How to Fight Off Common Money Distractions – Episode 294

With so many things to worry about as you build your career, do you have trouble living in the moment? On this episode of the Dentist Money™ Show, Ryan and Matt talk about three money matters that can cause your mind to wander. Happiness comes from being fully engaged in your current activities. Ryan and Matt offer their tips on how to prevent finances from causing you to lose focus on the present.

 

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Podcast Transcript

Ryan Isaac:
Hello, Dentist Money Show listeners. Thanks for joining us for another beautiful episode of the Dentist Money Show, brought to you by Dentist Advisors, a no-commission, fiduciary, comprehensive financial advisors for dentists, just dentists, all over the country. Check us out at dentistadvisors.com.

Ryan Isaac:
Today on the show, Matt and I are talking about our minds wandering; not being present to our daily activities, and our daily lives, and what kind of stress that causes us. And specifically, we’re going to talk about the financial things that cause our minds to wander, which add more stress to make our lives harder, and more miserable, and what we can do about them, so our minds.

Ryan Isaac:
So we’re going to talk about that today. If you have any questions for us about any of this stuff, you’ve got two ways that you can get to us really easily, and get some answers. One of them is go to the Dentist Advisors Discussion Group on Facebook. Post a question in there; we will post an answer directly back to you. Or go to dentistadvisors.com, click on the “book a free consultation” link, and book a consultation, a chat, with one of our very friendly, dental-specific advisors today. We’d love to hear from you. We’d love to chat with you, and help point you in the right direction. Thanks for being here today. Thanks for listening and downloading us. Enjoy the show.

Announcer:
Consultant 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, and avoid the bad ones along the way. I am Ryan Isaac, and I’m here with the guy you all know and love, Matt, the Hollywood Mountain, Mulcock. What’s up Matt?

Matt Mulcock:
Yo, Ryan. How are you? I don’t know if they know me or they love me, but I’m here.

Ryan Isaac:
But you’re here, either way.

Matt Mulcock:
As always.

Ryan Isaac:
Known, unknown, loved, or unloved.

Matt Mulcock:
I’m in studio. I am in studio today.

Ryan Isaac:
You’re in studio.

Matt Mulcock:
You’re not.

Ryan Isaac:
You are actually in the Dentist Advisors, the original Dentist Money Show studio.

Matt Mulcock:
I’m where all it all started.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s where I am.

Ryan Isaac:
It all started very awkwardly. A side note to that, a couple of weeks ago, I was on a little family trip, and I was like, “I wonder what Episode One of the Dentist Money Show sounds like now?

Matt Mulcock:
Did you? And you listened to it?

Ryan Isaac:
I got like five minutes in, and I just had to turn it off. It’s so bad.

Matt Mulcock:
Wait. Didn’t you? Because you guys used to script them.

Ryan Isaac:
It was, shout out to Justin, Justin would actually script every single word, even any planned jokes.

Matt Mulcock:
So you guys would sit there and literally read?

Ryan Isaac:
We would read from a tele… They make these iPad teleprompters. In that studio, Reese and I would stand up facing each other, because the acoustics were better at the microphones with these iPad teleprompters, and a clock; Justin would have a clock, and he’d always point to it and be like, “Let’s go.”

Matt Mulcock:
That is, literally, I can visualize Justin doing that; getting kind of nervous, pointing like, “Guys, guys, guys.”

Ryan Isaac:
I can’t even tell you that feeling of hitting record the first time, and then just being… It just felt so weird. But then, here we are. Here we are recording a podcast, and this is my favorite thing to do, is you don’t know what’s coming today.

Matt Mulcock:
We are literally doing the exact opposite of what you used to do.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s the total opposite.

Matt Mulcock:
You used to script it; now, literally, you’re like, “I’m not going to tell you. And we’re just going to go, and find out what happens.”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. And I love this, because then you get raw Matt. That’s who you want. That’s what we’re here for, folks. Raw Matt; uncooked.

Matt Mulcock:
Just unfiltered, here it goes.

Ryan Isaac:
Uncooked, unfiltered Matt. So, speaking of family vacations and here, this is the topic today.

Matt Mulcock:
Were we speaking about family vacations?

Ryan Isaac:
Well, I was saying, a couple of weeks ago on family vacation, I was listening to our first episode.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. I was focusing on the first episode part, not the fact that you were on vacation.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, I was on vacation listening to it.

Matt Mulcock:
Got it. Got it.

Ryan Isaac:
I’m a… Little about me, folks. I’m 41. I’ve got four kids, two high school.

Matt Mulcock:
And look great, by the way.

Ryan Isaac:
I do.

Matt Mulcock:
Are you kidding me? You look great.

Ryan Isaac:
I do. I look 40.

Matt Mulcock:
You don’t look a day over 40.

Ryan Isaac:
I don’t look a day over 40, but I’m in fact, 41, surprise everybody. Four kids: two high schoolers, middle schooler, elementary school. I think like a lot of people my age in my phase of life, one of my biggest desires and struggles, is to remain present in life; because as it goes by, it is just going by faster and faster. And it feels like years are going by in months now these days. And it is just a constant thing on my mind, like how do I remain present to just the things going… Even the just simple stuff.

Ryan Isaac:
And it was reminding me how, when my kids were little, we’d go, let’s say, for example, we’d go to Disneyland. And I’d stretch our vacation budget, and we’d go to Disney and buy churros, and maybe some t-shirts. We’d stay close to the park, and I’m like, “This is the greatest thing ever. My kids are going to love this.” And their favorite memories from vacation, hands down, all of them, from all of the early childhood trips, were always the pool at the hotel. Always.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Always.

Matt Mulcock:
Wait. We could have done this anywhere.

Ryan Isaac:
And it’s funny, because I kind of relate to that. And I remember those times with them. And then when they say that, I’m always like, “I was just really… The pool was always so simple. It wasn’t Disney, and which line, and which ride, and which Fast Pass, or who’s crying, and who needs a diaper change, and it’s… Whatever.” And it was because I’d always be so present with them. Because I remember those times, too.

Ryan Isaac:
So this topic of being present; it’s something that’s on my mind a lot. And you hear this from clients; this is a really common piece of feedback. And it happens to a lot of us where, the career you dream of having, or the success you want to achieve, when you’re like 23 years old, 25 years old; you finally start to get it in your late thirties and forties. And the thing you give up for it is time. And you trade your time for it. You find yourself in the career, or the house of your dreams, whatever; you achieve the things you wanted at 25, many people, most dentists, for sure.

Ryan Isaac:
But they had to trade a lot of time for it. And you also trade a lot of mental energy and stress, and emotional energy.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, emotional issues, yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
You do. So you kind of just end up in the spot where you’re really clinging to, “How do I retain just a present mind, and enjoy these moments? And there’s all this stuff I always wanted. So how do I enjoy it? How do I be present to it?” And it’s certainly… Some of my best times with my kids have been… And this is what we’ve talked about, have been walks down the street, have been playing in the pool at the Disneyland hotel instead of being at Disneyland; simple things, because I’m there.

Ryan Isaac:
And anyway, so it’s always on my mind. I heard about this study, actually just this morning, this is a freshie, so-

Matt Mulcock:
It’s fresh on my mind.

Ryan Isaac:
I just wanted to talk about it. There’s this study that was done on… The study was actually titled Wandering Mind, Not a Happy Mind. So Wandering Mind, Not a Happy Mind. It was done by two researchers: Matthew Killingsworth.

Matt Mulcock:
I think I’ve seen this.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. It’s a famous Ted Talk.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, okay.

Ryan Isaac:
And the study, and the experiment is really cool. And so we’ll talk about that. They are Harvard psychologists, so kind of smart people, a little bit.

Matt Mulcock:
Decent, yeah. They’re okay.

Ryan Isaac:
Relatively smart.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert. And so here’s how the study went. They had this really simple iPhone app. And by the time this study, I think it’s actually maybe still going, but it was like 635,00 tracked instances across tens of thousands of people all over the world: young, old, all kinds of economic status backgrounds, like everything.

Ryan Isaac:
And here’s how this went. The people in this experiment, that lasted for years, they would just get like a random ping, a little notification. And it would ask…

Matt Mulcock:
Yes. I’ve-

Ryan Isaac:
You’ve heard this, right?

Matt Mulcock:
Yes. I’ve heard of this.

Ryan Isaac:
And so it asks things like, “Right before this notification, what were you doing?” So activity. “How did you feel?” And, “Are you thinking about what you’re currently doing, or are you thinking about something else?” So some really simple things; and then they’d rank their happiness.

Ryan Isaac:
And so here’s some statistics from this. Almost 47% of our time spent, is spent thinking about something else other than the thing we’re actually engaged in.

Matt Mulcock:
Whatever we’re doing. Yeah. Something other than what we’re hearing,

Ryan Isaac:
Almost half of the time, we’re thinking about something other than the thing we’re actually doing. And if you Google this; just Google the Ted talk, or, there’s all sorts of really, some pretty crazy statistics. I’ll read a couple more.

Ryan Isaac:
But here was the findings, then we’re going to get to what we’re going to talk about today. The findings were this: that, independent of the activity people were currently engaged in, people’s happiness completely hinged on whether or not they were present in the activity, or thinking about something else. And this held true. And it’s like, not even close; it’s like twice as happy, twice as content, if they’re thinking about the activity, or engaged, or just present with the activity they’re engaged in, independent of what the activity was.

Ryan Isaac:
Because they also thought, “Well, maybe they’re just doing a lot of fun things.” This was like people sitting in traffic. If they were thinking about their favorite surf spot while sitting in traffic, sitting in traffic-

Matt Mulcock:
Interesting.

Ryan Isaac:
…Always ranked as like the number one, most unhappy thing people do. Right?

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
But if they’re in traffic, dead stop, sitting there thinking about their most beautiful favorite surf spot in the most beautiful beach in the world, they still ranked unhappy, compared to people sitting in traffic thinking and just being present, like “I’m in traffic.”

Matt Mulcock:
Just being here, yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Look at those buildings, here’s some trees, look at that guy playing air guitar, which would probably be me. I play a lot of air guitar.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. You’re the guy that people pull up to, and they’re like, “Honey, look at this guy.”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. I’m not an air drummer. I’m not steering wheel drummer guy; usually, a little bit, because I was more air guitar guy.

Matt Mulcock:
You’re air guitar guy.

Ryan Isaac:
Totally air guitar guy.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Yeah. You’re the guy that’s licking your thumb, and slapping the fake base.

Ryan Isaac:
Ooh, yeah, a little base slap. So, just a fascinating study on the effect of having the brain be present on the task that you’re currently doing, even if the task is boring and mundane, and maybe not that happy. Maybe if it’s a task that normally brings unhappiness; but being present was… And it’s like, it’s not even close, like happiness levels.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. It’s so unequivocal, that you can’t completely… It’s just so obvious, yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
And so, a few things about this, is that part of it, and that just how much of our time we spend thinking about something else. So what I wanted to talk about today, and I’m going to spring on you; but that’s what… I like lively Matt.

Matt Mulcock:
Lets’ do this. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s better than scripted.

Matt Mulcock:
You’re going to get me lively. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
The thing I was thinking about was, we can’t cure that for everybody, because being… They don’t call it absent-minded. What do they call it? They call it mind wandering, so that’s a little bit nicer way to say it.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
We can’t cure people’s mind wanderingness, which is, I don’t know if that’s a word, but…

Matt Mulcock:
The wandering mind.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. But what I wanted to talk about is money and finances being one of the biggest things that make our mind wander. I kind of just want to spend a few minutes talking about, just anecdotally, some of the things that you’ve found as an advisor to dentists, that are the main questions that drive people’s minds away from their present lives, and then make them focus or worry about money, that we can help them alleviate through some process or procedure or accountability or principle or something. Right? And I’ll kind of just throw some of these out there.

Ryan Isaac:
But again, we can’t obviously solve mind wandering for every dentist out there; but our business can solve, and we do as advisors, I know this happens; we can solve a lot of the mind wandering and stress that’s associated with that, by taking care of a lot of things.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
So here’s what… I want to say this, too. I don’t remember what episode this was. It was quite a long time ago; it was with Reese. It was probably three or four years ago; but we shared a story about an experiment that was done on people with these snakes and rocks on this video game, and these electrical shocks. Do you know the old phrase that ignorance is bliss? And this study, in my anecdotal experience, has been that with money and dentists and finances, showing dentists that, “Hey, you do spend too much. Here’s the numbers.” Or, “Your net worth is negative. Yes.” Or, “You do need to save more, or earn more.” Or, “Your profitability is too low.”

Ryan Isaac:
Even showing people negative things like that; at least just acknowledging them, brought more comfort than ignoring them, and then wondering what they were. “They’re probably bad. I probably spend too much, but I haven’t really looked. My net worth is probably pretty negative, or my interest rates on my loans are probably pretty bad, but I haven’t looked.” And that study really proved that even knowing the bad news, just knowing it, improves someone’s stress levels dramatically. Yeah. What were you going to say?

Matt Mulcock:
I would say, I remember that podcast, and thinking the same thing that I’m going to say now, and throw it to you to see your thoughts. Don’t you think that’s a bit counterintuitive in some ways, meaning that the end result is less stress, for sure; and it reduces their stress, even if it’s a negative outcome or a negative, something that confirms what they already thought. But I think it takes pushing and prompting people to be like, “Hey. You’ve got to…” Because they’re thinking, “I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know.” They want to live in that ignorant bliss.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Really their living in stress. So I guess I look at that as two different things; that the end result will be positive no matter what, even if it is a negative… Even if it’s a negative number, if you will, on paper.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes. Yeah. Well-

Matt Mulcock:
They don’t think that on the front end; they’re thinking, “I just want to leave this alone. I don’t want to think about it.”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. And that’s exactly what it kind of points to; and my experience as an advisor for dentists would show me that, too.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
Someone’s stressed about, “My net worth isn’t big enough.” And you finally put it on paper, and you list assets and debts, and you show, “Here was your income, and here’s your collections, and that income represents this percentage of collections. That’s not good enough profitability.” And, “You guys do spend too much money, and your savings rate is too low.” Just knowing those things; there’s something about acknowledging. Because it gives you power, and it gives you control to say, “Okay, well now what?” Where, before you do that, if you don’t go through that exercise, and if you don’t go through it frequently, then you remain in the stage before that, which is, you just wonder. And then you stress, and you make up stories, and you lose out on the chance to have some control and some power over the situation, even knowing that stuff.

Ryan Isaac:
So, I was thinking back to kind of just that experience, and I know that’s true for dentists; that even acknowledging not the best news is still… It’s empowering, it ,gives you control and it reduces your stress. So what are some ways that we can, that we have helped? And that’s what I just want to talk about, that we have helped dentists ease the mind wandering around money and finances. And we can phrase this in terms of the most common, maybe, questions or stresses that people have about this.

Ryan Isaac:
I’ll throw out one just to start with.

Matt Mulcock:
I know where you’re going to go.

Ryan Isaac:
Well, it’s one of two.

Matt Mulcock:
I know you’re going to steal my answer.

Ryan Isaac:
I’m not. I was going to, and then I just pivoted, because I want you to have this one.

Matt Mulcock:
Pivot. Pivot.

Ryan Isaac:
The pivot was, when people don’t know the progress they’re making in terms of net worth, and how that translates to, “When can I stop working? When am I wealthy enough, that this money that I’ve saved or invested, these buildings that I bought, the practice I built up; when does that equal enough money to stop working?” And so, the mind wandering around that… Well, I’ll just ask you. What has been your experience working with dentists when they’re not quite sure if they’re making any progress, from a net worth standpoint?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. You’re saying what helps them to-

Ryan Isaac:
Or like… Yeah. Is it just young people that you’ve encountered that wonder, “Am I making any progress?” Is it older people? Is it like, “Oh, I’m strapped and broke.”

Matt Mulcock:
It’s everyone.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. What’s your experiences around that subject?

Matt Mulcock:
This is so timely. I literally had a conversation this morning with, not a client, but someone who’s exploring; and we did a consult call. I’m not going to name names, but this person is going to know who they are. Shout out to the nameless.

Ryan Isaac:
Shout out, nameless, yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
So this person is getting ready to open up their third location.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh man.

Matt Mulcock:
And doing really well, from all accounts, from what I can see; and has been a follower of us for a long time. And we were talking this morning, and really, what it came down to, they said exactly what you’re describing. They said, “I feel like I’m doing okay. And I’m so entrenched in work, to the point where it’s almost gone too far, where it almost is maybe hindering relationships, so I think about that a lot. And it’s hindering me having fun, and doing anything other than just grinding and building and growing.”

Matt Mulcock:
But they said, “I find I’m always thinking about, ‘Where do I stand? Can I slow down? I don’t even know. I’m grinding and pushing, but am I truly making progress?'” They were literally saying this. And so to me, the first step, and I told them this; I said, “The first step of this is, we’ve got to know where you stand. And the only way we do that is we get organized.” One of the main reasons they reached out, because we always ask that question up front, “Hey, why are we even here?” Was, “I just don’t even know… I’m always thinking about this,” they said. “But I don’t know if I’m even thinking about it the right way. Where do I even stand?” They have no idea. And I hear that; I’m not exaggerating, I hear that weekly. Every time I get on a call with someone, like these consult calls, it’s, “I don’t even know where I stand. I think I know.”

Ryan Isaac:
I think it’s the biggest question.

Matt Mulcock:
It is always.

Ryan Isaac:
I think it is the number one, biggest question a dentist has.

Matt Mulcock:
“How am I doing?” It’s always, “How am I doing?”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. And what’s crazy about that to me; and thanks for sharing that, because that’s such good context. What’s crazy about that to me, is that question, “How am I doing? I don’t think I’m getting anywhere.” It comes from everybody. You’ve met plenty of people. I’ve met plenty of people who were retired five years before we met them, like on paper, right? Mathematically, they were done five years before we ever met them. And they were scrambling as hard as they were at 30 years old. Kind of frantic, like, “I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m done.”

Ryan Isaac:
And to us, that might seem like a simple answer. Like, “Well, just do this little equation, and then you’re done.” But there’s so much to it. That’s such a heavy question, that I do, I think that is the most common asked question, and most frequent stress of, and cause of mind wandering, financial mind wandering, that dentists probably face.

Matt Mulcock:
Totally. And, I admit that one of my, I don’t know whether you’ll call it failure, flaw, whatever; one thing that I do. And I think we all do as advisors, because we live this every day, is I take it for granted, for my clients.

Ryan Isaac:
I think so.

Matt Mulcock:
I always do. I assume that I’m looking at their stuff all the time. I’m reviewing all the time. I’m always thinking about my clients, and where they stand. And I take it for granted, because I’m like, “You’re good. You’re doing great.” But they need to know that, because that’s pretty much what people want to hear, is, “Am I doing okay? Oh yes or no. If it’s yes, awesome. If it’s no, what do I need to do to fix it? And that’s really what it comes down to.

Ryan Isaac:
I like that you said that we take it for granted, because we totally do. There’s probably nothing more important at all, to talk about during the year, multiple times, than this exact subject. And that includes… There’s always strategy or logistics or things we’ve got to work on with a loan or a purchase or an insurance policy.

Matt Mulcock:
Getting accounts opened.

Ryan Isaac:
An account, an investment. Right. There’s all kinds of things that always happen that need attention. I don’t know if there’s anything more important than multiple times a year, checking in with somebody, just like we should be doing with a dentist and our hygiene.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes. We should just. Yeah, my bad.

Ryan Isaac:
To show up, and say, yeah. “What is my progress? Am I okay? Am I headed in the right direction?”

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
I don’t know if there’s anything more important to alleviating stress, and making someone more focused, and less prone to wandering in your mind about money and finances, than answering that question multiple times a year with a third party human that is your accountability buddy.

Matt Mulcock:
Well-

Ryan Isaac:
Account-a-buddy. Accountability buddy.

Matt Mulcock:
Account-a-buddy.

Ryan Isaac:
Account-a-buddy.

Matt Mulcock:
Account-a-buddy.

Ryan Isaac:
Can we coin that? It’s almost not there; it’s close.

Matt Mulcock:
I’m trademarking that right now. Account-a-buddy.

Ryan Isaac:
Your account-a-buddy.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s such a good point, Ryan. I was just thinking, just like evidence has shown now… And I know this because I work with dentists. Evidence has shown, recently, or relatively recent; maybe not even that recent, but there’s clear evidence of the connections to your overall health from the mouth, right?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
And that dentists find a lot of purpose in helping people with their mouth, because again, it’s connected to every other system in our body. I think of the same way when it comes to money; and the purpose that we have behind or with what we do. Because I’ve heard from countless people, that when you do what we’re describing, you become more present by having an account-a-buddy. And I was making this profound point, and then I had to throw that in.

Ryan Isaac:
You said account-a-buddy. Keep going. I like it.

Matt Mulcock:
Account-a-buddy. So, having this level of accountability, having these conversations, knowing where you stand, relieving that stress; the different areas of your life that that can help: relationships, health, mental and physical health. It bleeds into everything that you do, because money touches everything in our life. So, people avoid it forever, like the person I talked to this morning, said, “I’ve been avoiding this for so long.” And they told me that the reason that they finally decided to do it, was because they started to feel so much about all the different areas of their life that it was impacting. So I think if it kind of the same way.

Ryan Isaac:
Well, it does.

Matt Mulcock:
That the mouth touches all these different systems; and finance touches, money touches everything.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s true. If your mind is constantly wandering because of money, your job won’t be fun, your time spent with family and friends, loved ones won’t be fun. Your hobbies, won’t be fun. Your exercise won’t be fun.

Matt Mulcock:
Because you won’t be present, right?

Ryan Isaac:
You’re not present.

Matt Mulcock:
You’re highlighting it right here.

Ryan Isaac:
Because you’re not present.

Matt Mulcock:
You’re not going to be thinking about anything but, “Man, am I doing okay? Where do I stand? What do I need to be doing to get further down the road of progress?”

Ryan Isaac:
It’s so true. So true. So get yourself an account-a-buddy. And if you already have an account-a-buddy, then, and you want to just-

Matt Mulcock:
Reach out.

Ryan Isaac:
We do our best as advisors, to make sure that we’re talking to our clients at least a handful of times a year. And we’re constantly hitting these same subjects over and over again, because it’s so important. Okay. That was one. That was kind of a big one. That went on for a little bit.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh dang. That was a big one.

Ryan Isaac:
But I think the biggest one.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Is it the one you were thinking I was going to steal from you, though? Or no?

Matt Mulcock:
We hit a lot of topics there.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay.

Matt Mulcock:
The one I was going to mention specifically, was getting organized.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, okay.

Matt Mulcock:
That was what my-

Ryan Isaac:
Dang.

Matt Mulcock:
But we kind of hit that-

Ryan Isaac:
That’s kind of there.

Matt Mulcock:
… Throughout that conversation, yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. Here’s another one I was going to say, that is always on somebody’s mind. And it totally makes us not present. And it’s the worry of spending. It’s the spending worry. “I think I’m spending too much money. I think my partner, spouse, is spending too much money.”

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. That’s what it is, man.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s usually when it-

Matt Mulcock:
We know this.

Ryan Isaac:
“It’s not me.”

Matt Mulcock:
“It’s not me. No. I don’t spend too much money. It’s my spouse.”

Ryan Isaac:
I’m fine. I have total control. I don’t have a problem.

Matt Mulcock:
“I need to hire you to tell my spouse they’re spending too much money.”

Ryan Isaac:
I love that.

Matt Mulcock:
I hear that all the time. “It’s not me.”

Ryan Isaac:
“I don’t have a problem.”

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
“They have a problem.”

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I admit that I fall… That’s me, too. I always blame it on my wife.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
She knows she’s the spender though. “Honey, I know you’re not listening, but you’re the spender, and you know it.”

Ryan Isaac:
“If you were, you knew who you are.”

Matt Mulcock:
“If you were, you would be nodding your head right now.”

Ryan Isaac:
So, it’s another one that constantly takes people’s minds away from the present moment. It’s a financial mind wandering distraction; and the way that we do things, it all begins with being organized. The process of not spending too much money begins with getting really organized, and getting a plan in place for, “What’s going on? What’s coming in? What’s going out? And where are we headed?” And then establishing an automated, kind of forced savings rate. That’s how we do it. That’s how we get people from spending, to keep people from spending too much.

Ryan Isaac:
And to alleviate the worries of having to micromanage it, is we just get people to a healthy place where they’re saving a good amount of money, relative to their income every year. And that’s a process; for some people,, we can meet them and start that in two months. Onboard, get organized, kind of get an overall picture of everything, and then just start saving money. For other people, it’s years in the making; we have to slowly tweak things: improve loans, pay off credit cards, catch up on taxes, get help in the practice, produce more.

Matt Mulcock:
Start tracking, and having more conversations around spending.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes. Accountability. So, this worry of, “What am I spending? What is my spouse or partner spending?” We can alleviate that through high amounts of organization, a healthy savings rate, but also kind of back to what we were talking about before, getting on the phone a few times a year with your account-a-buddy.

Matt Mulcock:
I love that.

Ryan Isaac:
Get on the phone with them.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s a new t-shirt. It’s happening.

Ryan Isaac:
Is it really?

Matt Mulcock:
I’m going to tattoo that on my lower back. It’s happening.

Ryan Isaac:
Let me be your account-a-buddy.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
And getting on the phone with that person a few times a year, and just making sure, “Hey, I think we can save some more money. Should we save some more money?” That savings, that forced savings will automatically mean that you are not spending too much money. So that’s how we can help it.

Ryan Isaac:
Matt. It’s time.

Matt Mulcock:
Time for what, Ryan?

Ryan Isaac:
It’s time to book a free consultation at dentistadvisors.com. Just click on the big “book free consultation” button on the homepage, and talk to one of our friendly advisors today.

Ryan Isaac:
The last one I was going to mention, that I think, because these are just kind of my top three, I think that take the most mental energy away from being present for people. And the other one is, “How is my money invested?”

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
The worries of the day-to-day. We talk about this so many times, on so much other content that we do, but the worries of the day-to-day news, and the markets, and the economies, and, “What’s the government doing?” And, “What’s my neighbor doing?”

Matt Mulcock:
It’s fun. It’s fun, isn’t it?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. And…

Matt Mulcock:
It’s not. It’s like the opposite of fun.

Ryan Isaac:
“What is my Facebook group telling me to do?” And, “What is Bitcoin doing today?” And, “What is the new…”

Matt Mulcock:
“What’s my neighbor doing?” What’s my…”

Ryan Isaac:
“What’s my neighbor up to?”

Matt Mulcock:
“The doggone brother-in-law doing?”

Ryan Isaac:
It’ll never end. It is not different right now. It’ll never end. The cycles of markets, and the ups and downs, and the hot stock of the day, and the hot asset class of the day, that’ll never end, it just changes names.

Matt Mulcock:
But it never ends because humans never change.

Ryan Isaac:
We never stop changing, and inventing it, and going through cycles ourselves.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
But people spend significant amounts of time worrying about what their investments are doing, and if it’s okay. And that is a very, very valid concern you should be worried about. But there’s definite, very sure fixes to it, too. You can put an end to that worry for the most part; we can’t control what the economy is going to do, or what the next president’s going to do, or what the tax laws are going to be. We don’t control that completely; but we can control a lot of other things that can give us a lot of peace of mind. And it’s kind of like… I was going to say, I don’t worry about markets or economies. I invest in the exact same things I tell my clients to do.

Ryan Isaac:
I have the most aggressive portfolio that we have available. I don’t worry about this stuff; but it’s probably not fair, because I’m used to it. I’m like a constant; it’s kind of like dentists don’t worry about seeing a mouth bleeding all of a sudden. I would maybe pass out.

Matt Mulcock:
Pass out. I would pass out.

Ryan Isaac:
No lie; I might pass out if I saw that. But if you see it 20 times a day, you just don’t care anymore. You’re like, “Yeah, this is normal.” That’s how I feel about stocks going up and down. But, that worry can be greatly alleviated. It can be totally taken away. I don’t want to call this out specifically, and I don’t think I have to, because this is a frequent enough response we get. But when people meet us for the… Or when people want to talk to us for the first time, which by the way, they way you do that is to go to dentistadvisors.com, click the “book free consultation” link, and then we’ll set up an appointment with you, whatever works for you. And we’ll send you a quick survey. What is it, like six or seven questions, Matt? Something like that?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. If you’d factor in filling out the balance sheet and all that, it’s probably more, but…

Ryan Isaac:
It’s 10-minute questions. It’s just like, “Help us understand who you are. Where are you coming from? What’s your work like? What have you been doing up to this point?” A few questions. It’s a pretty frequent response; and I just saw one fairly recently that just reminded me of this. Someone said, “I need to stop…” What did they say? “I need to stop day trading between patients. And I need to just…”

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, I haven’t seen that one.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, didn’t you see that?

Matt Mulcock:
That’s amazing. No.

Ryan Isaac:
Someone said… And I’ve been… It’s just frequent, or it’s recent, but this has happened in the past frequently.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
But someone just said, “Hey, I’m reaching out, because I need to stop day trading between patients.” And I read that and I thought, “Yeah, man. I mean, no way.”

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, you do.

Ryan Isaac:
No way you should be doing that.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. That’s an easy answer. “Stop doing that.”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. And so, it’s like, things like that can be… Around investments can be alleviated with an investment plan that is broad. And it’s elegantly simple, but it’s actually pretty complex. Even when you’re talking about… I know some dentists get into, I don’t know, a mindset where they feel like just having some stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and a 401k, and a brokerage account…

Matt Mulcock:
Boring.

Ryan Isaac:
Is boring and too simple. And there must be something eventually when I’ve got enough money to be more involved. Like, “What do the sophisticated people do?” That’s a trap people get into, but it’s a lot more complex than people think it is. There are more moving parts around that then a lot of people realize. But those things can be done, and they can be done well. They can be set up, established, and mostly automated, and then put in the hands of your account-a-buddy.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
And then you-

Matt Mulcock:
This is a thing. We’re just going to go with buddies now.

Ryan Isaac:
And then your account-a-buddy is going to stay. And then you can do your dentistry, and between patients, I don’t know what you do between patients; maybe read a book, maybe you take a walk outside of the office. Maybe you talk to someone on your team, and you are present to a conversation with someone that you enjoy working with.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. You think about ways of growing your greatest asset that you’re ever going to have in your whole life.

Ryan Isaac:
Do some marketing, do some team training, eat of muffin. Anyway, I think those are the top, man. If you’re going to talk about financial mind wandering, it’s, “What progress am I making? Are we spending too much money? And are my investment okay? Am I doing the right thing with my investments?” Those just pull so much emotional and mental time and energy away from people. They cause us to not be present.

Ryan Isaac:
And we just want you to be present, folks. We want the same thing for you as we want for ourselves. And me, as a bald, old, middle-aged man with teenage children that are quickly-

Matt Mulcock:
That does not look a day over 40.

Ryan Isaac:
I don’t look a day over 40. That’s also another t-shirt that’s coming our way. I want the same thing for you as I want for myself, which is, even these mundane moments, even if the weather’s not great, or that I don’t have any special planed that day, I just want my brain to be here. Because I know that that’s how I’ll be happy. And I know one day, if too much time passes, and my brain wasn’t here, present, I will regret that. And I will probably regret that more than any other thing I’ve done in the past. Maybe. I’ve done some things. Well, that’s another show.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I’ve got some skeletons, for sure.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. But that’s what we want for you. And we know, I know for a fact, that these basic principles of organization and accountability through an account-a-buddy, are the things that will take your mind off them, and help you be present in your own life, whatever your things are you’re trying to be present to. So that’s what I had for you today. That’s what I wanted to share. Matt, thanks for letting me spring that on you, unbeknownst to you.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I love it.

Ryan Isaac:
Though this was like an episode based on my own personal crisis of the day, stressing my head off about money, and that on paper is fine, but I’m just stressed, and I just wasted a whole day. And I’m not here; my brain’s not here. It’s gone.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. The fact that you have the insight to, and you’re introspective enough to sit there and think about that; which is honestly why this is one of the best parts of our job, is doing this show. Because it makes you think about the things that we’re preaching. And it really, truly makes us think about all of it. The whole thing where they say, “The teacher learns more than the student.”

Ryan Isaac:
For sure. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Right? So I think the same thing about this; it makes you think. Like right now, it’s what? It’s only two o’clock in the afternoon?

Ryan Isaac:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Matt Mulcock:
The day ain’t over yet; you still have time to be present.

Ryan Isaac:
I’ve got time to switch my mind, and be there. Yep. And I love, yeah. That analogy, and the cook that’s eating their own cooking. That’s what we’re here to do. I’m eating the portfolio I’m recommending. I’m trying to hit savings targets.

Matt Mulcock:
We eat our portfolios. We’re learning…

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Savings rates targets, funding 401k. We’re trying it all, folks.

Matt Mulcock:
We do it all.

Ryan Isaac:
Eat the cooking. So thanks for being here with us. If you’re new to the show, I hope it was a good first experience for you. There’s more like this every Wednesday. And another-

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. And if it wasn’t then-

Ryan Isaac:
Try again.

Matt Mulcock:
Try it again.

Ryan Isaac:
We’ll try again, too. We’ll try to be better.

Matt Mulcock:
We’ll try again. That’s the whole thing. It’s a weekly thing. So we can screw it up one time, and you’ll just keep coming back around.

Ryan Isaac:
Or, go back and listen to the very awkward first episodes we used to do.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s what probably… If you’re new to this show, that’s what you should do.

Ryan Isaac:
Just go back.

Matt Mulcock:
You go, well listen to that one first, set the bar, and then come back, and tell me what you think.

Ryan Isaac:
You’ll love the show a lot more.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
But anyway, if you’re new, thanks. Welcome here. I hope you stick around. And if you’ve been here for awhile, we appreciate you guys being with us, and listening, and downloading, and we hope that this improves your life. If you want to chat with us, two good ways to ask a question or chat with us. One would be, go to the Dentist Advisors Discussion Group on Facebook. Post a question there; we will post a specific, custom answer to you. A custom answer.

Matt Mulcock:
We’ll make it customized, unique.

Ryan Isaac:
Or go to dentistadvisors.com, click on “book free consultation,” and just pick a time on one our calendars. So you’ll get matched up with one of our dental only; we are a fiduciary, no commission, comprehensive, only dentist financial advisors. So you’ll get matched up with one of our advisors that only works with dentists, and have a chat. Let’s talk about your mind wanderings, and how we can alleviate that pain. Matt, thank you.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes. Thanks, Ryan.

Ryan Isaac:
Listeners, thank you. And we’ll catch you next time. Take care.

 

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