Being an independent contractor: Understanding the taxes (Part 1)

You finally accept your first job at a great private practice. They offer you $600 a day (about $150,000 a year), and you are ecstatic. You remember them saying something about being an independent contractor, but you didn’t really understand what that meant, so you took the job anyway. Now you are left to figure out what that means.

Risk management for dentists

After you begin to practice dentistry, you will seek advice from advisors in all kinds of arenas: legal, accounting, financial and more. You will rely on the advice of these key advisors to make wise and beneficial decisions. Therefore, not only is it important that you form a “team” of dental-specific advisors to help guide you during your entire career, but it is important to understand the areas in which risk management will be imperative to you as a practitioner.

Applying to dental school: an investment in your future

For many of us, dentistry is our dream career. It’s what we have spent years preparing for. While the application process is meant to provide dental schools with the information they need to determine how amazing you are as an applicant, there is a degree of financial investment that must be taken to get your information to your dream dental school.

The unintended consequences of private refinancing

There’s a pretty good chance that if you have student loans (and even if you don’t), you have received a flyer or some type of marketing piece describing how much interest you would save if you “refinanced” your student loans. There has been tremendous growth in the private student loan market and with that growth has come lots of marketing that has left recent grads confused and unsure about their debt. This post will discuss various aspects of refinancing your loans with a private lender and some of the potential negative consequences.

When NOT to put money into a retirement account

crunching numbersYou’ve probably heard that you need to start early when it comes to saving for retirement. I often get asked by dental residents (some of which have $450k of outstanding debt) if they should save for retirement while in residency. For your average resident and recent grad, there are some very good reasons NOT to put money into a retirement account. Here are a few…

6 questions to ask a financial advisor

financial-advisor-questionsA question that I often hear from new dentists is: Do I need a financial advisor in addition to an accountant/CPA? The answer depends on a lot of factors (including one’s personal financial wealth going into dental school), but the vast majority of starting dentists may not need a true financial advisor until they accumulate some substantial wealth. With that said, if you need particular help with personal investments or personal budgeting as you start to work, there are certain things that you should be prepared to ask any potential financial advisor upon an initial meeting. These questions are also great to keep in mind if you are meeting with a professional service provider for the first time, such as your accountant or attorney:

4 things (about money) they don't teach you in dental school | Mouthing Off | Blog of the American Student Dental Association

4 things (about money) they don’t teach you in dental school

money-monday-imageWhen I meet with dental students and residents at several different schools and programs, one of the things I hear most is that finance and tax are things that “they don’t teach us in dental school.” Today, I thought we would look at some of the things that they don’t teach you in dental school, but will be just as important as your degree once you finish…