You’ll already have an image of your ideal retirement. Unfortunately, sometimes life has different plans and you may need to do some re-thinking. Here’s some practical advice to help avoid common pitfalls, and get you to the retirement you deserve.
Winding Down
As you approach retirement, it makes sense to gradually decrease your working hours. However, many dentists have seen their practice’s turnover, profits, and overall practice value decrease thanks to more time spent away from the practice.
If you’re planning to sell your practice to fund your retirement you’ll need to maintain, if not increase, your practice value. Reducing your hours and moving your focus away from retaining and growing your patient list can lead to your patient numbers to declining. That decline can, in turn, reduce the practice income, your practice value, and ultimately your retirement fund.
Reducing the amount you work doesn’t have to have a negative impact on your practice value or your retirement fund. You have lots of options to protect the value of your practice. All you have to do is make arrangements with your practice team so that the important work is still getting done even while you’re preparing for retirement.
Your Business Development Consultant can help support you in your retirement preparation.
A DIY Retirement
Your retirement is very personal. Most likely, the first stages of your planning weren’t across a table with a solicitor. Your first plans probably weren’t even said out loud and made in a rare, quiet moment alone.
For something so personal, it’s natural to want to keep it to yourself. However, we can’t stress enough the value of getting outside help with your retirement. Their support can make the closing chapters of your career more profitable and far less stressful. You’re an expert in dentistry, so play to your strengths and look to other experts for help with the none-dental aspects.
Speaking to experts like financial advisors will allow you to focus on your practice, and optimise your retirement outcome on both fronts! And don’t forget, your Business Development Consultant is always there to turn to for support.
An impulse decision
At Simplyhealth Professionals we often stress how important it is to take time planning your retirement. [HB2] However, we understand that sometimes circumstances change, and you might be considering retirement a lot sooner than you thought. Especially if something difficult in your life has made you re-evaluate your work-life balance. Whatever your needs, we’re here to help you meet your retirement goals in your chosen timescales.
While we acknowledge there are risks if you’re looking to retire quickly, there are things we can do to mitigate and minimise those risks. By working together with your Business Development Consultant, and experts like a Financial Advisor, you can plan for your ideal retirement date. Together you can establish the figures you need to support that retirement date. You’d be amazed how much this simple planning can galvanise action to optimise savings, review investments and improve the value of your practice.
