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The Forward Thinking Dental Podcast
We go on so many courses to improve our hand skills, to improve our composites, our crown preps, and all those important clinical skills. But one thing we're often guilty of neglecting is upskilling in ergonomics. Partly because there isn't much out there to actually go and learn how to properly sit, how to properly hold your neck, how to use your elbows in the right way so that you're not damaging your back, how to sit properly, how to pass the tools to your nurse, how should the nurse be positioned, and how should you work more efficiently in different areas of the mouth without having to bend your back? Well, it is with great pleasure that this year, our annual Protrusive Gathering, I do one event a year, and this year is on Saturday, June 13, and I've invited from Australia, Doctor. Anna Kobaugh.
Speaker 1:She's a dentist that teaches you ergonomics, optimum dental posture. She's dedicated her life to this. She teaches something called the Alexander Technique. And whilst this event will be a gathering, there will be networking, there'll be lots of fun, Protruserati meeting each other either for the first time or again from our previous events over the years. But there'll be six hours of CPD because I've told Aniko, I really want every single person, whether a dentist, therapist, or nurse to be able to go to practice and implement a better way of doing dentistry that is proven to be kinder to your back and your neck so you can really undo bad posture.
Speaker 1:Anika has promised us how to do an extraction using the power from your hips and not using your hands the wrong way, or even how to position yourself for when working in different areas of the mouth. Of course, small and mighty changes from your foot positioning, your chair positioning, down to how you hold your mirror. This is an in person event, but we also have a livestream option if you can't attend live. The livestream also includes a replay, and anyone who attends live also gets access to the replay video if you enroll before the early bird deadline expires. Protrusive Rati, it is time to finally look after your back, do something good for your posture without breaking the bank.
Speaker 1:This is a really good deal considering a flying her in from Australia as to put something nice on for you and something that's gonna actually make a meaningful change to your life. So whether you join in person, which I'd love, I'd love to see you, or online for the livestream or replay, head over to protrusive.co.uk/unbreakable. That's protrusive.co.uk/unbreakable. Thank you, and I hope to see you in London or online at Unbreakable twenty twenty six. Personal finances.
Speaker 1:Let's talk money. Let's talk career security. Welcome back, Protruserati. I'm Jaz Gulati, and this is a rare solo episode. Honestly, a podcaster, it's so much easier to talk to someone and just have a conversation like you're at a pub somewhere.
Speaker 1:And it's just an easy flow. When I do these solo ones, they take a lot out of me. But I really wanted to just let it all out. I think money and personal finances is one of two rabbit holes that we all should go down and learn more about. The other one is your health and well-being.
Speaker 1:So I'm currently in the health and well-being rabbit hole. I'm taking more supplements now than ever before. I'm going to the gym a lot more than ever before. So if you ask me right now, I'm all about longevity. I'm following a lot of Brian Johnson kind of stuff, how to optimize your sleep and all that good stuff.
Speaker 1:But some years ago, I went down the rabbit hole of money and personal finances. And I think it's one that we all ought to go down. Now in this episode, I'm going to share my values when it comes to money, my own beliefs and perspectives when it comes to financial security and money and how I think it applies to dentists. So if you've already done your research, and you know about money and investing and ICERs and Roth IRAs and stocks and shares and that kind of stuff, then great. A lot of this stuff is just making it applicable to dentists and hopefully a lot of validation.
Speaker 1:And of course, it may be that we have different opinions. I'm fairly risk averse, but maybe that you've never really read anything about money and personal finances before. And so this will be quite educational for you. But I have to say that everything I'm saying today is not financial advice, guys, I am just a dentist who went down a rabbit hole essentially about saving money, the power of compound interest, projecting how much money you need to actually retire and something called your rich life, which I will talk a lot about towards the end of the podcast. So I'm gonna take you on a little journey, I will be talking a lot about my past, because learning about my past will give you an idea about my money mindset, especially early on my career, and what I think is an achievable goal for most dentists, I will give you a summary of what I've learned from, you know, going down this rabbit hole, reading lots of books, listening some podcasts, although mostly actually books and audiobooks, and how I currently think about personal finances and with time and the season of life I'm in now, you know, I've got two young boys, it might be very different to how I think in ten years time.
Speaker 1:And also, if I go back ten years ago, I was thinking differently, because ten years ago, I was in a new grad salary in The UK, which isn't very much. And I'm in a different position now, but with more liabilities, and I'll be in a different position in ten years. So all these perspectives and beliefs I've gathered, they change over time, because you change. So first question, why am I talking about money and personal finances on a dental podcast? Well, we're a podcast, but we're also a community.
Speaker 1:We're a community of the nicest and geekiest dentists in the world. I am of course talking about Protrusive Guidance, our own network. At the time of publishing this, we've got over 6,000 dentists all over the world. And we don't make it easy to join the network because we need you to verify that you're a dentist. And so a lot of people get put off by that and they don't want to join.
Speaker 1:And I get that. But we're still growing faster than ever. And I still love that the feel and the vibe of our little community is so pleasant. We welcome questions. There's no such thing as a stupid question.
Speaker 1:One of our core values is kindness. And so it's like the complete opposite of the experience you usually get on Facebook. And so on the community that we've built this year, we've decided to make it even more awesome and purposeful. So every month we have a theme. Now last month, we did perspective and gratitude.
Speaker 1:Gratitude. And that was January. And if I was to summarize last month in about thirty seconds, sometimes we all have bad days at work, right? And sometimes we feel that the stress is mounting up and our job is not easy, especially if you're a general dentist. I think general dentists, we have the hardest job of all, we have to be good at so many different things.
Speaker 1:And of course, if you wear other hats, like a parent, spouse, if you have elderly parents, you're that you're a carer of, there's so many other life stressors that we have to juggle at any one point. But when it came to gratitude and perspective, I just wanted to make two things clear. One is go back to when you were 17, 18 years old for most of you from The UK, from The US, obviously a bit later when you decided that you wanted to go into dental school for your postgraduate. And there was a time in your life when you really wanted it badly, like in your stomach, there's nothing more that you wanted than to be sat where you are right now. Let me say it again, there was a time where you would have given up your spleen to be sat exactly where you are in your exact predicament.
Speaker 1:Even if you think that my life's just stressful, and I'm not enjoying it, or I hate running a practice and all those stressors that we have. Once upon a time, this is the life that you wanted. And sometimes that there was a lot of positive energy when I was seventeen-eighteen, man, I really want to be in dentistry, I really, really, really badly wanted to be a dentist. And so sometimes when I have a bad day, I think to myself, you know what, there was once more time that teenage jazz would absolutely do anything to be here right now. And practice gratefulness, be grateful that you are here that you made it, and you came through so many obstacles, and you will continue to jump more obstacles.
Speaker 1:So sometimes feeding off that old energy you had is really powerful. And the second thing I just want to mention on perspective and gratitude is the following quote, which I think is so powerful. Real luxury in life is when you don't have to deal with the police, lawyers, hospitals, or doctors. You just go to work, come home, cook some good food, spend some time with your family and sleep peacefully. And I think that is so true.
Speaker 1:I think social media shows this perfect life that everyone's living. And we often take for granted that special quiet life that we have right now, especially if you're fortunate enough not to be in those scenarios. If you don't have lawyers, if you don't have hospitals in your life, you are rich, my friend beyond belief. And it's important to keep that mindset and be grateful. So that was a quick little summary of what I talked about last month.
Speaker 1:Next month is AI, AI in dentistry making AI tangible for every dentist, whether you're a new grad, or towards the end of your career. And if you think you're a total technophobe, you don't get any of this AI stuff. And on that note, as you guys know, we launched our own AI Protrusive AI, it's called Ask Jaz just recently. And today I was on a mentoring forum with Julia, one of our members. And so she posted a case and she said, Hi, Jaz, it seems odd to be actually writing to you and not Ask Jaz.
Speaker 1:I think it's absolutely amazing. Mind blowing. I use it a lot asking questions I would be embarrassed to ask aloud. Well, firstly, on our network, you can ask any question guys, right? Protrusive guidance is there.
Speaker 1:There's no such thing as a stupid question. However, we see the questions coming in the queries that we answer and ask Jaz every day. And it's amazing. So for those who don't know, ask Jaz is our AI. And it's basically built on all the podcasts we've ever done.
Speaker 1:Everything I've ever taught, everything I've spoken has been recorded, has been transcribed. And we've got about eight to 9,000,000 words at moment making up our AI. And like between now and June, we're really making a conscious effort to make this what I already think is incredible AI. But I want this to be the go to resource by June 2026, like superseding chat GPT by a million times, because chat GPT will scrape from articles online and reddit and stuff, whereas this is just the Protrusive Verse, what we feed it and what we like to feed it is very carefully selected, science backed, evidence based and experientially based because everyone in the community when there's a really good chat thread going and a good discussion about a case, I'm like, wow, this is epic information. It's so difficult to find this good information about this specific scenario, like how do you remove a resin bonded bridge?
Speaker 1:That was one from today. And so all the answers that were gathered, we upload them to ask Jaz. And so next time someone asked what's the best way to remove a resin bonded bridge, not only do you have the resource of every single episode ever, and you know, RBB mask class, our course, but now from the community, what's worked for practitioners all over the world. So I'll talk more about that as well next month. So AI is next month's theme.
Speaker 1:But back to this month, we're talking about personal finances, that really important rabbit hole I think everyone should go down. Some of the most insightful information I found from our community is how we answer the polls. We have like weekly polls, quite often we have two or three polls a week, and they've been so rich in insight. Now I remember a time clinically, I posted a scenario about how would you restore this tooth or something. And the range of answers were amazing.
Speaker 1:Some people would extract, a quarter of people would restore the crown, a quarter people do a post call, like it was all over the place. But it was beautiful. Because what it proved is let's not look at the fact that we'd all do it differently, is that no matter if you do it differently, there's someone else who's doing it the same way as you. And a lot of these are gray areas, and there are no right answers. Now this poll was really insightful on personal finances.
Speaker 1:I asked as an earning dentist, are you living paycheck to paycheck? Or do you end up with savings at the end of the month? And guys, you would not believe it. Well, maybe you would. Okay, so what percentage do you think like in life in world?
Speaker 1:Now forget dentistry for a moment. Let's talk about everyone globally, the data we have right in 2025 to 2026, over half of workers globally and in The US live paycheck to paycheck, right? So if they literally lost their job, then how will they pay for their mortgage? How will they pay for anything like they don't have a buffer, they don't have significant savings, because they need that monthly income to sustain their living. It said 49% of UK workers and up to 67% of the Americans are struggling to make ends meet.
Speaker 1:And it says seventy two percent of Gen Z and sixty five percent of millennials particularly being impacted. That's sad. That's really messed up. But tell you what's messed up. As dentists, we aren't generally higher earners, right?
Speaker 1:No matter what country you're in, compared to the average income in your country, a dentist would earn more than most other professions. So our community on Protrusive Guidance of Dentists says 45% of you were living paycheck to paycheck, you spend what you earn at the end of every month. And very often on these Facebook groups, I see dentists posting that, ah, I've been stupid. And I accidentally spend this money. And I knew I was supposed to save a third for tax.
Speaker 1:And now I have to pay tax next week. And I don't have any money to pay. I need $30.40 grand to pay my tax bill. I've seen these posts before. So if you've seen them, and someone's had the courage to post that, then behind the scenes, there's a lot more happening.
Speaker 1:So why is that happening? Why is it that as high earners 45% of us as a you know, as a snapshot, of our community, but let's extrapolate that 45% of us are living paycheck to paycheck, and not being able to save. And I would love to have some data on what percentage are new grads, which I understand. When I was a new grad, I was definitely living paycheck to paycheck. You know, London's not cheap.
Speaker 1:Now, but here's the thing, I was still investing massively huge. I was investing 50 to 60% of my monthly salary. Let me tell you how I was living with my parents. I'll tell you about my living arrangement a little bit more in a minute and therefore supposedly saving a lot of money. But I was spending so much on me.
Speaker 1:I was investing in myself, ie the first paycheck I got, I spent 60 percent of it on my first camera, You know, I got the ring flash macro lens body. There's a whole funny story behind that in a different podcast. I got it from Gumtree secondhand used and it cost me like £1,300. At that time was a big deal for me, huge deal. And so just like that, I was doing so many courses as buying new loops, I was just really investing in myself.
Speaker 1:So for me, was I really living paycheck to paycheck, because actually I was investing. So I was able to invest in myself. So if you're in a position to have some money to invest, and this could be in just a savings account, this could be in stocks and shares, or this could sometimes be in yourself, depending on what season of life you're in, what skill set you have, and that kind of stuff. Another insightful piece of information I would love to gain from that 45% is okay, what percentage are associates? And what percentage are principals?
Speaker 1:As an associate, I used to think that, hey, principals are raking it in, they are literally taking, you know, 60% of my pay, and they are doing just fine. But actually the more I learn, the more I spend time with principals, the more I made good friends with principals, the more I understand that actually a lot of associates are far better off financially than principals. I was literally sat next to a principal at the recent event, the Brandon Mack event, the CEO went to on veneers, it was really cool. And this Dentists Raho, lovely guy turns out went to the same secondary school together, both Hounsler boys. And he said to me, the check he writes for his associates is bigger than the check he writes to himself every month.
Speaker 1:And this is not the first time I've heard that principals tell me that quite often. Now pros and cons, right? It's stressful to run a business. There's lots of overheads, all the costs on PPE to staffing annual pay rises, have gone much higher. And so the principals are feeling it, practices are feeling it.
Speaker 1:But the plus side of all that is that you get to run the show that you want to, you get to be the boss. And if you play your cards right and build nice systems and build like in a recurring stream of patients and revenue for the practice, then that could be your retirement, that could be your exit plan. I know plenty of principals in their 50s who sold to a corporate and now they're smiling because a lot of their financial issues have gone. That was their big exit. And so you have that benefit, which you don't as an associate, you're not building something, at least not through the practice.
Speaker 1:But I just wanted to mention that because the whole thing about associates and principals overall, when you look at the data, when you look at the accountant's data, when you look at the NASDAL data, on average, principals will earn way much more than associates. But it's not true for everyone. And for a lot of associates, they will do better than their principal. And a lot of principals have told me that. So regardless of associate or principal, why are so many dentists living paycheck to paycheck?
Speaker 1:Well, I think part of it is you have this status, you're a dentist, and therefore you have high income. You also have high taxes in most countries, taxes are very high in The UK, especially, yep, super high. And so yes, whilst you're earning more, this is kind of like famous quote that you work from January to April just to pay your taxes kind of thing, right? And the rule of thumb we have in The UK at least is that you should save a third of your income to pay tax. So whilst we're high earners, we also pay a lot of tax.
Speaker 1:Now being in that higher earner kind of status, then a lot of us who become parents might send our children to private schools, and they are really expensive. And And of course, we wanna go on holidays. You wanna go on nice holidays because we're dentists, right? And so you end up going on holidays on the most expensive time of year, which is when the other schools are off as well. And you choose nice holidays and nice resorts because you're a dentist, you deserve it.
Speaker 1:And so high earnings, high tax, school fees, keeping up with the Joneses, driving that nice car, etc, etc. These are all reasons why despite being well paid, a dentist may feel that they're living paycheck to paycheck. Now all this while, for example, a principal might be living paycheck to paycheck, but building the value and goodwill of their practice. So once their kids are a bit older, and the kids have been funded to university or college, and now that expense is gone, then they have a bit more breathing room. And suddenly, there's a practice sale around the corner.
Speaker 1:And now it's off to The Bahamas. I'm not sure if that's actually how it works. But in my associate mind, that could be a business model of a principle. But one thing for sure is that we're all can be guilty of this. And this is lifestyle creep.
Speaker 1:Lifestyle creep is as your income goes up, your spending also goes up to match it. Like you earn a bit more, you've been in the game for a few years, and now you might buy that BMW. And then kids come along and you think, we need to upgrade our house. And then you might really stretch to buy the biggest house you can afford. So rather than buying a modest house that will make you comfortable, we like to think, okay, let me buy the biggest house that we can potentially get a mortgage on.
Speaker 1:And now your mortgage bill is really high every month. And so there we are, there's no saving. And I haven't even mentioned about the cost of indemnity and GDC or your APRA or whatever. There are a lot of costs associated with being a dentist. So lifestyle creep is a real thing and something that I think you should introspectively look at, look in the mirror and think, has lifestyle creep affected me?
Speaker 1:Now a little bit I understand because you need to enjoy your life as well. And we'll come on to that. There's something about living your rich life. Once again, I've teased it again, I'll come to that. And we need to have fun and be able to spend our hard earned money.
Speaker 1:But I always say be very careful with lifestyle creep because it goes against one of the philosophies that I will talk about shortly, which is just maximizing your savings rate. And for good reason. And we'll talk about that. Now on the app, I get inspired by so much of you and your thoughts and where you are in your career. And one of you, I won't say your name, I won't embarrass you.
Speaker 1:You mentioned this concept of dentistry being golden handcuffs, which is like high level employment, like it's paid well. But if you're not there inside patient's mouths, you're not getting paid. Even if you're a principal, then unless you are giving a lot of energy and time, then your practice will not perform very well. If you haven't done the hard work to build the systems and keep thinking about the next step and marketing and fighting the fires, then you'll be stuck. And so yeah, great.
Speaker 1:Dentistry has a high income capability. But it's those golden handcuffs, you can't just suddenly take a foot off the brake and still have the same amount of money coming in. Now, yes, I know there's like den plan practice plan, there's like plan based income, and I get that. But for most of us, if you take a few weeks off, if you take a month off, you will feel it, you will feel it in your income big time. And so we have to physically be present and give ourselves and our energy and our time to be able to bring the production.
Speaker 1:And that is a form of high level employment is kind of seen as a trap. We are not free, my friends. We are trapped. It's not the worst trap in the world, but we are trapped. So I will now share some of my beliefs on how to break free from this trap.
Speaker 1:And to understand my money beliefs, you kind of need to go back in time with me. So I'll spend just a couple of minutes.
Speaker 1:For those of you that don't know, I came to England as a six year old as a refugee. Okay, was six, I was a refugee from Afghanistan, essentially fleeing the Taliban. I live in London or West London area, I lived in West, I still live in West London now, but a different part.
Speaker 1:But the key thing is, we didn't have much money. And I was living in what we call social housing, or affordable housing or government subsidized housing. So this was like a tiny apartment. It was two bedrooms. And so once my sister was born as well, it was me, my sister and my parents living in this two bedroom apartment.
Speaker 1:And this wasn't just for like two years, right up until I went to uni. And then right up until I was a year after so now as a dentist, when I came back home to live with my parents after going to uni in Sheffield, I was living in this tiny apartment. I remember how embarrassed I was at school, I wouldn't dare invite anyone to my home because I'd been to my friend's houses and they lived in proper houses, nice houses. And I lived in this little dinghy flat in a slightly dodgy area. And I think I was like 16 before I ever allowed a friend to come to my place.
Speaker 1:When my dad first came to the country, he was driving a cab or a taxi and he would come home very late at night. And so a small kid looking at my dad is like, okay, you know, he's working really hard, he'd not be around very much in the evenings. In fact, he'd come home at 10PM. And so that was after my bedtime. So what that was teaching me as a kid is it's okay to sacrifice family time for work.
Speaker 1:And that's what kind of maybe was subconsciously I was learning as a child, we didn't have much money. So I did think about money a lot as a kid, as a teenager, and I could not wait to get my first job. So I used to work in home base, which is like a DIY garden furniture, paint, that kind of shop. Was on £4 an hour. And I worked as many Saturdays as I could to have a bit of disposable income as a teenager.
Speaker 1:Then when I went to dental school at university, I worked in bars and catering at stadiums. And it wasn't like an extra thing for me that was working. I just from 16 I was working and so I was working. Working part time employment was just a part of me. Just needed it.
Speaker 1:I knew that I need the money so that I could afford to have a nice student experience and be able to go out and have fun, which we did a lot of, but I needed my jobs to help me fund that. Now here's an embarrassing story. When my wife was not my wife, and she was my girlfriend, I remember meeting her for a coffee in the Costa. And I got there like ten-fifteen minutes before and I am forever, even to this day now that I'm married, I'm always getting ready fifteen minutes before my wife. There's always two in a relationship, one who's like always on time early and one that's always late and you know who's who now.
Speaker 1:But anyway, I bought my drink, probably a black Americano and I knew Sims order, I knew what she usually orders, but I hesitated. I didn't buy it that day. And I was just sat there waiting for her with my drink. And when she came into the cafe, she was like, Hey, where's my drink? And I was thinking, gosh, yes, where is her drink?
Speaker 1:Why didn't I buy her a drink? Well, truth is, I didn't have enough money. I was really low on funds. And I kind of had to have that conversation with her then. And bless her, she stuck by me, she supported me stuck by me.
Speaker 1:And so I knew from that day that she was a keeper. So the reason I told you stories is just to give you some context on where I come from, and how that may have shaped some of my thinking about money. But I was really influenced by a lot of things I was reading. I So think in about fourth year of dental school, I read my first ever finance book, you like, and I think this is the first, this is like the gateway drug to finance books for many people. This was Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.
Speaker 1:It taught me about assets versus liability. And if you haven't read this book, it is one of the classics. So I think I was like twenty one-twenty two. And I was reading this over the summer holidays. And that book really opened my eyes, it just made these little things.
Speaker 1:It taught me a lot about me and my family. And how in the book, there's like this my rich dad and my poor dad. Well, one of them is actually his dad. The other one's like, I think it was a dad of his friends. And he looked at their two lives.
Speaker 1:And with his dad at the dinner table, talking about money was frowned upon. Was like a taboo subject. Whereas with the rich dad and his family, they talked about money openly. They talked about business ideas and ventures and investment and that kind of stuff. And I guess years later, revisiting these concepts for this episode, we dentists are what Robert Kiyosaki would describe as highly educated, but financially undertrained.
Speaker 1:Let me say again, we're highly educated. And most of us are happy to admit and honest enough to admit that we're financially undertrained. And so once again, I'm no guru, I'm just gonna break down a few things from Rich Dad, Poor Dad applied to dentistry. Number one, it was mostly like a mind, it wasn't like an investing book. It wasn't even like a very technical book.
Speaker 1:It was a mindset book. And essentially, there's assets and there's liabilities. Assets put money in your pocket, and liabilities take money out of your pocket. So let's make this really tangible, right? For dentists, we may wish to max out and get the most expensive house we can afford.
Speaker 1:So whatever the bank will loan you, you'll really stretch it out so that you can have that nice dentist house. But now your monthly outgoing on the mortgage is going to be huge. And we know that a lot of people view their home, their family home as an asset. But I think you would argue it's more of a liability takes money out of your pocket only when you sell it on maybe years decades later, can it give you money in your pocket. But having that big house and really stretching your affordability is actually seen as a liability.
Speaker 1:Having a luxury car, watch is an even bigger practice loan. Again, we think practice loan is a good type of debt. But again, it's taking money out of our pocket month by month, they feel like success, but they are liabilities dressed as status. So I'm just gonna read out some assets that might apply to a dentist. So if you have an associate led practice generating profit without you, that is an asset.
Speaker 1:Not so easy. My principal friends tell me that is a no easy feat. Property is a big one. That's why a lot of people get into property having property rented out, although depends on which country in The UK, it's becoming less profitable. But property is generally seen as an asset, it brings money into your pocket.
Speaker 1:Index funds, which we'll talk a lot about later index funds are huge. That's my main way of gaining assets. I invest in index funds via my pension and my something called ISA in The UK, the closest thing for that in The US would be something like a Roth IRA. Another example of an asset would be having equity ie owning a percentage of a scalable company, for example, a dental tech company. So those are just a few examples.
Speaker 1:And essentially, your clinical skill is income, but it's not an asset because it doesn't work without you. If you stop drilling, income stops. That my friends is not freedom. That is dependency. Now we've already established that high income doesn't equal wealth.
Speaker 1:Remember the poll, about 45% of us still living paycheck to paycheck, even though having a high monthly packet generally compared to the population, and you can still feel financial pressures very real due to the reasons I mentioned before, like lifestyle creep, private education, which is so expensive, keeping up with the Joneses, high tax. And so we have to change how we think about wealth. Wealth is not your income. Wealth is how many assets you have, what your cash flow is like, having financial independence. I'm going to talk about this a lot financial independence a little bit later.
Speaker 1:And my favorite one, which is time freedom. True wealth is doing what you want, when you want, with whom you want, whenever you want. However, in dentistry, have high income, but we have big mortgages, practice loans, equipment finance, and once again, lifestyle creep. On paper, that's rich, but it's also very stressed. And so I'm just gonna wrap up Kiyosaki's teaching essentially, it's invest first, spend later.
Speaker 1:And so it's moving away that thinking from earning, spending, and then whatever's left over at the end, investing it and flipping it. And this is something that I actually do, I earn, I invest, and then I spend what's left over. So don't just think about investing any money you have left over at the end of the year, investment should be a big part of what you do. And then any money you have leftover is kind of what you live on. It's not easy.
Speaker 1:And you might be thinking, wow, Jaz, what's the joy in life if you earn lots of money, and you're not able to spend it, and investing is boring, it doesn't give you pleasure now. And I get that. But remember, I will teach you about your rich life. And that's coming very soon. The goal that I want to really aspire to and for everyone, I would really aspire this for all Protruserati, you practice dentistry because you want to, not because you have to.
Speaker 1:And so I met some really inspirational dentists in their mid 50s. The kids are a little bit grown up now. And they've described to me this wonderful scenario that they work a few days a week because they want to, but the rest of time, they're enjoying life, they're doing things that truly bring joy to them. At one point, we all realize something is that the harder you work, the more you work, the more you have to pay tax. And so if we can start thinking early on about how can I get to maybe fifteen-twenty years from now and have the option or the possibility of practicing dentistry because you want to not because you have to think about how powerful that is, whether a patient says yes or no to a treatment plan has no bearing on you whatsoever?
Speaker 1:And really, that's something my principal Hap Gill has always taught me from day one is that whether the patient says yes or no, it really does not matter. You just treat everyone like family and present the best plan, give them compromise options if they truly can't afford it, explain the value of the plan to them. But if they say no, it's their loss, it should not affect you one bit. But when I was younger, and I think when you're a new grad, and you want to do these fun cases, and then make these nice treatment plans, and patients will say no. And then as a new grad, you can feel really dejected.
Speaker 1:I think don't have to a new grad, you can be at any stage of career. And that kind of rejection is not a nice thing. And that may even have financial implications. Someone, know, your practice manager might go to production is down. I know my American colleagues, they tell me this that all you gotta start cutting is something I've heard.
Speaker 1:Well, secondhand a dentist told me that that's what their manager told them in The States. You know, if you want to produce, you got to do the dentistry. And so that kind of ethical pressure to not I wouldn't say overtreatment, don't know anything about these patients. I can't say anything as overtreatment. But it's like this level of desperation of your patients to accept treatment plans, because that is tied to your income.
Speaker 1:That's not a great place to be. So the opposite is you already have assets, paying money into your pocket, you're doing dentistry, which is still going to earn you good money, but you're not dependent on your patient saying yes, can you imagine how much more relaxed you would be and having that heavy weight lifted from your shoulders? That my friends is what we should be aspiring to. So three reflective questions, my friends, if I stopped working for six months, right, think about it, you just stopped working for six months, what would happen? Number two is what assets are currently paying you?
Speaker 1:Do you have any property? Do you have any rental property paying you every month? Are you investing in index funds, stocks and shares? And over the years, you've seen an increase? And are you building income?
Speaker 1:Are you building freedom? Which one do you truly want? So I hope you enjoyed that little quick summary of Rich Dad Poor Dad. And there's other books which I'll talk about in the rest of this episode. So I'm glad I read this book.
Speaker 1:Because when I was one year qualified, I graduated from Sheffield, I and went back to London, I had my foundation job. And once again, I was living with my parents in that same flat we've been there. That means we've been in this apartment for seventeen years now, still tiny two bedroom. In fact, going to dental school and going to uni was the first time I had my own bedroom. So Live My Parents was great because I saved a lot of money that I was able to invest.
Speaker 1:Now here's the thing, I wasn't investing in property, I wasn't investing in stocks and shares at that point, didn't really know much about it that comes later in the story, but I was investing in myself. So for example, I went on loads of courses. And in my first paycheck, like I said, I bought my camera setup. Now I see a camera in dentistry as an asset, it puts money in your pocket. Now yes, I had that initial outlay of spending that £1,300 or so, which is a huge chunk of my first paycheck.
Speaker 1:But practicing photography elevated me as a clinician, it helped me to build my portfolio helped me to eventually get into private practice. And I just wouldn't practice dentistry without it. On the days that take more photos, they're more joyful. Now, obviously, nowadays, I'm more into video over the last three, four years. But I'm just stating the obvious few guys, which you know already, if you listen to this podcast is dental photography is absolutely essential.
Speaker 1:So I saw that as an asset, I saw the courses I was going on as an asset, because they would all increase my scope, increase my skills that would ultimately give me a higher monthly pay. And this happened year on year on year, my monthly pay went up and up and up, I was becoming more skilled, I was becoming more confident. So whilst this time, I wasn't investing in external assets, was investing in myself. And in other niches outside of dentistry, you listen to anyone, you listen to Alex or Mosey, listen to Gary Vee, etc. They all say the same thing, invest in yourself.
Speaker 1:And I think that's what they mean when you apply to dentistry, whether it's postgraduate courses, the right equipment, like photography, upskilling, you can do more procedures in a better way for your patients. These are all examples of investing in yourself. Because the truth is, at that stage of my career, I really didn't earn enough money to be able to invest in other things. So I think the first five years should be all about what can I do to become the best dentist possible? Forget fast, just become good.
Speaker 1:I was always taught as a teenager that if you become good at something, the money will always follow. Just have your focus on becoming good at whatever it is you want to do. In the business world, there's this quote, I'm gonna read it out for you. It is show me your calendar, and I'll show you how you earn your value. And if I was to apply this dentistry, was at this, like a evening course, it was Central London, I was like, one year qualified, there was this gentleman who talks about mindset for associates and stuff.
Speaker 1:I think his name was Doctor. Asif Saeed, but don't quote me on that, but really charismatic guy. And he said something so obvious, but so revelationary at the same time, like this is something that we should all know is common sense, but no one actually thinks about it. Well, certainly I didn't, which is this your day list, ie the list of your patients that you get in the morning with you know, everything that you're doing, your day list will instantly tell you your production. I know, isn't it just crazily obvious.
Speaker 1:But if you really extrapolate what that means is that your day list is a reflection of your earning power. So essentially, to really spell it out, which I probably needed back then, if you are full of exam and scale and polish, and the odd single tooth composite here and there, there's a ceiling you will reach, you will reach a certain ceiling of income, compare that to someone whose day list is sedation and implants, some ortho cases, some major bonding cases, a rehab, a chrome denture with raising the vertical dimension, you get the point, your day list is a representation of your earning power. So how do we use this information? Well, it just links back to what I said a minute ago, which is invest in yourself, do you have the right skills to be earning at the level that you want to? Because if you just do general bread and butter dentistry, you can still earn a decent income.
Speaker 1:But compared to someone who's regularly doing implants, which I don't by the way, ortho cases, even complex endo, there's going to be a difference in your income levels. So the first way to think about is how do I become good at what I do? How can I up skill? And I think when you up skill, you actually bring more joy into dentistry. Dentistry is an art and a science and the whole art of doing endo, the art of doing a rehab.
Speaker 1:When you go beyond single tooth dentistry, things become a lot of fun. Now there's nothing wrong with being a single tooth dentist as long as that's what you want. But if you feel trapped, and you feel like, I'm a single tooth dentist, but I really want to be a quadrant dentist or to be able to do these procedures, and you're fighting it and you feel that tension every day, and you're putting it off or whatever, then that's no way to live your life. Okay? If you want to do single tooth dentistry, and that brings you joy and fulfillment, then you are already winning my friend.
Speaker 1:But if like me, you always had this itch, like how do you raise the vertical dimension? How do you treat a wear case? If you have that curiosity inside you? And that's what drove me towards learning occlusion. And then being able to do bigger cases, which was good news for my income, but also good news for my patients, I was able to have a bigger impact in the lives of my patients and have more fun, you know, doing a injection molding, like I'm doing a wear case tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1:And it's been great to look at the photos, the planning and exocad. And yes, being a little bit more comprehensive has its own issues and problems. We've talked about that in the other episodes. So going back to my journey, when I was finishing up my second hospital position, which was in Sheffield, it was a DCT two in Restorative Dentistry. I don't know now, but back then it was a fantastic post.
Speaker 1:It introduced me to using a microscope, retreatments under the scope, re RCTs under the scope, raising the vertical dimension, doing complex dentures introduced me to that world. Really loved it, but also gave me a lot of clarity on my career. Because at that stage, I wanted to be a restorative specialist, I wanted to be a consultant in restorative. That was like the sexiest thing going, but it helped me see I do not belong in a hospital. Years later, when I read the book surrounded by idiots, and I'm not saying that anyone in hospital is an idiot, because you got to read the book to understand that actually I am the idiot.
Speaker 1:My personality is so red. So in that book, it gives you a color. I'm so red, that I would struggle in a hospital environment, I think. And I realized that true innovation happens in private practice. But here is the dilemma.
Speaker 1:I was a new grad just few years out. And yes, I had more evidence of my photography, I had a better portfolio than most of people at my cohort. So just a few years qualified, I had more photos, more experience, a better portfolio than anyone because I was just so driven in those first few years. But I didn't believe in myself. I knew that the fast pace of practice, ten minute checkup, fifteen minute checkups, that kind of setup was not for me.
Speaker 1:My mind just cannot work with that. It's probably why I ended up working in hospitals and working part time in practice on Saturdays. But at that stage, had major imposter syndrome. So I was like, who am I to apply to private practice? I don't think I'll find a private job.
Speaker 1:So at that time, me and my wife did something really cool. We decided to move to Singapore. And Singapore, you just have private dentistry. So it was a great entry into private dentistry, if you like, and an opportunity to enjoy life. You know, we look back at that time very fondly.
Speaker 1:Me and my wife, you know, yeah, those eighteen months we were in Singapore, we traveled around Asia, we went to Australia as well. It was great. And actually, the income was decent, like probably not as decent as UK, but because the tax was way lower, it was great. We ended up actually saving some money as well. And then eighteen months later, because my wife got homesick, we came back to The UK.
Speaker 1:And for the first time ever, we actually had some savings, we could start our new life in The UK. And so once again, why did we move back from Singapore? Wife got homesick. But years later, I realized that life is not about the destination. It's not even about the journey.
Speaker 1:It's about the people, right? We mentioned this in an episode with Jorge Andre Cardoso, who said this to me, and I just it always stuck with me. And I guess our people were all in London, my family, my wife's family. So actually, I look at my situation now, when I've got two boys aged six and two, and have family all around us. And that I truly think is a beautiful thing whilst it was good to live as dinks in Singapore.
Speaker 1:So if you're wondering what dinks is, it's double income, no kids. Okay? So I look at my dinks friends, I'm like a little bit envious sometimes. But in our season of life, you know, we are in a very special place, got two young boys, young family with my parents and my wife's parents near us, got my sister near me, I've got my brother-in-law near me. So just puts everything into perspective, I'm glad in the end that we did come back.
Speaker 1:So when I came back, I had an even better portfolio. And now I had some experience of private dentistry. So I started to apply for private jobs. And guess what, I was offered private jobs. And so at one stage, I did that thing that a lot of people do.
Speaker 1:I was working at three different private clinics at once. Life was very busy, very hectic, but great. I was learning so much. I was actually offered a job on Harley Street as an associate. And it was between that and choosing a practice in Windsor with someone called Dave Winkler.
Speaker 1:And when I asked someone about that these two principles, these two roles, someone very respectful in the industry said to me, if you want to learn, work with David, if you want to earn, work with the other guy. And so you know what I did, I worked to learn. And so when you are young, I've been a big believer of work to learn, not to earn, because learning is a way of investing in yourself. And then you upscale and then you're able to produce more in the future. That's just the mindset that I had.
Speaker 1:And so I'm glad I did that. And so while I was commuting around all these clinics, one was 50 miles away, one was like 15 miles away, I was listening to audiobooks. And this is also when the Protrusive Podcast was born, because I got sick and tired of speaking to dentists on the phone asking me the same questions. Hey, how much money do you earn in Singapore? Do you need to do an exam?
Speaker 1:Do they speak English in Singapore? What's the lifestyle like in Singapore? All those questions. So the very first episode of Protrusive Podcast was to save me time so I can get back to my audiobooks and was expat dentist in Singapore. Shout out to Doctor.
Speaker 1:Sarinda Poonian for being our guest on episode one. And so the rest is history, I guess. But anyway, those audiobooks, okay? So I was reading to my audiobooks. And then I saw this Tony Robbins book is it was called Unshakable.
Speaker 1:I pressed download. Now I thought Unshakable was a book about mindset and how to make yourself resilient. I had no idea it was going to be a money book. And I'm so glad this wonderful accident happened. Because I listened to the entire book.
Speaker 1:And it was all about index funds. It's all about being financially resilient. It's all about investing smartly and investing for the future. And so that's how I entered that rabbit hole of finances. So those of you who don't know what index funds are, it's like, let's say the s and p five hundred, which is like the top 500 companies in The US.
Speaker 1:And imagine you put £1,000 in the s and p five hundred. And what happens that £1,000 is that it gets spread out and invested into all those 500 top companies. And so that's a good thing. Because if you invest in just one company, like a long time ago, I put some money into Beyond Meat, and I lost everything. Like Beyond Meat, I thought this is gonna be the future.
Speaker 1:I put money in Beyond Meat, and it went up by fifty-sixty percent in like a year, which is amazing. And now it's on like 98%. So I lost pretty much all my money on beyond me. What makes index funds very attractive and a very smart investment is that even if one or two companies default of the S and P 500, the chances are the others are not. And so the risk is lower than investing in just one company.
Speaker 1:And so the rewards will not be as crazy high as you know, you wouldn't get 67% increase in one year, but you also wouldn't tank 98% as well in one year. So index funds are seen as a very safe thing. So if this is your introduction to index funds, please do your research. I invest in index funds through my ISA and my pension. And so I guess if you're in The US, you'd be like a Roth IRA, but I don't know much about that.
Speaker 1:Remember, this is not financial advice. Now I'm not going to do a deep dive into unshakable, essentially just index funds, look into index funds, but that sent me down a rabbit hole. And I read so many books that year about personal finances, I really learned so much. And I'm so glad that I accidentally found this because it's had a huge influence on my life. And so if you're on my app Protrusive Guidance, I've literally given you the top 10 books that have changed my life.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm gonna read them out. But I give like a little dentist version of what you can learn from that book in that article on Protrusive Guidance. So yes, Rich Dad Poor Dad was another accident, I guess when I was a student. Another one is The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins, very calm and very boring book, but very effective. Again, it's about spending less than you earn investing the difference, okay, in low cost index funds.
Speaker 1:So that's what that's about your money or your life. Really cool book. In fact, there's a chapter in that book, which I just need to now go down this dive diversion, right? In this book, there's like hundreds of people in the sports hall or something, and they're sat in rows. Now these guys don't know this, but the organizers have arranged these people in rows based on their income.
Speaker 1:So lowest earners at the back, highest earners at the front, and they give them a piece of paper and everyone writes down their income, right? So each row has a similar level of income. And then the row in front of them earns more, the row in front of that one earns more. So that's like the general average. Now on a piece of paper, they wrote down how much money they earn at the moment per year.
Speaker 1:And then they said, Okay, now write how much money you think you need to be happy? How much money do you need? That's a realistic amount that will just make you feel less stressed, less pressured and happier. And a really fascinating thing happened, right? Because the way they organized it is that each row was approximately 20% wealthier or 20% higher earner than the previous row.
Speaker 1:And so the very back row wrote an answer that was approximately 20% higher. So let's say you're earning 100,000 bananas, then you write, oh, you know what, if I was earning 120,000 bananas, I'd be happier. So they write 120,000 bananas. In the next row, the average income was already 120,000 bananas, then they wrote down, oh, I'd be happy if at 148,000 bananas. Do see what I mean?
Speaker 1:And they saw this phenomenon on every single row. And so it was funny because each row was writing the income of the next row thinking, I'll be happy when I get there. But no one was actually wanted more income. And everyone's baseline happiness was not affected. No matter if you're in the top row or the back row, your general happiness wasn't that different.
Speaker 1:And that was very fascinating from that book. And essentially, that book is really cool, because it talks about investing aggressively so that, for example, when you get to your 50s and 60s, you can practice dentistry because you want to not because you have to. And it's all about investing aggressively when you're young. Similar book set for life by Scott trench. Again, all these books, the lessons for dentists are all in this article on Protrusive Guidance you can access for free.
Speaker 1:The other one was quit like a millionaire. Oh, one of my favorite, I will teach you to be rich. And the last part of this podcast, I'll just talk a little bit about that basically. A great book, really good mindset book. The Millionaire Next Door, essentially saying that most billionaires don't look rich, they drive modest cars live below their means and value independence over appearances.
Speaker 1:Then an unshakable obviously, because that's one that got me into it. Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell was classic, I think practice owners would really like that one. And the five types of wealth by Sahil Bloom because financial wealth is only one pillar. The other types of wealth are time, social, physical and mental wealth. And so I really like that about that book.
Speaker 1:So those are just 10 books right there. So I hope I've inspired you to just learn more. I think everyone should go down that rabbit hole. So I'm just gonna wrap up by telling you about your rich life. So this is from that book by Ramit Sethi, I will teach you to be rich.
Speaker 1:And he says that everyone can be rich, everyone can live their rich life, you just need to define what that looks like. So the exercise you do is you write on a piece of paper is that if you were rich, what would life look like? Like actually realistically, you know, what time would you wake up? What would you have for breakfast? What would your day look like?
Speaker 1:What kind of holidays would you go on? What kind of car would you drive all these kind of things, right? So you write down everything that would be in your rich life. And the beauty is that everyone's rich life looks a little bit different. So for me, I don't value cars that much.
Speaker 1:Okay, if you give me a Ferrari Lamborghini, it doesn't mean anything to me. For me, living my rich life means that I can afford to go to the most expensive gym in my area. And I do. And so to really just summarize this point, it's the philosophy of the book is to spend lavishly on the things that you love and that bring you joy and to save mercilessly on things that don't bring you joy. So me personally, I like spend on holidays with my family, I don't like spend on cars.
Speaker 1:At the moment, I like to spend money on like supplements and health and wellness and longevity. I don't like to spend money on junk food. I have zero interest in fancy watches, Rolexes, but I will spend lavishly on my Samsung Galaxy smartwatch. Because having those sleep metrics and the workout data is what is part of my rich life. So remember, guys, all of us can live our rich life.
Speaker 1:It just depends on defining what is your rich life, saving mercilessly on things that don't bring you joy and spend kind of guilt free on the things that you truly value and bring you joy. Oh, another one by the way, I spend lavishly on coffee, but specifically on a very specific coffee called exhale, especially a super healthy coffee. So I have a monthly subscription with that, because that's part of my rich life. Whereas when it comes to clothing and stuff, my wife will vouch for this, I'm just not into clothing brands, very simple guy. So everyone's rich life looks different.
Speaker 1:So three action steps guys, what does your rich life look like? The other two actions is what is your current savings rate? I want you to do analysis and think about your savings rate. And number three, based on this solo episode, firstly, hit subscribe, hit like tell me how you found this episode. If you're on Protrusive Guidance, I love you even more.
Speaker 1:Thanks for being part of it. Again, tell me how was this solo episode haven't done one in a while. And so what do you need to educate yourself on? That's the final thing. What do you need to educate yourself on?
Speaker 1:Remember none of this was financial advice, it was just how I see my personal finances and career security. And essentially, what I want to do is get into my 50s and work because I want to, and not because I need to. And so like I said, the way I do that at the moment is I save aggressively as possible. I try to live below my means I save in ICER, which is stocks and shares and index funds, and also buy my pension. And to get clarity on all these things, you need to do your own research and read those books, you need to go down those rabbit holes.
Speaker 1:So there we have it, guys. Thank you so much for listening all the way to the end. Thanks for being part of Protrusive Guidance and this theme in general. Hope it's given you some ideas and I look forward to revisiting this theme again next year. Otherwise, catch you same time, same place next week.
Speaker 1:Bye for now.