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Dentists, Puns, and Money is a podcast focused on two things: The financial topics relevant to dentists leaving clinical practice and the stories and lessons of dentists who have already done so.
1. The stories of dentists who have transitioned from full-time clinical dentistry.
2. The financial topics that are relevant for dentists making that transition.
If you’re a dentist thinking about your exit from clinical, and you’d like to learn from the experiences of other dentists who have made that transition, be sure to subscribe to your favorite podcast app.
Host Shawn Terrell also dives deep into the many financial components of exiting dentistry, including tax reduction strategies and how to live off your assets.
And, we try to keep it light by mixing in a bad joke… or two.
Please note: Dentists, Puns, and Money was previously known as The Practice Growth Podcast until March 2022.
Shawn Terrell (00:03.372)
Welcome to Dentists, Puns and Money. I am your host, Shawn Terrell. There was this internet joke a few years back that made fun of or kind of joked about how various people are perceived professionally by different groups of people. And like a lot of things on this podcast and in my life, there was some dry humor involved, some faux humor, some puns.
So let me give you an example of what this might look like for dentists. And before I do that, let me just say that I'm going to turn it around and make fun of how this internet joke or this meme might work on financial advisors, because it's relevant to the conversation that I want to have on the podcast today. So the joke is what society thinks dentists do. And it might show a picture of a dentist driving a fancy car and parking in front of a big expensive house.
Then there's part of this joke that says, what do dentists... what do you think you do? And it might show you creating and executing this perfect treatment plan, very extensive that leaves the patient with a perfect smile. And then the joke turns to what you actually do. And I don't know this for sure, because I am not a dentist, but I surmise by talking to and working with dentists that
A lot of what you do on a day-to-day basis is talking to patients about their kids or grandkids, maybe seeing a picture or two pulled out on an iPhone, and also managing your staff and maybe settling squabbles among the staff from time to time. So I don't know how close I got with that. Again, no offense. I'm going to turn it around right now. So for a financial advisor, what society thinks I do is just
grant money on that money machine that I have stashed back in the corner. Kidding. Compliance, I am totally kidding about that. I do not have a money machine. What I think I do is sort of conceptualize and execute these pristine financial plans involving retirement and tax planning and investment management. But what I...
Shawn Terrell (02:20.998)
actually do or I've started to notice what I actually do a lot of the time when I work with clients is just help them get logged into their accounts online. Like setting up passwords, resetting passwords, things like that. And I mentioned this joke and I mentioned that example, especially the last one, what I actually spent a lot of my time doing because I have really started to notice that
for people that are in their 60s or 70s, technology is becoming more more challenging to use, especially, or at least as it relates to my work in the financial space. And I want to talk about that a little bit today, seek some feedback from you, the audience, to see if I'm in the ballpark on that and sort of and maybe not think, but lay out what I think a possible solution to that is. So.
Shawn Terrell (03:18.153)
I'm going to make a prediction that technology is not going to become any less relevant in everyone's life for the next 20 or 30 years. It's changed a lot in the last 20 or 30 years, not to be all big brother-y in 1984, but I'm 46, almost 47 now, and I'm sort of in that Generation X that straddles the line between remembering what life was like before the internet and also
Using the Internet and using technology on a regular basis in my life and in my professional time in front of the computer working with clients. And I don't think that's going to. I don't think technology is going to be any less a part of people's lives moving forward, especially in retirement. All these financial institutions that people have used to save for retirement to invest for retirement banks.
investment custodians, insurance companies, they are all using technology more and more. And I think that's a big deal because
people, dentists, anyone saving for retirement has spent the last 30 or 40 years putting money into these places to retire and leave clinical someday. And now you're going to spend hopefully the next 20, 30, 40 years taking money back out to live while you're not practicing and working any longer. So getting friendly with or having a plan for how to utilize technology and get your money back out, I think is a really important thing.
And let me just give you an example of how this kind of shows up in the work that I do with clients and sort of they're needing help with technology from time to time. So a fairly common example is a client will call me and say they need some money out of their, one of their accounts. And the example that I'm specifically thinking of here, they were going to take a required minimum distribution anyway for 2024.
Shawn Terrell (05:27.302)
but wanted to help out one of their kids with something and so was going to take or wanted to take more money out of their account than just the RMD amount for 2024. So they call me. I said, yeah, no problem. Let's get logged into your app on your phone and I can help get that all set up for you. Well, they go to find the app on their phone and the app is not on their phone or it's out of date. And so I kind of talked them through
how to get that on their phone, but their iPhone software is out of date. So we have to back up a step and update their software before we can download the app that we need. to do. But they don't know or they can't find their iTunes password. So they are struggling to update the software and download the app. And let me pause for a second here.
I am not sharing the story to poke fun at anyone who struggles with technology or sort of grew up without it and now doesn't use it on an everyday basis and maybe isn't that fluid and using it. I'm sharing this to be real or try to get to the heart of this is if this is actually an issue or a problem. So once we can establish that, we can figure out what to do about it.
And I also want to share that there's a lot of things in my life that some people are good at that are older than me that I am not good at. And this is also the generation that taught me how to use a spoon. So I'm just trying to establish whether or not there's a problem there. And I'm sort of giving an example that anytime I run into technological issues with clients, it always sort of involves having to move a little bit backwards first before we can go forwards or
a different example, go more upstream before we can go back downstream. In this case, getting the software updated, getting logged into like an iTunes account, finding the passwords. A lot of times when I have to reset their password, the email that they have set up their account with isn't on their phone and they get locked out of that account. So that's like another step back upstream before we can move downstream. But once it's all done and set up, the nice thing and the thing that I am really optimistic about in the future is that
Shawn Terrell (07:50.293)
it's actually pretty easy to do. can execute these things on behalf of clients once they give me instructions with a few clicks of the mouse and they can usually have their money in their bank account within a few days, which backing up 20 years, this whole same process 20 years ago would have involved me meeting with the clients in person, them signing a form, me faxing it in, hoping that the fax was received because if you ever used fax,
A long time ago, you know, it was kind of like, felt like you were sending something into a black hole where you think it went through, but you don't really know until like a week goes by and something gets processed or not processed. and you have to call and follow up. So the process has actually gotten easier. It involves a little bit more work. A lot of times in my experience on the front end to get everything set up correctly. So that's sort of an example of how we do that.
And just to kind of throw another log on the fire, a lot of times I have found that clients aren't set up for online banking where they want the money out of their investment account to be deposited. So we have to maybe set that up first too, and link that to the account. These are all steps that make things easier in the long run, but take a little bit more time on the front end. But as I said, my prediction is that this is not going away anytime soon.
And we need to figure out a plan for people that are in their 60s and 70s now that are going to be retired and need money out of these accounts for the next 20 or 30 years to figure out how to get that money out in an efficient way. So my solution to this so far is just what I call more human hand holding on this stuff. And I don't know why my light just went out while I was recording this, but I'm going to put it back on.
Shawn Terrell (09:54.72)
My light just dropped out. My solution to this is what I call more human hand holding, which is a little bit ironic because in 2025, it has never, in a lot of instances, been harder to work with another human to solve a problem that you need solved. Like anytime there's an issue with anything in your life, you call a 1-800 number and you talk to someone after hitting a bunch of
prompts and that someone may or may not be in the United States that there might be a language barrier or a communication barrier. But I think with technology moving forward, the solution with people who maybe need a little bit more help with technology is to get help from an actual human that can walk them through it, talk them through it, sort of figuratively hold their hand, even if it's on the phone across the country.
to get everything set up. And I feel grateful and excited about my future and my business because with me building an intentionally small firm with a limited fixed number of clients, I have more time and space to do things like that. And I would also, to be totally vulnerable, say that...
I say this delicately. Customer service and being super, super helpful and friendly is not something that comes incredibly naturally to me. I have to work hard to do that. And I don't want to paint myself in a bad light, but I guess maybe a good example for a dentist would be my chair-side manner sometimes needs a little work. And I say that not because I get upset or don't like...
doing it, it's just that I sometimes say things very plainly and bluntly just to say, okay, here's what we need to get it done. And I don't like mean any offense by that, but I also need to talking to myself and I'll be a little bit more delicate with how I do things. But I'm excited because in the instances where I have taken time and been patient with clients who struggle with technology to get it set up, the gratitude that I've received has been
Shawn Terrell (12:16.249)
Overwhelming is probably too strong of a word, but it's been strong and that's been very rewarding to work with people who just need a little bit of help. And if you take a half hour or an hour on the phone, which I currently have the space to do to help them and talk them through that and get it all set up, make things difficult on the front end, but easier in the long run. The clients have been very, very appreciative and I get a lot of meaning.
out of doing that, helping people with things that I am good at that they struggle with. Because as I said a little while ago, there's definitely things that I have shortcomings on too. I'm learning as I get older that everyone has strengths and everyone has weaknesses. And it's good if we can just kind of work with people on their strengths and weaknesses and not assume that everyone is exactly like us, but I'll get off my soapbox. So I sort of want feedback from the audience on this one. before I...
ramble any longer. Do you see technology as a hurdle, a problem, however you want to phrase it, for people that are in their 60s and 70s? If you want to be vulnerable and look in the mirror yourself, is it a struggle for you? Do you sometimes struggle to get logged into accounts and understand how everything is always changing with technology and how to use it and implement it in your life?
And if you're willing to, I'm also interested in feedback. What do you think is the solution? My solution is just a little bit more time and human handholding. If you have other solutions about how people can meet that challenge or get over that challenge, I am all ears. So the easiest way to give me feedback is to send me an email. So my email is shawn@dentistexit.com. That's S-H-A-W-N at dentistexit.com
dot com. If you are listening to this on a podcast app, there should be a link in the show notes that will allow you to email me directly. I do not have a direct email link set up currently on my YouTube page if you're watching this on YouTube. So just maybe make a note in your iPhone notes or I guess I'm not iPhone Pro. Well, I use an iPhone, but I'm not like against Androids or anything. So.
Shawn Terrell (14:37.998)
Whatever you have to make a note to follow up and email me later on your phone right now, if you're not driving, maybe stop and make a note to send me an email. I know that I listen to a lot of podcasts while I'm riding a bike or working out or driving. And it's not always the best time to, when I hear something interesting, follow up on it later. So if you can make a note to yourself to email me your feedback on technology with people in their sixties and seventies and how
if it's an issue and how we might or what some possible solutions are to make that not as much of a hurdle for people moving forward because it's here to stay. It's going to be a big part of the technical side of people getting their money out of their accounts once they exit clinical, once they are retired, once they go do whatever it is they want to do with the rest of their lives. So getting a little bit long winded. I'm Shawn Terrell.
This is Dentists, Puns and Money. Thanks for following along and we will talk to you again very, very soon.