REAL DENTISTS. REAL STORIES.
Hear How Other Practitioners Created Freedom in Their Personal and Professional Lives
It's refreshing and it's freeing just to know you can sort of do whatever you want.
Meet Dr. David and Karen Scharf
When I was in my mid-thirties, with more than a decade of hard work under my belt, I decided to invest my entire seven-figure income with a financial advisor. Within a year, all my money was gone. I was devastated. The worst part was how the loss affected my approach to work. After losing it all, I hunkered down and worked as hard as I could, and saved. When you own a practice, even when you're not there, your mind is. Even if I was with my kids, mentally, I wasn't present. It robbed me of that time with my kids growing up. That was the worst part of the whole thing. That's when the promise of Freedom Founders caught my attention.
Given our history, we were skeptical of Freedom Founders. But sometime through my first 6 – 8 months in it, I saw that the monthly checks coming in were enough to meet my Freedom number. I saw that there's a way to invest in real estate and make my money work for me. I change my attitude about the whole thing.
My life would've been very different if I had known about Freedom Founders in my 30s. The stress would've been different, my income would've been different, my time with my kids would've been different. My only regret is not knowing about Freedom Founders sooner.
Now, I feel like the future is so wide open. We can live anywhere in the world that we want and those checks just go into my bank account automatically.
Free For Life™ is not the end. If anything, it is an inflection point to go even further.
Meet Dr. Cody & Haily Cowen
Four years, I worked six days a week. I started at one practice as an associate, eventually became partner and expanded into five practices. Haily and I planned to move further south, so I sold my portion of the practices and met a new dentist through my network, whom I became partners with. Starting fresh again was difficult, I knew I didn't want my money to be solely dependent on how many hours I worked. The stock market never resonated with me, so I doubled in real estate with friends, and ended up losing money due to a flood.
I had this chunk of my retirement that I didn't know what to do with. I didn't want to put it back into the stock market, I wanted to put it into cash, flowing investments, but didn't know how. I met David while he was speaking at an event for practice management. He discussed wealth building strategies to retire in 3 to 5 years. It was exactly what we were looking for. We joined the group in 2020 and hit the ground running.
With Freedom Founders I don't have to rely on the number of days in the office. I can use my capital assets with real estate and passive income for my practice. All of these things being in place and cash flowing has removed stress, allowed me to cut back on hours and spend more time with my family.
For me, Free For Life™ means freedom on a workday when you are going to your practice, freedom with your family, freedom financially. Free For Life™ is not the end. If anything, I think that's an inflection point to go even further.
I never thought that I could work one day a week in my practice and let it run for five days, and now I can.
Meet Dr. Dora Lee
I have been in practice for about 15 years and saved up some cash to invest. I had a sense of investing as I grew up with entrepreneurial parents that invested in real estate. I got a rental home and a tenant – but it was never a real source of cash flow. Then I bought a piece of commercial property with a group of friends, but we didn't all agree on the idea of leverage.
Luckily, I had stumbled upon Freedom Founders on Facebook before the world turned upside down in March of 2020. We attended our first meeting in San Diego with a healthy dose of skepticism. Everyone was very genuine, we were blown away by the supportive environment.
My decision to join in 2019 couldn't have been timed better. I had taken half of my investments out of the stock market and put them in Freedom Founders, so when things went south in the stock market in 2020, I had checks coming in regularly from Freedom Founders.
I love having the freedom to go where I want, discover new things and have adventures. I love learning about other cultures, other people, how they live life. I'm glad that I'm young enough to do all this traveling. I'm glad I didn't wait until I'm about to retire to start thinking about what I'm going to do with the rest of my life.
Just knowing that you have the freedom to do the things you want to and enjoy, it just makes the day so much better.
Meet Dr. Tommy and Shelly Reed
The first time I ever talked to David, I was just so impressed. He was so honest, full of integrity, and had a vision for what this could be. He wanted like-minded people to be in his group and being in it gave us a vision for a future. As many times as we had talked about the future, it forced us to make decisions, and look at things like we never had before. For that, I will be eternally grateful.
For the longest time, I was treating time for money, and I don't want to trade time for money anymore. Shelley manager office for a number of years. She lost her mom at a young age and it is her calling to spend more time with the grandkids and be there. I want her to be able to do that. Just knowing you have the freedom to do what you want to, when you want to, makes the day so much better.
We are proud to be a part of the community, we want to continue in the group and help others. We're just happy to be a part of it!
Free For Life™ to me is a constantly changing evolution of how we frame and see things.
Meet Dr. James and Sara Green
I enjoyed working, so I didn't have an urgent need to walk away, but I did realize that I couldn't work forever. After watching others my age develop health problems and back problems, I didn't want to be that person who is stuck full-time because they have to be.
Sarah and I would talk about our future a lot. We did some alternative investments, but we were primarily in the stock market when we came across freedom founders. I think we were looking for a clear path and community. The stock market was just so stressful. It's a good day, it's not a good day, it's up, it's down. I don't think we had clarity of how to be less fragile I notice, just by talking to other members how transformational this connection had been to them. It just gave me peace, the way that David explained everything. It was all very transparent.
Freedom to me means knowing that if I decided tomorrow, I didn't want to do this anymore, I don't have to. That's a big thing because most of us walk around with this idea that we are responsible for our team, we're responsible for their families, we're responsible for all these other people ahead of ourselves. Just to take a few days off seems like we're letting everybody down.
Free For Life™ is not the end of anything. We climb this mountain, and we can continue on with whatever her next is. In my mind, Free For Life™ to me, is a constantly changing evolution of how we frame and see things.
Freedom of Time gives us the opportunity to work more on our relationship together, our relationship with our family, our kids, our grandkids, our friends.
Meet Dr. Guy and Patti Nash
We were sensing that it was going to be time for Guy to retire, and I wanted him to feel like he was able to retire, but we didn't have a solid plan for what that looked like. A friend recommended Freedom Founders, we were on board as soon as we learned more about them. When we joined Freedom Founders, I think the main focus was: “How can we be free financially?” But we soon realize that there are other levels of freedom to discover.
Freedom of time gives us the opportunity to work more on our relationship together, our relationship with our family, our kids, our grandkids, and our friends. We've made so many new friends within Freedom Founders, and we have time to enjoy those friendships even more, and not be so tied down.
Now, we’d like to instill the values of care, compassion, and helping those that might be disadvantaged – the core principles that help you live your life to the fullest and not just living for yourself.
[Freedom Founders] helped us finalize our blueprint, and get us to a point where we have freedom in so many different areas of our lives.
Meet Dr. Jason and Amy Lowry
I was a late bloomer to dental school, I graduated when I was 31, and bought a practice right out of dental school. We were running out of money, and we couldn't find a house. So we'd sleep in the dental office at night. Really early in the morning we wake up, throw the air mattresses in the minivan, and Amy would take the kids to the park, or spend the day out until I was done with work, and then they would come back to the office. We had to make every dollar stretch, but we made it to where we are now.
I've had two things that have to find me as a professional: being a dentist and being a real estate investor. It's what has gotten us to a point where we can kind of sit back and relax. It's never been about when I accumulate X money in stocks or so much in real estate. It's only ever been about the passive income per month. Freedom founders help me dial in that last bit, helped us lose those last 5 pounds that are the hardest to see. They helped us finalize our blueprint, and get us to a point where we have freedom, and so many areas of our lives.
Now, we're excited to be grandparents, and show our children how to use real estate as a vehicle for passive cash flow. We are really excited about all the opportunities and time will have with our family.
It's like a weight lifted off your shoulder when you have your path laid out in front of you and you know everything's going to be okay.
Meet Drs. Scott and Kelli Fischer
Our family culture is very tight-knit. We've worked together as co-dentists in the same practice for 32 years, and we sat next to each other in dental school, so that was another four years. We're as tight as can be.
We were amassing some money, but as Warren Buffett said, “If you're not making money while you're sleeping, you're in trouble.” And when you think about trying to leave dentistry, get out of the practice, do the math, no matter how much you got, it's not going to last very long. It's changed our mindset completely to figure out what passive income was, and how to do it.
We have one son, Jake, who is 23. He has made an investment already with one of the Trusted Advisors. He's getting that mindset, and that is very rewarding to see him taking charge. I would give anything at 23 years old to be able to have that knowledge.
It's like a weight lifted off your shoulders when you have your path laid out in front of you, and you know everything's going to be okay. That's what freedom means to me.
Freedom to me means not having to worry about what's in store for life, or where the money's going to come from.
Meet Dr. James and Margie Stafford
Family has always been very important to us. When the children were growing up, we would visit the grandparents, relatives, and friends often. My role model is my grandfather, he was a dentist, and that was one of the main reasons I became a dentist.
I've always been very disciplined about saving. At the same time, I was always interested in real estate. I just didn't know how to do it. In Freedom Founders, we've gained a lot of knowledge and have really enjoyed the experiences. It's also all the relationships we formed in the community. It's a fine group of people and I've really enjoyed being with everyone. Even though I'm taking more days off, I'm really enjoying practicing right now.
Freedom to me means not having to worry about what's in store for life or where the moneys going to come from, and being able to do whatever we want to do whenever we want to do it.
Once you've conquered the feeling of knowing what contentment is, I think that, for us, is freedom.
Meet Dr. Christopher and Cori Waters
I practiced for 32 years and got an associate in 2018. During the pandemic, I had one of those aha moments like, “I don't want to do this for another three years.” I didn't really get serious about Freedom Founders until a little bit after the pandemic, and I was thinking how I didn't want to not know what my money was going to do in the stock market.
My son's an optometrist. I'm a dentist. My father is a physician. But now that I've been a part of this group, I’ve said, “Just do your own thing.” You don't have to be a professional. I have a whole new thought process of: own your own business if you want, be an entrepreneur. “Entrepreneur” wasn't even a word I even knew when I was in college. They have a lot more options. I want them to feel free like we feel now.
We want them to understand that when you can get financially free, then it's your purpose to help other people that are having a hard time. That's freedom right there. Society wants you to grow more and more. I think once you've conquered the feeling of knowing what contentment is, I think that for us, it's freedom.
Freedom Founders has changed our lives in just about every way.
Meet Drs. Gertrude Lee and Robert Dubanski
Bob and I are both general dentists, a husband and wife team at the same practice. We grew our business as much as we could! In 2018 I injured my wrist, ever since then I wasn't able to practice like I did before.
Our practice continued to grow but we were beyond the enjoyment of it. It wasn't working for us and we were just taking off one week a year. Even then, I was still thinking about the practice.
Then in February 2021, we got a letter in the mail. It was written by a member of Freedom Founders who had been in the exact same situation: burnout after practicing for many years, and wanting more freedom of time. The letter made such a deep impression, I called Freedom Founders and spoke to Dr. David Phelps, we joined right there on the phone.
It was exciting to realize we had other options that we didn't know were available to us, and that we would had help along the way. David, having gone through it himself, showed that it could be done. He gave us the direction and knowledge to get out of our practice, and to rediscover life.
Freedom Founders is opening the door for opportunity. It's phenomenal. The rewards are far better than working full-time. We're in a different state in our lives now – a different state of existence. We're happier than ever because we have time to do things other than dentistry.
If we had not found Freedom Founders, I don't think we would have been prepared to walk away financially.
Meet Dr. Steven and Cindy Dacus
We met in college and got married my senior year. I had plans of starting my own practice, she was a math teacher, and was great at balancing the books. We were quite a team!
I put a lot of my savings into real estate, we had several turnkey properties in Casper. I thought that would be my retirement, but when I looked at the numbers, it didn't look good. I realized I would have to figure something else out. Then I found Dr. David Phelps on Facebook and we decided to attend the virtual event in 2020.
Freedom Founders has opened up a whole new world and education on the possibilities that are out there. I notice it most Sunday evening, it's like, “Oh, I don't have to think about going to work tomorrow. Freedom to me is waking up in the morning and it's like before you had kids, you just get up and do some thing. That's what we can do now. We just go, “Hey, let's go do that!”
Freedom for Cindy, being the one that takes care of the books is financial freedom. Just the worry of everyday life expenses that we don't have to worry about any longer. We know that's there and it's taken care of.
We went into it looking at the financial and the economic aspect of Freedom Founders, and that was it, but we realized it was so much more.
Meet Dr. Scott and Kim Eckels
We met when we were teens, and we've been together ever since, it works, and we have a very close family! Kim and I are both very contrarian by nature when it comes to the market and investments. We were looking for a different way of investing and heard about Freedom Founders. And then a friend became a member, and that's how we got to our first meeting.
We went into Freedom Founders for the financial and the economic aspect of it, and that was it, but we realized it was so much more: freedom of time, relationships, health, meaning and significance. That's really been our stepping stone.
Before joining Freedom Founders, we didn't realize the type of passive investments that were out there. We've been members for about 14 months, we had a call with David and he made us realize that we didn't have to keep growing our practices. We were financially free! This has completely changed our mindset, we're much more relaxed. We're getting ready to fully retire from orthodontics, and will be starting our next journey.
There was no question about were we going to be OK when the practice sold and we got out, we already saw the results. I mean, it's in our bank account.
Meet Dr. Greg and Jackie Linney
Jackie and I ran the practice together, we were successful, but our lives were totally out of balance. Our staff took more time off than us, we knew there was a way to take more time for ourselves, but we didn't know how.
I read an article by Dr. David Phelps, and it really resonated with me. Just two weeks after reading the article we were in Salt Lake City attending a Freedom Founders event. Jackie did not want to go and insisted I not sign up for anything, but after the first day, we were all in.
Starting in January 2019 we were able to take off nine weeks from work without skipping a beat. When we returned, our practice was busier than ever, with a three to six month, waiting period just to see patients. We'd established trust with them, and it was wonderful not to worry about them leaving us just because we desperately needed a break.
Jackie and I are Free for Life™, but we're still involved in Freedom Founders. We are big believers in paying it forward. I tell my mentees that the new people coming in are sitting right where they were three months ago. Just when you think you've learned it all, the exchange of information, stories and guidance from multiple generations, never ceases to be exciting.
You come into Freedom Founders thinking it's about investments, and it is, but what you gain is so much more. You gain camaraderie and trusted friends for life. That's the real prize.
We have our asset base. Not only is it not shrinking, it's actually still growing. We're Free for Life, we have all the money that we need. We live on less than the cash flow that's being generated by those investments and living our best life.
Meet Dr. Dennis and Monzell Perry
I was an oral and maxillofacial surgeon by trade. My practice was hospital-based, which is pretty rare in the oral surgery world. I worked in the hospital, so there's constantly something to do between hospital patients and the ER. I was on call 24-7 and at work six days a week. It was grueling and it wasn't getting any easier with age. I started to feel burnt out. I didn't want to keep doing this for the rest of my life, but I didn't know how else to make money.
I heard Dr. David Phelps speak a number of times on some live calls, webinars, and Monzell and I talked about joining but were hesitant. We had a really bad experience elsewhere. We invested a tremendous amount of money, and virtually lost all of it. We attended the Freedom Founders Virtual event in 2020 and agreed if we don't like it, we'll just turn the computer off and walk away. It's no big deal. But by the end of the first day, it was a done deal. We knew this is where we needed to be.
Now we have our asset base. Not only is it not shrinking, it's actually still growing. We are Free for Life™! We have all the money that we need. We live on less than the cash flow that's being generated by those investments and living our best life. The pivot has been 100% traditional to largely alternative investments.
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What if You Could Achieve Financial Freedom in 3-5 Years or Less? You Might Be Closer Than You Think...
You’re Invited to the Freedom Founders Mastermind — An Elite Community of Dentists Committed to Achieving Freedom in Life and Business.
Explaining our Mastermind to folks who haven’t been is like trying to describe a sunset to someone who has never seen the sun.
A few of our guests summed it up best:
- “It’s a collaboration of the best, brightest minds in the country.”
- “There is a real sense of family here.”
- “A mind-blowing experience.”
- “It’s like drinking from the firehose.”
Our events include:
- Uncommon (sometimes radical) investment training.
- Step-by-step coaching to create your own personalized investment blueprint.
- An attainable plan to achieve freedom.
- An opportunity to connect with advisors who can provide actionable answers.
- Community with like-minded human beings
- Great food. Good laughs. And fun.
In addition to tons of training and education on investment strategy, practice management, and real estate
tactics…
You’ll have direct access to David's team of Trusted Advisors — People who have been mastering alternative real estate investing for the last 40 years.
These men and women share their expertise, wisdom, resources and knowledge to help you get the results you want.
You’ll enter a world of investment opportunity no individual could ever create for themselves.
That’s the power of a Mastermind.
The #1 Trait of Our Most Successful Mastermind Members: They Took Action. Are You Ready to Join Them?
Most Dentists Don’t Have a "Plan B"...Do You?
The Cruelest Fate is to Possess Wealth Without Freedom.
It’s a fate that can be costly…
As my friend Dr. Mike Abernathy says: “Being a solo practitioner dentist past age 50 is a 99% fatal condition.”
- The industry is changing (corporate dentistry, managed insurance, etc)
- Your retirement “runway” is shortening
- Your health is in the balance (decades of leaning over the chair takes its toll)
If you’re a solo practitioner still active in your practice nearing (or past) the age of 50, with little clarity about your plan for retirement… The time to act is NOW.
The good news is, it’s not too late.
When you visit our Mastermind, you meet dentists who got on track (in the second half of their careers) and found Freedom… in less than 3-5 years.
You can too.
Once you join, financial Freedom is often only 3-5 years away (or less).
Take Your First Step Toward Freedom. You’re Closer Than You Think.
