Considering the value chiropractic provides humanity, chiropractors should be the richest doctors in the world. But they are not.
Candidly, I would have been no better off if I wasn’t fortunate enough to be surrounded by a handful of very wealthy, successful people who pointed out where the landmines were buried. In fact, occasionally, I ignored these people and lost a whole lot of time, money, and sleep. By the grace of God, I thankfully listened to them far more than I didn’t and so haven’t ended up like most doctors.
There are many layers to educate yourself in when it comes to leading a wealth-building, freedom-creating career. I’ll start with, however, by revealing that same landmine map that my earliest mentors showed me.
THE LANDMINE MAP
1. Loans and a Late Start
This seems obvious, but the reality may be worse than you think. It is a financial fact that the sooner anyone gets out of debt and starts investing, the better.
The average physician finishes school between age 25 and 27, and may not really get started in a practice making any legitimate income until age 28 to 30, or older. That is a late start! Add to this delayed beginning the fact that most doctors owe more than $150,000 in student debt—and commonly more than $250,000.
This is huge, bad debt. Due to their huge debts and delayed income-earning years, doctors often start off financially way behind. The faster a doctor can get their income to a place where they can quickly eliminate and decimate those loans, the better will be their future.
2. They’re Busy and Focused on Being Doctors
Doctors are intelligent, but busy. As a result, they generally do not utilize their intelligence to master business and finances. This can only cause a decrease in monetary performance and negatively impact the possibilities of living in financial peace v. financial stress.
3. Unconventional Shots at Wealth
It’s well-known that only about 1 in 30 venture-capital investments ever makes any money. The people who do make that successful investment are the ones who have time to thoroughly investigate the financial opportunity, training, and experience that will be required. Thus, they are able to weigh the good ventures from the bad ones.
For doctors, it’s likely that the ratio is more like 1 in a million venture-capital investments ever work out. Unconventional investments are not normally a good decision for doctors, not just because they are bad investments, but also because they are investments in businesses unrelated to the doctor’s skill set and experience. Once again for the doctor, not having time to work at or monitor this new investment ultimately dooms it.
4. Consumerism
One big reason chiropractors don’t have doctor money is that they buy doctor toys before they can or should. Mostly, it results in more debt and pushes you further under and behind. It might be a nice car, house, or boat that costs a percentage of your net worth, or that you’ve purchased in the absence of a fully-funded college fund for your kids and a fully loaded choice for your future investment portfolio.
Thanks to what I learned early on, I was financially set for life within 5-6 years of graduation. The only time I derailed that was during a nasty bout of consumerism that shot my overhead up so high I would’ve needed to be making movie-star or celebrity-quarterback money to relax. Thankfully, I sold all of that many years ago and was able to go back to enjoying my life and family again and making any choice I wanted to for my future.
My goal is to be able to help you do the same thing. I want to teach you what I learned about money for doctors, and what I learned from my two billionaire mentors, and what I’ve learned from 25 years of experience as a chiropractor and chiropractic coach.
Practice is no fun when you have to do it for money. It steals your time with your family and leaves you without the freedom to do, buy, or go wherever you want.
No one went to school and spent that kind of money—on loan—only to lose their freedom.
I want to make you part of that 1 percent who can actually say they have financial freedom and are working toward having real doctor money so they can be considered affluent.
You deliver the most valuable health care service in the world and deserve to feel secure and financially well off because of it.
Have fun saving the world!
Dr. Ben
