. You should track how your net worth changes. You should track your liquidity. Again, Dentist-

Matt Mulcock:
Your savings, yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
… your savings, all these things, DentistAdvisors.com, you’ll see the list of things that we value for tracking and, when there’s tracking, then you know if there’s progress or not. Again, the numbers don’t lie to us and we can admit to ourselves what’s happening and then we can see where the problems are. Without tracking, you don’t know if there’s problem areas. You just-

Matt Mulcock:
How do you grow your business without tracking it, right?

Ryan Isaac:
You can’t.

Matt Mulcock:
Any business, any practice owner out there is going to know you need to be tracking these things, you need to know the data behind your growth.

Ryan Isaac:
I think we’re more profitable.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, it feels [crosstalk 00:31:56].

Ryan Isaac:
Are you?

Matt Mulcock:
I think, yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
I don’t know. Yeah, these things should be tracked. And so, on the heels of that then is, once it’s organized and you have the data and it’s being tracked over time, when you can see trends, then being able to make changes and stick to changes, that’s where accountability comes in. And hate to break it to all of us, but we’re all humans and one of the biggest human frailties that’s hard-wired into our crazy human brains is we’re just not very consistent creatures.

Matt Mulcock:
I would say consistency is a superpower.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, it is and we’re just not good, and I think it’s maybe harder than ever than life because of how much access and information and distraction we have all over the place, all the time, in our brains, in our eyes, in our ears. It’s just we get distracted. It’s so hard to stick to things. And so this is a very universal principle for a lot of things in life when you’re trying to make sure you stick to something, having accountability, and the way we’ll define that is having another person, another human being, unemotionally involved, not your spouse, not your business partner … that’s why a financial advisor, a fiduciary, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisor like we are, are a great accountability partner because we’re just here looking at the numbers, telling you, “Here’s what the numbers are saying. Let’s stick to this. Let’s make changes.”

Ryan Isaac:
And I mentioned this on our previous podcast, I wrapped up a series of meetings with all my clients over the last quarter of the year of 2020, and I was so surprised how many people ended up increasing or restarting after shutting it off from 2020, their savings draft, by how many people increased it. And I couldn’t even put a number to it. It was dozens and dozens.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, I saw the same thing. Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
Same thing. And every time that would happen … and it wasn’t always me saying, “You should save more money.” Sometimes it is. Sometimes I’m like, “The data is telling me you should save more money. What are we doing?” But sometimes it’s just this act of having a conversation with an accountability partner and, in their minds, they know. They’re like, “Hey, let’s bump that 3,000 to 4,000 a month.” And it happened time after time after time after time, like Cyndi Lauper, seriously, and it’ll happen again when I do my-

Matt Mulcock:
I love the Cyndi Lauper reference.

Ryan Isaac:
I hope you caught that, everyone, shout-out. And it’ll do it again. When I do my next batch of client reviews and phone calls over the next few months, it’s going to happen again. And so, anyway, that’s all I would have to say about the accountability part. I think everyone knows that, but it takes pain. Look, you got to trade some pain and some cost to get accountability. That’s the only way. If you hire a personal or you go to a gym, it’s going to cost you money and it’s going to cost you some pain.

Matt Mulcock:
Pain. Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
You have to be willing to feel pain to be held accountable because that’s what creates the change and forces the behavior. Let’s end the podcast with a quote. Did you find it?

Matt Mulcock:
I have it.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. Say the, yeah, author, book. We’ll end this. This is going to be in reference to what you brought up, Matt, about patience and giving your organization, your tracking, and your accountability time to play out in your life. What is this?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. This is from Morgan Housel-

Ryan Isaac:
Go read this book.

Matt Mulcock:
… The Psychology of Money, highly recommend it. I could not recommend this book more. It was my favorite book of 2020. Definitely, you need to go out and read it, everybody.

Ryan Isaac:
If you read one financial book in this entire year, that’s the book.

Matt Mulcock:
I got to say my wife read this book. We have a little couple book club we do with each other.

Ryan Isaac:
Cool, cool, cool.

Matt Mulcock:
She picks a book one month, I pick one, and I picked this one, and she said it was the first financial book she actually finished, so if that tells you anything. It’s very approachable. It’s a great book.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, it’s so engaging. It’s fascinating.

Matt Mulcock:
We’ll finish with this excerpt from the book about patience. “More than 2,000 books are dedicated to how Warren Buffett built his fortune. Many of them are wonderful, but few pay enough attention to the simplest fact. Buffett’s fortune isn’t due to just being a good investor, but being a good investor since he was literally a child. As I write this, Warren Buffett’s net worth is 84.5 billion,” which is out of control.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s a lot of money. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
“Of that, 84.2 billion was accumulated after his fiftieth birthday. 81.5 billion came after he qualified for Social Security in his mid-sixties. Warren Buffett is a phenomenal investor, but you miss a key point if you attach all of his success to investing acumen. The real key to his success is that he’s been a phenomenal investor for three-quarters of a century. Effectively, all of Warren Buffett’s financial success can be tied to the financial base he built from his pubescent years and longevity he maintained in his geriatric years. His skill is investing, but his secret is time.”

Ryan Isaac:
That line right there, “His skill is investing, but his secret is time.” If anyone is listening to this and you’re wondering, “What’s going to be the final secret to finally getting me over that hurdle financially?”, it’s going to be time and you got to begin with organization and tracking and accountability and then give it time. I love that, man. That is so good. “His skill is investing, but his secret is time.”

Matt Mulcock:
But his secret is time.

Ryan Isaac:
You can make your skill being organized. You can make your skill be making good financial decisions with debt and spending and investments and all that kind of stuff, business, income taxes-

Matt Mulcock:
Building an incredible dental practice.

Ryan Isaac:
… all that stuff, but your secret needs to be time and longevity and sustainability. If you have any questions about that, you want to reach out, finally get some help. 2021, it’s time, because it’s January-

Matt Mulcock:
This is it.

Ryan Isaac:
… it’s time. This is your time to shine. Go to DentistAdvisors.com and schedule an appointment to chat with one of our very friendly dental-specific advisors today. Matt, thanks for being on the show today. You guys, thanks for tuning in and listening.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, thanks, Ryan.

Ryan Isaac:
Have a great one. We’ll catch you next time.

 

CE, Getting Organized, Tracking Progress