Bad Decisions? Bad Luck? Or Both? – Episode 260

Are financial mistakes the result of just being unlucky? 

Recorded on Friday the 13th, Ryan and Matt bring you a dark edition of the Dentist Money™ Show. The difference between feeling unlucky or lucky about your finances often has more to do with being diligent about your investments and staying organized.

With so much going on as a practice owner, it’s easy to get distracted when it comes to your finances. Those distractions often lead to poor decisions. But before you write off your mistakes as bad luck, Ryan and Matt explain what you can do to change your fortune. 

 

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Podcast Transcript

Ryan Isaac:
Welcome Dentist Money Show listeners. Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Dentist Money Show. Today Matt and I talk about some of the mistakes dentists tend to make that make them feel unlucky in hindsight and we talk about what you can do about it instead to make better financial decisions. Thanks for joining us. We hope you’re having a lucky day. And if you want to ask us any questions you can go to dentistadvisors.com, click on the book free consultation link and schedule a call with one of our very friendly dental specific financial advisors today. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for listening. We appreciate the support. 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. This is the special Friday the 13th edition. My name is Jason. I am here in studio with my scary cohost Freddy Krueger. Freddy, how you doing buddy?

Matt Mulcock:
You threw me off for a second. When you said you’re Jason because we actually have a Jason in the studio as well.

Ryan Isaac:
We have a Jason. Today is Friday the 13th legitimately, 2020. There was a lot of memes going around that 2020 shouldn’t be allowed to have a Friday the 13th. So far I agree. So far I agree.

Matt Mulcock:
Especially for you right now it’s getting personal right now.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, based on my day.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Why don’t you tell the people what’s going on right now?

Ryan Isaac:
Well, I woke up and I can’t taste any of my food.

Matt Mulcock:
And what’s that a symptom of you think?

Ryan Isaac:
I don’t know. It’s weird. I have no idea.

Matt Mulcock:
There’s this going around in 2020 it’s like some disease or something, virus.

Ryan Isaac:
If you haven’t heard. Yeah if you haven’t heard about it. No every morning we have a little routine we do with my elementary school daughters. My middle-school daughters usually have dirty looks on their faces. They don’t want to do this with me they’re like, “Leave me alone,” in the morning. They’re awesome though.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. They’re middle schoolers.

Ryan Isaac:
They just don’t want to be talked to in the morning by their dad, it’s fine. They’re great. But my little girls, we go, we call it a wake up walk so we walk down the street just before we take them to school. And I always drink, I get my mixer shaker bottle and I put… It’s totally pointless, I’m just addicted to the routine now. It’s BCAAs with caffeine and it’s just super fruity flavor, really strong. I’m walking down the street…

Matt Mulcock:
It’s like your version of coffee.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s like my morning go-to. I’ve been doing it like a full thing of ice, totally on ice, full thing. I’ve been doing it for years and I can’t taste it this morning, it’s super fruit punch flavor. And I’m like, “What the heck?” And then I’m like, “Oh man, I got the COVIDs.”

Matt Mulcock:
Oh boy.

Ryan Isaac:
So I don’t know I’m awaiting results.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah I lost the taste I didn’t lose it completely, smell when I got it.= It was completely gone for two weeks.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s the weirdest thing man.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s very weird.

Ryan Isaac:
I can’t taste anything. But today is legitimately Friday the 13th which is why I said my name is Jason but look my name is Ryan sometimes affectionately known as Sir Ryan.

Matt Mulcock:
If you don’t know that by now then I’m just…

Ryan Isaac:
Well, you might just be joining us for the first time.

Matt Mulcock:
And if that’s the case welcome. Yeah. Hey Ryan, it’s also my wife’s birthday. I’ve got to give her a shout out.

Ryan Isaac:
And shout out to Matt’s wife. [crosstalk 00:03:19]

Matt Mulcock:
Happy birthday wife even though you don’t listen to this.

Ryan Isaac:
Even though you don’t listen. Before we jump in today the Dentist Money Show is sponsored by Dentist Advisors which is a comprehensive fee only financial planning firm just for dentists across the country. Check us out at dentistadvisors.com. Matt, being Friday the 13th I thought I would dig into the history of where Friday the 13th came from just because I didn’t [crosstalk 00:03:48]

Matt Mulcock:
Lindsay Lohan that movie?

Ryan Isaac:
That was freaky Friday.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, it had nothing to do… Isn’t that Friday the 13th?

Ryan Isaac:
Lindsay Lohan and Jason they just switched places and she was murdering people and he was driving her [crosstalk 00:04:01]

Matt Mulcock:
Wait, was that not right? Was that not on Friday the 13th when they switched bodies?

Ryan Isaac:
I don’t remember.

Matt Mulcock:
Or was Freaky Friday something different?

Ryan Isaac:
Well, Freaky Friday they switched places, the mother and the daughter and I don’t know if it was on Friday the 13th. It very well could have been though. It was a great show. I actually liked that show. My kids love it. So, there’s not a definitive story. There’s two things here. So the number 13 has ancient history to it. It goes back, the fear of the number 13 goes back centuries. There’s this old code and look I had to look all of this up, it’s not something off the top of my head that I just knew so I barely can pronounce it.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah right, you had it in your journal, your diary.

Ryan Isaac:
There’s this old code called the Code of Hammurabi which was the sixth king in the Babylonian Dynasty, like 1595 BC. I’m reading this. I did not know this stuff. But the Code of Hammurabi it was significant because it was one of the earliest written legal documents like legal code documents. And any way they left out a 13th law in that code and apparently there was superstition but it turned out someone had just made an error when they translated one day.

Matt Mulcock:
It actually meant nothing. It was totally innocuous [crosstalk 00:05:15] centuries of superstition.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah but there’s been this fear of the number 13. There is a composer, Reese would know, shout out to Reese in his composer knowledge, Arnold Schoenberg, Schoenberg, Schoenberg. How do you say that? Schoenberg probably?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah my extensive knowledge of composers let me tell you.

Ryan Isaac:
He actually had an actual diagnosable case of the fear of the number 13, it’s a phobia. I can’t even pronounce it so I’m not going to. But he would omit using the number 13 in measures of his written music. He would use 12A instead of 13. And so he was always afraid of dying in a year that was a multiple of 13 and he did die in July of 1951 on Friday the 13th.

Matt Mulcock:
No way come on.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes how crazy?

Matt Mulcock:
His fear came true.

Ryan Isaac:
But it’s longstanding unlucky things. So I thought we could talk today about just some what you’ve seen as a financial advisor in your career so far that, what are some mistakes dentists make, some big high level that we can categorize into a few here. Maybe we’ll go two, three or four categories of mistakes dentists make that might make them feel like they’ve made unlucky choices or might just be bad choices to make. So, we’ll take a quick commercial break but when we come back we’ll start hitting a few of these Friday the 13th unlucky dentist mistakes and how to make better ones so you make smart financial decisions in the future. We’ll be right back. Controversial opinion alert Matt but I’m going to say that if you’re not tuning into the monthly webinars I think you’re missing out.

Matt Mulcock:
I dare say you are missing out Ryan. They’re full of great information. We go into in-depth discussion on a specific element like investing, spending, savings, your business. It’s a great time.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah and going into all those things in detail it’s just a better way to understand how that topic can help you make smarter financial decisions for your net worth and your future. How do they sign up Matt?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, it’s super easy. You go to dentistadvisors.com, click on webinars under the education library button on the homepage.

Ryan Isaac:
And we are back luckily, we almost didn’t make it from that break. It was scary. I fell asleep and who comes in your sleep is it Jason or is it Freddy?

Matt Mulcock:
Freddy.

Ryan Isaac:
I think it’s Freddy with his long utensil fingers?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Yeah. With his Edward scissor hand type hands.

Ryan Isaac:
All right let’s get into it. It’s Freddy. So Matt, I’m going to let you kick this off here. Again we’re going to just recap a few things that we’ve seen as financial advisors. Here’s what’s interesting, I’ll just give a little context because it’s different than your typical maybe advisor out there. We don’t just set up investment accounts for people and watch their investments. Since we’re a comprehensive financial advisor and since we’re a comprehensive advisor just for dentists we have a pretty unique view of watching dentists make financial decisions in even tiny areas of their life. We’re not talking about just the big stuff but what kind of allowances do people give their kids and how often do people fight with their spouse about money and budgets and what’s the biggest spending [crosstalk 00:08:29].

Matt Mulcock:
Those are my favorite discussions.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. I mean, it’s pretty amazing and it’s fascinating to sit back and be able to have so much, we gather so much data on people constantly and we’re constantly reporting and monitoring progress in all these areas. So, it’s really fascinating to sit back and watch financial decisions being made even at really small scales where people like to splurge, how people treat their debt or the way they start feeling around tax time, just all these things. So, you’ve been watching this for, are you five years now with us but you’ve been doing this previous?

Matt Mulcock:
No, I’m here for three.

Ryan Isaac:
Three, so it’s eight or nine for you?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah the better part of a decade, about eight years now.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, man, same here just a little bit longer with Dentist Advisors.

Matt Mulcock:
Just a little bit longer.

Ryan Isaac:
Just slightly. And it’s cool just to have this anecdotal data. So let’s, you kick it off. Again we’re going to list mistakes or things that might make a dentist feel like they’ve made unlucky financial decisions but what’s the first one you’re going to bring up here.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I think the first one that came to my mind when we were talking about this was not sticking with the strategy is probably… And I guess so I couldn’t think of what I wanted to call this when I was thinking about it but…

Ryan Isaac:
You’ve got to make it scary. It’s got to be scary. It’s got to be something freaky.

Matt Mulcock:
I’d say getting distracted. The distraction demon let’s call it that.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah the demon of distraction. Dave the demon of distraction.

Matt Mulcock:
Exactly. Yeah. I think getting distracted or just not sticking to a strategy, going from one thing to the next. I mean, you’ve called it this many, many times in the past, random acts of finance. That’s the first thing that came to my mind was doing one thing for a while and then coming back six months later you’re like, “No, maybe I want to do this instead,” or reacting to the market, whatever [crosstalk 00:10:30]

Ryan Isaac:
Let’s give some examples. So I mean, there’s probably a lot of things you can think of in this category but let’s give some real world…. And by the way, if someone’s listening and they’re like, “Geez, man, you threw me under the bus,” everyone does this. This is human behavior not like bad dentist behavior, this is just human behavior.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes. Yeah. If you’re sitting here thinking like, “Oh man, this is a conversation I’ve had with Matt,” I can tell you that you were not the only one. We hear this all the time. So the best example I can give that’s the most I think pertinent and most frequent is with investing in the market. So, coming back and so let’s just use this most recent big event that just happened the election. So, you start out thinking, “Yeah, I’m going to be long-term, I have a 20 year time horizon. I’m going to invest, stay disciplined over time.” And then one thing happens, the elections coming up and it’s like text message or email, “Hey, maybe I want to just stay or get in cash.” So not sticking to that strategy, reacting to the market, I think that’s probably the number one example I can think of that I hear all the time.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah I mean it’s been, we’re coming up on almost two weeks since election day 2020 and leading up to that moment I mean there was just so many questions and there’s a lot of just speculation on what is going to happen, not only the outcome of the election but what it will do to markets and immediately how people will react and everything. And it’s funny to be sitting here almost two weeks later, I don’t know if it’s probably officially called but there’s still, states are still counting.

Matt Mulcock:
Is it?

Ryan Isaac:
I don’t know. I don’t know. My model for 2020 is just a shrug. I don’t really know anything anymore.

Matt Mulcock:
If there’s any year that something crazy is going to happen it’s this year.

Ryan Isaac:
But I remember thinking three or four days after the election happened and a vaccine announcement happened and markets are back, markets, I mean U.S. markets, Dow, S and P, back to almost touching all time highs. I just remember thinking to myself, “Well, that didn’t happen exactly how everyone thought it was going to happen.” We had all have these very specific predictions and some people were like, “Well, I’m going to take action on these predictions. I’m going to alter my behavior temporarily because it’s such a big event.” And for what seemed like a pretty surefire prediction of what was going to happen and then it seems like this is always the case. There’s enough sentiment behind an event and people are like, “Oh, we’re pretty sure we know what’s going to happen,” and it’s still a big event but it just doesn’t play out the way that we thought it would at least not in the same timeframe. I mean, what will probably happen is everyone will forget about it and then things will go crazy.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s so true.

Ryan Isaac:
And then people stop talking about it. So, I don’t know I’m with you on that not staying consistent because something came up like that and it makes you feel, it’s the human bias of it’s called recency bias. We tend to place an inordinate amount of emphasis on things that are happening now versus things that could happen in the future or in the past. And we start saying things like, “Well, I’ll never do this again. I know I’ll see this again in my lifetime but this one’s just…”

Matt Mulcock:
This time it’s different.

Ryan Isaac:
“This one’s so different right now I have to react to it. I’m so dumb if I don’t.” And we’re here to say that’s a natural feeling because a lot of people feel that way but it’s like what you do about it is scary.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Well, and I think it’s like this illusion of control. I think it’s this idea that I think people are, humans are more biased to like, “I need to take action because that’s going to lead to a better result. Like if I just sit here and let it happen it’s just feeling like if it turns against me you’re going to feel more regret if you didn’t do something about it.”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. What’s that Warren Buffet quote, “Don’t just do something stand there.” It’s like a reverse. It’s the reverse of don’t just stand there and do something it’s, “Don’t just do something stand there.”

Matt Mulcock:
Stand there yeah exactly. So it’s just illusion of control thinking that we can control this super complex system or we can know what’s going to happen in the market. And so, what you were saying earlier how you framed this whole thing was what are things or mistakes people make that then lead them to think they got unlucky.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
To me the market is like that to a T. I won’t throw any client under the bus, I’m going to throw my dad under the bus. My dad [crosstalk 00:15:14] Poppa Mulcock exactly. Love him to death.

Ryan Isaac:
You’re the [inaudible 00:15:18].

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, exactly. My dad currently still I think he’s changed his mindset a little bit because of what I do and conversations we’ve had but I remember growing up my dad would tell me like, “The stock market is just gambling.” That’s the lessons he taught me growing up.

Ryan Isaac:
You’re like, “I just wanted to learn to fish dad. Why did you have to talk about the market?”

Matt Mulcock:
You might as well just go to Vegas and throw money down. So, but I learned later as I got older and got into this industry and obviously started learning more about it I started having more conversations with him and started figuring out why he has that view. And again, it’s this feeling of like, “I got so unlucky.” I started to figure out what he did or his experience with investing it was purely penny stocks. My dad invested, his only experience in investing was three or four penny stocks. He lost all of the money obviously so he extrapolates that mindset now with his experience means that that’s all investing is, is just I threw money in, I lost it all. But it’s like, that’s not exactly how it works.

Ryan Isaac:
Fascinating.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
This reminds me we can move on to the next one but that is a perfect example of not a great decision or not a great process that just makes you feel unlucky and then shapes your bias. I was in California last week and I passed by this old beat up surf van that was parked there. It was really cool and I’ll show you. Maybe I’ll post a picture of this, I’ll show you. No one can see this on our screen, on my screen. Can you see that?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
See, there’s a bumper sticker on the back of this blue, it’s one of those is it Ford Econoline? Is that who makes the Econoline is it Ford? I think so. Big blue van, it’s like probably 20 years old and it’s this huge rectangular yellow sticker. The background’s yellow with these big black letters that just says, try slow. I remember passing by that and I snapped a picture of it because I’m like there was no context around what it meant. I was thinking of they’re probably like, maybe that’s some surfing advice just like calm down, try it a little slower, paddle a few more paddles, just chill out. But I’ve been thinking about that in relation to investing lately and making financial decisions. And we often get ourselves into some trouble when we rush them and we do them fast especially when they’re charged with emotion like there’s urgency.

Matt Mulcock:
And it’s reactionary.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s reactionary. There’s no urgency most of the time unless a lender’s like, “You have to sign by Friday.” That’s urgency. But so, I’m going to post this but I remember I’m just always going to think of the blue surf van and the yellow bumper sticker that said try it slow. And I loved it because it’s so vague I’m like, “What’s he even talking about?” It’s such a random bumper sticker. But that’d be some advice on what you’re doing talking about here and feeling that feeling of like, “I’ve got to make a change or do something here, react to this thing.” Just try it slower. How about that? Try it slower.

Ryan Isaac:
Here’s one I’ve been thinking of when we’re talking about these financial decisions that might be mistakes that make people end up feeling unlucky which is actually a really interesting concept. Because that’s the story we end up shaping in our psyche, in our mentality about the experience like your dad. That was a perfect example. We go through a decision-making process, maybe it’s uninformed, maybe it’s just not smart. We execute on it. And then we look back and we’re like, “Man, I was just unlucky. This thing got me.” And anyway, the one I always think about, it’s my answer whenever someone asks me what’s the biggest mistake dentists make period. I’ll usually just go back to being unorganized.

Ryan Isaac:
And what I mean by that, most dentists listening to this probably relate. By the time you’re mid career especially if you’re an owner in a business you probably have half a dozen different loans, half a dozen different investment accounts, not including all the bank accounts that you have. You have all kinds of different lines of insurance policies and then multiple policies in each type of insurance, multiple life, multiple disability, multiple liability. You have a net worth that’s way more complex than probably your neighbors unless your neighbors are also business owning dentists. You have commercial real estate that unless you’re a commercial real estate person for a career that’s not normal to be a non-commercial real estate person and then own commercial real estate.

Matt Mulcock::
Own some multimillion dollar [crosstalk 00:00:19:44].

Ryan Isaac:
I always think about that I’m like, “Who else out there has nothing to do with a real estate career and then owns a $2 million building?”

Matt Mulcock:
I don’t think it happens very often yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s not super common. So, you have a complex balance sheet, you have a lot of money that’s sitting pre-tax, you have a higher tax rate. You spend triple what your average neighbor probably does. Anyway, and then you have this career that’s a little bit shorter than some of your non dentist peers because you took so long in school and your student loans are way higher, your debt loads five times more than anyone would ever spend on their main house.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s so true.

Ryan Isaac:
And so, things are just so complex and so I always think some of the biggest mistakes that dentists end up making are just a product of not knowing what’s going on with all this stuff at any given time. And then what happens is you have to make a decision. Let’s say you are leasing a building and it’s time to buy it, or it’s time to bring on a partner, or you’re trying to evaluate an investment decision or can you afford to buy the lake house or whatever it is, what ends up happening is you end up making decisions in isolation, in a vacuum. You make the real estate purchase decision only in the narrow context of I want to buy this thing, here’s the interest rate maybe. Maybe that’s all you think about.

Matt Mulcock:
You don’t figure out how it interacts with everything else in your life.

Ryan Isaac:
No. And the problem is when you start piling up all these decisions that are made in isolation although they’re very closely tied in together eventually you can get to a spot where you’re like, “Man, I really I’ve made some poor decisions.” Or maybe you feel like you got unlucky, you just timed something wrong or you got unlucky, when the answer was well no if you had had better information or better data or maybe some accountability or something to that data then maybe you would have made a different decision or not made it at all.

Ryan Isaac:
I mean, and this happens too if you think about just the job as a dentist, as an owner of the business. It’s unbelievable how many things you have to do. I was just talking to a client this week and he gave me the best analogy. He’s like, “Man, sometimes I feel like I’m GM and I have to sell the car to the person, and then I have to go make the car, and then I have to bring it to them and deliver the car, and then I have to service the car down the road also. And then I have to market the car company…”

Matt Mulcock:
You have to market it yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
“And then I have to manage all the car employees at the factory and the sales floor and the accounting office.” And he’s like, “Sometimes I just feel like I have all these jobs and I only want one or two of them and I can only do two of them.” And that translates into sometimes poor organization at the office, systems and processes aren’t getting enough attention, you’re not investing in marketing. That stuff translates into lower profitability which means lower income, which means lower savings rate, which means lower net worth growth. I mean, it’s like so intertwined and so it might seem overly simplistic and it’s not very sexy. I mean, it’s way sexier to just go sell this investment will get you such a high return and it’ll solve all your problems. That’s a better marketing story which that’s not our story.

Matt Mulcock:
You just have to ask for that. [crosstalk 00:22:57] It’s off menu.

Ryan Isaac:
It is. It’s the off menu In and Out burger off menu.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, you want the off menu solution and strategy?

Ryan Isaac:
We didn’t know you wanted that investment.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Yeah. Got it.

Ryan Isaac:
Next time let me know you want the off menu investment.

Matt Mulcock:
An off menu investment strategy.

Ryan Isaac:
And so it just comes down to it’s a little less sexy and it’s not as flashy and it’s not quick, it’s not a one-time implemented kind of solution. But just having more organization in your life will solve a lot of the problems because more organization means that you’ll try slower a little bit because you have to slow down and gather data. And then you have to think about things or you’re paying somebody which is why our whole company exists, you’re paying somebody to gather, analyze and think about the data for you and then talk to you about it, say, “Well, you should consider this part.” Or give you pushback like, “No, that wouldn’t be in your best interest because this is what the numbers would tell us.” So, that’s my answer for some of the biggest mistakes that happen is just that lack of organization.

Ryan Isaac:
And it’s easy to get to that point, early on in your career things feel simple like it’s pretty straightforward. I’ve got student loans, started a job, saving for my first down payment for my house, that’s it, that’s all I’ve got to do. But before you know it you can be a decade down the road and have all kinds of a mess on your hands and it was slow enough that you just didn’t really notice it happen. And here’s the other thing about dentists that’s unique, it’s a curse and a blessing is a high-income hides a lot of mess.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s so true.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s like a big rug or a giant closet in a kid’s room. It’s a big closet.

Matt Mulcock:
You shove all the crap in there.

Ryan Isaac:
Or a tall bed frame with a low drooping bed cover in a kid’s room. You just sweep it all under there and you’re like, “Things are fine.” That’s what a high-income does and it’s nice but it hides a lot of mess. And so, that’s one of the things and that’s why we exist. So when people are like, “What’s a financial advisor and what’s the value in that? Why does it work?” It’s like, “Well, it’s another human that’s not emotionally linked to your decision-making. We’re fiduciary so we also don’t sell stuff. And our job is to constantly gather and update and analyze data and make sure that you are making smart decisions, avoiding big, bad ones, and then making decisions in context of data and not emotions. That’s our job.”

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

Ryan Isaac:
You are 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. Matt hit us with one more. Let’s do one more. And you were talking to me about this on some mistakes that people make, I believe it had to do with the business though. We’ll just close with that as the last one that can make people feel unlucky. I thought it was a super great point.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, I think for me it would be not focusing on, working on the business early and often and making that your number one priority. And again, it comes back to me the first one I’d mentioned of getting distracted but I think that’s a mistake I see people make is not being intentional and focused on what you want out of your business. And I think I used the quote from our boy Stephen Covey of starting with the end in mind of what do you even want this thing to be. I think a lot of times you have people get into the middle of their career aimlessly going just again not being organized, not having intention behind it, and they’re eight or 10 years in and they’re thinking like, “What am I even, what is this? What am I doing?”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah like, “What’s going on with this.” And it’s probably fair to point out that what you want out of a career or the benefit it gives you does change over time and that’s okay to feel that way. Here’s what I find, I don’t think this is uncommon is you get someone who’s mid career. They’re doing great, it feels like autopilot a little bit like things are just where they’re at. You’ve maxed out your chair space. You’re not interested in moving. You’re making good money, you’re profitable, you’re saving money and you’re bored with it like, “Is this okay?” I’m amazed how many times I have conversations with people and it’s usually someone in their forties, maybe early fifties that are feeling like this. And one of the things that makes it feel better pretty quickly which is cool is just the data around a savings rate of net worth. To be able to show someone, “Yeah, it might feel monotonous but did you know that if you were to just end it all today, just your career, just sell it.” I don’t mean end it all.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah that got a little ominous.

Ryan Isaac:
Well, it got a little dark.

Matt Mulcock:
Did you know that if you ended it today. It’s Friday the 13th.

Ryan Isaac:
It is Friday the 13th, it is a dark edition of the Dentist Money Show. I have a black t-shirt on but I usually have a black t-shirt on, you do too actually.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah well I have the Dentist [crosstalk 00:28:08].

Ryan Isaac:
Dentist Money Show t-shirt. So yeah, letting someone know, “Hey, you could retire, sell your stuff, cash out, pay off your debts and live for 17 years.” And if you just keep doing exactly what you’re doing right now by the time you’re 52 or 57 you will have enough net worth that you can do that but never run out of money. Your net worth will be indefinite if you keep spending what you’re spending right now. And it’s funny how shedding a little bit of financial light like, “You’re making progress man it’s okay you’re going to be all right,” can all of a sudden pep up that career and be like, “Oh, this is the purpose. This is what it was for.”

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah there’s a reason behind this yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
There’s a reason behind it. What about early career? So you bring up this point about not being focused enough on the career or being intentional enough about the career. Any thoughts on how you see it early on when someone’s coming out of school, getting a job for the first time, testing out practices or styles or anything like that?

Matt Mulcock:
You’re saying mistakes that I see people make?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, anything you see younger people may coming out of school with their career.

Matt Mulcock:
I would say coming back to your point of try it slow be okay slowing down and not jumping right into trying to build out a DSO because that’s what you think should happen. That’s an extreme example. But I think not comparing yourself to what your buddy in dental school did. And just again, so just to come back to the slow it down thing be okay maybe starting out being an associate to test things out, feel it out, give it a year, give it two.

Ryan Isaac:
Test the city you live in.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah test the city you live in. Don’t rush to buy a house. Be okay keeping it slowed down for a little bit to eventually find what you really truly want out of your life and your career.

Ryan Isaac:
I love that. I love how that maybe pivots to another point here but I love how that relates to early career real estate purchases like the home and the bumper sticker of try it slow. Just try renting slow for a little bit. And I did this in my life so no shade on anyone.

Matt Mulcock:
We did too.

Ryan Isaac:
You did too.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
I bought our first house really early in life. I didn’t try slow, I tried fast because my friends were going fast and it was bad. And for awhile I was like, “I was unlucky. Unlucky me because I bought in the peak and then it crashed and then my prepared friends who were trying slow bought cheap houses that were twice the size of mine and nicer.” So yeah, you bring up a good point man is like there’s a rush after probably living in apartments and stuff through dental school for so long to just want to feel settled and put down some roots and get in a neighborhood and that kind of stuff. But yeah, you see it all the time try a little bit slower, test out an office as an associate, test out a city. Maybe you don’t like the city long term, maybe you’re a city person or a rural person and try slow enough that you’ll get some context and not feel rushed into making decisions that will trap you and then make you look back and be like, “I was unlucky.” [crosstalk 00:31:16]

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah be okay with and understand that you have a long career ahead of you so it’s like investing you’ve got a long career of investing in front of you so don’t let one little thing push you off the path. I think that really pertains to your career as well. So be okay slowing down and really making sure whatever path you’re taking it is what you actually want and you have intention behind it.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah I think that’s great. We can end with that too. I think there’s a great message in longevity. One of the coolest things about the career of dentistry, and honestly it’s one of the most powerful tools for financial planning you have in your control is how long you work in your career. And there’s not a lot of jobs out there that in your sixties, you don’t even have to own the business, you could work very little and make six figure incomes. There’s almost nothing more powerful than that that takes so much pressure off of your portfolios and your investing then some income like that. So, if the career’s a little slower, if you don’t expand from four to 10 chairs as quickly as maybe your friend did or neighbor or something, if your income didn’t grow as fast, but it felt sustainable, you didn’t burn out, your life felt balanced, you enjoyed the rest of it and you weren’t just hating work and dreading it. Which is a very common thing, it’s very, very common. I’m a fan of that. Try the career a little slower and see if you can push it longer because that’ll be in your financial best interest and probably your physical and mental, emotional health too honestly. So, I don’t remember if I was Jason or if I was Freddy Krueger when we started the show.

Matt Mulcock:
You were Jason. [crosstalk 00:32:57]

Ryan Isaac:
Well from Jason and Freddie, which Freddie has nothing to do with Friday the 13th other than the fact I think at one point Freddy versus Jason was a movie and the fought. Who won by the way? Do you know who won?

Matt Mulcock:
I didn’t see that one either.

Ryan Isaac:
Someone hit us up. I guess we could watch the show but I’m not going to so please tell me about it. From Freddy and Jason, from Friday the 13th in 2020, which we should have skipped this day honestly. We should have gone right to the 14th. But anyway, thanks for tuning in. Thanks for listening guys. If you have any questions about any of these things that we’re talking about, a lot of these are very high level, they apply to a lot of people being organized, focusing on career, trying to slow down a little bit, getting more data, just give us a shout. Go to dentistadvisors.com. I don’t even know what that means to give us a shout online.

Matt Mulcock:
Give us a shout out, something people say.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes, people say it. Click on the book free consultation button and chat with one of our advisors who by the way are very friendly, knowledgeable people and they only work with dentists. [crosstalk 00:34:00] They’re very nice people. Or Matt, if they had a question, they wanted to post a question and get a quick answer, where could they post that question? Any ideas?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah they go to dentistadvisors.com/group and we have a Facebook group. Join the group. We’re very friendly in there as well. We cut out all the fluff. We don’t allow any fighting.

Ryan Isaac:
No fighting then fights don’t break out.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. It might be kind of boring in a way because there is no fighting [crosstalk 00:34:27] groups online.

Ryan Isaac:
If you love fighting in social media you will not like our group but the Dentist Advisors discussion group you should check it out. Post a question, we’ll answer it on a Facebook live and directly in the group. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for listening. I hope you have a lucky day and a lucky rest of the 2020 and hopefully a luckier 2021.

Matt Mulcock:
Please yes.

Ryan Isaac:
Please, please, please, yes. Thanks everyone. We’ll catch you next time.

 

 

Behavioral Finance