Dentists and Physicians: Part 1 – A Guide to Planning Your Next Chapter

Coming out of dental school, most dentists follow one of two of the most common paths for starting their careers. They either join an existing practice or start their own practice from scratch. With either path, the focus is on work. We have student loans to repay and bills that are starting to mount. We model those around us and those ahead of us, and what we see is hard-working professionals trading time for money just to stay afloat but never getting ahead.

Whether we’re working at an existing practice to work our way up to become a principal, saving enough to branch out on our own, or running our own practice, the pressure is on to meet all the new financial obligations that come with starting a career. We start paying back student loans; many of us will start families (if we haven’t already); we’ll buy homes, new cars, etc. And with so little time to focus on anything other than work to pay our bills and debts, we tend to be myopic (nearsighted) about our financial goals.

Beyond working and paying our bills, we don’t put much thought into investments. And just as we tend to model those around us and those ahead of us in terms of our work lives, we also tend to pick up their other habits, including how they invest or don’t invest. And for dentists, physicians, and other professionals in similar situations, the tendency is to rely on Wall Street for direction and advice, whether investing in mutual funds through 401(k)s or IRAs, investing in stocks through financial advisors or planners, or going solo and investing individually.

Whether because of tradition, habit, or just going along with the crowd, Wall Street seems to be the default vehicle for investing among many busy professionals. At first, I just went along with what everyone else was doing, but as I got further along in my career, I started noticing that although I and my contemporaries were making good money and living comfortable lifestyles, we were all still slaves to our jobs. Many of my colleagues were even miserable—overworked and making just enough to meet their obligations.

I recognized early on in my career that unless I did something different than my peers, I would suffer the same fate as many of those who came before me did. What I envisioned was working hard right up until retirement age and then, at retirement, having just enough to get me through the golden years. I also envisioned regret for not having lived the life I really wanted to live and for not having spent more time with my family during the physical prime of my life.

As I wrestled with my financial future and wondered how I could avoid the same financial fate as dentists who came before me, I was lucky to find a mentor who opened my eyes to a different path for achieving my financial goals and for achieving them sooner. Instead of waiting until my 60’s, this path would allow me to do the things I wanted to do and enjoy life with my family while I still had some youth in me. This mentor taught me to think outside of Wall Street and how to invest smarter by modeling the habits of sophisticated high-net-worth investors and not the habits of other dentists.

My mentor emphasized: that you cannot accelerate your financial goals if you invest like everyone else and listen to all the Wall Street players who want you to believe that their way is the only way to financial freedom.

The reality is that financial advisors, planners, and stock brokers are only interested in making money off of you, not for you. There’s a conflict of interest when they get paid, even if you lose money. “Why play this game?” my mentor asked me.

He challenged me to:

Take charge of your future and plan your next chapter as soon as possible.

Nobody wants to work into old age. But to avoid the fate of everyone else, you have to be willing to consider alternative paths, and that’s exactly what I did. I started looking outside of Wall Street and outside of traditional investments like stocks and bonds to plan the next chapter of my life and to accelerate that next chapter.

Why did I look outside Wall Street?

Wall Street doesn’t work, and the risks are so great that a big piece of your retirement could be wiped out overnight. I saw this happen firsthand during the Financial Crisis in 2008, when the stock market crashed and lost more than half its value in just a matter of months. This happened in the aftermath of the real estate crash from the subprime lending debacle.

Many people I knew who were planning to retire in 2008 saw their 401(k)s, IRAs, and portfolios devastated almost overnight, forcing them to delay their retirements because half the funds they had planned to retire with suddenly disappeared. And there was not going to be a quick rebound, so they faced a long road to recovery. The reality is that most never recovered their losses and were forced to continue working. Many only stop working because they physically cannot go on, not because they can afford to.

After the 2008 crash, it took eight years for the stock market to make a full recovery. I didn’t want to put the fate of my financial future in the hands of Wall Street, so I started studying the habits of ultra-wealthy investors—the same type of investors who were insulated from the devastation of the 2008 crash and all of the ensuing economic downturns since, including the COVID-induced recession in 2020.

In my research, what I found was that the key to avoiding Wall Street volatility and the devastation of Wall Street bubbles was to not play in the same Wall Street sandbox that the average investor was playing in. The key was to play in the sandbox of the ultra-wealthy, and this sandbox did not involve traditional assets like stocks and bonds but private alternatives—non-traditional assets not traded on the public markets.

In my next article, I will discuss the types of private alternatives preferred by the wealthy, why they prefer them, and how these assets can get you to your next chapter faster and with less risk.