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The Gold Crown Podcast

Best Places to Practice Dentistry – Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2021

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has just recently released their data for 2021! (Reports are released in the following year). For those who have not read the previous article or may not know what the BLS is, it is a government organization that creates an occupational outlook handbook for various careers including dentistry. The report provides useful information including the location of most jobs (green map), the most saturated locations (red maps), and high income zones (blue maps). The report for dentistry can be found at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291021.htm. You can also go to https://www.bls.gov/ooh/ and search any other job you’re curious about too. As a caveat, the data should not be the only resource you use to figure out where to work, what to expect to make, etc., however, it can be useful in addition to other research. You may want to consider doing a formal demographic analysis as well as a cost of living calculator before getting too excited. Also be sure to verify population growth and a diverse industry for the patient base by using City-Data information at https://www.city-data.com/. Also be sure to check out the ADA’s Health Policy Institute’s report on dentist-to-population ratios. With that out of the way, let’s jump into the findings.

TOP 5 STATES WITH TOTAL # OF DENTAL JOBS: CALIFORNIA, TEXAS, FLORIDA, NEW YORK, VIRGINIA
RED MAP EXPLANATION: LOCATION QUOTIENT IS THE CONCENTRATION COMPARED TO THE NATIONAL AVERAGE. FOR EXAMPLE, A LOCATION QUOTIENT OF 1 MEANS CONCENTRATION OF THIS JOB IS EQUAL TO THE NATIONAL AVERAGE. 3 MEANS MUCH HIGHER JOB CONCENTRATION THAN THE NATIONAL AVERAGE. EXPECT TO COMPETE MORE THE HIGHER THIS NUMBER IS.

Note: Visit the BLS website to have the ability to hover over each county to see the detailed breakdown by county.

SOME TAKE AWAYS:

1.) High cost-of-living areas tend to pay higher wages in dentistry (obviously). Working in Hawaii sounds nice until you realize that $177K (the state average) could have half the buying power than other parts of the country. On top of that, Kauai Hawaii scored as the #1 most concentrated area for dentists in 2021 (followed by the Upper Peninsula in MI and the NW lower peninsula in MI). Some states’ counties have performed consistently well like Oregon’s non-metro coast area (#1 in annual income in 2021 with an average of $241,650), however, remember that Oregon has a state income tax of 9.9% and other factors that might make it less appealing to you (like your inability to pull off the hipster-look).

2.) Total dental jobs have fallen (including hygienists) likely from older folks leaving the work force. Hygienists are in incredible demand. HPI (ADA’s Health Policy Institute) has reported that 1/3 of all dentists in March were recruiting hygienists with 92% of offices claiming recruitment was extremely challenging. Hygienists average $81K a year annually and every west-coast state reported average hygienists making about $100K a year at about $50/ hour in 2021. It is a very good time to be a hygienist.

2.) Average general dentist pay has dropped significantly just from 2019 from $178K / year on average to $167K in 2021. Post COVID concerns as well as inflation are likely affecting dental patients’ money decisions.

3.) The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ found that from February to March, dental offices lost 1,500 jobs, the first decrease in the dental sector since April 2020. HPI’s Economic Outlook and Emerging Issues in Dentistry stated that staffing shortages at dental practices have led to ~11% decrease in practice capacity.

Despite how the above points might sound doom and gloom, dentistry is still projected by the BLS to grow about as quickly as the general economy with an 8% growth until 2030. There is still opportunity to be had! It just might take a bit more effort than normal for dentists. If you’re a hygienist, this is the golden age.

The Gold Crown Podcast

Rent or Own Your Primary Residence?

Should you rent your house or should you purchase your house? Everyone seems to have some opinion on this topic, but which may be the best investor-friendly choice? There are several factors to consider. First off, here are some calculators you might want to consider using just to determine your break-even points for renting vs buying:
https://smartasset.com/mortgage/rent-vs-buy
https://www.nerdwallet.com/mortgages/rent-vs-buy-calculator
In my area, buying a house would be more worthwhile than renting if I live there for 5 or more years. At 30 years, my house will be paid off and I will not have to pay a mortgage at all, just HOA, taxes, utilities, etc (which would be otherwise bundled into your rent). What if we consider the ramifications from an investing perspective?

DOWN PAYMENTS ARE MURDER TO YOUR ROI
Yes, a down payment does prevent you from paying as much interest on your house, and does save you some money. Most folks buy 20% of their house right off the bat just to qualify for financing. However, there is a catch. Such a big catch that some investors consider buying a house the biggest mistake in their life (yes, I’ve heard these exact words from some folks). What if we invested the money you were going to put as a down payment on a house? An example may better help explain their position:

House Cost: $500,000
Down Payment: $100,000
Equation for Compound Interest: A=P(1+r/n)^nt

(A is future investment with interest, P is the original starting amount of money, r is the ROI as a decimal percent, n is number of compounds per year (1 for annual), and t is how many years the principle compounds for).

You can create your own excel table or use a compound interest calculator if your house cost is different. Below is a chart detailing the result you would get after 10 years. If it sounds amazing to have your $100K turn into over $900K in just 10 years, consider that if you can consistently get 25% returns for 30 years, you’d have almost $25 Million! Now there are tons of assumptions with this including being able to get consistent, high returns without any neutral or negative years, but many investors feel that whatever this final amount ends up being, it will be greater than the value of owning a home outright (even with appreciation and tax deduction for home ownership).




TAXES & IF A HOME IS AN ASSET
Unlike what most folks will tell you, your home is NOT an asset (it does NOT put money in your pocket as Robert Kiyosaki would say). That being said, owning your home could allow you qualify for many tax deductions you wouldn’t otherwise get like mortgage interest and property taxes. Keep in mind that if you don’t have enough deductions to exceed the standard deduction (which was $25,100 for married couples in 2021 and $12,550 for single filers), then just taking the standard deduction makes more sense and wouldn’t qualify you for the special “I bought a house, so I get a special rewards” that come with ownership. Recall that you cannot sell a house for a tax-free gain unless you’ve lived in it for 2 of the past 5 years. Some folks use this strategy to buy multiple houses and do “live-in flips” while using extremely affordable owner-occupied loans. If you sell a home in less than 2 years, then you will only get a proportional amount of tax reduction. I know this from experience!

HOW MUCH OF A HOUSE CAN I AFFORD?
This is absolutely the wrong question to ask and is a FIRE-killer. Many banks are happy to tell you how much you qualify for, but not tell you how much house you SHOULD buy. Banks are incentivized to loan you as much debt as you can pay.

The Final Conclusion
It is far too difficult to give a catch-all answer to if one should own or rent because it is highly dependent on the the following factors: location, home cost, down payment amount, emotional value of ownership, neighborhood & schools for children, family support, need for stability of future residence, expected number of years lived in residence, taxes, insurance, etc.

Generally speaking, the shorter you plan to live in the house / area, and the higher the total cost of the house vs rent is, the more sense it makes to rent and invest the down payment you would have used. The longer you plan to live in a house, and the cheaper the purchase price vs rent, (AND IF YOU HAVE A VA LOAN or other advantageous loan situation), buying is more likely to win.

The Gold Crown Podcast

How Dentists Can Retire Before 50 – A Guest Article From a Dentist Just 1 Year Away From FIRE

I always love receiving messages from dentists on the path to FIRE, so imagine my delight when a dentist, who is just 1 year away from FIRE, freely offered write an article on his insights that have led him to the end of his journey. Due to him having not yet announced his plans, he has decided to remain anonymous and we hope to have him on the podcast soon once he has made his FIRE plan public. Enjoy!

How Dentists Can Retire Before 50

Have you heard about the FIRE movement? If you have found this website I’m guessing you have, and nowadays it’s easy to find financial blogs that describe retiring before a traditionally accepted age with the ability to maintain one’s lifestyle without the need to ever actively earn another dollar. This is the definition of Financial Independence Retire Early in a nutshell. But I’m guessing you are also a dentist and many threads on Dentaltown will tell you that as a dentist you have no shot (weak pun) at retiring early. In fact, the ADA reports that the average retirement age for a dentist is approximately 69 years old while the average retirement age for an American is only 63 years old.

Why can’t dentists retire early? Because most dentists graduate with a large student loan. Then we inflate our lifestyle and live like doctors. Then we purchase practices and go into more debt. And dentistry isn’t as profitable as it used to be. The golden age of dentistry is over and dentists are losing the war to insurance companies and corporate dentistry. You can probably come up with a few more reasons why you will likely die with a handpiece in your hand.

I believe that dentists can still retire at a young age. I’m 42 years old. My wife and I are on pace to reach financial independence next year. I want to share how we are doing it because there is nothing special about what we are doing. I’m not a day trader, real estate mogul, lottery winner, and we never received an inheritance. I am a clinically average dentist who owns a dental practice (just one office). If you are a dentist that would like to retire before age 50, you can do it. Here is how. You will need to become financially literate, track your numbers, learn to hate debt (stay with me), work hard and ambitiously (the offense), live below your income (the defense), and have a strong internal locus of control.

BECOME FINANCIALLY LITERATE

First, I have a disclaimer. There isn’t an original thought in this entire article. Everything I’m about to discuss I learned from other resources as I became financially literate, and later as I studied personal finance and investing. I will attempt to give credit each time I discuss a concept I learned elsewhere. As a starter, this whole article isn’t original. In 2008, I read an article in Dental Economics by Dr. Doug Carlsen describing characteristics of dentists who retired before age fifty. Google it. The article is still applicable today.

Second, it is very unfortunate that personal finance isn’t better taught in school. For many people, even discussing money is taboo and many families don’t talk about money. But keeping and growing your savings is at least as important as making money in the first place. Today, there are great resources to help dentists learn about personal finance and investing. When I graduated from dental school, I recorded Suze Orman and got a subscription to Money Magazine. Nowadays, I would direct a new grad over to whitecoatinvestor.com. On the website, Dr. Jim Dahle covers everything a doctor needs to know about investing. It is possible to become financially independent by stuffing money under your mattress, but it is much more efficient to learn how to make your money grow. A dentist can invest in stocks, bonds, and/or real estate. Compound interest is amazing and necessary if you want to FIRE. The website also educates its readers about different types of insurance, and even tips about how to increase income and control spending. Also, as a dentist we are targets for people trying to sell us poor investments (investments that benefit the salesperson significantly more than the investor). He teaches his readers how to identify and avoid these situations. I really feel that WCI is the best financial resource available to dentists and spending an hour or so a week reading his blogs and/ or listening to his podcast and/ or taking his course and/ or reading his book is time well spent.

TRACK YOUR NUMBERS

This one is really important to me. First, you should be tracking your annual spending. My wife and I track this down to the cent. This is easy for us because we each have one credit card. We also have one checking account that we use to pay all of our bills. You don’t have to simplify to this extent, but this makes it really easy to track spending. Second, you should track your income. Subtracting spending from income lets you know how much money you have available to pay off debt, save, or invest. The most important number to track is savings rate. Your annual savings is everything that you invest, save, or use to pay off debt throughout the year. Your savings rate is everything you save throughout the year divided by your annual net income (income after taxes). If you would like to retire before age 50, I would encourage you to have at least a 50% savings rate.

If you choose to buy a dental practice, there are many more numbers that you should be tracking. A dental specific CPA or practice consultant can help if you don’t want to do this on your own, but you need to know these numbers. I track new patients per month, gross production, net production (after write offs), overhead, net collections and cash flow. Knowing these numbers allows you to gauge your financial health (and if applicable the health of your practice) and make decisions to improve these numbers.

LEARN TO HATE DEBT

I’m not Dave Ramsey. I do believe in good debt. Good debt is debt that will allow you to improve your financial situation. For example, taking on student loan debt to become a dentist allows us to have a much higher income than we would have otherwise had. I don’t know what I would have done with my BS in biology, but I know I wouldn’t be in the financial position I’m in today if I didn’t take on that debt. If you choose to buy a practice and possibly the commercial real estate in which you practice, this could be another example of good debt. Is taking on a mortgage to buy a house good debt? Real estate brokers, banks, and the government certainly wants you to believe it is, but we can leave that debate for another time. There is definitely bad debt. The classic example of bad debt is credit card debt. The interest rate is always high. Another example is pay day loans. Even financing a car is bad debt. If you find yourself with bad debt pay it off quickly. Then analyze and fix what caused you to take on that debt in the first place.

Good debt can become bad debt if the good debt is overleveraged. For example, White Coat Investor recommends trying to maintain student loan debt at a 1:1 ratio. This means that a student would project their income for the first year after they graduate and try to maintain their student loan debt to no higher than that number. According to the American Dental Education Association, the average student loan debt for dentists graduating in 2019 was $292,169. So, young dentists are frequently finding themselves with ratios much higher than 1:1. At what point would taking on this level of debt fail to make financial sense? If a young dentist feels that they aren’t able to pay off their student loan debt within five years of graduation, I would encourage them to contact Travis Hornsby at studentloanplanner.com.

I took on student loans, a practice loan, and a mortgage to purchase the commercial real estate. I would do it again, but I always hated the debt and paid it off fairly quickly. But what should you do first? Should you pay off debt, invest for retirement, or invest back into your practice. My answer is yes, you should do all three from the beginning. The key to this is maximize offense and play strong defense. Our income increased throughout our career, but I always felt that as long as we had debt we were still poor. As a dentist you should be able to become completely debt free and become FI before age 50.

THE OFFENSE

My thoughts on offense, defense, and locus of control are all derived from the book “The Millionaire Next Door.” This is a classic book (written in the 90s) that analyzes characteristics of the average millionaire in the U.S. It has since been updated and “The Next Millionaire Next Door” was released in 2018. The Cliffs Notes version is that millionaires work hard and ambitiously while spending significantly less than what they make. As an aside, the book proves that The American Dream is still alive and well. The first version of the book found that 80% of all millionaires were born to middle class or below families. The latest version found that the number is now closer to 86%. My wife and I both grew up in lower middle income families. So, don’t let anyone tell you that The American Dream is dead.

Offense means that you maximize your income with hard and ambitious work. As a dentist, the best way to maximize income is typically through practice ownership. The ADA reported that the average private practice dentist made $204,710 in 2019. I would suspect that the average practice owner make significantly more than this. But owning and running a small business is hard work. I heard the hosts of the “Shared Practices” podcast mention that the worst day as an owner is worse than the worst day as an associate, but the best day as an owner is way better than the best day as any associate. I completely agree. Even if a dentist chooses to never own, or even chooses a career in public health, the military, or academia their income will likely be over six figures. This is a high income and FIRE can be achieved from any dental career path, but practice ownership is likely the surest path to early retirement.

THE DEFENSE

Defense means your annual (personal) spending. There is no correlation between spending and income. If a dentist wants to achieve FIRE it will likely mean that they can’t have a lifestyle that others expect a dentist to live. I listen to a podcast by a popular financial advisor firm that caters to dentists. A few months ago, they mentioned that their average client spends $214,000 per year. These are clients that they are advising. I assume that their client’s average income is also higher than the ADA average, but I would guess that their clients’ average savings rate is also well below 50%. Meanwhile, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics the average American family spent $63,006 in 2019.

There is nothing wrong with spending $214,000 per year. In fact, I would argue that the purpose of money is to help us live our ideal life and you should strive to have great work-life balance from the beginning. My wife and I buy everything that we want, but we are intentional with our spending. We think about major purchases and whether or not that purchase will really make our lives better. If the answer is yes, we will absolutely buy it. But if the answer is no, and we impulse purchase something, we regret it. You will be surprised to learn how little you can spend and still live a great life after all debt is gone.

INTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL

Successful people believe that they control every aspect of their life. They don’t believe that life just happens. For example, I don’t allow myself to believe in luck. Of course, life throws obstacles at us that complicates our lives. But I know that I will overcome every obstacle and reach every goal that I set for myself. If you want to achieve FIRE, you have to know that you can do it, and then make it happen.

So, there you go. This is the dental blueprint for FIRE. What do you think? Did I leave anything out? Is there anything that you disagree with? If you would like me to dive deeper into any of the topics leave a comment or reach out to [email protected].

The Gold Crown Podcast

Whole Life and “Infinite Banking”

There is a thing called “Infinite Banking,” or using cash-value whole life insurance as an holding pattern for money until an investment opportunity arises, then taking a loan against your whole life policy’s cash value for whatever use you wish. I do not have a horse in this race and I currently do not have a whole life insurance policy, but the conversation appears to be of value.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/519/topics/245380-paradigm-life-infinite-banking-whole-life-insurance

The very, very long thread posted above has 2 basic sides: skeptical investors who view whole life insurance as at best confusing or at worst a scam, and people (mostly insurance agents) who are adamant that a whole life insurance focused on cash value is amazing for every investor. This is a tricky situation because in fields like dentistry we have to defer to the subject matter experts like expert clinicians and researchers, but when it comes to insurance, the subject matter experts are insurance sales people. Now it might be unfair to portray all insurance sales people as dishonestly trying to generate more money, however there is some skepticism that will always remain for some investors. I myself have not jumped head first into cash value whole life insurance because of how vocal some folks are about whole life insurance being a scam. No doubt you’ve heard the phrase “whole life insurance is a bad investment, go for cheaper term life insurance and invest the difference.” Even some insurance agents in the thread above completely agree whole life is a waste of money, but infinite banking (a whole life insurance policy focused on cash value) is completely different and may be massively worth it. I admit for most of my life I was convinced that whole life insurance was a scam. It seems that there is an opportunity for it to be useful if done correctly, and I love to be challenged with evidence that can help my path to FIRE.

Below I have pulled some of the most legitimate arguments for and against infinite banking based on the conversation thread on bigger pockets. To be clear these are not my opinions, but opinions expressed in the thread:

Case For Infinite Banking Case Against Infinite Banking
Create a place for money to grow tax-free I have my IRA for that
Allow you to take a loan out against your cash value, then you pay it back with interest Infinite banking is so complicated, you’re just hoping everything is “as advertised”
Interest charged is simple interest, but your cash value amount continues to grow at compound interest rates because you never actually withdrawal your money – just take a loan against your cash value amount as collateral Insurance companies do this for a reason, and undoubtedly the reason is to make money
Loans are tax free, so money can be accessed and used without creating a taxable event “I could just invest in Roth IRA or other tax advantaged accounts even if I can’t access the money anytime soon.”
Breakeven point is about 7 years into the policy – costs are mostly up-front. After that, it’ll continue to grow without paying principle. Waiting 7 years to compound money is not that different from other long term holds. Also, Whole life insurance has a higher cost than term life insurance
Cash invested can be accessed before the 7 year mark (when you have made more money than you have personally put in), but you normally cannot access all of your money immediately (i.e. 70-90%). 100% access to invested money after the breakeven point. Limited access to invested money could hurt in the short term / missed investment opportunity and opportunity cost if I want to start a practice.

The point of this post is not necessarily to persuade you one way or the other on infinite banking, but to present and summarize the cases of both sides in an extremely long, ongoing discussion (and hopefully save you some time). I recommend speaking to a trusted person in your life / fiduciary (person who must look out for your financial best interest) before committing. It appears that Infinite Banking could be a viable way to help generate wealth for some people when used properly, and I may consider using it in the future myself.

The Gold Crown Podcast

Accredited Investor – Why Dentistry Positions You Well To Invest

Most dentists don’t realize the amazing opportunities they have to invest.
The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) has a phrase called
“accredited investor,” which is another way of saying “high-net
worth individual” who has either earned $200,000 a year for the past 2
years if single ($300,000 a year if married), or has over $1,000,000 in assets
excluding their personal home. There is no special application or anything to
have this status. One just has to meet the definition.

So what special things can an accredited investor do? They have access to
investing in securities without needing to register with a financial agency (a
security is just a catch-all fancy way of saying “different kinds of
investments including stocks, bonds, and real estate.”). Essentially,
accredited investors are assumed to have enough money that they know what
they’re doing when it comes to investing – even in the riskier ventures.

Now this doesn’t mean that just because one has met the definition of an
accredited investor that they should just throw their money anywhere they can.
The reason the SEC restricts most people from investing in non-registered
investments in the first place is because there is risk and the SEC is trying
to protect investors with less money who may not fully appreciate that risk.

Bottom line: Education about investments is vital for the dental
professional because a large number of dentists are accredited investors and have access to investments that most folks do not have. While there is always risk,
there is a huge opportunity to use the accredited investor title to help secure
financial independence. There are tons of people out there hungry to find
accredited investors and most dentists don’t even know they are accredited
investors! My personal favorite space I plan to use this status is when investing
in large multifamily apartment buildings, but there are limitless options.

The Gold Crown Podcast

2020 End Approaching! Get Motivated, Pursue FIRE.

The year is nearly done and I will post a different entry about goal setting for the new year, but I wanted to focus on the WHY you do anything. Let’s re-center on what’s important to keep things in perspective. We’ve spent our whole lives being young, and at the risk of sounding morbid, there is a certain finite amount of time for you to spend on this earth doing the things you want to do and being with the people you want to be with. I do not say this to scare anyone, but if anything I want to emphasize the urgency of defining your “WHY.”

The youngest of us are 28 years old out of dental school, and most of us will die at age 80 (US average male life expectancy). We have already lived at least 35% of our lives. Let that sink in. Over one third of your life has already passed. Many of us joined dentistry later in life and have an even shorter amount of time left. We do not have a limitless runway ahead of us, and ignorance of that fact does not protect us. Life is too valuable not plan ahead to retire early regardless of your personal background. The average dentist will retire at age 70, which is only 10 years away from the average life expectancy of a US male (80 years old). Imagine working for 42 years just to have 10 years of retirement before passing away (that’s a measly 12.5% of your life in retirement). Why not retire early at age 45 and spend 44% of your life doing what you want to do when you want to do it? Worded another way, retiring at 45 is basically like 4 lifetimes of retirement. Who wouldn’t want that!? FIRE can help save LITERAL DECADES of your life that would have been otherwise spent working a job away from people you want to spend time with and hobbies you want to enjoy. 

So what is the cost? There is no “get rich quick” solution (run if someone tries to pitch one to you). Step one is financial discipline with savings rate. Sounds boring, but be sure to check out my previous post on savings rate if this is a new concept. For 2021 try to track and improve your savings rate no matter what your start point is (I personally went from 10% to 60% over the past 4 years.) Many people are steeped in the traditional way to doing life, but I hope you won’t be an average person with a low savings rate working until age 70 then dying at 80.

Again, many of us may want to do dentistry longer than we need to, but that is where the CHOICE to retire comes in. No matter how much you enjoy working, I guarantee you’ll enjoy it more if you didn’t HAVE to work. Freedom and control of one’s time  is the fundamental principle of FIRE. To me, FIRE is the closest thing to buying a longer life – the only cost is a little upfront education and dedication, but the ROI is unbeatable because not even the richest men can buy more time.

The Gold Crown Podcast

Practice Ownership Part 2: Demographics continued

(See Part 1) City-data.com has good information on it that allows you to see the weather, crime, population growth, household size, average household income, breakdown of industry, average age of population, school district info, and much MUCH more. There is so much that I simply cannot show it all. This is also a great resource to use when analyzing markets for real estate investing! Below are some examples of what to expect from city-data.

The BLS maps in particular allow you to see what counties may be the most favorable, but keep in mind that money is not everything. For example, if you cursor over non-metropolitan Alaska, dentists make $253,000 on average. While Alaska might be a beautiful state, many of us (myself included) don’t want to live there for one reason or another. On another note, Dentists in southern Nebraska make $83,000 on average, which may seem low, but if your family happens to live in southern Nebraska, it could improve your quality of life dramatically. One final thing to keep in mind is that the cost of living in one place (Nebraska) could be vastly different from another (downtown Los Angeles or Irvine CA). One dollar in Nebraska is able to buy much more than a dollar in California, so it’s important to consider looking at a cost of living calculator (City-data.com has its own cost of living calculator for larger cities).

Because there is a difference of money in depending on location, a final step is to use a cost of living calculator to try and get an apples to apples comparison. Below we will compare the average mean wage of a dentist in Irvine CA ($141,800) to one in Hastings Nebraska.

City-Data.com’s cost of living calculator

Smart Asset has a decent calculator that attempts to include tax information as well. Sometimes it is difficult to estimate tax since it can vary by state and city. Try to use a few different calculators to get an idea. Here, we are shown that the tax rate surprisingly might not be too different (this is worth looking more into to verify), but overall the total difference is NE is 21% cheaper than Irvine CA.
Nerd Wallet’s cost of living calculator estimates 40% lower cost of living in Hastings NE compared to Irvine CA.
It’s important not to get enticed by large numbers if in reality $85K of income in NE is equivalent to $141K in CA

Result: the “lower” annual income in Hastings NE has basically the same (if not more) purchasing power as the “higher” annual income in Orange County CA due to cost of living and taxes despite NE’s income being smaller. Averaging these values together will give you a rough of idea of what it will cost to live somewhere and allow you to keep your expenses under control while planning for FIRE.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

I used both city-data.com, wikipedia, http://www.BLS.gov, etc to find crime data, household size, population growth, weather, and other general demographics and created zones for different years on my customized google my maps. These multiple layers can be overlapped to help you see hot-spots. Once you have narrowed down an area, you can google search all the local dentists in a city (confirming with your list of dentists from the state dental board) and place markers for them. Mapping out existing dentists not just gives you an idea for the competition, but also can give a rough way to estimate the dentist to population ratio, which ideally should be 2,000 or more. Once you have locations of interest, consider making a flier (canva works great) with your name, picture, what kind of practice you’re looking for, and a little blurb on the back that talks about you. I did a second round of hand-written letters, which were received well (about 10% response rate). You may end up finding a good practice on a broker’s website, but why not invest a little time and 50 cents per stamp to have a chance at finding your perfect fit you never would have found otherwise? Good luck and make it count!

List of Websites:

https://www.google.com/mymaps

https://www.city-data.com/

https://www.bls.gov/

https://www.canva.com/

The Gold Crown Podcast

Practice Ownership Part 1: Location and Demographics

This is a bit of a long post, but hopefully How exactly do you prefer to work? I recommend taking multiple personality tests to give yourself an idea about what type of work you like ( Four COLORS, Big 5, Meyers Briggs, DISC profile, etc). This could also shed some light on if your personality would thrive more in a group practice setting or a solo practice, or even specializing. Personality tests are not foolproof, but might give you direction if you have no idea where to go. This could even help early prospective pre-dental folks trying to decide if dentistry is right for them. To them I’d say Cal Newport reminds us in his book “So Good They Can’t Ignore You,” not to take the traditional advice of just doing the job you’re passionate about lest you embark on a never-ending hunt for the mythical “soulmate career.” Focus on obtaining rare and valuable skills no matter what career you select. One of dentistry’s biggest advantages (aside from bettering patients’ lives and getting to wear a tooth-themed neck tie) is to be a business owner.

After deciding if your personality and goals point to practice ownership (and speaking to current owners about why they decided to own), the next step is to find a location and determine demographics. Everyone has different opinions about what makes one area “better” than another (Family? Friends? Climate? Opportunity?). You can pay for professional demographic studies at Dentagraphics (https://dentagraphics.com/), Practice Cafe (https://www.practicecafe.com/), or doctordemographics.com (http://doctordemographics.com/). I started using Dentagraphics, but I highly recommend BOTH doing your own due-diligence researching demographics AND paying for a professional study later. This way you can check your work to make sure you don’t make a million dollar mistake. How do you do some of your own demographic research? You can get a rough idea of demographics using the Bureau of Labor Statistics, city-data.com (https://www.city-data.com/), wikipedia, state websites, and google my maps (https://www.google.com/mymaps). (side note: this is by no means the only way to get demographics – use every source you can)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov) offers country-wide data about essentially every job (even dental specialties) including pay by state and county, number of jobs, and saturation. All you have to do is type in “dentistry” in the bls.gov website (or whatever job you’re curious about), hit enter, then select the year you’re interested in. It’s reasonable to have some awareness of what the income is for the average dentist in the areas you are looking even if income alone isn’t always the most important factor. For example, It may not be wise to select a practice that is in a county that has the nation’s highest saturation level and lowest income level. Below is the 2019 data for general dentists:

Scrolling down will show you various maps at the state and county level. Just cursor over each area to get the data for that location. These can be helpful for you to try and figure out: Total employment (Green map), Saturation aka location quotient (Red map), Annual Income (Blue map).

Green map: Total employed dentists

Red map: location Quotient is the area’s number compared to the national number. In other words if <1, low concentration of this job compared to the country average, if >1, high concentration of this job compared to the country average

Blue map: Annual Income

http://www.bls.gov reports its data from employed persons, so the income of business owners is only a fraction of this. Generally working as an employee results in lower pay because there is lower risk. Generally speaking practice owners make more than employed dentists, but owner dentists decide how much to pay themselves and the rest of their money stays in the business. (If intersted, Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow Quadrant further emphasizes income and tax benefits with business ownership).

This post was getting far too long, so it was split into multiple parts. We will tie it all together again at the end again to emphasize the high notes. Doing research is vital for FIRE and this is one of the biggest decision you will make in your life! Look forward to continuing the conversation of demographics using city-data.com, google my maps and cost of living calculators to get clarity on where you might want to practice!

The Gold Crown Podcast

You CAN Retire Sooner than Expected

Many critics of FIRE have a hard time realizing that they CAN retire much sooner than they think; they are just making the conscious decision to NOT to. The key is savings rate. I’m going to say it again to fully emphasize: THE KEY IS TO RETIRING EARLY IS TO HAVE A STRONG SAVINGS RATE. Many salespeople try to tout higher and higher returns on investment, but the reality is that ROI IS NOT NEARLY AS IMPORTANT AS SAVINGS RATE. Networthify (see link below – they did not pay me to say this) has a great calculator that will tell you how many years at what savings rate will allow you to retire:

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https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement?income=50000&initialBalance=0&expenses=20000&annualPct=5&withdrawalRate=4

I plugged in the average annual income of employed dentists according the Bureau of Labor and Statistics in the US ($178,260 ignoring tax) and just clicked the graph to see how many years to retire it would take at a 60% savings rate. The result is that the average dentist could retire in 12.4 years even if they started with $0 assuming a 5% ROI, and a 4% withdrawal rate (a whole other article is needed to explain why 4% withdrawal rate is generally considered a “safe” withdrawal rate. Basically, the Trinity Study in 1988 states that if you withdraw 4% from your retirement, you should never run out of money even during the worst recessions in history. To be fair, Nobel Prize economist William Sharpe says running out of money in retirement is a tough problem, and one better alternative could be having “lock-boxes” of diverse assets each year to sell rather than a fixed percent withdrawal).

Most folks focus on Return on Investment (ROI) saying higher is better. Now ROI is important, but even a spectacular 20% ROI on every investment at the US average of 6% savings rate takes 24 years to retire. On the other hand, a 2% ROI with a strong 60% savings rate would allow a retirement in 14.5 years! Side note: I do not recommend trying to get a 2% ROI because inflation is normally about 2-3%, so you wouldn’t be making any return. A healthy savings rate is like fuel in your vehicle. Without any savings to invest (fuel), it doesn’t matter if you have a high ROI (Lamborghini) or a low ROI (beater) – you’ll go nowhere fast.

*credit to the ADA

Most people tend to save 6% (US average) and aim for a 7% ROI with the stock market, which would take a whopping 49.5 years to hit retirement (dentist or not). 49.5 years!!! Sadly this is how most people do retirement, but hopefully you won’t be one of them. Life is too short to have to spend that much time working especially when a small increase of savings rate earlier in your life can exponentially accelerate your retirement timeline and provide the freedom to spend your precious time the way you want. Even if one wants to die with a drill in their hand, FIRE doesn’t prevent that, it just gives the joy of working because they want to, not because they have to. Keep in mind the average retirement age of a dentist according to the ADA is now 70 (back in 2017, it was 68.9), and it will continue to increase. Most of us get out of dental school around age 27 – that’s over 43 years of working.

*credit to the ADA Health and Policy Institute

I personally have a savings rate of about 50% right now, but hope to improve it more in the future (If you have a savings rate that is higher, please reach out to us at [email protected] – we’d love to share your wisdom & help more people on their path to FIRE!) I don’t feel deprived of anything at this savings rate, and I think most dentists would feel the same way. The Zig Zigler quote rings very true here: “you can have anything you want, but you can’t have everything you want.” While buying a boat or a corvette might not be “FIRE friendly,” your life is your own and if that’s important to you, make it happen. If it’s important you’ll find a way to work it into the budget. Just keep in mind that the longer the list of exceptions, the less successful FIRE will be. Many graduates feel “I got through dental school and I deserve to buy something nice” (I know this because I felt the same way), but it’s important to try to live like a dental student even after graduating.

25X Rule – the rough estimation of the total money needed to retire early. I spend about $6K a month, which is $72,000 per year. $72,000 x 25 = $1.8M. Most Americans need more than $1M to retire (per Charles Schwab) so this sounds believable.

A misconception most people have is that if you make a lot of money (like people think dentists do), then you are wealthy. Most dentists tend to spend up to their income (ex: if you take home $200K but spend $195K you’re actually relatively poor), so it doesn’t matter the total amount of money someone makes, it’s all about their savings rate. For those feeling they want to be very aggressive with their FIRE, there are lean FIRE communities on reddit and Mister Money Mustache that advocate this approach (and they are not dentists and did not have dentist income but they still make FIRE happen!). Other great resources for FI include Active Duty Passive Income, From Military to Millionaire, Physician on FIRE, Fire Drill Podcast, Mad FIentist etc.

Final Tips:

  1. Track everything through mint or other financial software.
  2. Pay yourself first – do NOT just “save what’s left over.” Sounds challenging, but this is doable!
  3. Raise your savings rate – try to shoot for 50% or higher. Savings rate will ALWAYS be the most important factor in FIRE.
  4. 25x Rule: Times your annual expenses by 25, and once you have hit that FIRE number, you are Financially Independent.
  5. Once retired, 4% withdrawal rate or less for safety for your eternal nest egg.
The Gold Crown Podcast

Military Dentistry

Everyone has their own strategy to get to FI. For us dentists, the cost of education is always top-of-mind. I would have been over $400,000 in debt from dental school alone not counting my undergraduate education, not to mention my wife’s grad and undergrad education (grand total would have been well over half a million dollars of debt!). My strategy was to combat this HUGE amount of debt asap by doing HPSP (Health Professional Scholarship Program) with the Army. I will probably have to do a post on each item below just for more details. Below are some benefits to doing the program when I did it. Programs can always change so keep in mind there may be differences in the future. I am not a recruiter and these views are my own btw 😉

DENTAL SCHOOL

  • 100% of dental school costs paid for (including books and tuition) during school
  • $2000 / month stipend for living expenses during school
  • $3000 Orascoptic customized loupes and light ($1500 each) after graduation

HOUSING

  • VA Home Loan – exclusive access to 0% down home loan (possibly the BIGGEST opportunity to jump-start FIRE by getting a 2-4 unit investment property. Can be used during or after service). can be used more than once if loan is paid off or if you get assigned a new station.
  • On-post housing is free.
  • Off-post housing depends on location. I get about $2,000 a month in housing allowance, and my rent is $1725, so I pocket the difference ($275).

EDUCATION

  • GI Bill – Up to 36 months of education expenses (tuition, fees, housing, and $1,000/year supplies & books). In-state public institutions are 100% covered, while private and international schools are covered up to $25,162 per year (as of now until July 2021). GI bill benefits can be used as early as 90 days of active service, but you only get 50% of the coverage, while 3 years of active duty service start results in 100%. GI bill can be used for lots of different things including entrepreneurship training, Some dental CE’s, flight training, on the job training, vocational school, undergrad and graduate degrees, independent learning, correspondence training, etc. This could also cover the cost of a dental specialty residency. I have tried to use it to pay for a big ortho CE but it got denied (maybe other CE’s would work if at a university). The GI bill can be given to your kids or spouse, but you have to commit to 10 years of service (serve 6, sign up for another 4).
  • Residencies – The military has pretty much every residency available. Chances of admission are higher mostly because the programs are for military only so there is less competition. Some programs are very small / soon to be non-existent if they aren’t already like Peds because there are so few pediatric patients seen on-post. There is a great opportunity to get the residency you want and some amazing people involved. Doing a residency does incur additional service obligation, but some are neutral years (ie 1 year aegd does not require a 1 year pay-back).

INVESTING & RETIREMENT

  • TSP (Thrift Savings Plan) – up to 5% base pay match on contributions to your tsp (essentially like an IRA). Roth TSP and TSP available. Roth TSP maximum contribution limit is $19,500 /year NOT INCLUDING your standard Roth IRA ($6,000 /year limit), meaning you can contribute $25,500 /year to a Roth! Lots of civilian investors wish they could have such a high Roth limit. Many different funds available including the “LF” or Lifecycle Funds, which automatically re-balance themselves so you have higher risk earlier in your life and lower risk later in life (basically moves from high risk stock indices early in your life to low risk bonds later in your life). You can roll over your TSP accounts to civilian equivalents when you exit the military.
  • 20 years of service allows you to retire with 40% of your base pay (2% x #serviceyears). Stay in for 30 years, you get 60% of your base pay averaged from your highest 3 years of pay. Assuming you graduated from dental school at age 27, you could be guaranteed retired at 47 with nothing else, BUT be sure to look at base pay charts posted online. Your retirement base pay will likely be a little above $7,000 as a Lieutenant Colonel and 40% of that a month is $2,800. Investing is still a good idea to supplement income during retirement.
  • Credit Cards – Chase Sapphire Reserve and the American Express Platinum have no annual fees for active duty service members. I love the Sapphire Reserve because it allows me to save a ton of travel points as well as a $300 travel credit and other bonuses (I will have to make a post just about that. Actually I’ll probably need to do that for a lot of things on this list).

Family & Free Time

  • 2.5 days of leave per month (30 days / year with a maximum bankable amount of 60 days. Can also be saved and used at the end of service to exit early. I might exit 2 months earlier than expected).
  • Birth – 21 days of paternity leave for men (42 for mothers). All costs associated with your family’s childbirth is covered including hospital stays, additional treatments, support groups, etc.
  • Daycare – Army tax credit lowers cost of daycare down to the cost you would be paying on-post if there were any open spots (I did daycare off-post because everything was full). I would have payed $1,600 /month in daycare, but only end up spending about $800 /month
  • Family time – Posts often have a ton of trails, parks, movie theaters, bowling alleys, and groups that host events.
  • Dental – Dependents can get Tricare dental insurance for about $11 /month.

BANKING

  • Access to use USAA (can have incredibly competitive loans, but also offers pretty much everything else to service members. Bank built for active duty or veterans by veterans) I use them for home owner’s insurance, and the more products to buy from them, the better the cost.
  • Access to use Navy Federal Credit Union (can have incredibly competitive loans). I use them for my car loans at 1.75% for 5 years. Immediate family members are also allowed to use NFCU.

HEALTH

  • Access to free on-post gyms
  • Access to free on-post pools
  • RMR: Some posts offer Resting Metabolic Rate testing (I had mine done so I know exactly how many calories I expend by just existing)
  • Bod Pod: Some posts have Bod Pods that will accurately tell you your exact body fat percentage and fitness professionals can help you track and guide you. I do these every 2 months.

MISC.

  • Rank of Captain.
  • Lower total pay than average civilian dentist (roughly 25th percentile by Bureau of Labor Statistics Standards), but healthcare, dental, vision, hearing, psych, fitness, etc are all covered in addition to everything else listed here.
  • Deployment / being assigned to a field unit (and then gifted to a dental clinic for most your work) is possible. While this sounds scary, most people actually enjoy it.

POSSIBLE DRAWBACKS

  • You might not get the station you want (but the assignment officers actually try to get you the location you want if possible. You get to submit a ranking tier list like 1.) Germany 2.) Ft. Drum New York, etc).
  • You might not get to always do the dental procedures you want to do (you fit the needs of the military, and if that means do a ton of exams, or only fillings, or if people are overdue for cleanings you might need to do that. The stereotype of military as amalgam lines are not accurate because I very very rarely do amalgams. Clinics generally have more than every material you’d want. Also doing a CE to do certain procedures does not necessarily permit you to do that procedure since there is a military credentialing system you have to get approved by first).
  • You might not get to always travel when / where you want (there is a healthy amount of leave, but things can always come up, and you will have to ask for permission to go places especially if it’s outside the couple hundred mile radius of the base).
  • You might be assigned to a field unit, then gifted to the dental unit to work. This means if your unit deploys or does field training exercises, you go with them.
  • You have to maintain some level of physical fitness to pass the fitness tests. These normally occur every 6 months. There is a new test that involves 6 events: 2 mile run, 3 rep dead lift, standing power throw, sprint drag carry, push-up, and leg tuck. search online for the acft minimum scores to pass if you are concerned. I never did sports or exercise when I was younger, but even I could pass with a little practice.
  • You might not be able to work a side hustle or weekend clinic moonlighting (some places limit your ability to do dental work at civilian offices on weekends to 15 hours a week).

CONCLUSION

  • The military might not be for everyone, but for those who want to try to try a dental road less traveled and get a good chunk of debt forgiven, it could be perfect. I was willing to go through anything to pay for school, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it enjoyable, and I can see why people stay in career. I did not know what I exactly wanted to do in dentistry so it gave me the time to center myself and prioritize everything. Military is a valid way to hit FI by getting a guaranteed pension at retirement in 20 years, so it may be something to consider. I personally will leave after 4 years to pursue practice ownership.