Do I Really Need a Financial Advisor? – Podcast Episode 289

On this episode of the Dentist Money™ Show, Ryan brings in Jake Elm, CFP® at Dentist Advisors, to take on the question, “When is it time to get financial help?” Like many things that deal with money, the answer is personal to each individual. However, Ryan and Jake offer reasons why earlier may be better for long term goals. They also explain why people who are being held accountable to someone else are motivated to take action.

 

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Podcast Transcript

Ryan Isaac:
Hello, Dentist Money Show listeners and fans and friends of the show. Thanks for being here with us today. Really, thanks for downloading this. Thanks for listening to us. We’re back again with Mr. Jake Elm, financial advisor at Dentist Advisors. Jake and I, and part of our team, were at the AGP National Conference in Austin, Texas about a week ago. And Jake and I sat down to discuss a common question that we get as advisors, especially from dentists who are not clients looking to become clients, interviewing financial advisors for the first time. It’s something we’ve covered on the show before, but with a twist this time. The question is, when is it time to get good financial advice in my life? When should I have an advisor be involved in my financial life? Something we’ve talked about in the past. However, we talk about it with some context and some light around one main principle.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s one of our founding pillars of a good sound financial plan and how this pillar, how this foundational piece of a solid plan fits in to the timing of when somebody should start reaching out for professional financial help, especially a busy dentist, in their life. So, that’s what Jake and I are talking about. If you don’t know Jake, Jake is one of our financial advisors. He’s been with us for years now. He writes a blog post some of you may read on a blog called Money Talks. We share some statistics and stories from his blog on today’s show and on another show we recently did. So, it’s really good to have Jake here and kind of introduce some of our team and let everyone get to know some of our other advisors.

Ryan Isaac:
So, thanks for being here. And if you have any questions, just go to the website, dentistadvisors.com, click the book free consultation link, and have a chat with one of our advisors. Maybe Jake, you might get Jake, which would be sweet. And if you have any questions you want to just post generally to us go to the Dentist Advisors discussion group, post a question, we’ll post an answer. And as always, thanks for being here guys. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the show.

Announcer:
Consult an advisor and 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 your host, Ryan Isaac, and I’m here with the guy with the most gorgeous mane in Dentist Advisers, Mr. Jake Elm. We’re talking to Jake. How you doing buddy?

Jake Elm:
I am doing fantastic. I am stoked to be here. This is great.

Ryan Isaac:
Here again, we are still, Jake and I and a few of the team, we are at the AGD Conference in Austin, Texas.

Jake Elm:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
Last night had a wonderful dinner with some close friends, some dentists, did a little presentation. Today, Jake is speaking on the top four mistakes dentists make. So, if you hear some background noise or if anyone just walks in and walks by us-

Jake Elm:
You’ll know why.

Ryan Isaac:
You’ll know why. We are in public doing this live. So, we’re going to talk about something today that is a really common question from people who haven’t hired us yet, and it comes up all the time. And the answer is interesting to me because it varies a lot based on the person. The question is, when do I hire a financial advisor? How do I know it’s time? What are the signals? What do I do? And we’ve done these conversations before, so we’re going to touch on this, but also we’re going to talk about one of the key areas that we haven’t tied into this discussion before, which is something about accountability. So first, okay, so Jake, let’s talk about this first. So, this question comes up all the time. People call in and, just for some context and some reference, our average client… Last time I heard the data, it might be a little younger now, but our average client was around 40 years old, usually a practice owner.

Jake Elm:
It feels like it’s getting younger.

Ryan Isaac:
It is getting younger. About a year ago, just for reference, and you can see all this on dentistadvisors.com., we kind of introduced a less expensive service model for brand new associates, new grads, getting their first jobs, and really small… I was going to say small struggling startups. It’s a struggle, man.

Jake Elm:
Don’t hurt the people’s feelings, though. Yeah, it’s a struggle at the beginning.

Ryan Isaac:
So, we opened up this a little bit less expensive of a service model and I do think it’s trending younger, but for years we would just have those people wait to work with us or they would just choose to wait till they’re a little bit further in practice but now that’s a little bit different. But our average client was kind of that typical profile, but I think it is trending younger for sure. So tell us, Jake, describe the conversation because it’s a really common question. People call in, maybe they’re in the first year of associateship, tons of debt, thinking about how to buy a practice. What’s their next move? Which city are they going to be in? How does that conversation develop about the timing of when they should get involved with a financial advisor?

Jake Elm:
Yeah, the first thing I want to say is I love that we have a younger associate early career model for people to call in because I get a lot of people calling in who have just graduated dental school, maybe they’re in residency. They’re planning on starting up a practice in a few years. They just have a ton of big life decisions. It’s almost like life is starting now and it can be like, holy crap, this is a little bit overwhelming. So, I love that I feel like we can add a lot of value to people in that stage. Just help them avoid the big mistakes. Hopefully be a little bit of a guide for what to expect in the next few years. So, I’m really happy that we’re doing it. I feel like we can add a lot of value there. So, the question usually comes up, okay, I’m just starting to make money. I’m just getting into an associateship. There’s practice ownership plans.

Ryan Isaac:
I’ve been broke for 10 years, living in an apartment, going through school with a family maybe.

Jake Elm:
It’s so nice getting that first paycheck. It’s like, wow, I’ve just been going negative for years and years and years and money’s coming in, what is this?

Ryan Isaac:
And when they’re wondering do I already start paying somebody to do something?

Jake Elm:
Exactly. It’s like, wait, what is happening here? Yeah, so the question comes to being like, hey, I feel like an advisor would be great, just when is the right time? When is the ideal time to come on board? When does it make sense for me? Obviously this is personal, just dependent on the personality of the person. I don’t know. What would be your first response to that, Ryan?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. So usually I’m telling people, I’ll give them an idea of what a typical client will look like. I mean, in the 15 years we’ve done business, I mean, for most of that we’ve only worked with a practice owner that was mostly mid career. And now, it’s trending younger and we’re trying to open those doors like you said. But I would usually describe it like our average client is someone who is far enough into practice ownership that they have steady cashflow. Every month there’s there’s money left over after they pay their bills, their taxes, their debts, their spending, there’s money still sitting in practice checking or in personal checking.

Ryan Isaac:
Usually when I’ve noticed people start to feel the urge to do something, it’s usually to the tune of like five, six, 7,000 bucks or more per month just sitting around. And these are from a personality standpoint because we’re an outsource solution. We’re a solution where people are saying, hey, I want this off of my plate. I don’t want to deal with this anymore. I don’t want to think about this. Maybe I don’t even know where to start. So you do it all.

Jake Elm:
I feel like that is a big point, I don’t know where to start. It’s like, okay, I have this big career ahead of me, how do I start tackling this thing?

Ryan Isaac:
Where do I even go? So, I’ll kind of explain that’s the financial situation people are in and that’s the personality trait. People just don’t want to deal with this, or they don’t know how or a combination of both. And they’re just saying you take this, I’m trusting you, get me to my goals. And that’s been the typical response. We’ve met a lot of younger dentists who are not that complex yet, who don’t even have that much money to invest yet, but they’re the kind of personality that just looks ahead and goes, look, I know where this is headed. If I achieve my dental success goals, it just means the amount of time on my hands just becomes less and less and less and less. And they know it’ll get to a point that the more successful they become, the less time they’ll have in their entire life.

Jake Elm:
Which I think it’s like a really… I like that dentist. It’s really self-aware. I feel like most people are like yeah finances, I’ll figure it out. I know what I’m doing and I’ll try and figure it out. I think it’s a really self-aware thing to… before your life even gets that complex to say, I know it will be complex. I’m admitting that I don’t know everything. I don’t know what I don’t know. I’m going to look for some advice through people I trust.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, I think it’s totally self-aware, man. And a lot of times they’re kind of thinking ahead, like the battle… See, when you’re young in your career, the battle is there’s not enough money to go around. There’s tons of time. There’s no money to go around, and it’s true, that’s totally fair. But it’s hard to look ahead and realize that as you achieve the success that you’re planning on achieving, the battle is no longer about money. For most dentists, the cashflow is not usually the battle. It’s you will be working like crazy making tons of money and then you’ll just be like, man, my favorite hobby, I haven’t done it in five years.

Jake Elm:
I haven’t seen time. Isn’t that funny? In the early career money is the worry, right? Money is tight early on. You’re very careful about where you spend your money. As you move on into your career you realize, wow, time is what I value most. I need more time.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s all time. I’m 41 years old. And I mean, I’ve had a fairly similar career to maybe a dentist who starts up a business. I helped start up this company and I know what it’s like to make no money for a long time or just enough money to pay bills and nothing leftover. And it takes a long time. And yeah, you hit the middle of your career and you’re like, I don’t want to miss my kid’s stuff. Or I don’t want to give up my hobbies or I wanted to start some new hobbies. And time becomes the new currency that you’re seeking. It’s the new value.

Jake Elm:
At that point you’re willing to spend a lot of money to save a couple hours of time.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes, totally man. And so, some people have, and I don’t think they’re right or wrong for this if you don’t. But some people, I mean, just describing the personality, some people have that foresight. They know what’s coming and so one year out of school they’re like I’m starting this now because I already know what I’ll have to deal with, and I want someone else taking this off my plate completely so I maximize my time later when the money eventually comes. So anyway, that’s my response for when. I mean, it’s maybe a dissatisfying answer to some people because I think maybe they just want to be told when to start or maybe sold a little bit.

Jake Elm:
Yeah, my response to this is similar to yours. It’s the classic frustrating it depends answer. Right? It just depends on your situation.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s so annoying. It depends, man.

Jake Elm:
I think, to be honest, the earlier you can talk to a professional, an expert, the earlier you can get organized, the earlier you can start making plans the better. Right? As early as possible, that’s great. The one caveat would be we would never… I don’t think you want anyone to feel uncomfortable paying us or uncomfortable with the fees.

Ryan Isaac:
Well, have you turned anyone away before? Have you told people the wait before?

Jake Elm:
Oh yeah, for sure.

Ryan Isaac:
I’ve told so many people to call me in five years and what’s crazy is they do.

Jake Elm:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
We have a lot of clients who we talk to five years, three years before that, and then we said here’s what you should do. We’ll give them the free financial advice. You need to have this much in your practice checking. You probably need this much for an emergency fund. This much for your down payment of your building and your house.

Jake Elm:
Just some generic advice.

Ryan Isaac:
Some generic advice. And then say, take a little money and hire a consultant, make your business improve before you hire an advisor. Because in reality, I think both of those things are really important, but if your business is broken or not functioning efficiently-

Jake Elm:
Yeah, there’s not much we’re going to help there.

Ryan Isaac:
We can’t fix that and that’s a super high priority. Yeah. And yeah, man, it’s such an interesting conversation. Some people want the answer maybe just to be told when to do it, and it might be frustrating but it comes down to just personality.

Jake Elm:
Yeah, I don’t think I would ever feel comfortable telling someone exactly when.

Ryan Isaac:
Do it now.

Jake Elm:
Yeah, I don’t think I’d feel comfortable doing that.

Ryan Isaac:
Like yeah, man, you have to. Although, look, I’m an old man. I’m an old man and I would tell my younger self the best time to start any good habit is yesterday.

Jake Elm:
True, yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Whether health, finance, relationships. Start it sooner than you think you have to and don’t stress about making it all perfect. If you’re just coming out of school, you don’t have to stress about how do I pay off $600,000 of debt and invest in Bitcoin and max fund a 401k and buy a building and buy a dream house and buy a nice car, and vacation, and get good at dentistry? You don’t have to worry about all that stuff. You just have to start something now.

Jake Elm:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s the whole point, I think, about what matters. So anyway, anything else that you would add to that? New discussions with someone who’s kind of chiming… talking to us and wondering about when to begin? Anything else you talk about with them?

Jake Elm:
I don’t think so. I think you summed it up. I think we wanted to talk a little bit more transition maybe into, okay, we’ve kind of hit on when do you hire somebody. Again, it’s the it depends answer. Hopefully we give some good context for people. I think we want to transition a little more into why. [Inaudible 00:13:28] Like why would you hire someone?

Ryan Isaac:
Can I ask you a real quick question? Jake, you’ve had the chance over the last year since we’ve made a less expensive service model available for younger dentists. We’re bringing on a lot of new dentists now. And these are people who might’ve hired us before we had that service model. But a lot of these people, I think are people who might’ve just waited. We would have said, give it a couple years and then let’s get back in touch. Listen to the podcast, join the webinars, read the content, let’s get back in touch. But now they’re joining us. Is there anything you notice from why that’s happening? Is it just because we have a less expensive price point for a younger dentist? Is it that plus, I don’t know, maybe we’re able to just tell the story to a younger dentist better? Like, yeah, you should start this a little bit earlier. Anything you’ve noticed from… You’ve had a lot of conversations with newer docs over the last year.

Jake Elm:
Yeah. I don’t know if I can pinpoint anything specifically, like a universal trend across all the dentists. Again, I think our price point makes it affordable for these people. The main thing I get when I’m on calls is just, there’s daunting decisions. And starting a career, it’s like, Hey, we spend all this time figuring out how to do dentistry. Once we figure that out, then they realize there’s a whole business side of this. That’s like, oh my gosh, no one ever told me about this or taught me any of this stuff. And where do I start with insurance and paying down debt?

Ryan Isaac:
Oh yeah.

Jake Elm:
I can make a quick anecdote there. I don’t know what you’re seeing just as like… There’s no statistics behind this. This is just my own personal experience.

Ryan Isaac:
Studies show.

Jake Elm:
Yeah, studies show. I feel like it’s four or $500,000 now is what I’m seeing is average, is typical.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh yeah, easy.

Jake Elm:
Which seems a lot higher than even five years ago.

Ryan Isaac:
Well it changes the psychology of where people are beginning.

Jake Elm:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Because when you’re starting your career with a student loan bigger than the first mortgage you’ll get, it’s like, oh my gosh. Of course that’s the biggest thing on your mind.

Jake Elm:
Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. So I’m glad you brought up all these decisions. We were talking about this in our dinner last night.

Jake Elm:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Ryan Isaac:
That, just anecdotally, the average dentist has probably a dozen decisions to make throughout the course of every single year. Most of which are fairly small. Should I put my kid on payroll? Should I do Roth or regular IRA? Should I, whatever. Maybe one to two of those decisions are fairly big and consequential. But you can ruin progress by messing up a lot of little decisions if you just do them enough. And you can definitely ruin progress if you mess up one big decision.

Jake Elm:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Actually there’s a quote on this. What was that quote? Morgan Housel, for our Morgan Housel fans out there. He was talking about this. He said, “Growth is driven by compounding, which always takes time. Destruction is driven by single points of failure, which can happen in seconds and loss of confidence, which can happen in an instant.”

Jake Elm:
That’s a scary thought kind of right. That’s like shiver down the spinal a little.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, it is because although you might… I think a lot of dentists might look at some of the decisions they have to make on an annual basis and go, ah, it’s not rocket science. I can Google this answer. I can go to my Facebook group and get this answer. Should I pick a Roth? Which mutual fund do I choose? Should I buy term versus permanent? Yeah. The answers for those are widely available.

Jake Elm:
They’re simple.

Ryan Isaac:
They are.

Jake Elm:
But on the surface, they’re very simple questions.

Ryan Isaac:
Very simple. But you compound a dozen of those per year, every year, for 30 years of a working career, and then 30 years post retirement. And then pepper in one to two really big ones every single year. Or maybe every few years, you’ve got a giant life-changing decision, big ticket item or big transition in something that you’re doing in life. Mess up a lot of little ones or do them inefficiently, you will waste net worth.

Jake Elm:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Ryan Isaac:
You will lose net worth over that. Mess up a big one or two big ones? You can make an irreversible dent in your future.

Jake Elm:
Yeah. It’s interesting about the path to building wealth is usually slow one, right?

Ryan Isaac:
Yes.

Jake Elm:
It’s slow, it’s steady, it’s consistent. Those are the people who usually build up their net worth.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Jake Elm:
And have good results. So it’s a slow build to get a net worth to a point where you’re financially free and independent.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Long and boring.

Jake Elm:
Long and boring, which is why it’s hard to do. But it is crazy how one bad-

Ryan Isaac:
Derails you.

Jake Elm:
Trading decision.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes.

Jake Elm:
One bad real estate investment. One mistake can actually erase decades of hard work.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Jake Elm:
And so I think that’s what we preach all the time, which is, Hey, we’re going to go at this. We’re going to be consistent. We’re going to build the slow, but we’re also just going to avoid that big mistake.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes.

Jake Elm:
Can we just avoid that big thing that’s going to kill you and make you work for an extra 10 years.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, or have to work until your body physically won’t let you do it and still not have enough money.

Jake Elm:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
So let’s tie this together. There’s one more thing I want to read really fast that we brought up a couple of times in our dinner that we did last night. It’s a quote from CS Lewis, our guy. No, no, no, no wrong quote. Not CS Lewis. It’s an author. It’s an author I didn’t know about actually until I found this quote. His name is Robert Brault. He says, “We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles, but by a clear path to a lesser goal. So in other words, it’s not typically some obstacle that derails our goals, but it’s because there’s a very easy, clear path to a lesser goal. Something easier to do. So with that in mind, let’s go back to what you were originally saying. Which is, we started this with the timing of things and when is it time to get the help. But there’s a why behind this.

Ryan Isaac:
And especially with that quote, that’s the tie in I wanted to share here. So I wasn’t going to use the word lazy, but it’s probably not right. Human beings are just… I think we’re really efficient machines. And we will find, kind of like water, the path to least resistance.

Jake Elm:
We just take the easiest path.

Ryan Isaac:
We will. That’s our nature. That’s why every-

Jake Elm:
That’s okay.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s okay, man. It’s okay. That’s why every January, as a human species, we’re constantly trying to save more money and get healthier every January. You know? So that’s what the point is. So how do you combat that? How do you fix it? What’s the solution? And it also ties into the question, when is it time to get financial help in my life? And the answer comes in the form of accountability and what accountability actually means to achieving your goals. And it’s cliche, it’s cheesy, it’s overused. We all say it. None of us probably love accountability.

Jake Elm:
No one really likes it. But in my mind, this is… If you had asked me my opinion, what’s the biggest value of a financial advisor?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Jake Elm:
And I would put in accountability. Yes, we have training, we’re skilled, we know the financial landscape for dentists, we know how to maneuver the pitfalls and things like that. So we know all of that. We can give you investment expertise. All of those things. But I feel like where we really make a difference is that accountability piece. When we set up a plan and we say, here’s what we want to do for the next few months or years. And we’re going to call you and make sure that you get this done. Right? We’re going to hold you accountable that we’re saving this much.

Ryan Isaac:
We’re going to be annoying to make sure that it’s going to happen in your life. That it’s actually going to get done.

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

Ryan Isaac:
You’re correct.

Matt Mulcock:
I mean, 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 home screen. And then you schedule a time to talk with one of our very friendly dental specific financial advisors today.

Ryan Isaac:
We got this study here. Jake, do you remember where this study came from? I’d have to go find it. We can put it in the show notes. That’s okay. But there’s this study done. It’s called the, well… What was the association called? It’s the world’s biggest-

Jake Elm:
Association for Talent Development.

Ryan Isaac:
Talent development, ATD?

Jake Elm:
Yep, ATD.

Ryan Isaac:
Check that out. So it’s the world’s biggest association that works on developing leadership and team talent in giant corporations and companies all over the world. They ran this study that showed a few different, call it phases of a plan or accountability and the likelihood that you would actually complete the goal. So let’s describe these here.

Jake Elm:
Yeah. This is great. I love this.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. I love when studies prove my bias.

Jake Elm:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
I like-

Jake Elm:
It confirms what we think.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. It confirms my bias. I love my bias being confirmed. Feels so good. But also anecdotally, this is my experience being a financial advisor for dentists and being a human in the world too with my own goals. All right. So number one, just having the idea or the goal in the first place-

Jake Elm:
It’s like, Hey, I just want to run. I just want to start running.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. We talked about this in terms of a fitness goal. I’m going to run, which is not something I say.

Jake Elm:
Yeah, I’m not a runner either.

Ryan Isaac:
I’m going to run. Just having that, according to this study, means that you are a 10% likely to complete the goal of running. If that is your goal. Okay. 10%. So not high just by saying it. Right. Number two, phase number two, would be consciously deciding that you’re going to do this.

Jake Elm:
This is like, okay, I thought about running but now I’m going to do this. This is happening.

Ryan Isaac:
It goes from an idea, from something that sounds cool, to something I’m going to do this.

Jake Elm:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Your chances when you consciously decide to do something go to 25%. So not bad. But I mean… We’re talking about your financial future.

Jake Elm:
It’s still more likely that you’re not going to do it than do it.

Ryan Isaac:
75% chance you’re not going to do it.

Jake Elm:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
And we’re using the running analogy, but this is about, will you have enough money, enough net worth in the future to stop working and still spend the way you want to at a reasonable age? That’s what’s on the line. That’s what’s at stake.

Jake Elm:
Its only your entire financial future. No big deal. I mean it’s a…

Ryan Isaac:
The half a million dollars of student loans and the million dollars of practice debt and the million dollars of real estate and personal residence debt in 10 years of school and 30 years of practicing and doing all this stuff. Will that result in a high enough net worth to stop working at a reasonable age, to still enjoy life and have enough money to-

Jake Elm:
Or even just to cut down hours where you can just go back to one day a week at the office.

Ryan Isaac:
Or cut back, right? So 25% if you consciously decide to. Step three. If you decide when, so the key here is when. You decide when you’re going to do it.

Jake Elm:
Like I am doing this on Thursdays or every week or whatever.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. I’m going to run. I’m going to run twice a week, Tuesday and Thursdays at 8:00 AM. It goes to 40%. So we’re still more likely to not do it just by deciding when. And what’s crazy if I think about goals that I’ve set, when I set a when, like a calendar in my mind, it feels pretty certain. Okay, Jake, you’ve been writing a lot for the last year or so.

Jake Elm:
Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
A year. Has it been a year?

Jake Elm:
It’s almost. We’re coming up on a year, which is crazy.

Ryan Isaac:
How many posts have you written so far?

Jake Elm:
So we’re getting close to 50.

Ryan Isaac:
And it’s called? What’s it called again?

Jake Elm:
It’s called Money Talks.

Ryan Isaac:
Money talks. Jake Elm.

Jake Elm:
We make one every week.

Ryan Isaac:
We’ll link it. Link in the bio. You have deadlines, right?

Jake Elm:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Of writing down, okay, I have to publish something by Friday or have it written by Friday.

Jake Elm:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
But does that, I mean… You still might miss that. The when is just not… It’s not everything. You need more than just saying it’s got to be done by Friday.

Jake Elm:
Yeah. We can talk about this later. But there was probably a year before I actually started writing and publishing it where I said, hey, I’m going to do this. And it just never happened.

Ryan Isaac:
Even if you said when. Like on Fridays, I’m going to write something.

Jake Elm:
Yeah, I was like I’m going to start doing this on Fridays and it still never happened.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. So when gets you to 40%. Next step, planning how to do it. All right. So the methods by which you’re going to go through and actually try to accomplish it. That gets you to 50%.

Jake Elm:
So now it’s a coin toss whether you’re doing it or not.

Ryan Isaac:
Half and half. We’ve gone through have the idea, be conscious about it, decide when to do it, and decide how to do it. You’re still only at 50%, according to this study to actually accomplish this goal that you’re trying to do. That’s not that much for how much effort that feels like we’ve gone through to get to this point.

Jake Elm:
That’s true. It’s kind of depressing.

Ryan Isaac:
The decision, the passion, the when and the how, and you’re still 50/50. That feels ridiculous. So, all right. Next one. Committing to somebody that you will do it gets you to 65% likelihood of achieving your goal. We talked about this last night. The part about committing to somebody, if they’re not forcing you to commit to them. I mean, who’s going to do that?

Jake Elm:
It’s kind of intimidating. Scary. Right? Just to open up your soul, like, Hey, I have this very personal goal that I’m wanting to accomplish. You need to have some trust in that person.

Ryan Isaac:
Well I’m just thinking, who’s the dentist? Who’s the human, who’s just going to go find somebody without being prompted to do it or forced to do it and say, I want you to see how much money I spend what I spend it on, what my net worth actually is, how much debt I carry, how much money I’ve earned, the taxes I pay, how much I give to charity, my insurance policies. I’m going to go find someone and just show them this stuff and commit to them that I’m going to do better at saving money and improving these things. Who’s going to do that.

Jake Elm:
No one. I mean, there are people who do that. But yes, that’s very-

Ryan Isaac:
Shout out to the few listeners out there who do this on a Friday and Saturday night on purpose on their own spreadsheet, because there are few.

Jake Elm:
Yeah, that’s amazing.

Ryan Isaac:
But you get to 65% if you do that. All right. Last step though. Here’s the jump. And this is what ties in everything we’re saying right now. Having a specific accountability appointment with someone you’ve committed to gets you to 95% likelihood of achieving your goal.

Jake Elm:
That’s amazing.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s insane. A specific accountability appointment gets you 95%.

Jake Elm:
So we jumped from just planning it out, when, time, date, all that stuff.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes.

Jake Elm:
It’s basically a coin toss, 50/50 chance.

Ryan Isaac:
50/50.

Jake Elm:
Just by having a specific time set up, an accountability partner, it boosts you… It basically gets you the other 50%.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. It’s the other half.

Jake Elm:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
95% chance. Now, I don’t know what compliance has to say about us saying you’ve got a 95% chance about getting to your financial goals. But I know from 14 years of doing this and seeing people’s progress. I’ve, and you too Jake, you’re watching people go from right out of school, or startup mode, or negative net worth, or I’ve had people verge of bankruptcy, to foreclosures. And you look 10 years later and they have literally millions of dollars in liquidity and a thriving practice and paid off debt.

Jake Elm:
Yeah that’s great.

Ryan Isaac:
And the key… You said this earlier, and I think it’s important to say. There are hundreds of decisions a financial advisor has to help you make that are technical decisions.

Jake Elm:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
With insurance and taxes and debts and savings and investments and choosing investments. There’s hundreds of those technical things. That’s a whole other subject. Those are very important. Those are easy to mess up, but that’s still not even the hardest part. The hardest part that we’re seeing from this study, and anecdotally I’ll say this too, is just actually following through and doing it.

Jake Elm:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
And our entire job, if you boil down what is the value of having a financial advisor? And why should you have one? And when should you have one? It’s the fact that another human being, who’s not emotionally involved in your life-

Jake Elm:
And money is emotional.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Jake Elm:
All of our clients, they’re in the trenches.

Ryan Isaac:
In the trenches.

Jake Elm:
They’re dealing with it everyday.

Ryan Isaac:
Your spouse is emotional, your business partner is emotional with you. Your financial advisor, we have empathy, but we are not emotional with you about your decision making.

Jake Elm:
We can be a little more objective than you.

Ryan Isaac:
Very much more objective. That’s totally true. And our company is a no commission fiduciary advisor. So we don’t have an incentive to sell something that pays us one way or another that’s more than something else. So we’re a very objective, third party, unemotional person who is getting you on the phone multiple times per year and saying, Hey, this needs to change, or good job here, or look at the progress you’re making. Let’s keep it going. You have a 17% savings rate. Let’s bump it to 20.

Jake Elm:
Yeah, there’s a human element, right? It’s like, dang, I have a call with Jake in a couple months.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Jake Elm:
I got to make sure I get this my insurance done because he’s going to tell me again. I know what he’s going to say. I need to get this done.

Ryan Isaac:
If you’re asking that question, when is it time of my life to get help, to get accountability, to start working on my goals? I’ll say it’s yesterday. And the reason is because you will now introduce a new element in your life you don’t have right now. Which is another human being who will reach out to you multiple times throughout your entire life, your entire career, and beyond to say, here’s where we’re doing well, here’s where we can make up some ground. Let’s improve these things and they will make you do that. And I mean, my experience has shown that studies like this show all the time that that kind of accountability is what drives those results actually achieving your goals and what you want to. So, Jake, thanks for being here. You got a presentation to give in like five minutes. So we’ll wrap this up. Thanks for listening. Thanks for tuning in. Go to dentistadvisors.com if you have any questions and want to chat with us. We’d really appreciate it and we’ll catch you next time. Thanks guys.

Jake Elm:
See ya.

 

Advisors, Investing