Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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 (00:02.324)
Welcome to Dentists, Puns and Money. I am your host, Shawn Terrell. A reminder before we start, this podcast is brought to you by Dentist Exit Planning. At Dentist Exit Planning, I help dentists within five years of leaving clinical build their financial treatment plan for life after dentistry. So the next few podcasts are going to be
less about financial stuff, less about money and more about life. When I restarted the podcast six months or so ago, I talked about how it was going to be important for me to weave in stuff about life more than the money stuff or at least as much as the money stuff. And I feel like we've been on a pretty good run of money or financial related topics, a little too technical, maybe at times. So today I'm going to focus a little bit more on
a life question. So there's this guy named Tim Ferriss, and most people probably know him as a podcaster, but he's also an entrepreneur and an author. But on his podcast, which is very popular, and maybe you've heard of him, he in the past, I haven't listened lately to his podcast as much as I used to. But in the past, he was always asked this, what he calls his billboard question.
which is if you had a billboard, metaphorically speaking, that you could put anything you wanted on it and share like a message or a philosophy that you have and share it with the world, what would be on it and why? And for a long time, I didn't really have a great answer to that question, but
I've been thinking about something a lot lately that I think is sort of my answer to this billboard question and I wanted to share it with you today. So here goes a little bit scary to put it out there, but my billboard as it stands today, if I had one would be the message of you are going to die someday. I know that's not very.
Shawn Terrell (02:22.514)
I know that's not very fun to say, but I think a lot of people in the busyness of day-to-day life lose sight of the fact that they will eventually die and no one's getting out of here alive. At least there's not very many documented cases of people getting out of life alive. So the point being, I think it's important for people to try to remember that.
on a regular basis and make decisions about how they live their life as a result of that. As it relates to their money, you can't take it with you, as far as I know. If there's proof that pops up to the contrary, then I will adjust this podcast in my philosophy kind of on life. But I don't think you can take it with you and you have a finite amount of time on this earth. So point being, I think it's really important to make sure you are
in the busyness of life, mixing in some things and spending time with the people that bring you the most joy. And it can get really easy to lose sight of that with kids activities and work commitments and everything that kind of goes into the busyness of life. So I think it's just important for people to take stock once in a while and try to make sure that they are doing some things throughout their life that actually bring them
joy because it's all going to end someday. And maybe as an amendment to that or sort of something I would tack on top of that is not only will it end someday but there could be in the future a good portion of your alive time remaining that you are physically tethered to a specific location because of your health or because you have to see doctors in a certain
part of the country or because you just physically can't move around and travel and be as mobile as you were at a certain point in your life because of your health and having and it's having changed. So I think it's important to do what you want to do while you can still do it because the one big thing that no one knows is how much time we have left. And that's getting really deep and philosophical but
Shawn Terrell (04:40.601)
It's something that I had a brief glimpse of with my health challenges a couple of years back. And it's something that I try to keep top of mind on a regular basis, although I too am guilty of losing sight of that and the busyness of day to day life. So I remind myself of this billboard as often as I can. And I think it's my responsibility, at least today, to share that with you. One trick that I use with this
that I did recently is trying to envision myself in the future. I just turned 47 a few days ago as I record this, but I sometimes try to think about myself as a 75 year old, like 25, 30 years from now. And what would 75 year old Shawn do with theoretically unlimited time and more resources that I have right now? And then sort of make these decisions through that lens.
As an example, I am a really big fan of the band Pearl Jam. I've seen them more times than I care to mention dozens of times, but every show is unique and it's a very unique experience for me every time I get the chance to see them live in concert. And I recently made a decision that probably would be against people's financial better judgment.
about how and when to see them and how much money to spend because I put that through the lens of if I was 75 years old and I could go back to when I was 47 and see Pearl Jam again with my brother at this really cool venue, would I spend the money on doing that? And the answer that I came up with was an overwhelming yes. So I'm doing something in the next few months, seeing Pearl Jam with my brother.
as a way to make my future self happy. Because I know that Pearl Jam and this podcast is not all about Pearl Jam, but I know that Pearl Jam won't be touring forever. They're in their 60's now. And I also know that me and my brother together, that's a trip that we probably won't be able to take forever. As I found out almost a couple of years ago. So doing something in the future or for my future self based on
Shawn Terrell (07:06.936)
trying to look through that lens right now. So that's kind of what I try to put on a billboard for people is just sort of this idea that your time is finite and you may have some physical limitations on what you can do and when you can do it in the future, even if you are, even if you do still have a lot of time left. So you gotta do what you want to do when you can do it. And it doesn't sound all that.
deep but I think people often say things that are important to them and who people are that are important to them but their actions maybe don't back that up on a regular basis so it's twofold as I process this in real time recording this out loud that you have to both say what is important to you and who's important to you but then also follow through on that and let your actions back that up so
Not gonna go much longer on this, I guess. So my big question is, what do you think of my billboard? Or maybe even a better question, what is your billboard or what's on your billboard? If you could share something that you think a lot of people maybe need to know or are missing about how they live their life, what would it be? I'm interested in how other people think about this question of what they would put on a billboard.
And I'm also interested in what they think of how I've answered that, or if this is has been in any way helpful to them to sort of be reminded of this can be a little blunt. But I also think that I had this glimpse with my health stuff of not ever being able to do what I wanted to do with who I wanted to do it with again. And it really, really stunk. And so not that I live my life with no limits or anything like that now, but I just think
that has guided how I live my life moving forward. And I thought that it would be helpful for other people to hear it because coming to a realization that your ability to do what you want to do and spend time with who you want to spend it with and not being able to do that would be a really thing, a really big tragedy and a really hard thing to process. So that's why I'm sharing it today.
Shawn Terrell (09:33.992)
If you would like to give me feedback about what you think about my billboard or what's on your billboard, I would love that. You can email me at shawn@dentistexit.com. If you're listening on a, or if you're watching on the YouTube page, thank you. But there is no link to email me directly on the YouTube page. If you are listening to this on a podcast app, there should be a link to email me directly in the podcast app show notes. So just click on that.
and drop me a line with what you think about my billboard and what's on your billboard. What's on your billboard about what people maybe need to hear or be aware of a little bit more as they go through life. Maybe we can all be a little bit better if we share ideas. So a couple reminders before I go. Dentist Exit Planning again helps dentists who are leaving clinical practice in the next five years.
figure out how to build their financial treatment plan for life after dentistry, mixing in with what they want out of life. And also a reminder that Dentist Exit Planning is a registered investment advisor. The information presented here should not be interpreted as investment, legal, tax, financial, or wealth planning.
or wealth management advice. It's for educational purposes only and past performance is not indicative of future results. I am Shawn Terrell and we will talk to you again very soon.