Why Dentists Get Financially Stuck

On this episode of The Dentist Money Show, Matt and Will explore the hidden cost of financial inaction and why doing nothing can sometimes be more expensive than making the wrong decision. They discuss how fear of change, having too many options, and procrastination can keep dentists stuck, even when they know they need to make a move. They share a practical approach for getting unstuck, making confident financial decisions and taking action.

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Podcast Transcript

Matt: Welcome back to the Dentist Money Show. We help Dentist make smart financial decisions. I am Matt, joined here with The Brain, Will Gochnour Will, how are you?

Will: Doing great. Amazing.

Matt: Fresh off a vacation, feeling fresh, or y w wha how how do you feel after after vacation? Is it like you need a vacation from your vacation or do you feel relaxed? I guess it depends. How how are you feeling right now? Tell the people where you were.

Will: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I that’s ⁓ we were in ⁓ east northeast. We went to Boston and Cape Cod and Newport, Rhode Island. Beautiful area of the country that I’d never visited. ⁓ went to a game at Fenway and saw the saw the Cape, which was cool and spent a day in Antucket. It was just a cool, I don’t know, quintessential northeast Boston, Massachusetts trip.

Matt: So cool.

Will: so awesome. I took we have five children, took them with just me and my wife. It was kind of like, let’s start making memories with just our kids instead of, you know, we’ll go with cousins and stuff. But so it was it was a blast. But yes, I need a vacation from the vacation. I th I think I’m just in that stage of my life where like no matter what, it’s like a grind to go anywhere. I mean, I had two car seats strapped in my back in the airport. and you know, we’ve got like

Matt: Ha ha ha. Yep. Yep. my gosh.

Will: I don’t know, eight bags and shoving it all in a minivan and trekking it around the whole northeast. So

Matt: Yep. So So crazy. That’s awesome though. Good for you guys for doing that. I always when you travel with kids and you are you know, you have f far more than me, over double me on the kid front. But every time I travel with kids, now I tr you know, if I travel for work, like I’m by myself or like just a couple of us, it’s like, wow, this is so easy. I’m like so relaxed at the airport. I’m like, this is amazing. So

Will: It was fun. Yeah. yeah. The airplane ride just like by yourself or you can like actually watch a movie or work or read a book. Yeah.

Matt: Yep. Yep. Yeah. It’s so nice. It’s like I’m I’ve got nothing to I can just sit here. I’m not having like a little ankle biter grabbing at my pants.

Will: Yeah. I had a two year old who needed to g use the restroom four different times on the flight, so

Matt: okay. So it’s not just me. Okay, perfect. That’s what my five year old is. And I think the most underrated part of vacations like that is when you come home. I think you gotta come home on like a Friday or a Saturday. You you gotta give yourself some buffer days. When would you get home? Okay, perfect. Give yourself a buffer. You can’t just come home and like jump right into it. You gotta have a little

Will: Yeah. Yeah, we w yeah. Yep. Saturday, so that’s good. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. No, it was yeah. And the time change is got you know, it our kids are waking we you know, we’re in mountain time. We’ve got used to eastern time, so our kids are waking up at five AM here. ⁓ usually waking up at seven. So yeah, it’s an it’s a fun little adjustment.

Matt: It’ll get ya. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that’s that is you’re paying the price in more ways than one. Well, good to have you back. I’m glad you had a good time. ⁓ so really quick as we jump into this, this show is brought to you by Dentist Advisors, Dental Specific, Comprehensive Financial Planning, Tax, and Accounting Firm for Dentists all over the country. ⁓ we encourage you at any point you’re listening to anything we we say and you’re thinking, Man, I need help with with this, we are here to help. You can go to dentisadvisors.com, click on the book free consultation button.

Will: Yeah.

Matt: Our main focus and goal at all times is helping dentists make work optional sooner. So if that’s you, we would love to talk to you. let’s jump in, Will. you and I, this is this is close to us, this this topic, because it’s something that we help dentists navigate all the time. And what we’re gonna talk about today is the cost of an action. I have a story I want to share that kind of prompted this entire discussion. So We talked to a dentist recently and and this is actually like w this is a specific dentist, but you this could be applied to a lot of different examples. I mean, how many times do we have something like this, Will, of this idea of cost of an action, like countless times per month, per year?

Will: Yeah. I I would say even more like you you will hear about like bad money moves that people made, but I think this is like the silent killer in the background that we honestly is more prevalent, but you maybe don’t hear about it as much just because it’s not as, you know, forefront.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I totally agree. So this is a specific dentist, but it applies to so many. So talk to a dentist relatively recent and ⁓ we’re you’re they’re thinking about engaging, you know, hiring us. And so we had ⁓ an initial call, consultation, and just going through their situation, talking about what they’re dealing with, their concerns, their goals, you know, what ask obviously the obvious question of just, you know, why what brought you here? What why did you call us? And They tell our their story and it’s really interesting. So ⁓ this Dentist has been with a very large firm for over 20 years, or for about 20 years. I don’t know if it was over, but 20 years. A firm that everyone here listening would know. We’re not gonna name the name, but you would definitely know the name. Very, very reputable, very well known. And they said something super she said something super interesting on the discussion when we were having that call, that meeting this is an exact quote from her. She says, I hate them, I always have. I just started with them, never move because I hate change. And I that that was very surprising to me. Maybe it shouldn’t be, but it was that they had been with this group for 20 years, openly said they did not like them, went on to talk about all the different issues that she had with this company, but just stuck with them. And the issue is. What happened along the way is she stopped because the trust broke down with this group long ago, she stopped trusting them, so she stopped contributing to her accounts. Well, what happened was then the money started piling up in cash. So they started, they now the result is they’ve got far too I mean, we’re talking ⁓ 10x what they should have in cash, just sitting there, literally in a checking account they they just stopped engaging. They stopped doing the things that they would do normally with an advisor because the trust was broken, but they stopped. So they were kind of in this weird limbo land where they weren’t engaging with their advisor. They’d been with them for twenty been with this group for twenty years, but trust broke, so they stopped engaging and doing stuff, but they weren’t making a move either. So they were kind of in this weird limbo land. Anything you want to add to this, Will ⁓ up front?

Will: No, I th well, yes. I mean, I think that y you explained it perfectly where it’s just this kind of shocking realization where living in limbo land, yeah, I mean, this specific dentist is is gonna be successful enough that it’s probably not gonna matter all that much in the long run. She’s still gonna be able to retire and reach your financial goals. It’s just if you start looking at the opportunity cost of just waiting and not doing anything.

Matt: Yep.

Will: It’s it’s shocking. And you have to work to calculate that opportunity cost, of course, but it can be done. It’s just not something that’s completely obvious. It’s not something that’s tracked, you know? So it is, you know, that’s kind of I think we’re gonna talk about that in just a second, but the cost that you can see versus the cost you can’t see is interesting here, right?

Matt: Yep. Yep. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think we’ll highlight from the very beginning, it’s really easy to get caught into this trap of an action because it feels more comfortable. It doesn’t feel like you’re really costing much. We’re taking action and being wrong, let’s say, or the fear of being wrong, ⁓ is far scarier than just staying put. But in this particular case, I’m glad you brought this up. They are going to be fine. Her and her family are gonna be fine.

Will: Yeah.

Matt: Because she’s got a killer business. they’ve they’ve built up a ton of wealth. It this isn’t like some disaster story that all of a sudden she’s not going to be able to retire. However, that’s different than saying there is an actual cost that can be calculated here. So that’s what we want to talk more about today. But I think the main thing, so that what this whole discussion’s gonna be about is like the most ex sometimes the most expensive kind of most expensive ⁓ part of your kind of financial journey is something that you’re not thinking about a lot, which again is an action. You not actually taking the proper steps that you that we all kind of know we have to do, right? We all and we’ll talk about this here in a moment, but we all know the things, like it’s not really a knowledge gap as much as it’s a gap of actually taking action. ⁓ anything else you’d add to that as we jump into this?

Will: Yeah. Yeah, you said it’s something. I mean, I liked what you said at the beginning where it’s like it’s something we deal with every day. I I would argue this is something I ⁓ this similar thought process is something that you dentists deal with every day. Just the cost of an action, right? applied to dentistry specifically and taking care of your mouth and your teeth. And you you know this, you see, you tell patients all day like the cheapest time to deal with a problem is before it gets too bad, before it hurts, usually. ⁓ so like a you know, doing a

Matt: Yep. Yep.

Will: Doing a filling before it turns into a root canal is usually the best case scenario. ⁓ but how many times do you have patients that are, you know, either on the fence or wanting to get a second opinion or, you know, just waiting for whatever reason, ⁓ and don’t want to take action, it’s you you see that it’s, you know, it’s it costs it’s cost something. In this case, it’s gonna cost dental pain and money. In our case, it’s gonna cost something. It’s gonna cost opportunity cost and financial success that you’re leaving on the sidelines. So I just thought that was an interesting thought that, you know, this is something that’s not only applied to your personal finances, it can be applied to dentistry as well.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah, I think and just humans in general. Like there’s an actual psychological term for this that is well studied, which is the knowing doing gap. We all it it’s not a knowledge problem, it’s a doing problem. It’s like we all again, whether it be health, be getting in better shape, doing things with our money, to your point on the dental patient side, things we have to do for our oral health. We all most people intuitively know what they need to do for the most part. it’s it’s the doing that’s the hard part.

Will: Yeah. doing it is the hard the change that she described is hard. ‘Cause change is sometimes painful a little bit.

Matt: Yep. Yep. Yeah, exactly. So one thing that I thought was interesting too that she that she brought up. So she’s been with them for twenty years and again openly says she hates them and does not want to work with them anymore and has hated them for a long time. The other thing that she mentioned that I thought was interesting is she goes, I know I’m paying too much money. She goes, I don’t know what I’m paying, really. That was the scary one of the scary parts. But she said, I know I’m paying way too much. And so let’s talk about the The three main bills that you that she was paying that I think apply to a lot of the stuff, but to her in particular, that I think a lot of a lot of dentists can can extrapolate this to their situation. So number one was the obvious cost, which is sh she we did run the numbers. She was paying way too much for what she’s getting. Way too much. So a lot of unnecessary fees. number two, I think a far bigger cost, you mentioned it already. The opportunity cost that Of sitting of that money sitting in cash. And we’re talking significant sums, seven figures plus sitting in a checking account now, all because she didn’t want to change. That is massive cost over the because she’s not old. She’s younger on the younger side. And that is huge, that cost. And then thirdly, I think an underrated cost that we don’t often think about these situations, which is the mental and emotional burden of these things weighing on us. And constantly sitting on us and that piling up over time. And it’s always in the back of our mind. We’re never making the change. We’re never doing it. But we know it’s there. And it’s we think about it at night. Or it’s just kind of always in the background. I think that weighs on us and creates unnecessary stress. Anything you’d add to these three things will.

Will: They’re good. The first one obviously you can put a real dollar amount to. The second one you can’t like you can put a real dollar amount to the first one because you can see it on a st like you could track that pretty easily. You could see it on a statement. Second one you’re not gonna see on a statement. ⁓ it’s not gonna show up, but it is something that can be calculated. We can it’s massive. I mean, if you sit on second seven figures of cash over the last twenty years, I I mean we could do the math on that really quick, but it would be multiple seven figures of missed opportunity cost, right?

Matt: It’s huge though. Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Will: and then the third, yeah, is less it it’s harder to put a an actual you can’t put an actual number on this, but it’s just the emotional toll. That is a cost. And this is the you know, we always say this, this is kind of the blessing and the curse with the stock market, is it’s so transparent. You can see when it goes up, you can see when it goes down. Every day there’s a either a green arrow or a red arrow, depending on what happened for the day. And so it’s a lot of it is easy to say, ⁓ like in the short term, maybe if the market goes down after you put some cash in, it’s easy to say you made a bad decision. But long term, it’s very e it’s also easy to have hindsight and say over the past twenty years you would have made a lot of money had you just taken action, right?

Matt: Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Well, when it comes and when it comes to the idea of investing, I mean, of course we cannot predict the future speci specific well, it at all, but especially in the short term, we have no idea. But if we’re talking about the game of probabilities, which is what we’re dealing with, yes, you can look back, like you said, you can actually look back. Like I think a lot of times people will say you can’t well, you can’t you can’t really know what the cost of this was. To your point, yes, you absolutely can. Because you can track from the day that money started piling up and prove the counterfactual of saying, well, what if I would have put it here instead? And then even moving forward, you can play the game of probabilities of what is it gonna cost me sitting in cash, the knowable, versus investing it based on like average rates of return over the next twenty, thirty years. Like you can get pr pretty dang close ⁓ between the difference of what that cost looks like, even though it doesn’t show up on your statement. Which is why cash feels comfortable for people. Why inaction feels fine, because you don’t feel it every day. It’s a slow burn. It’s a slow, kind of painful death versus what feels like a more catastrophic pain or more ⁓ visceral pain when it comes to like volatility in the market. But we’ve said this many times. Over the next twenty, thirty years, cash is so much more risky than investing in the in equities. It’s like not even close. If you it’s extend that timeline out. Anything else you want to add to just that first part of the cost to her?

Will: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean I think i even the third part, yeah. I mean, I this is maybe a little bit of a reach, but you think about the book, like the five regrets of the dying, and it’s like I think short term you optimize for like not doing anything dumb or stupid, and long term you optimize for things that you didn’t do or things that you should have done, right? And

Matt: Yeah, great point.

Will: So I just think like you’re not gonna be sitting, I mean, you could be sitting on your deathbed and saying, like, I wish I would have invested all this cash earlier. I wish I would have d made this move earlier for this, you know, the mental and emotional weight that I’ve been carrying, knowing I needed to make change and just didn’t. it just seems like long term that could have some like a a pretty good size toll on you. I we hear it a lot where you hear dentists be like, Man, I wish I would have started investing earlier, man, I wish I would have done this, or you know, I wish I would have done this earlier long term, hindsight’s twenty twenty, obviously, but long term you have this regret of ⁓ you know, what you didn’t do, what what you could what could have been with your life. So I know it’s like a little, I don’t know, cliche to say, but it’s like seize the day, man.

Matt: Yeah. Yep. No. Yeah. I actually think that’s a really good angle on this side too. We’re talking about the spreadsheet optimization piece of this and the cost to to to them. But I love that you brought this up. It’s a really good angle to take and point to make, which is It’s not just about the spreadsheet, but if you think about the the cost of an action knowing that sh that these the this particular dentist is not engaging with their advisor at all and money’s just piling up. It’s not even just about the growth of that. It’s the use of those dollars. Cause cause it she’s not I mean, how many times, Will, are we are we talking to a dentist about not even just about investing, it’s how are you using this money to improve your life, to like make memories, to go. actually put these dollars to use. Again, what’s happening here and what happens to so many dentists is they just sit in this weird limbo land. They’re not doing anything. It’s just piling up. And I love that you you’re bringing this up of like you could be enjoying this money, even if it’s not investing. That’s there’s still opportunity cost there. Massive opportunity cost. So it’s a really, really good point. ⁓ let’s come back to this idea and get more detailed around knowing isn’t the same as acting. So again, this knowing do in gap. I have a lot of strong opinions around this idea that like I actually really hate that the common vernacular is, they’re smart with money. Like kind of this idea of somebody just knows more than you. I also think that it’s a huge misconception that we have a financial literacy problem in America. I actually don’t think that’s true. I’m gonna probably get in trouble for this. But I think we have a massive oversupply of information and a even bigger undersupply of discipline and action. What just in general, what would you say? What would what what are your thoughts on that?

Will: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree. I think the over over information can some kinds ca or sometimes cause that analysis paralysis, right? Like you’ve just got financial I don’t know, tips coming from every which w place, you know, you name it, social media, brothers, brother in laws, coworkers. Yeah. I mean, there’s just so many different ways that you can go about building

Matt: It’s always the brother in law.

Will: Your financial situation. And so yeah, I don’t necessarily know if it’s more like a lack of information, especially with AI, there’s not lack of information anymore. It’s more just how do we actually do something? How do you take the next step and implement?

Matt: Yeah, I think we have I think we have a s ⁓ possibly a sequencing problem. I also think we have a problem with an underrated problem that’s probably growing more than ever in this age of information, which is really getting clear on what you actually even want. I think that’s huge. But if we’re just focusing on the lens of which this discussion’s about, which is just taking action, I would dare say most people out there listening know. They could probably list in fact, I’d rec I would encourage you stop this right now. Write down three to five things financially you know you need to do. And I I would almost guarantee every single person listening could write down three to five. So we’ll what including our totally, totally.

Will: Absolutely. Including including our clients. You know, like it’s not just it it’s not just people that don’t have financial advisors, it’s everybody. I I could do it personally. I’m a financial advisor. I could write a list right now of three things that I need to do. Yeah.

Matt: Yep. I was gonna say left right. Yes. Totally, totally, I I totally agree. And and all the big areas of your life that matter relationships, health, and wealth, those three main categories that are the areas that we care about the most. I would dare say if you stopped and said, Okay, relationships, what are the three to five things I should be focusing on today or this week? You all know what that is. Same thing with wealth, same thing with health. It’s it’s not the knowing. so let’s focus specifically, Will, on the financial piece of like the inac what are what are some maybe some specific examples, even if they’re just check the box type things. What are specific examples that that come to mind for you? ⁓ that Dentist are after listening, you know, being like, we know that it falls under one of these categories. What are things that come to mind for you?

Will: Yeah. I mean, people have investment accounts that need to be reviewed. 401k is an old employer that needs to be looked at or optimized or rolled over. There’s always just miscellaneous accounts everywhere, especially with people who don’t have financial advisors and just just a general lack of organization and knowing where things are. You can think about like insurance policies that you’ve had forever you haven’t looked at. You can think about estate planning that hasn’t been done or is in the process.

Matt: State planning’s always the thing, yeah.

Will: That’ll be one of them for sure. I guarantee you that was most pe on most people’s list. ⁓ you know, you got the documents, you just haven’t signed them or something like that, right? ⁓ cash sitting in accounts. We talked about that, of course, debt strategy you’ve been avoiding because, you know, practice numbers you don’t want to look at. I think that’s a big one for a lot of people, is like just avoiding the practice numbers because you’re like, I don’t want to get too far into the weeds, is it gonna be painful? So I’m just gonna

Matt: Yep. Yep.

Will: ign ignore it and hope it keeps working out. I I we hear that from a lot of people is like I d I’m not a numbers guy, I don’t wanna look at this and so

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We totally do. And it’s we’ve we say this all the time and see this ten out of ten times that when we someone finally takes the the step to get organized, right? Cause I think all this stuff comes down to just some category of getting or under the main category of getting organized. And ten out of ten times when we either encourage a dentist, they do it on their own or they come to us and we help because step number one with our clients is getting them organized. 10 out of 10 times, no matter where they stand on like net worth or cash flow, whatever, when they when you bring those things to light or you address the problem, you actually define the problem. Every single time we see this like huge sigh of relief. Like, okay, like I finally faced it, whether it’s big or small, it’s every time. Well, have you ever had a situation where a dentist has not? Had some level of like, holy cow, fine glad we finally addressed this. Yeah. And again, it could be something small. We we hear a lot, Will, even if it’s not something specific, I think what I hear more times than not from dentists is some version of, I think I’m doing okay, but I don’t really know. And they they they know there’s that gap there of like, I need to take some steps to figure out how I’m actually doing.

Will: Every time. Yeah.

Matt: And it’s all around this idea, as we talk about all the time, getting you to work being optional sooner. Like it’s always within that frame. And it’s just like kind of this general, I know I need to be like getting organized. I know I need to look at my spending, my net build out my net worth, or like you said, look at those practice numbers. Cause I think I’m all right, but I don’t really know. A lot of times it’s just inaction around that.

Will: Yeah. No, I agree. And I I think that’s like ⁓ a lot of the stuff we talk about is never well, sometimes it is. And that’s usually when we’ll get calls from people that they want to talk. But like for the most part, a lot of this stuff is not super urgent, right? It’s not like the house is on fire. It’s not like you’re t it’s some this this meaningful immediate pain that needs to be fixed, like a tooth pain, right? It’s something that can be put on the back burner very easily, right? And so I think it It’s important to understand that you can just always keep putting it off. You can always keep punting it. Procrastination obviously is something that all of us do. And I think a l a lot of these financial decisions, optimization of your finances will lose to whatever’s on fire in your life at that point. Right. And so I think that, you know, I liked what you said this morning. You you sent a slack into our team this morning that one of the points that kind of hit home to me was.

Matt: Yeah.

Will: Let’s have a sense of urgency this week. Let’s find something that we want to focus on and have a little bit of a sense of urgency. I loved that. I I I needed to hear that. Like let’s let’s go about life with a sense of urgency, right? And figuring out what we want to tackle and then doing it and not being laxadaisical about it. And, you know, let’s let’s go make something happen and take action. Action always is it can be painful in the moment.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Will: But come out on the other side, it usually feels good. Even even if you put the money in the market, the market goes down, there’s probably some sense of relief to be like, I took action and it’s gonna be okay long term, right?

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a great point. And I’m glad that resonated because that’s been on my mind a lot recently of I’ve I think I’ve lacked sense of urgency. I I’ve gotten lack of lacks a daisical in some areas just because of what you said earlier. There’s I think all of us have so many things coming at us. Sometimes it’s hard to sequence things properly or know what to work on next. And I know I have that in my life between personal things going on or work or or whatever. I think it’s really easy to fall prey to just kind of that analysis by or paralysis by analysis. And so I’ve been trying really hard lately of just having in the back of my mind the just this sense of urgency. Just have it just I don’t know, but move, do something, have a bias towards action. D figure out one step next, like the next step, do it. Like just have a s that I I like that sense of urgency, as we said. So I I really like that. it wouldn’t be a podcast with us, if we didn’t probably throw out some quotes here. ⁓ and these are two really, really powerful quotes. For me, I’ll just share for like things that have happened in my life personally over the last few years. These have really, really resonated. Cause I think one of the issues here, Will, and I’d love to get your thoughts on this, is fear of making like the quote unquote wrong decision. I think that’s one of the friction points for people when it comes to not taking action on certain things. Part of it might just be like attrition and we can’t break through. But I think part of it is we just truly are fearing that we’re going to make the wrong decision. And I saw this quote a long time ago, probably three years ago, and I’ve never forgotten it. ⁓ it’s debatable who it’s attributed to, but the one I found the most is Cicero. so this is thousands of years old, but ⁓ it says, more is lost in indecision than in wrong decision. And then if you counter or there’s another kind of part of this or another kind of ⁓ parallel quote from Emerson says you cannot spend the day in deliberation. That one hits me hard because I I do that all the time without taking action. But more is lost in indecision than wrong decision. That to me is so powerful that I think we fear making the wrong choice so we don’t act and we lose way more from not not acting. What are your thoughts?

Will: I love it. I think it’s so accurate. It really is. And I mean you could you can think about you can apply this to everything, like always. You could apply it to fitness, health, you know, like just indecision. There’s so much lost in just the the weighting game, the procrastination that you don’t it never is gonna show up as something that because it’s really hard to quantify. But you know, finances specifically, you can sit in indecision your whole life and at some point you’re gonna have to have this, you know, reckoning. But i to kind of go back, one thing that I was thinking about on this was like ⁓ the success of this dentist that we talked about at the beginning is interesting because yeah, she’s gonna be okay, most likely. But it seems like that’s the success is the villain in this story because she has never had a had a re like kind of a real reckoning, right? A real like sense of urgency. It’s just been something that, and that’s what has been

Matt: Yeah.

Will: the cause of all of the complacency around like not needing to make an urgent change. And that’s what’s cost her all this, you know, all this time, energy, effort, and maybe some potential opp obviously some potential opportunity cost.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah, it’s really it’s a good point. I I I think there are a lot of dentists deal with that.

Will: The success is kinda you know, that it’s not it it is a good thing, but it’s also the thing that causes you to not take action, potentially.

Matt: Yeah, you can get laxadaisical. You really can. And and I don’t want us to get this twisted of or I don’t want people to get this twisted that we’re like, I think if you’ve if you’ve listened to us long enough, you know we’re not like over optimizer, hustle, grind culture. That’s not how we roll at Dentist Advisors or on this show. But I think it’s a really good point that it’s really easy to get laxadaisical in your success and not not have a sense of urgency. And for the most part, the only way you actually change is the because the pain of an action eventually becomes more painful than making the change. And whatever it was for her in this particular example, she finally called. Twenty years later of hating this group, something something happened for her that she was like, All right, I gotta do something. Cause she’s been sitting on this and never talked to anyone else for 20 years. And she said she’s hated them almost from day one.

Will: Right. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Matt: So, but I I think it’s a really, really good point, Will, because so many dentists become a victim of that level of success. ⁓ people ask us all the time, W why is there a gap between the average retirement age of a normal of an average American versus a dentist? The gap has consistently been seven or eight years. And I really do think it comes back to what you’re saying here, which is it’s really easy to lose sense of urgency for dentists.

Will: Yeah, it does look consistent.

Matt: And let this kind of like subtle pain that’s not really that painful, but it’s kind of a slow pain, or like this the invoice of an action’s not showing up at your doorstep, and before you know it, it’s it’s it’s too late. I think this happens a lot. Any other thoughts on on that, Will?

Will: Yep. Mm. No, I that’s good. That’s solid. The quote was awesome. More is lost in indecision than wrong decision. Love it. Yeah.

Matt: Yeah. Hit me so hard when I read that. I remember exactly where I was sitting. I was I had a lot of stuff going on in my personal life that I was in in so much inner turmoil of indecision. And I read that and it hit me so hard. And by the way, it still took me a long time to actually let that like take hold in my actual life of taking steps, but it’s such a good lesson. I love that quote. ⁓ okay, we talked about

Will: Yeah. Right.

Matt: Anything worth repeating here or mentioning again around like this idea that we hear a lot of like, well, you can’t actually know the cost. I think we’ve we’ve kind of talked about this, but anything else you’d add around the actual knowable costs of an action?

Will: So, I mean, of course, yeah, like I I think j genuinely, I mean, we’ve we’ve kind of hit I I think this a couple of times. So I won’t go too far into this, but the big one of the biggest culprits of this, which we see all the time, is just people sitting on cash. And that’s one of the I guess problems of being a successful dentist sometimes is you have more money than you don’t know what to do with. And usually that’s a trigger to hire someone to say, usually, you know, you see it happen and then you tri it’s a trigger to hire someone and say, Let’s take care of this. But a lot of people will just wait in an action or you know, this is where we see random acts of finance sneak in where it’s like, I’ve got this money, should I throw it at a debt, or should I throw it at my brother in law’s event planning business, or should I throw it at ⁓ you know, some yeah, franchise startup that I want that’s doing charcuterie boards or something like that. Like all real things. Yeah. All very real things. So

Matt: Crumble cookie. They sound way specific, Will. All very real.

Will: This is I think A, it can lead you to random X final. B, if it’s just sitting in cash, we can do you can do the compound math on it. And I think it’s it’s funny because compounding is backloaded, right? You don’t actually see the magic of the compounding until later in life. Like that’s when it’s a slower curve to start. It’s this exponential curve later, right? And you know, you do the math on what it would what this cache would have been. It did like the first year or two, it’s not that big of a deal, right? It’s like you get a 10% return big whoop, it is what it is, right? But your 10 of that compounding at a 8, 9, 10% return or 20, yeah, you’re, you know, it’s it it’ll make you sick to your stomach. So ⁓ this is this is just kind of another call to action to say it doesn’t have to happen immediately tomorrow. Have some sense of urgency, but the longer you put it off, the more damage it’s gonna be. I mean, the the other thing we say all the time is the best time of.

Matt: Or twenty or yeah. Yep.

Will: Planted trees yesterday, right? Or twenty years ago, if you could have, right? And you would have been happier. I have a tree dying in my front yard that’s very sad. And we’re gonna have to plant a new tree. And it’s like I’m gonna be sixty when this tree’s gonna like actually give us shade in my front yard. It’s it’s terrible. So

Matt: Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I I’m with you. I I have a big yard project coming up and I know exactly what you’re talking about there. It’s a lot of parallels to investing. So prepare for that coming up. We’re gonna be talking a lot about yards. Exactly. Exactly. ⁓ but I I wanna hit on this point again, specifically around the cash, because I just think versus investing. I think there’s a lot of ⁓

Will: Yeah. We’ll we’ll get off of sports and go to landscaping. Yeah.

Matt: This happens a lot, right? That’s why we harp on this exact example a lot. One of the counterarguments that we even need to call ourselves out on, and I’m trying to change my, I’ve changed my thinking a little bit on this, because someone might be listening and thinking, well, you guys talk about optionality all the time and having options, which we totally do. And that’s ⁓ something important to to be thinking about. So a dentist might be thinking, well, cash gives me options. I’ve actually changed my view on this a little bit lately, Will, around. Yes, but too many options can actually also be really detrimental. And there’s something about just again taking action. And I don’t care what it’s in. As we’ve said many, many times, if we’re talking about investing specifically, the best strategy is just having a strategy you can stick with. And so whether that’s real estate, whether that’s building out practices ⁓ and and expanding your business and going and doing building your own DSO, whatever, whether that be this the equity markets, we have our own personal biases based on our experience, just like everyone does. But our whole thing is just take action and stick with it. Pick a strategy and stick with it. That’s the most important part of this.

Will: I think that I think there’s I think you’re a hundred percent right. I think the optionality play is an easy cop out. And I think there’s a fine I I do think there’s validity to it, but I think you you know, w just the sheer verbiage of like, I gotta have a bunch of cash so I can have options to do things is not right. Like you have to have the you have to got a number tied to it. You have to have a lid on that optionality cash, whether it’s, you know, a hundred grand or five hundred grand, whatever you want to have i there’s not really a right or wrong answer us as advisors are gonna push you towards a better version of that. ⁓ but you’re hundred percent right. Like I had a client who was sitting on I I don’t know, upwards of eight hundred thousand dollars in cash, and I was just like and there was a lot of indecision and some fear with the market and, you know, there was just some reasons as to why They wanted to continue sitting on this cash. And I said, I would rather have you pay off your mortgage than sit on this much cash because they had plenty of other cash. And so they did. They paid off their mortgage. And I was like, Great, that’s something, right? Now you don’t have a house payment. You’re free and clear of debt. It is what it is. Right. And and so I I genuinely think like there’s something to just take some action, right? It should be good action. It shouldn’t be like the random acts of finance, but consult with an advisor around like what options do I have here?

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. Great.

Will: Other than just sitting on an incessant amount of cash.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. What what’s hit me about this recently is to this idea of of ⁓ optionality being a cop out. I agree. And if you really think about it, having ⁓ having endless options but taking no action with any of them is the same thing as having no options. It’s the same result. If you’re just gonna sit there and never act on anything, and again in this case we’re talking about cash sitting there, you might as well have no cash. That might sound crazy, but I think it’s true. Like at the end of the day, it’s the same thing. If you have tons of tons of options that you’re not doing anything with, it’s the same as having no options. You’re still frozen and and not not doing anything. So I think it’s a I’m glad you gave that example. We see this all the time with dentists. The only thing that I’ll mention that I think is worth kind of wrapping up this piece of saying what it’s actually costing you. I think a lot of times when dentists say or we hear, there’s no way of knowing the cost. There isn’t a way of knowing that number. It is definitely knowable. It’s just uncomfortable to look at, or it’s uncomfortable to bring to the forefront of your mind to be like, crap, this actually did cost me this much money over the last decade. It’s uncomfortable to face that. ⁓ let’s talk about Will, why don’t we actually move? Like, what what is it that’s holding dentist back? And and kind of I think naming that. obstacle is a key part of this for a lot of people. Name it, what’s holding me back. the first thing that I’ll mention, I would love to get your thoughts is just we’re acknowledging, we have empathy. Cause Will, you said it earlier, we deal with this too as professionals and humans. Like we’re we’re the same as anyone out there listening. I think the first thing that I would say is like change is hard. It creates friction. I think depending on your personality, some some it’s easier for the others, but change is hard. It’s easy to get lost kind of in the routine. So I that’s the first thing that comes to mind for me is just we’re acknowledging change is hard. What what what what comes to mind for you of ⁓ just the obstacle in a lot of dentists’ way?

Will: Yeah, I I mean, I think you’re a hundred percent right on the change part. I think it’s just fear of making a bad move. I I think I looked this up and it says it’s called omission bias. That’s a real like bias that is here, right? Where it’s it ⁓ humans and we’ve we’ve hit this in many different we’ve said this the same thing in the many different ways already this podcast, but just humans would rather make no decision than make a decision and have it be wrong.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah.

Will: And so you’ll just not make a decision because you’d rather not do something like that. It feels way worse to do something and have it be the wrong decision than it does to not do anything at all.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. Even if not doing anything leads to a bigger cost. Right? Yeah.

Will: Exactly. And most likely will lead to a bigger cost, especially on the financial side of things. ⁓ so fear of making the wrong move. That that’s all the time just like, man, I don’t know if this is the right move, or I don’t know what I should do. It’s the same thing. Having too many options means you have and don’t make not making a move means you have no options. ⁓ just yeah, I think yeah, just like no forcing function. We said that, which is similar to nothing’s broken today, so it can wait until tomorrow and then tomorrow.

Matt: Yeah.

Will: And then tomorrow and it can wait forever. So yeah, those are kind of my thoughts there.

Matt: Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it’s interesting when you said that this omission bias. It’s a good point. And the funny thing about that is no dismaking no decision is still a decision. Right? Like it it’s kind of it’s such kind of like this weird lo Yeah, it’s like a logical fallacy. Cause I’ve seen the same researcher talking about that people feel way more pain when they made a move and it

Will: Yeah. You made the decision to make no decision, yeah.

Matt: quote unquote was wrong or cost them something or whatever, rather than just sitting on their hands and doing nothing. But again, sitting on your hands and doing nothing is actually doing or is actually just deciding. You’ve made a decision to do nothing.

Will: Just just you d it’s just just didn’t get quantified for you.

Matt: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that’s it really that’s a really interesting ⁓ thought there. So I’m with you. I think it’s ⁓ pretty straightforward for the most part of what’s holding a lot of holding all of us back, as we admitted we have things on our list we could definitely do. I think the goal here is is not to make anybody feel dumb in any way. It’s to actually hopefully share in this ⁓ burden and say, like we have empathy. This is really difficult. But it’s something that something’s gotta break you through that attrition ⁓ to take take that initial step of the thing that you know you should be focused on. I think the main thing here is to to leave on this part is just that easy and free are not the same thing. Oftentimes they’re actually polar opposites. The easy thing actually will oftentimes cost you a lot more.

Will: Yeah. Yep. W that was the podcast we did about the over optimization, right? Is where it’s like sometimes the easy easy answer isn’t always the best answer f you know, I I don’t know. I just think like yeah, it it’s it’s definitely something that if you can just take well, I think make the first step just a a small first step in the right direction is gonna be progress. Anything.

Matt: Any f any final thoughts on that? Yeah. Yeah, I’m glad you went to that because that’s what we wanted to we’re we’re trying to kind of like bring this together. We talk about all these different things around an action, the cost of it, you can calculate it. ⁓ we want to try to first bring this to the forefront of people’s minds or maybe be a reminder. Cause there’s a lot of people out there listening being like, Man, like, yeah, I do need to have more of a sense of urgency with this kind of stuff. But then it’s okay, what do I do with my hands? We don’t want everyone to leave we don’t want to leave anybody with this idea of like, okay, cool. But like what do I do next? So I think to wrap kind of kind of start wrapping this up is what what’s a st what’s a process that you could follow or that someone out there listening could follow to say like, okay, I’m like, how do I do this? Well, what comes to mind for you of anything of how how do I do this? How what’s the next thing I can focus on or do?

Will: Yeah, I think you pick something. So I think, you know, we talked about fifteen minutes ago about if you have a list that you actually stopped and made a small list, look at what number one is or look at what you think your most important one is on that list and say, Well, pick one. What am I gonna do about it? Right? Name it and make it and make that even if it’s just that one thing, make that your focus to be I’m going to make an appointment with dentist advisors. I’m going to get my estate plan through the finish line. I’m going to

Matt: Just pick one. Right?

Will: look at my profit and loss statement and start like trying to debunk it. ⁓ name it, w whatever you’ve maybe been avoiding the longest. ⁓ write it down, right? ⁓ you know, and then start like actually working on getting organized around that one thing. So what do what needs to happen? You know, if it’s I’m sitting on too much cash, try to start figuring out like what how much it is, what what would be the right amount of cash if you trying to figure out what the right amount of cash is and how much extra do I have. and then, you know, start working towards making an accountability appointment with yourself or with somebody else or with with us to go through how we attack this. So

Matt: Yeah, I really like that. I I like this idea of you write it down and give yourself a deadline. And even if so, even if that’s even if that’s going to like ⁓ be doing nothing. So I’ll give you an example. Christine and I talked about we did a two-part series on ⁓ to stay in network or go out of network with with PPOs. This is a huge decision for a lot of dentists. And I think one that a lot of dentists probably fall Into this category of like not taking action. They know that’s something they need to do to address. But one of the things we talked about in that series was that sometimes the right decision for you might be staying put for now. After you’ve gone through the steps of like getting organized, analyzing your situation, and deciding what to do, the decision might be I’m gonna stay put. And that that’s the case for a lot of things in your life. But here’s where I think the difference in saying,

Will: Yeah.

Matt: I’m going to address that later versus I’m going to intentionally not do anything at this moment, is to set a date of when you’re going to address it again or when you’re going to review it again. So if we’re talking about the PPO decision, you go through this whole process, you decide, maybe you hire a third party or you just go through it with your office manager, whatever. And you say, you know what? For now, we’re not going to do anything. We’re we’re going to decide to stay put in our in network with our current PPOs. We are going to revisit this in six months. Or we’re gonna revisit this in 12 months. You’re gonna write it down and you’re gonna set an actual like like time to revisit it again. And that’s the same for any of this stuff. That is so much more intentional and proactive than just like, I don’t know, I’ll address it later. So I think that’s a huge piece. Give yourself a deadline, actually write it down and have a process put in place of revisiting this thing over, you know, time and time again. And make it small, one thing, like you said, w name one thing.

Will: It’s not

Matt: And attack that this week. A anything else you’d add to any of that, Will?

Will: No, I love it. I think let’s just all have a sense of urgency in what we’re doing. Let’s do it. Let’s let us be your inspiration to pick something and and find that sense of urgency to get it through the finish line.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it’s funny. I’m gl again, I’m glad that resonated with you because that’s been again, that’s been on my mind a ton. Just have have that sense of urgency all at all times. Be and again, it doesn’t mean over optimizing your life. It’s just move. Have a bi a bias towards action.

Will: I just think we ha we there’s so much friction in our lives of different places, you know, like you said, ways that we can become complacent and ⁓ things that aren’t, you know, on fire don’t deserve our attention and we have devices in our hands and ⁓ in front of our faces all day that can just kind of numb the the urgency, right? And ⁓ I think we just that that that to me yeah, it it helped me this morning say like, all right, it’s a Monday. I I could sit here and, you know, take it slow and get the week started or I could kinda get get rolling. And I think that, you know, that helped me. So

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s a fine ⁓ line to walk because I don’t ever want us to come off as the again, ⁓ how do you say this? The typical like hustle culture rise and grind that kind of thing. I think that gets a little bit too far and cheesy, but I I d I know for me, and it sounds like it’s resonated with you as well, it it it’s

Will: Right. Yeah.

Matt: Something as simple as just again turning your brain, tilting a little bit more towards like, all right, move. Like take take some action. What take one next step. I think I think that’s really a maybe a good reminder. So to bring this full circle, we’ll say again, this is not a disaster story. This is not this dentist that we talked about specifically is, you know, If she would have worked with us, she would now be retired. Like, no, it’s not about that. It’s more practical in the sense of there are real costs that we see with her. We see this with Dentist every single week. The the true cost of inaction And y out there, you out there listening, you may not be able to quantify it down to the exact dollar, but again, you know there is something out there or there’s something in your life that you should be taking action on. And you know there’s an actual real cost, either financial, emotional, or mental, whatever it is. So we just encourage you to write it down, have an accountability appointment or have an accountability buddy. Actually have a deadline and and then take steps to to take that off of your list. Take it out, take it out of your mind. Again, we’ll give you last word, any other final words of wisdom you’d wrap this up with.

Will: plant your trees, g invest your money, the market’s gonna keep. I I I believe I genuinely believe, and this is not a prediction, but I genuinely believe that like humans are wired to continue to try to improve and over time as long as as long as humans are in charge of this planet, which there’s some AI hand or some robot hands thing going on that’s kind of scaring me, but ⁓

Matt: There you go.

Will: I I genuinely think like people the the companies that we invest in the stock market are gonna continue to improve and if you have a diversified, globally diversified portfolio, your money’s gonna be A OK long term. So take some action, plant the tree and let’s make it happen.

Matt: Yeah. Love it. Plant the tree. I like it. Plant the tree. Love it. Well, if you’re still listening, ⁓ we appreciate it. Hopefully you’ve gotten one, two, three things out of this that can help you improve your life and and move you towards action. ⁓ if you’re needing help, we are here to help. dentistadvisors.com click on the book for consultation button. We are happy to to get you moving in the right direction. ⁓ for now, Will, thanks for being here, sharing your words of wisdom. Everyone, thanks for listening. Till next time, take care. Bye bye.

Keywords: financial decision-making, opportunity cost, inaction, dental industry, investment, emotional burden, urgency, action steps

Behavioral Finance, Getting Organized