You’ve done it. You’ve built a successful practice, you own a big house and drive a nice car. You’ve raised your kids and provided them with a good education. You are probably in your mid-to-late forties or early fifties. You’ve climbed the proverbial mountain and you have slain all the dragons you ever care to. You still enjoy practicing your profession, although it’s probably not as exciting as it used to be. Those little problems of owning and operating a practice continue to annoy you.
You’ve done better than most. Your friends and colleagues hold you in high regard. Your family is appreciative of how you have provided for them over the years. Not a bad track record, and you have reason to be proud. However, there may be one very important item that was compromised in your quest to provide so much for so many— your pension plan.
You figured out how to get into practice and be a success. Now, at your age, it’s time to figure out how you can get out of practice… alive. You don’t want to practice until you die because you can not afford to retire. You don’t want death to be your reward for a lifetime of providing for others. You want a chance to enjoy life now. We are talking about freedom from stress and quality of life.
It takes a great deal of money to do this. However, chances are you are working as hard as you want at this stage in your life, and you are probably spending almost all your earnings just to maintain your present life-style. Putting money away for retirement is a great idea, provided it does not require you to work longer hours or lower your current standard of living.
You may still have to incur some future college expenses for your children, and the house may still have a substantial mortgage. You figure you need to practice for at least another ten years or so just to make ends meet and that puts you even closer to retirement age, so where can you get the money you need for your pension plan?
Your practice! It is one asset that can be liquidated now and the value of your practice utilized to fund your pension plan. But wait a minute, you need to continue to practice, so how can you sell your practice? Legacy Practice Transition’s Pre-Sale program is the answer. You can cash in on the value of your practice now and continue to practice for five, ten or even fifteen years (you determine the number of years). This unique program will allow you to contribute that money to your pension plan, for your benefit only (no staff contributions). You can get a lot more details about this program when you speak to a
Legacy Practice Transitions analyst, so I will not try to address all the pertinent issues in this article.
You might ask, just how much is my practice worth? Practice values vary greatly, with rural specialty practices on the low end of the scale and general (primary care) practices in large metropolitan areas on the upper end. You can assume your practice is worth somewhere between fifty to ninety percent of one year’s gross revenues! We’re talking about real dollars that can be used to fund your retirement.
Now what happens next is really interesting. Once Legacy Practice Transitions completes this program for you and the money begins to flow, the miracle of compound interest takes over. Interest is paid on principal and interest is paid on interest, and that money in your pension plan begins to grow at a rapid rate. By the time you are ready to retire, the money you received for the value of your practice could grow by two, three and even four times the present value of your practice. That compounded value should more than adequately provide for your retirement, and you did not have to compromise your life-style.
Now, suppose you decide to do nothing and continue on as you have been. You will work another ten years or so (provided you don’t die or become disabled in the interim), and you probably still won’t have the money set aside for retirement. So you might try to lower your standard of living to save money. You may begin by selling your house and moving into a smaller one. The problem is, it will also be more difficult at that age to maintain today’s level of production. As a result, your income may begin to drop as well. There goes the extra money for retirement, even after you lower your standard of living.
The only option left is to work until you die. If you die, you have life insurance to take care of your estate. If you get sick and cant’ work, however, that is a whole different picture (and not a very pretty one). You would not believe the number of doctors I’ve seen retire over the years that did so just hoping they would die before their money ran out!
This does not have to happen to you, however, because you can do something about it. You can continue your present income, fund your retirement plan and improve your quality of life NOW. Don’t put it off, call Once Legacy Practice Transitions today to arrange for a consultation with an analyst. You will be glad you did!