The Secret to Guilt-Free Spending – Episode #350

You may not need Pink Floyd’s “New car, caviar, four star, daydream, think I’ll buy me a football team, or, I’m in the high-fidelity first-class traveling set, I think I need a Lear jet.” But what pricey things bring you happiness?

On this Dentist Money™ Show, Ryan and Matt ask the Dentist Advisors Facebook Group about what lavish purchases they’ve made that brought them joy.

 

 

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Podcast Transcript

Ryan Isaac:
Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of The Dentist Money Show brought to you by Dentist Advisors, a fiduciary, no commission, comprehensive financial advisor just for dentists all over the country. It’s all we’ve done for 15 years folks check us out, dentistadvisors.com. Today on the show Matt and I are talking about a few of our favorite things. We asked our audience and our listeners on Facebook in our Facebook Dentist Money Facebook Group, what are some favorite things you’ve spent money on that you think are worth it and actually enjoy, it made your life better and happier. And it was a fun list of answers that we got back from people. So thanks for responding to that and thanks for answering.

[music]

Ryan Isaac:
And the thing we’re trying to get at today, is how do we help a dentist? How can a dentist get to a point in their life where they can, without guilt, spend money on a few of their favorite things and not have it be disruptive to their savings or retirement or debt payoff and make all that hard work and sacrifice and high income worth it by having some things that you really love in your life. So we talk about that today on the show. If you have any questions for us, you can go to dentistadvisors.com, click the Book Free Consultation link, schedule a chat with one of our very friendly dentist specific advisors and ask them questions about your spending and savings and investing and get a plan for your life today so that you could do some of this guilt-free spending in your own life. Thanks everyone for being here, we really appreciate the support and listening in all these years. Enjoy the show everyone.

Announcer:
Consult an advisor, 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 and I’m here with Matt and we’re happy to be here with you. What’s up Matt? How you doing buddy?

Matt Mulcock:
Yoh, Ryan, I gotta give a quick shout-out to my wife. You did not even know this was coming…

Ryan Isaac:
No, let’s do it.

Matt Mulcock:
And she does not listen to the show.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, she doesn’t, neither does mine.

Matt Mulcock:
But I’m still giving a shout-out. 12 years today, 12-year anniversary.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, for real?

Matt Mulcock:
It’s for real.

Ryan Isaac:
You’re recording a…

Matt Mulcock:
I’m here recording on…

Ryan Isaac:
Recording a podcast on your anniversary.

Matt Mulcock:
12-year anniversary. Did my wife have to remind me last night?

Ryan Isaac:
What?

Matt Mulcock:
That today was our anniversary?

Ryan Isaac:
Matt?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, she did.

Ryan Isaac:
No. What did you do…

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I’m that guy.

Ryan Isaac:
Are you doing something?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, we’re going to dinner tonight and gonna hang out, just to have a nice evening.

Ryan Isaac:
Are you gonna like go weekend trip though too, right?

Matt Mulcock:
This weekend, yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. It’s being celebrated.

Matt Mulcock:
It is being celebrated. I think what you hit… Once you hit a decade mark and you’ve got kids… I told her last night when she brought it up and she did it very nicely. She was very subtle. She wasn’t being a jerk. She wasn’t throwing it in my face ’cause my wife is very sweet, but she did bring it up and I felt really bad. And I was like, I can’t even cover this up. Like I just… I forgot. I’m sorry.

Ryan Isaac:
You couldn’t be like…

Matt Mulcock:
I couldn’t get out of it. I was just like I’m…

Ryan Isaac:
Pretend you had a surprise?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, no. Couldn’t, it was too late. It was like nine o’clock last night. I’m getting ready for bed and she’s, like she even reminded me and I was like, oh, “I’m so sorry.”

Ryan Isaac:
Is your wife a flower person? Does she enjoy flowers? And are flowers on the way…

Matt Mulcock:
: She…

Ryan Isaac:
If so.

Matt Mulcock:
Flowers are coming today, she has very specific flower taste. So I’ve learned this, it’s taken me over a decade to learn this.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s fair, all right.

Matt Mulcock:
She’s not a rose person…

Ryan Isaac:
Okay.

Matt Mulcock:
She is straight Hydrangeas…

Ryan Isaac:
Whoa.

Matt Mulcock:
Ranunculus are also on the list.

Ryan Isaac:
I don’t even know what those are, ranunculus.

Matt Mulcock:
Ranunculus, look them up. They’re pretty. They’re quite pretty. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
If I was reading a novel about Dracula, the Ranunculus seems like that would be like a friend of Dracula’s.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Or like his lover or something.

[laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
Dracula’s lover is Ranunculus.

Matt Mulcock:
Ranunculus.

Ryan Isaac:
100% that is the case.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
In a novel.

Matt Mulcock:
So there it is. There it is.

Ryan Isaac:
Well, congrats buddy.

Matt Mulcock:
Thank you.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s pretty big time. I’m excited to hear that. Well, thanks for being here. You got… It’s a big day for you, it’s very Important.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes of course.

Ryan Isaac:
But this is an important topic today, well, that we’re gonna talk about. But first, actually, I wanna do this. I was listening to a podcast the other day and it’s a podcast that’s been running for a very long time and they don’t always do this, but the hosts kind of like introduced themselves after… They’d been doing this for years and I thought, for anyone who’s like tuning in for the first time or kind of new listening to the podcast, who are Matt and Ryan? And who’s the team? And like what are we doing? And what is this all about? And so if you’re not…

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, that’s cool.

Ryan Isaac:
And I listen to this podcast a lot but they introduced themselves and I thought, oh, it’s kinda cool. So if you’re new or joining us, first of all, thanks for joining us and downloading the show and checking out The Dentist Money Show. Matt and I are both advisors for Dentist Advisors, we’re financial advisors. Dentist Advisors, as the intro so eloquently states, is a no commission, fiduciary financial advisor just for dentists. And we started about 15 years ago. Shout out to the man Reese Harper for the vision and the dreams.

Matt Mulcock:
Our guy, our guy.

Ryan Isaac:
He built it and we arrived and yeah, so we’re financial advisors. All we do for our entire lives is help dentists make financial decisions and we track data and we organize people’s financial lives which we’re gonna talk about today. And that’s what we do, and that’s like kind of the context of what we bring to the podcast. Why we started it in the first place was just to take some of our… These things we’re doing daily one-on-one with clients that no one really ever sees and try to bring some of that experience to the public and help you make financial decisions along the way. So If you…

Matt Mulcock:
And we have fun with it, ’cause I had fun.

Ryan Isaac:
And we… I think we have a good time.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
We have a good time. So that’s who we are. That’s why we do this thing. And if you ever want to have a chat with one of our advisors, it’s easy to do. It’s just dentistadvisors.com. There’s a big green button right there that says Book Free Consultation. And you can click that and then a calendar pops up and you can just pick a time that works for you. And then you’ll chat with one of our advisors, our whole firm only works with dentists. So you’ll have a chance to talk with someone who only works with dentists on a daily basis and whatever you’re going through, we’ve probably had a chance to go through with hundreds of other people also. And so we have some context we can help bring to the table. Well, that’s who we are. And Matt can squat 600 pounds also.

[laughter]

Matt Mulcock:
No. No, I cannot. Not any more. Those days are behind me.

Ryan Isaac:
We’re going back to that.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, my days are… We’re trying to. We’re trying to get back to it.

Ryan Isaac:
So speaking of awesome things, I… A few weeks ago… This is something I think about a lot, and the topic is spending money. If we’re gonna cut right to the chase here. The topic is like spending money is awesome and it’s super fun, and it’s the whole point of working and making money, is to spend it and live a good life and enjoy it and have stuff you like and experiences that you like. I think about this topic all the time, we talk about this all the time. A few weeks ago, I went to our Facebook Group, so shout out to the Dentist Money Facebook Group, and I posted this question and I wanted to know from people, ’cause you know the cliche Matt… I don’t know if it’s a cliche but it does the saying, “Money doesn’t buy happiness.”

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
And then there are studies that prove after a certain amount of income every year, people, their happiness doesn’t necessarily increase with more money. But [chuckle] there are things that we buy that just actually make our lives so much better, and it differs from person to person. I’m sure you have… I want you to be thinking of your things too, ’cause I wanna hear…

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
So anyway, I posted this question in our Facebook group and on my personal Facebook page and we’re gonna read some of the things. I was just asking people, “Hey, what have you spent money on? What’s a thing you’ve bought that was worth it, that actually made your life better?” And by the way, do you wanna go first Matt or do you wanna go last? Do you have anything off the top of your head? I have one totally I’m thinking about. Do you at all or do you wanna wait?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, I’ve got… One thing I wanna clarify on the question.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Is it specifically a thing?

Ryan Isaac:
No.

Matt Mulcock:
Or is it just spending money in general?

Ryan Isaac:
Something you’ve spent money on that was just totally worth it.

Matt Mulcock:
Got it.

Ryan Isaac:
And so some people interpret that as a thing, other people could… I’ll read some of these, some of these other things are not like what you’d typically think of as stuff people buy.

Matt Mulcock:
I’ve got one. The first thing to popped up in my head.

Ryan Isaac:
What comes to your mind?

Matt Mulcock:
This is gonna sound so boring, but it’s just this is how it is. This is my life.

Ryan Isaac:
We are not judging.

Matt Mulcock:
Paying… A couple of years ago was the first time in my life I actually paid to have my entire yard cleaned up.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh.

Matt Mulcock:
I outsourced someone to come in, they brought a whole crew, took them like two hours what would have taken me multiple Saturdays and they cleaned… They went… It was perfect, it was in pristine condition. And I walked outside, I just walked around the yard when it was done…

Ryan Isaac:
So happy.

Matt Mulcock:
And I just had butterflies, I just felt so good. I was shy, I was… Just my soul was shimmering. I was… If that’s a thing. [chuckle]

Ryan Isaac:
That’s your new nickname, is soul shimmering.

Matt Mulcock:
I’m trying to describe the happiness I felt. I haven’t felt that good about spending money in a long time.

Ryan Isaac:
I love that dude. And see, I think here’s the lesson is… I think there’s a couple of things that we wanna get to today. Number one is whatever that is is gonna be different for everybody, right? Because someone else is gonna be like, “You’re wasting your money, Matt. That’s bad… ”

Matt Mulcock:
Totally.

Ryan Isaac:
“That’s a poor financial choice because you could do that yourself save the money and it’s easy, and the tools are cheap these days and whatever, and you could have the money for something else, bad financial decision. But for you, it’s not. And the second part is, I’m curious about, you said you started this a couple of years ago, what… And this is what we wanna… This is kind of the point of today, how do you help somebody arrive at the point in their life where they can spend money on stuff that they’re not currently spending money on that they really want to spend on? Any insight from your experience? How did you finally arrive at the point where you were like, “I am now comfortable spending yard money.” ‘Cause I assume you were just busting your own butt on Saturday mornings doing it before that.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, for sure. And well, I think part of it is… So we’ve talked about this before with the concept of early on in your career and in your adult life, you’re basically exchanging your time for money, that’s kind of the name of the game, and I think dentists use too.

Ryan Isaac:
All the time, no money. That’s what you got.

Matt Mulcock:
You have all the time in the world. If you’ve got…

Ryan Isaac:
No money.

Matt Mulcock:
No kids or maybe you’re not married, or maybe you are, but you have no kids, like you got a lot of time usually early on in your adult life, and you have no money, that was me for a long time.

Ryan Isaac:
Totally.

Matt Mulcock:
And then you start to get to a point where your time starts getting eaten up more, but in exchange for that, you’re getting more money, so it’s kinda like you find this… And that’s kind of what happened with us is like we… My wife had graduated school, my career was starting to build to momentum, it was great, and then it was like, “Oh, but I… ” Then we had a kid and then another kid, it’s like, “Oh, we don’t have time.” But in exchange for that, we had more money. So I think… I don’t know if there’s an exact formula for this, but it was like…

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, okay. Start patience?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, we just started to feel like, “Okay, I have less time than I do money now, and so I’m willing to exchange some of that money to get back some of my time, I’m not gonna spend… ”

Ryan Isaac:
Totally.

Matt Mulcock:
The next four Saturdays… ” I just started to do that kind of in my head like, “Okay, my time is now more valuable to me than the money I’m spending on it.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. And you’re right, there’s this point in career where you start having to make those decisions, especially we’re talking to audience of a lot of business owning dentists, that point probably comes even sooner. You kind of have to do everything yourself like you’re saying in the beginning. All you’ve got is time and no money on your hand, so you do everything, a lot of dentists are doing their own hygiene and answering phone calls, cleaning their offices, whatever. But quickly, that changes.

Jess Reynolds:
Hey everyone, this is Jess Reynolds with Dentist Advisors. As you know, we are passionate about giving dentists the education and resources they need to make smart financial decisions. We’ve brought you the dentist Money Show podcast, which has been downloaded over a million times, and we’ve been providing dentists with a premier private wealth management experience for 15 years. Honestly, it’s been great, and now we’re adding to our lineup to help even more dentists get the financial guidance they need.

Jess Reynolds:
Now, not every dentist is looking for the Cadillac experience that comes with our private wealth management service. So we have introduced a self-paced subscription-based planning service called the Dentist Money membership. For a monthly fee, Dentist Money members get access to a suite of planning tools, including the innovative elements app, investing portal, CE approved content, and a lot of other cool members-only benefits. Plus, as a Dentist Money member, you can pay for one-on-one coaching sessions with a CFP advisor on an as-needed basis. To learn more about these features, visit dentistadvisors.com. You can get started right from the website or book a 15-minute demo just to see how it all works, that’s dentistadvisors.com.

Ryan Isaac:
Let’s finally get to some of these answers, [laughter] what people like to spend their money on. Oh my gosh, this is good. I like the chat. Okay. So this is my question from a Dentist money…

Matt Mulcock:
Wait. Do I get to hear yours though or are we gonna jump to that later?

Ryan Isaac:
Oh. No question mine. Up to this point in my life, no question. The thing I am the most excited that I spent money on in my whole life, was my van that I bought in 2020. And that was like life changing thing. So I lived in Arizona for anyone who hasn’t obsessively heard me talk about this before. [chuckle] I lived in Arizona. I started my lifelong dream of learning to surf and from another friend in Arizona and I bought a van, I put a bed in it and I drove from Arizona, San Diego, six hours each way, like a few times a month to go… I drive over. I’d surf in the morning. I’d work in my van in the day and then surf at night and then come home a couple days later. That van hands down was like the best thing I’ve ever, ever spent money on.

Ryan Isaac:
It happened to be a time during COVID my kids weren’t in school. And so like every other trip I was bringing a kid or two with me. And we were like camping on like back roads and highways and sometimes if I could reserve a beach spot, they still talk about that like all the time. And it was probably the best times in my life. I’ll never be able to recreate.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s awesome.

Ryan Isaac:
So, for sure, for sure. But I mean, think about that, I’m talking about a car, a vehicle, right? How many times would people say the vehicle is the best thing they’ve ever bought? Most people would be like, waste of money.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. But it’s what it facilitated, right?

Ryan Isaac:
It was what it did.

Matt Mulcock:
It facilitated the experience.

Ryan Isaac:
What was the context? Totally. So, anyway, thanks for asking. I’m still in love with those memories. Alright. So here’s some things people said, and we’re gonna read some of these through to… Kind of your point. You mentioned you outsourced the service. I bought a vehicle it’s kind of a broad range. So let’s… We’re gonna hear other people’s, perspectives on things that were worth it to them. But then we’ll kind of tie this in with a few tips that we have seen work in dentist lives to help people get to that point where they can feel comfortable and be okay doing this. So, I won’t… We’ll just give first names. That’s probably fine, right?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I think that’s good.

Ryan Isaac:
Kyle said LASIK eye surgery. Is that crazy?

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, okay. Don’t tell my wife that she’s been fighting me on that one.

Ryan Isaac:
Really?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. She wants it.

Ryan Isaac:
Are you like anti-LASIK? You’re Like, no.

Matt Mulcock:
No, I’m not anti-LASIK. It’s more of money. We’ve just… It came at a…

Ryan Isaac:
Shelling out after you moved.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes. It came at a time when she brought it up. It came at a time in her life where I feel like money was just going out the door and then she brought it up and I was like, let’s pump the brakes a little bit. [chuckle]

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, hold on.

Matt Mulcock:
But at some point she will…

Ryan Isaac:
It’s happening?

Matt Mulcock:
Do that, yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
So Kyle says LASIK, which is super cool. Yeah. I mean that an improvement on health, it might be one of the most important things you probably ever could spend money on.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
But he… I like his close second though, because I am… I also love this close second he said was a pebble ice maker.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, okay. Cool.

Ryan Isaac:
Now I didn’t… I have an ice maker in my house. It’s not a pebble, so my… Pebble ice makers are really expensive.

Matt Mulcock:
They are not cheap.

Ryan Isaac:
They are so expensive.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
But I love my ice maker. So shout out to Kyle. Jaren says mountain bikes.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, cool.

Ryan Isaac:
You can relate to that. You bike.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Not as much for the last couple years, but something about having little kids that’ll ruin your mountain bike career, [chuckle] but also all the falls I’ve had has also put a little…

Ryan Isaac:
All the times you’ve crashed…

Matt Mulcock:
Yes. I had a bad summer a couple of years ago.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh. Have you really not biked too much since then?

Matt Mulcock:
No. I mean, because we had our second kid…

Ryan Isaac:
Kids.

Matt Mulcock:
And then, you know, just, it was a rough time to get out. So I’ve not been for a bit.

Ryan Isaac:
You need to get back out there mountain bikes. I, Jaren I’m with you. I’ve not bought bikes before I have bought a bike. And there were quite a few years in Utah and Arizona where I biked a lot. I haven’t biked much here in California. It’s hard for me to choose anything else over surfing when I’ve got the time and if there’s waves, but I need to get back at it. I kind of miss it. David said home gym.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, okay.

Ryan Isaac:
I’m with that one. I did that early 2020, like that was probably the only prediction I ever made. That was an accidental prediction. And it only happened because I got hurt at my normal gym, [chuckle] hurt my back. And so I was like, you know what, I’m just gonna go home gym for a little while. And I bought a whole bunch of stuff like a month before the shutdown. And when you couldn’t buy home gym equipment for like a year straight. And yeah, home gym. I’m still a home gym person. We’ve got… Let’s see Chris, boat and fishing gear. Oh yeah. Boat for sure. See, I mean, it is funny. Like a lot of people would be like, don’t buy a boat.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
What a waste of money.

Matt Mulcock:
You know what I always say about the boats? The best boat to own is a friend’s boat.

Ryan Isaac:
I was just talking to a friend who has a condo in Mexico. And that’s the best kind of condo in Mexico to have…

Matt Mulcock:
Always the best.

Ryan Isaac:
Is When your friends got. [chuckle]

Matt Mulcock:
Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
When your friends got.

Matt Mulcock:
I have a friend who has a boat. He’s bringing it up this weekend, we’re going…

Ryan Isaac:
Are you going out?

Matt Mulcock:
We’re going hanging out and I’m like, man, this is the best boat ever. I pay for gas with you.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s the best boat ever.

Matt Mulcock:
And that’s about it.

Ryan Isaac:
I’ve got another Kyle here, charming in with pizza and bread making equipment.

Matt Mulcock:
Very cool.

Ryan Isaac:
I have a pizza… Have you ever done pizza oven?

Matt Mulcock:
No, but that’s awesome.

Ryan Isaac:
Little plug from totally not a sponsor. There’s this little pizza ovens. I think you can buy them at Lowe’s and home Depot called Ooni, O-O-N-I.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
And there’s a lot of ’em on the market actually, but I bought one. They’re like 300 bucks. The small ones are. That’s mine. And dude, homemade pizzas are like so fun to make.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s like the wood fire type thing or like a?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. It’s this little… Yeah. It’s this cool, like self enclosed pizza oven. There’s a little tray in the back. And you just feed it little chunks of wood.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Keep a fire going. And it’s got a stone in there and then you just got your little temperature gun and when the stone is hot enough, you… The family’s like rolling out pizza dough and making the toppings.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, that’s cool.

Ryan Isaac:
And they cook in like 90 seconds tops, each little pizza. And it’s like personal sized pizza. So you just get it in there a minute and a half later, a person’s got a pizza.

Matt Mulcock:
Okay.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s so cool.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s pretty sweet. Maybe that’s an anniversary gift that I can go buy right now or something.

[laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
Dude, you should go do that. Act like it was totally planned.

Matt Mulcock:
 I totally… Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
I felt really dumb when you were asking me and reminding me and I just didn’t wanna spoil the surprise.

Matt Mulcock:
So here’s your…

Ryan Isaac:
But I had actually planned this.

Matt Mulcock:
I had planned an Ooni.

Ryan Isaac:
Pizza oven, Ooni-es are awesome. Joseph said engagement ring, best money he’s ever spent.

Matt Mulcock:
Interesting. Okay.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. I would like a follow up of that.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I would too.

Ryan Isaac:
In a few decades. Let’s see how that goes.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, exactly.

Ryan Isaac:
Congrats Joseph. That’s awesome.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s awesome. This was a hot topic in the office a few weeks ago about…

Ryan Isaac:
Really?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, there was some fire being spit on both sides of the argument.

Ryan Isaac:
What was the take about engagement rings?

Matt Mulcock:
Just some people in the office saying what a waste of money they are. And then the other side saying, like taking, I think this position of saying they’re great. I think that that’s a controversial one. Not bad. It’s just.

Ryan Isaac:
What was the take that… Were they talking about engagement rings separate from the actual wedding band? You have two different rings and then the engagement one is a separate one that you gotta buy. I did totally didn’t do that, but.

Matt Mulcock:
I think the conversation was around the amount of money that is spent sometimes on engagement rings and…

Ryan Isaac:
Got it.

Matt Mulcock:
On one end of the argument. Some people were saying, “It’s totally worth it.” The other side was like, “What a waste of money.” It’s kind of what you were saying earlier like this is so personal to everybody.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Let’s see. A lot of votes for vacation. So we got another Kyle and Billy…

Matt Mulcock:
That was my close second.

Ryan Isaac:
Saying vacations. Yeah. Vacations are like totally.

Matt Mulcock:
I went with the non-obvious answer.

Ryan Isaac:
Totally.

Matt Mulcock:
‘Cause I mean, vacations to me are the most obvious, like traveling.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Clint, we’ve got some home gyms and other pebble ice vote, so cool. Here’s a new one. A Chilipad or a cooler to cool my bed. What?

Matt Mulcock:
What?

Ryan Isaac:
I’ve seen these advertised and someone voted for this. Someone said that’s their best purchase they’ve ever made. Now I recently we went on a family trip recently and I’m a hard mattress kind of person. My wife definitely is not. And I slept so good on this condo mattress we were in, ’cause it was really hard. And I’m like, “I need a better mattress.” I think one of the best investments you can ever spend money on is investing in your sleep quality.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s gotta be. It’s like the half the day.

Matt Mulcock:
You’re just spending a third of your life in…

Ryan Isaac:
In like laying there.

Matt Mulcock:
Laying in bed.

Ryan Isaac:
Sleeping.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
A cooler for your bed. Okay. Clint also said, “Hiring someone to mow my lawn and clean my house.”

Matt Mulcock:
Hey there we go.

Ryan Isaac:
Tracy, ‘Ski condo, gym membership, housekeeper, espresso machine.” Ooh. Ooh.

[laughter]

Matt Mulcock:
There it is.

Ryan Isaac:
I currently do spend… I am like the Twitter cliche of spending too much on coffee weekly.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. [laughter] yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Like six bucks because I’m the latte person. And the whole world of creating your own is so intimidating. I have no idea where to even begin with that espresso machine.

Matt Mulcock:
I’m with you, man. We got… We just have the Keurig coffee maker. You get the little pods.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
And it’s like really straightforward.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Are you satisfied with that?

Matt Mulcock:
I mean, I’m satisfied with…

Ryan Isaac:
-ish, enough?

Matt Mulcock:
A lot of things in life that most people wouldn’t be.

[laughter]

Matt Mulcock:
So for me, something like that. Yeah, it’s perfect.

Ryan Isaac:
You’re easy to please.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Ask Reese if he would like a Keurig, a cup of coffee.

Matt Mulcock:
Don’t even get started with Reese and his…

Ryan Isaac:
Did you ask him about his setup?

Matt Mulcock:
It is unbelievable man.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. He’s like… It’s like a full on. It looks like a Willy Wonka machine on his counter top.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s a full bar. He’s got an espresso bar.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s a full bar.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
There’s pipes connecting other sections. It’s either like the coolest hamster cage in the world or yeah. Something from Willy Wonka, espresso machine. Mo, someone else said, “LASIK.”

Matt Mulcock:
Okay.

Ryan Isaac:
Sorry. Oh, two, another person Lauren, said, “Same here, LASIK.” So.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh. All right. I’m not gonna tell my wife about this one.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Eric, “Acreage in the mountains.” Oh dude, here’s one Greg, “IVF, in vitro.”

Matt Mulcock:
Very cool.

Ryan Isaac:
And then he posted a picture of his little daughter.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s amazing.

Ryan Isaac:
Man, that’s so cool. That’s so cool. IVF. Good call.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Let’s see. Greg listed some toys he’s bought, a one wheel. Have you ever ridden a one wheel man?

Matt Mulcock:
I have not. I feared that I would crash and burn and it would not be good.

Ryan Isaac:
Do you remember I was doing a Voxer? It’s a group…

Matt Mulcock:
Oh yes, yes.

Ryan Isaac:
A group audio message thing to…

Matt Mulcock:
And you crashed.

Ryan Isaac:
You and someone else. And I crashed while talking to you guys…

Matt Mulcock:
Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
Mid sentence.

Matt Mulcock:
It went dead and then you came back on and you were huffing and puffing and…

Ryan Isaac:
It hurt so bad.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
And I was lucky the way I crashed too, but he said, Greg said… Be careful Greg, wear a helmet?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Greg’s smart, he wears a helmet. Onewheel Lift eFoil. Reese has been in those lately. Those, are those electric foil surfboards. So cool.

Matt Mulcock:
Those are so cool.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Like lake toys, that kind of stuff. Patrick, “Surfboard and skis, family vacations and trips.” Oh, here’s one. Patrick says he spends money on his wife’s painting supplies. That’s really cool.

Matt Mulcock:
Very cool.

Ryan Isaac:
And embarrassingly expensive coffee beans. Yep. Got it.

Matt Mulcock:
There you go. [laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
Kinda with you. Okay. Brian. Let’s read a couple more here. Brian says, I don’t know what this means. It’s V-I, Vispring or Vispring mattress. I don’t know what that is. Do you know what that is?

Matt Mulcock:
No, I don’t. But again, the sleep investment.

Ryan Isaac:
So another vote for mattress. I like a few of the things he said, vinyl records.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, cool. I love how with the mix of this. It’s really cool.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. A cool mix. I like something else he said here, he said, “Cheapest house on the street, but sitting on a big green belt area in Austin,” that he can walk outside and run miles through the woods and just have these trails to run. So cheapest house, but best access to some trails to run.

Matt Mulcock:
Okay.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s really cool.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Someone else voted for… Let’s see we’ve got, “Vintage, mid-century furniture that was built super high quality, stands the test of time.” These things are really cool. These things are cool.

Matt Mulcock:
So not IKEA is what we’re saying. The opposite of IKEA?

Ryan Isaac:
No. Yeah. Uh-huh. All right. Let’s do a couple more here real fast. We’ve got Steven with a camp trailer. “Camping is my favorite thing to do. And so boom, camp trailer.” Hunter said, “A pool and a hot tub.”

Matt Mulcock:
My guy Hunter. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Hunter’s down with the pool and the hot tub. I’ve had… Have you ever had a hot tub or a pool Matt?

Matt Mulcock:
No, my wife and I were just talking about this. We’re years away from having kids at ages that we’re comfortable having a pool, but we actually like the idea of it. I think theoretically right now we are on board. I think at some point we’ll do it, but we’re talking like 10 years.

Ryan Isaac:
I love the hot tub. Maybe you should just start with the hot tub.

Matt Mulcock:
Maybe we do. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
The hot tub I’ve had… In Arizona everyone has a pool. So this isn’t a flex at all. But we had the pool in Arizona and I almost liked the hot tub more than the pool.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
But maybe that was just because it was Arizona. And after a while it was so hot. It’s tough to wanna meet. Yeah. But pool and hot tub, man. Kids, kids love it. A couple more here. Dustin said, “A barrel sauna and an ice bath.”

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, very cool.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
Another vote for pebble ice.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh my gosh. I think that might be the leader in the clubhouse right now.

Ryan Isaac:
Pebble Ice and LASIK is leading the chart.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
Drake said, “A personal trainer and lawn mowing service.” My friend Marco posted a picture. Okay. This guy. All right. Just a little context. My friend Marco is wow. He’s… I don’t know how to… He’s a really well traveled. Just really cultured kind of person. I mean, this is coming from me. I love fast food and cheap stuff. So like I don’t…

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. You’ve never… No one has ever described me as this. [laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
Like Disneyland is a…

Matt Mulcock:
Well cultured.

Ryan Isaac:
Cultured vacation. When I went to EPCOT, that felt like I was visiting lots of cultures. So I don’t know anything about this. No. This is literally a guy who’s like always spending time in like Europe and all over the world and museums and knows things about fine art and sculptures. And he’s just really smart, but he posted a picture of a chandelier. I don’t know anything about it. Apparently someone else commented in this thread, Murano Glass Masters. Murano…

Matt Mulcock:
Huh?

Ryan Isaac:
Apparently is this like mastered glass chandelier and then he posted a couple of other pictures of other glass pieces that he’s got in his office. So…

Matt Mulcock:
Very cool.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Let’s see. Leanne said, “Rompers.”

[laughter]

Matt Mulcock:
Okay. Okay.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Leanne said…

Matt Mulcock:
I love that.

Ryan Isaac:
You know what I’m talking about. You know rompers?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. We go from the cultured ice master or glass master to rompers.

Ryan Isaac:
To rompers.

Matt Mulcock:
I think it’s amazing.

Ryan Isaac:
Rompers, yeah. Rompers are great. Let’s go a couple more. One more vote for LASIK from Kylie.

Matt Mulcock:
Okay. LASIK wins. LASIK has taken the lead from pebble ice.

Ryan Isaac:
And we’ll end with David saying, “A moose hunt.”

Matt Mulcock:
Okay.

Ryan Isaac:
So man. Okay. So what did we learn from that experience? What did you learn from that experience, Matt? That little travel through people’s favorite purchased items.

Matt Mulcock:
So number one…

Ryan Isaac:
What did you take from that?

Matt Mulcock:
A very broad mix. I think it’s awesome to hear all these different things that people enjoy spending money on.

Ryan Isaac:
What Was worth it? Would you ever spend money on an original piece chandelier in your house?

Matt Mulcock:
Literally.

Ryan Isaac:
Like good money?

Matt Mulcock:
Never. Never.

Ryan Isaac:
Never. Never, never, ever, ever. Never.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep. Never.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
But that’s… I think that’s the biggest takeaway. You already said it earlier is like, “It’s so cool to hear how personal spending is.”

Ryan Isaac:
Yes.

Matt Mulcock:
“And it’s connection to happiness.”

Ryan Isaac:
Totally.

Matt Mulcock:
And you hear one thing and you’re like, “Man, I would never do that.” But then you hear something else and you’re like, “Oh, heck yeah. I should maybe start… ”

Ryan Isaac:
Oh. I’ll do that all day.

Matt Mulcock:
I’m thinking about maybe getting a pizza oven and a pebble ice maker. I might go out and get it now.

Ryan Isaac:
I think those are two things your wife needs to see when she gets home today.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, exactly.

Ryan Isaac:
Is the pebble ice machine and a pizza maker. And it’s all about family time. That’s how you position it about…

Matt Mulcock:
Exactly.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s family time around the pizza oven.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep. [laughter] Exactly.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. That’s my takeaway too, man. What a broad range. And as I… And then, to kind of like cap this out, the big… I mean, one of the biggest questions we get all the time from dentists is, “Am I spending too much money? How do I control my spending? How do I budget? How do we stay in a budget?” And really, I think what people want to know is like, All right, all this sacrifice, all this hard work, sometimes like millions of dollars in debt, 10 years of school, the stresses of running a business and a dental practice and being a dentist. I mean, it’s so much, people wanna know that it’s gonna… Like they’re gonna have something in the future when they’re done working. Like, “Can I retire?” Of course. But they also really wanna know like, “Can I actually just enjoy this along the way?” Like, “Do I get to have a good life or does all this sacrifice just have to continue for the next 30 years until I’m 65? And then do I enjoy it?” And so such a big question. Matt, what’s one of the first responses you give when someone asks you like, “how do I budget? How do I stick to a budget? And how do I know if I’m spending too much?” What’s one of the first directions you take that conversation?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. It’s a good question. And it’s coming back to what you were saying earlier. This whole kind of theme and idea of cliches we’d wanna call it maybe of like money can’t buy happiness. I think the direction I always take this type of conversation is kind of around that. And I like to tweak that saying, because I actually don’t agree with it. I think mindless spending cannot buy happiness. I always like to try to take that conversation when it comes up around budgeting and spending and all this is, there’s a huge difference. There’s like a grand canyon size difference between intentional spending that is like directly linked to your values, your goals, what brings you actual joy and happiness? And we just went through a list of them.

Matt Mulcock:
I mean, there’s… It’s endless of how many things an individual can be spending their money on intentionally and with purpose to say, “This is what… ” Like it usually facilitates something else. Like your van is a perfect example. It facilitates experiences and memories with my family. I think where people get in trouble. And when they’re really talking about their spending, it’s the mindless spending. It’s the spending that at the end of the month or the end of the quarter or the end of the year, you look back and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, like, where’d that money even go?” When someone tells me… When you go over their income, or their numbers and you’re having that conversation and they say to me, “Where’d the money go? I don’t even know where the money went.” That’s more of a red flag for me than what the bottom line spending number is. It’s just like, “Are you doing this with intention?”

Ryan Isaac:
Totally.

Matt Mulcock:
“And is it bringing you any return of joy in your life?”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. I mean, how many people… And you’ve probably done this in your life. I totally have too. How many people do you talk to that have a high spending number, but they don’t feel content with what they’re spending their money on. Like it’s still not getting them what they wish they had.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
Whether that’s pebble ice, LASIK, chandeliers, or hunting trips, like whatever.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Exactly.

Ryan Isaac:
I think that’s such a good… That’s a good differentiator, is mindless spending. You know what I would love to ask this same group of people is, what’s something you’ve spent money on that’s like just piling dust in your garage or your attic, or your basement? What are the things you bought that are just sitting around now that you didn’t use and wasted and wish you didn’t buy? What do you regret buying? Maybe that’s a good follow up.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. We could do a follow up to that.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. And maybe, I’ll post a follow up question there, ’cause that would be interesting. This is the highlight of all the stuff they’re using and they’re excited about, but I wonder what people would say is being wasted, or had been sold off for pennies on the dollar. And like once in my early married life, did I buy a Bowflex from an infomercial?

Matt Mulcock:
[laughter] Yes, of course you did.

Ryan Isaac:
Did I buy a Bowflex? Did I buy a Bowflex?

Matt Mulcock:
Yes. And you have the body to show it. You have the body that proves it.

Ryan Isaac:
When we lived in a one bedroom apartment. And did I take down the tiny little circular kitchen table and put the Bowflex in the kitchen table spot in the apartment?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Of course you did.

Ryan Isaac:
Maybe I did.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. And again…

Ryan Isaac:
Did I…

Matt Mulcock:
Body to prove it. Bowflex bod. [laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
Did I sell it off for like pennies after that? Probably.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Not a great investment, money-wise.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Yeah. Body by Bowflex.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Body by Bowflex coming soon from Ryan.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s interesting, man. If I… So if we listed some tips in order of importance. And maybe not the order, but like the top tips to… Getting spending under control or getting on a budget is probably not even the right way to frame it. It’s more like, well, this will be one of the tips, but how do you get to a point as a dentist where you can comfortably spend money on these things that you like and without feeling guilty, actually? And without fighting about it later, or having buyers remorse or micromanaging this stuff. I would say number one, and this is our answer for a lot of things, but there’s a reason for it. The number one thing is you first have to get organized. And this means that you, I think, mindless spending, that goes hand in hand with like mindless tax paying or mindless debt accumulation and paying. Or mindless, a lot of things on the P&L like you… What I mean is, you end up doing things without any context or any data or any feedback on the decisions you’re making.

Ryan Isaac:
You’re kind of just super busy and you’ve got a lot of things to do, and you’re just like getting stuff done. You’re making purchases, you’re taking out loans. You’re just writing checks like whatever. And there’s not a chance. And there are no mechanism in your life, in your daily routine that’s forcing you to stop and slow down and kind of take stock of the data and the details. And then getting feedback on that and seeing if like the data makes sense, or if something’s like overboard in some category. So number one tip is you have to get organized. What that actually means around spending like, if you’re just gonna do one thing, find a way to track your spending and do it for a few months just to give an accurate view of what you’re doing. There’s a million free apps on phones that you can do.

Ryan Isaac:
You can do your own spreadsheet, download your bank data and put it in spreadsheet. Just do that for like two or three months and see like what an average quarter is of spending. Don’t force yourself to change something. Dieticians, nutritionists say this about food tracking when you’re trying to get on a good… The first thing you do is grab a food app that counts your calories…

Matt Mulcock:
Start tracking it.

Ryan Isaac:
And just start tracking. Don’t change anything. Just track, What do you do in a normal week, in a normal month of eating? And the same thing with spending? Like what’s normal? You have to begin there.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s actually super interesting. We’ve seen… I’ve seen this in my personal life with what you’re saying on the fitness side or nutrition side of like tracking your stuff. And also on the personal side of tracking spending, and also obviously advising clients to track spending. So I’ve seen this kind of across the board in different contexts. And it’s amazing just that. Like just starting to track and create awareness. The impact that alone can have for most people on behavior. I’ve had clients… ‘Cause here’s the thing, like let’s not say that a budget is never required, right?

Ryan Isaac:
Totally.

Matt Mulcock:
‘Cause there are times in people’s lives where it’s like, “Hey, we gotta get things in line until your income gets to a place that you can have that buffer.” There are periods of time where budget makes sense, but it’s amazing to me where I’ve like get into this with clients where I’ll say, “Okay. Let’s start just one thing. Let’s get on an app, let’s start tracking your spending. We’ll meet once a month and review.” Just that alone makes a significant difference for a lot of people.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. So number one, track it. Just don’t worry about changing anything right away. Just find a way to track it, do it for three months and just see what you’re doing. Be honest about what’s actually happening.

Matt Mulcock:
And can I say one thing just to that?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
I cannot emphasize enough that if you have a spouse or partner, you have to incorporate them in this process.

Ryan Isaac:
Do it together. Yep.

Matt Mulcock:
And don’t make this super intimidating or super weird or be so bogged down by getting it perfect. Like letting that kind of hold you back from just doing something. Literally, I tell people this all the time, if you’re gonna do this, set a time of day or a day of the week you’re gonna do this. ‘Cause I do think you should be doing this at least at first, I think weekly is probably the easiest for a while. And just be like, “Okay, Friday night, we’re gonna go out to dinner. Yes. We’re gonna spend money and on dinner and we’re gonna just chat about it. We’re gonna pull up our app. We’re just gonna look at it. We don’t need to put any rules on it.” But you have to incorporate your spouse or partner on that.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. It’s such a good point. I’m glad you brought that up. You totally do. So number one, create some awareness by just doing that. And you can take pressure off you and your partner or spouse, too, by saying “We’re only tracking, this is judgment free. We’re not even gonna be like, ‘Oh, why did you do this? Or we’re gonna change this.'” So that’s not… Like no judgment. “We’re not passing judgment. We’re not changing anything. We’re just being aware.” And then step two is kind of the reverse of… And we talk about this a lot is the reverse of budgeting. Step two, I would say is try to figure out what a healthy possible savings rate is for your situation. As a general rule of thumb, definitely could be a little less maybe, but sometimes a lot more for other people in other cases. Figure out a healthy savings rate for your income, which means you have to clearly understand what your gross income is, which is different than what goes on your personal tax return.

Ryan Isaac:
You gotta get a true gross income number of all of your cash flows every year for a dentist that’s W2. It’s net distributions, it’s depreciation and amortization write offs that weren’t actual real expenses. You gotta get a good gross income number. And let’s find a way to get a healthy savings rate implemented, automatically saved. So we would always just, again, generally say a 20% savings rate for most dentists is really gonna be helpful, especially over decades. Find a way to save 20% of your income. But when you can get to a point where you’re implementing a healthy savings rate, kind of automated. And that’s going to maybe the 401 [k], maybe it’s going to the rental home. Maybe it’s going to your brokerage account, whatever, but it’s being automated and it’s being saved and invested somewhere. When you have that healthy savings rate, then the budgeting takes care of itself because you don’t have to go back and cut anything out because if savings is healthy spending, isn’t too much.

Matt Mulcock:
Spend guilt free. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. It’s guilt free. And it’s crazy how often we implement savings plans for clients. And then they end up with more money sitting around that they don’t technically have to save. And then it’s just like so free because some people are like, “Well, I wanna save it. We don’t have anything we wanna spend on.” Or they totally spend it and they’re like guilt free spending for the first time in a long time or ever in their lives. Or they start paying down debt really fast. They just have options. And that’s what having a healthy savings rate creates for people is options to do what you want with the leftover money. So create awareness around tracking, and then start like even if your savings rate can’t be 20, even if it’s 7%, like you have to begin it and force yourself to do it and then grow it over time. And that is the way to do like… That’s permanent budgeting. The other way around like micromanaging each other at home is, it’s not gonna last very long.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. I was gonna say this on the savings front. 20% is like, if you’ve been listening to us for a long time or know anything about us, you’re gonna hear 20%. But again, don’t let that be a deterrent to starting.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Don’t wait to get 20…

Matt Mulcock:
People sometimes will be like, “Oh, I can’t get to 20.” I don’t care. Start.

Ryan Isaac:
It doesn’t matter.

Matt Mulcock:
Start something. 500 bucks a month. It doesn’t matter what it is. Start that and make it automatic, make it intentional, make it like a system where you’re not even thinking about it. You’ll be shocked at how quickly you can build that up. Even with a few hundred bucks or a thousand bucks a month.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. It is. It is shocking. I mean, I’ve watched that for so long now. Like people starting somewhere and…

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. You’re close to being a billionaire now. It’s like you like you’re there, close. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
For me. Yeah. That’s exactly right. And people, 10 years later they’re like, “Wow, I can’t believe I actually did this. It worked.” Like, “It actually works.” Saving money actually works. Yes it does.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, it does. It does.

Ryan Isaac:
So, alright man, I think we’re gonna need to let you go so you can go buy an Ooni Pizza Oven and an ice maker.

Matt Mulcock:
I do need to go. Speaking of spend money. Yes. [laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
It’s time for you to go buy some stuff. Happy anniversary.

Matt Mulcock:
Thank you.

Ryan Isaac:
Again. We’re glad you’re with us. Thanks to everyone for tuning in. If you’re new to the show, thanks for being here. And we do this every Wednesday for the last, almost seven years now, can you believe that?

Matt Mulcock:
Which is wild. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s so crazy. It’s a big chunk of our lives and we love it. We’re excited to do this. If you have any questions for us, the best thing to do is just go to the website, dentistadvisors.com and book a chat with one of our dental specific advisors. And ask them about your spending or your savings or your investing or how to get organized and finally start getting on a plan. We love talking about this stuff. So thanks for tuning in. Thanks for being here, Matt. Thanks again to you.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Thanks, Ryan.

Ryan Isaac:
And we’ll catch everyone next time on another episode of The Dentist Money Show. Take care everybody. Bye bye.

Saving, Spending