GET SET. RETIRE

All self employed professionals must plan for retirement.

Since there is no provident fund, gratuity etc. it becomes all the more important for a dentist or in fact any self employed professional to plan for retirement.

Now, when should a dentist start planning for retirement? How & where should a dentist invest so that a corpus starts building up?

These are the  questions which I am being asked very often.

A dentist must start building up a retirement corpus or at least start planning for a retirement corpus from the 1^st day of his practice.This is important because dentistry in India is no longer lucrative as it was once upon a time.There is a heavy saturation of dentists in every locality of India & this has led to stagnation of income.

Now, stagnation of income means that you are earning less every year because of inflation.Your income has to rise at least 10 % every year to hedge against inflation.

Many dentists do not take proper advice from professionals to manage their money. You will require the help of a financial planner, a chartered accountant & a practice mentor to properly manage your finances.

A practice mentor will ensure that sufficient money is being invested in upgrading equipment, continuing education etc so that the practice keeps on developing and at the same time he will ensure that your savings start building up. He will guide you on which aspects of dentistry you require CE .

Active retirement planning needs to begin at least 10 years before you actually want to retire. To actively plan for retirement you need to decide whether:

1. You want to sell your practice & continue to work in the same clinic as a partner or as an employee.
2. You want to sell your premises of your practice & say good bye to dentistry once & for all.
3. Sell your practice with equipment to a dental surgeon & you say good bye to dentistry.

All this requires meticulous planning because many dentists stop investing in continuing education, upgrading their equipment & renovating their clinics since they are going to retire.

This leads to a drop in the income level which in turn leads to lower valuation for their practices in case they want to sell these practices to a dental surgeon.

For all of the above you will require the help of a practice mentor who will take an impartial view of the situation & set your finances in order.

Finally try & ensure that if you retire from practice do not retire from dentistry.

Even if you decide to retire from dentistry do not retire from life.

Retire when you are in good physical & mental health.

Retirement should not be thought of as a regression. If properly planned & executed it becomes a celebration, a joyous culmination of a well led professional life.

Dr. Veerendra Darakh