retirement

Uncertainty and Unemployment

Dentistry, Lifestyle

My start to the new year came with an unexpected surprise – the dental office I work at was to be permanently closed come the end of January 2026. The very practice I have worked at for the past 10 years, that one! Apparently the company decided the cost of repairing some structural issues in the building, combined with an unaccommodating (borderline negligent) landlord, made it not worth renewing the lease on. The company’s director came down to the office on Monday, January 5th (our first day back after a brief holiday break) and informed us all that we would be closing our doors at the end of the month and being laid-off in the process. Me personally, I was shocked by the news. Some staff members later confessed they saw it coming months earlier – apparently, the company had my lead assistant doing inventory checks and some other suspicious activity that now makes a lot more sense in hindsight. Regardless, the past month has been filled with uncertainty to say the least.

The company was quick to notify families that another location they own was available to them for continued dental care and hastily tried to funnel them across town. Saying goodbye to the families I did see this past month was really hard. I have enjoyed their trust and loyalty to our office for over a decade – it’s actually quite surreal to think that much time has passed. Many families were kind enough to share their disbelief and dismay when they got the news – after all, I have literally seen their kids grow up. I reciprocated in saying how astonished and sad I was to leave that location and went on to thank them for entrusting me all these years.

I am sitting here trying to harness my emotions from that day when I first heard I’m being let go. I guess if I had to find one word to describe it, it would be ‘bitterness.’ I think when you are corporately owned, there is a detachment and an almost callous indifference to who gets impacted by decisions often made by people high-up and far removed from the operations on the ground. Most of the staff at this location became unemployed, lots of families that enjoyed our service need to find another dental provider; but none of the human element is factored into their decision-making process as we are just seen as insufficient numbers on a spreadsheet to these captains of industry.

This is the third job I’ve lost throughout my life. The first time, I was young (in my 20’s) – lived at home still, and the family support really made that layoff almost seem insignificant (if not welcomed). That was still while I was in my I.T. era, and the job I worked was from the hours of midnight to 8 am doing phone support, sooooo…good riddance? In 2015, I was working part-time at this current practice, when I lost my second job as a (pediatric) dentist with another group – which also helped lighten the burden of being fired. Maybe it is the 10-years of my life I spent here, but this most recent firing stings so much worse than any time before.

Thankfully I consider myself financially stable and responsible. With the help of my wife, we have lived below our means for some time – we’ve saved an adequate emergency fund, possess a diversified retirement portfolio, and suitably control our monthly expenses. Push come to shove, we will have to forfeit some tennis and piano lessons for our kids, eat out a little less, and skip that trip to Hawaii this year – but, thankfully a lot of the sacrificing we have done over the years affords us some peace of mind that we won’t starve or be homeless any time soon.

Another blessing in disguise as it turns out, has been keeping good relations within the community of dental professionals around me. After reaching out to share the news of our closure, to my surprise, so many offices welcomed a chance to meet and discuss employment opportunities or even a partnership collaboration. I was very touched. In some weird turn of events, it is looking like I may be even more busy now then when I worked my full-time job.

“When God closes a door, he opens a window” 

Nearly a month out now – the initial shock has settled and I am feeling quite optimistic about what the future holds. I remember speaking on previous posts about why I favor associateship – and while everyone’s experiences are different and it really is a case-by-case basis – at this point in my career I see more value in ownership, in equity, in doing something for yourself. I still have little to no faith in corporate loyalty towards its employees and I think most individuals are better off investing in themselves. That said, I am grateful that the associate position allowed me ample time to see my kids grow up and freedom from the stressors of running a business.

I am liking the prospects 2026 has in store. My New Year’s resolution is to not be in my head so much about undergoing change, but rather to embrace it and basically let the universe take the wheel. What are your thoughts? My apologies to anyone who reads my posts; it’s been an incredibly big gap – we got a dog – and there is a lot more I probably need to write about! Feel free to comment on your thoughts about change, and I’ll try and write again soon! Thanks for taking the time to read this one!

Investing and Gambling(?)

Lifestyle, Uncategorized

Being born and raised in Las Vegas, growing up around slot machines and poker/blackjack tables, perhaps helped desensitize me a bit to the appeal of gambling. In my early twenties, I worked as a web developer and programmer for a local gaming company and it helped solidify in my head the notion that ‘the house always wins.’ As much as I love the idea of getting rich quickly, I knew that – at least in casinos, the cards were stacked against me.

After we paid off our student loans, I started to take some of that monthly income and began investing. Fortunately, I had already been reading content from The White Coat Investor for years; and his philosophy on refinancing, saving, investing – it was ingrained deeply within me. Now, there is A LOT to investing – certainly too much to cover for a mere post where the author tends to write extemporaneously i.e. here. There are countless books, websites, blogs, podcasts and forums in which to educate yourself and start the journey.

As always, I am happy to share with you the little information I have gleaned over the years. For starters, I subscribe to a FIRE (financial independence, retire early) movement; in which adopting a certain disciplined lifestyle and setting financial goals helps someone achieve freedom from the workforce. Of course raising your annual income, lowering your expenses, increase your saving/investing rate, maximize retirement accounts, reducing your tax liabilities, living below your means, etc. – it all feeds into successfully reaching this goal. Also, familiarize yourself with the 4% rule. In order to sustain a 30-year time horizon in retirement (adjusted for inflation), your nest egg should have about 25x what you expect to spend annually stored away.

Which brings me to my next point – calculate your savings rate and track your monthly/annual expenses. In addition to using our Mint account to budget and track expenditures, I also use an Excel spreadsheet to simply monitor our overall finances (monthly income, account balances, investment gains/losses, etc.). Consciously (and maybe, subconsciously?) seeing these numbers regularly not only keeps us organized and informed, but (for me at least) motivates me to improve/correct some spending habits. Generally my family stays within a 30-50% savings rate every month. Depends how early you start, but I have read a 20-25% rate (at least) is typically what you want to shoot for.

In order to start investing, I created an account (brokerage and retirement) with Vanguard. I love the story of Jack Bogle, the founder of The Vanguard Group – which was really my only deciding factor to open my accounts with them. I imagine Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, etc. have just as good (if not better) platforms set up as well. All my ‘long-term’ investing is done in Vanguard. There is some ‘uncompensated risk’ that goes along with investing in individual stocks and specific companies. Theoretically, a company can go bankrupt and you stand to lose everything. My distribution or asset allocation in my Vanguard account looks something like this: 1/3 Vanguard Total Stock Market Fund, 1/3 Vanguard Total International Stock Market Fund and 1/3 Vanguard Total Bond Market Fund. Every month, whatever I can contribute, gets split evenly amongst these three. The growth has been steady enough over the years, and there is a certain serenity in knowing my risk is drastically minimized because index funds are highly diversified. Another reason I have come to love Vanguard is because their fees and expenses to purchase and own these funds are so low compared to some other companies.

About a couple of years ago, I opened up a Robinhood account as well. All my ‘short-term’, active trading takes place there. Every month, a very small percentage of the money I set aside for investing purposes gets deposited here. Honestly, I consider this ‘play’ money – it affords me an opportunity to invest in companies I like (i.e. Apple [ticker: AAPL], Tesla [TSLA], Costco [COST], Netflix [NFLX], Berkshire Hathaway [BRK.A – which I can’t afford, and BRK.B]), and dabble in speculative stocks like GameStop (GME) if I so desire.

It has been interesting to see how my Vanguard (i.e. long-term, passive trading) compares against my Robinhood (i.e. short-term, more actively traded) account performs. The Robinhood app makes it super easy to execute trades; and within that simplicity, I think a lot of people succumb to their emotions and either 1) sell in a panic when the market or stock price is down or 2) buy in big on hyped-up meme stocks that are supposedly ‘going to the moon.’ Investing 101 teaches you either of these can be dangerous and really cut into your long-term gains. Timing the market is impossible. In my own experience, giving myself a fixed allowance every month to ‘dabble’ with has worked well; it allows me to keep myself in check and not get too carried away. If I happen to randomly pick some winners, great! However, in my mind, every single dollar I have placed into that Robinhood account is mentally money I have come to terms with completely losing. And just FYI, my Vanguard account is currently well out-performing my Robinhood gains.

The same appeal, and that ‘rush’ people get in casinos by putting it all on red (a reference to the game roulette in case it was missed) – that is a similar adrenaline high I get when putting a purchase order in on the Robinhood app. It can certainly be addictive, and really get you into some trouble. Which is partially the reason that I have not ventured into cryptocurrency trading, I do not feel I understand that investment vehicle well enough yet.

Arguably one of the most famous investors of all time, Warren Buffett, said quite a few things pertinent to my topic today. He said:

On Earning: “Never depend on single income. Make investment to create a second source.”

On Spending: “If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need.”

On Savings: “Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.”

On Taking Risk: “Never test the depth of river with both the feet.”

On Investing: “In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.”

Of course we all want to maximize our returns while minimizing our risks. However, there will be investment fees and expenses, market corrections/depressions, and asset classes that underperform just to name a few. Most investments just need TIME. The concept of compounding interest works; and for those individuals passionate enough to educate yourself, responsible enough to control your lifestyle, relentless and patient enough to withstand (and minimize) the failures along the way – I think they will earn the right to FIRE.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post! As a full disclaimer, I do not possess a business degree, have no formal financial training, do not stand to benefit any monetary gain from the companies mentioned above, and – for some – would recommend you seek assistance from a financial consultant or trained professional before beginning this endeavor. As always, feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments for me!