ARTICLES BY DAVID
Articles Written by Dr. David Phelps
September 13, 2023
Newsmax Finance: Private Equity Disrupting the Dental Industry
As private equity firms, like BlackRock, search for new markets to extract profits in a slow and uncertain economy, their recent entry into the dental industry is causing radical changes. More specifically, small dental practices run by individual owner/operators are being gobbled up by PE firms like a frantic game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos.
August 16, 2023
Newsmax Finance: Everything You 'Know' About IRA's & 401(k)'s Is a Lie
Saving for retirement is a crucial part of financial planning, and the earlier you start, the better. Unfortunately, a lot of people are putting themselves into a precarious situation by depending solely on Social Security. This is not a wise strategy, because unless modified by 2028, the current system can only pay out 80% of benefits starting in 2035.
August 14, 2023
Dentistry Today: The Practice Transition Conundrum
In today’s landscape, however, professionals of all ages and career stages are considering offers from DSOs and private equity firms, enticed by the promise of substantial multiples and high valuations. This phenomenon was non-existent in the 80s and 90s, representing a significant shift in the dental field. What underlies all of this? Has money truly become so easily accessible without any attached conditions? What economic factors have contributed to this new reality, and can it be maintained over time?
August 3, 2023
Dental Economics: Can You Really Make More While Working With Less?
You work hard to have a productive dental team that provides outstanding service in a cost-effective, sustainable, and environmentally friendly way. These goals are important, but the key driver for business success, in both good and bad economics, is profitability.
July 21, 2023
Newsmax Finance: How to Protect Your Retirement Lifestyle in an Uncertain Economy
Navigating the complexities of our economy can often feel like trying to predict the weather, and we've all seen how often even the so-called "experts" get that wrong. In my opinion, the economy is just as complex, and it's made even more unpredictable because so much of it is driver by human emotion, which is often illogical.
July 14, 2023
NewsMax Finance: Financial Literacy is the Only Way to Save America
A shocking 43% of Americans are not financially literate, but I think they are, according to research by the Milken Institute.
While this may seem to be an individual problem, the truth is that it actually causes significant problems all the way up to the national level because the effects of poor financial decisions ripple out far beyond the person who first made them.
July 11, 2023
NewsMax Finance: Economy is Worse Than Anyone Admits
Most Americans wants many of the same things – a decent income, freedom to have options, and time to spend with family. And most Americans don't have time or the financial background to sit through mounds of financial data. Instead, they rely on main stream, media, social media, or bright, shiny investment products to make decisions that will have a major impact on their financial future.
July 5, 2023
Dental Economics: Do you need a financial transformation for your retirement planning?
High-income professionals are blessed with the ability to "make" a good income by trading time in specialized skills for money. But keeping and making that money work is hard for you as you did, for it is not a skill set most have. In fact, most small business owners abdicate their investment capital to wall Street third-party administrator to performance history is as volatile as the financial markets themselves.
June 15, 2023
As young people become more financially, literate will see our families, businesses, communities, and the nation, as a whole, become stronger and more resilient.
June 1, 2023
The volatility of the markets caused by higher cost of capital and the resurgence of inflation, has just begun. Forty years of declining interest rates, from a high of 20% in 1980 to 0% in 2020, have fueled a period of economic and individual wealth creation that is an anomaly. This is not the norm!
June 1, 2023
In an up-market, you'll often find a lot more "investors," but may will be newbies, DIYers, and gamblers. Money seeks investment yields, and real estate is highly sought after when it's up.
When the market corrects, it will push many of those avatars out of the investment market, and only the professionals will remain the key is to identify which type of real estate investor.
May 1, 2023
Dental Economics: Happiness and the Freedom of Time
If you are like most practitioners, you've relinquished your retirement planning to a third-party fiduciary to invest in a Wall Street 401(k) for you. This is the traditional and easy route. But have you ever stopped to think about the cost of going with the status quo? To start, you lose control of your money and put in a "lockbox" until age 59.5 to help keep Wall Street in business...
April 27, 2023
Dentistry Today: The Game of Tax Reduction - Part 1
If you currently own your own practice or are aspiring to do so, you are betting on yourself and your ability to navigate to a better future. Why accept the risk and responsibility of owning a practice today?
It comes down to being able to shape your own destiny, you want the opportunity to be in charge of your future, and have the ability to increase your income and provide security, peace of mind, and financial freedom.
April 20, 2023
The Profitable Dentist: Getting More from Less
Many dental colleagues feel pressure to measure success in a certain way – growth, production, number of practices. All of that as well and good – but is that what you really want? Toward what end are you working?
I recently spoke to a young doctor, who had aggressively expanded to a three – practice empire. Smart. Ambitious. Hard work. Yet after two years of trying to juggle the demands of being in three places at once, managing staff, and overhead, he finally had an epiphany...
March 1, 2023
Dental Economics: Break From The Majority and Take Charge of Your Money
If you are like most practitioners, you've relinquished your retirement planning to a third-party fiduciary to invest in a Wall Street 401(k) for you. This is the traditional and easy route. But have you ever stopped to think about the cost of going with the status quo? To start, you lose control of your money and put in a "lockbox" until age 59.5 to help keep Wall Street in business...
January 31, 2023
The Profitable Dentist: The Dentist's Retirement Survival Guide
For practitioners who thought they were nearing the end of their clinical career, this new reality is a major disruption, and brings with it much uncertainty.
The most pressing problem is that, for the aging practitioner, time is not on your side. Whether haunted by back and neck, pain, or simply just worn down by the headaches of managing staff, insurance, and overhead, the reality of being forced to stay behind the chair due to lack of financial certainty is disheartening.
But recessions are not all bad...
January 30, 2023
Dentistry Today: The Investment Your Financial Advisor Doesn't Discuss
In my decades of experience, I've witnessed many professionals receive disturbing advice from well-meaning, yet uninformed or inexperiences advisors, who were acting in their best capacity given their traditional education and background. The problem is that they only know what they know. Their one size fits all, "here's what everybody does" approach to investing creates average results at best.
January 5, 2023
Dental Economics: How to Keep Inflation from Destroying Your Future
We’ve seen disinflation and historically low-interest rates for the last 40 years. And now, the devaluation of the dollar, or inflation, is back for the first time in a generation and a half and is expected to grow. According to Forbes, “On an annual basis, CPI was up 8.3% in August over the prior 12 months, disappointing expectations for an 8% figure. While that’s an improvement from July’s annualized 8.5% gain, it remains very high.”...
January 5, 2023
Dentistry Today: Is Your Financial Future Stuck In The 401K Trap?
It’s time to take control of your hard-earned retirement income
Have you been sold the benefits of a 401(k) after being faced with a painful tax bill in the first few years of practice ownership?
After years of grinding it out in dental school, followed by the hard work of building/acquiring a private practice, you receive a well-deserved income. But then, you realize just how much of that income the government feels entitled to take (a topic for another day)...
November 1, 2022
The Profitable Dentist: How Much Is Enough? The Dentist “Plan B” for Financial Freedom
One of the primary reasons that dentists keep their nose to the grindstone long after they are ready to be “free” from their practice, is that they don’t know how much is enough. “Do I have enough money, investments, or assets to last me the rest of my life after I stop working?”
How much is enough?
October 27, 2022
Retirement savings is crucial for everyone because relying on social security is not enough to sustain yourself through your twilight years, especially considering that without any changes, the current social security system will only be able to pay benefits at 80% in 2035 and beyond. And the sooner you start, the better off you are...
February 7, 2022
Entrepreneur.com: Here's How Small Businesses Can Survive the Post-Pandemic Economy
The last two years have been especially difficult for small business. The good news is that it’s made many entrepreneurs smarter, stronger and more adaptable. The bad news, though, is that difficult times are just getting started. Surviving and thriving in the coming years will require entrepreneurs to demonstrate grit and an ability to adapt quickly and implement the right strategies.
September 1, 2021
In an upmarket, you’ll often find a lot more “investors,” but many will be newbies, DIYers and gamblers. Money seeks investment yield, and real estate is highly sought after when it’s up.
When the market corrects, it will push many of those avatars out of the investment market, and only the professionals will remain. But that’s is a double-edged sword. It gives you a better perspective client, but it also requires you to provide more value from the get-go.
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