Full Transcript
James Martin:
What is up team. Welcome back to the Dennis and the best podcast. I’ve been looking forward to this podcast, for when do we first speak? Jim’s was three days ago, because I’ve been looking forward to three or four days in that case. Then because Jim’s, who is Dennis I have sat opposite me on this podcast today is the only dentist. Actually, that’s not true. That’s not true. But let me just say what I was going to say before. I say before I explain why it is necessary to be true is one of the one of the only dentists I’ve ever met who is actually also simultaneously got qualifications whenever it comes to being a financial planner and whenever it comes to being a financial advisor, which will be more about in a second. The reason why that’s not true is I actually did meet a guy from the States once who’s done the same thing and he has a financial advice firm, but certainly not anybody from the UK, james, which is why you’re the first.
James Martin:
But anyway before we talk about all of that. How are you today?
James Taylor:
I’m good, I’m good. Thank you, it’s good to meet you properly. Have a good chat.
James Martin:
I’m really happy to pre-frame this for everybody’s listening as well. We haven’t actually met properly face to face, and we’re doing that today for the first time on Zoom, so yeah, it is an absolute pleasure to meet you properly and I’m really interested to hear about your story simultaneously to the guests.
James Martin:
We’re going to find out together, because you and I caught up a little bit the other day, but not in deep ground, in detail, which is what I’d like to talk about today and also the reasons why you were inspired to do that, jim’s, because, because, because, because there’s so much, I feel, information that is not necessarily aligned with our goals and objectives as dentists and our financial freedom that is out there and that can be in the regulated world and also the non-regulated world, and the biggest gift is to empower ourselves with education and knowledge, which is exactly the method, which is exactly the mission, rather, of the Dentistry Invest platform. So we’re going to delve into that today, 100%. Just before we do, james, it’d be lovely if we could have a little bit of a bio about yourself for the listeners, a little bit of an introduction.
James Taylor:
Okay, so I’m James James Taylor. I live in Leeds in the UK. I qualified in 96 from Newcastle and since then I’ve been a general practitioner. I did a stint as a house officer, but essentially I’m a GDP. I’ve worked, you know. I have my business which we can discuss. I’ve had numerous businesses bought and sold, built etc. But I also enjoy clinical work. I enjoy clinical dentistry, I do restorative work, I do implant work, I do orthodontics and over the period of time I’ve got certificates in all aspects of restorative, implant dentistry etc. And I’m currently the UK clinical expert for SureSmile. I’m a K-Welfer Dent’s playing CAD-CAM. I’m on the global team, do some lecturing abroad in the UK, and so I’m really kind of well, one of those crazy guys that do a lot of studying and keep learning, because I can’t enjoy it really. And then the finance side came pretty early on. Actually, you want me to keep going and I’ll keep talking.
James Martin:
Yeah, listen with the.
James Taylor:
So I was a new dentist, probably in my late 20s, early 30s, and everyone was coming to me you’ve got a few Quidney Pocket and invest. You know you count, or you need to put your money somewhere. You need to do something, invest for the long term. So I saw financial advisors, I had discussions with them and they’re being offered unit trusts, I’m being offered private pension schemes as well as my NHS, all this kind of stuff, and I didn’t really understand what I was being told. I didn’t quite. You just didn’t get it.
James Taylor:
And so I was reading the FT. I read the FT weekend. I always have been. It’s a great resource because it gives you a summary of the week and everything else. Anyway, I was reading that and I read the financial planning certificate, which is a bona fide certificate that financial planners in the UK would do in order to become a financial advisor, was available to do. So I thought, do you know what? How else am I going to learn? How else will do the exams? And I don’t mind studying. I’m one of those nerds that have always enjoyed it and I did the exams.
James Taylor:
It took me about a year to do it, did the exams, got myself what’s called FP123, they’ve changed now but essentially gave me really strong grounding in investments and opportunities, risk profile, balance, portfolio, all that kind of thing, and it really set me up to allow me to really understand my own personal journey, moving forwards, what I want to do as far as investing aims, objectives and the short, medium, long term, and it’s really stood me in good stead moving forwards. I spent some time a little bit of CPD courses for dentists, talking about investments and that kind of thing and how they manage their money, their wealth, etc. And so I’m just enjoying that space. I’m currently doing some webinars in the US for CDocs, which is an online portal. I’m beginning to discuss that journey again with them about return on investment and how business of dentistry and how you basically generate and make the business successful. Nice, that’s my journey. That’s kind of where I am currently. Listen to me. Hats off to you.
James Martin:
I’ve been on a lot of plates, but you know what I’m written between the lines and it sounds like that’s how you like to be and that’s something that you enjoy, which is really cool.
James Taylor:
Yeah, one of those. I just enjoy doing everything. I’m a bit crazy. I’m kind of like someone that I’ve got ADHD and I probably have because I’ve got so many things. But you know what, if you’re functioning, you’re happy and you get on with it. It’s great. On top of that, I also enjoy construction as well. I do a lot of building as well, which is just almost like dentistry it’s treatment plan, it’s a schedule and you just build it. So dentistry and building construction are very similar. You’ve got a plan, process, organize and sort. So if you’re that kind of person which I guess I am then there’s a lot of benefits to doing construction as well. So I enjoy that as a bit of a sideline hobby, but absolutely helps with that whole long-term plan of generating wealth and income really moving forward.
James Martin:
Yeah, well, listen, you know the whole ADHD and product commerce thing that we were talking about just a second ago. You don’t have a diagnosis of that, by the way, do you?
James Taylor:
Yeah, it was funny because we built a new surgery about five years ago. We brought someone in to help us set things up and she was a teacher by trade previously and she now did all this practice management stuff and helped us get all the processes, the CQCs itself. I sat down with her for about 10 minutes and she said, oh my God, has anyone told you you got ADHD? I’m like no, and my business partner’s like, oh my God, he so has. And that kind of explains everything. So I’m undiagnosed, but I’m sure pretty much. And when I told everyone else I was like, yeah, of course you have. How did you not know this? So you know, that’s it.
James Martin:
All I was going to say was I think business makes you that way, because you’ve got so many things to simultaneously be able to focus on and so many places as we were saying a second ago that your ability to process information just becomes really, really, really small. Your brain is like overstimulated and then it’s kind of constantly looking for where your system you need itself, which resembles you having a small attention span, but in reality it’s just an adaptation to the situations that you’re constantly in, and I’ve seen that myself over the years.
James Taylor:
No, I agree completely. I’m very lucky as well that I can put things in boxes. I can kind of shut stuff away and kind of move things along. So I’m very fortunate I can do that. But yeah, I enjoy it. Look at some point I’m sure I’m 51 now. I’m sure I’ll slow down a bit, but currently it’s full steam ahead and I’m enjoying myself.
James Martin:
Hell yeah, man, and it’s horses for courses. You know, and it’s all about what makes each and every one of us happy, however the flip that looks. Some people like seven days of week in dentistry, some people like eight days of week in dentistry, if they can flip and do it, you know what I mean. And some people like no days of dentistry and then rather do other stuff On that I’m going to tell you.
James Taylor:
I used to do five days. 20 years ago I went to four days and 10 years ago I went to three days. And I’m more productive in the surgery in three days than I was ever at five days and definitely better than I was at four days. Three days clinical you concentrate, you’re working hard, you get things done, patient gets your full attention but you’re not burning yourself out. You know I would always advocate that. I said to my business partner he was doing five days, mike do four drop a day and actually absolutely it was almost like ugh, so much better. So I would always advocate that.
James Martin:
Boom love that and yeah, that is actually something we preach about in the Dental Invest podcast as well. And how can we say another reaffirmation of that message from another guest or the listeners who are today?
James Taylor:
Totally, totally, five days a week is too much. You know the stress, the concentration your body and your mind has to just shut down a little bit. But you can still be productive on that fifth day or even that fourth day. There’s lots you can be doing to help yourself and it really does help you. It’s helped me anyway, boom.
James Martin:
Cool, awesome, well, listen, thank you for sharing your story and just to bring it back to the qualifications that you have in finance, I’m very curious what inspired you to begin those? What inspired you to do those?
James Taylor:
Well, essentially, you know, like any dentist, as an associate, you’re earning a good money compared to peers who may have been at university as well. We can generate income pretty quickly as dentists, as associates. And so, you know, I had some money, I had some spare money. I knew I needed to invest. You know, we had kids pretty early. I knew I needed to look at where that money were going.
James Taylor:
I just didn’t really understand that. It didn’t really make sense to me. I had my NHS pension and then I was looking at other investments and then I’m looking at how that works in terms of who takes what commissions at the time and I just it didn’t make sense to me. It was just, it was it just conflicted. But what I’m going to do this is to learn myself and, like I said, I remember reading the article in the FT and it’s like you know, this is how you become a financial advisor.
James Taylor:
So I just contacted the CII, which is the Chartered Insurance Institute, who did those exams at the time, and I just just got on with it and it was just. I enjoy reading I read a lot of stuff, as I think you do as well, and it was just like you know. It was interesting. It was interesting. I enjoyed learning about it. Learning about, you know, risk profiles, about different types of investments, different types of pension schemes, how you can just, basically, you know, get yourself a balanced way of moving forward in terms of business, in terms of your wealth, in terms of income, in terms of long term.
James Taylor:
It just helped me see the bigger picture really. So I couldn’t really, you know, I still had to use financial advisors and I had to use other other other mediums in order to make the investments. I couldn’t do it myself, but I had an understanding and it let me move forward in a way that I was then in control and for me, sort of about control. I want to be in control of my own destiny and that allowed me to feel that empowerment to do that. And I think that’s a lot of people, a lot of dentists don’t feel like they’re in control. They’re just being being pushed along and don’t really know where to start, jump on, jump off, or what their strategy is. And I see it a lot with friends and colleagues.
James Martin:
I think a big part of somebody feeling like out of control, or sad, or frustration is basically just not knowing what to do, which comes through education, which comes through knowledge, because if you think about it like this, have you ever seen the movie limitless? I love this analogy, I love this little thought experiment You’ve seen the movie Microdose.
James Taylor:
We’re going to get on to microdosing here now. What do you mean? What did you say? No, I’m joking.
James Martin:
I’m joking, we’re not into any substances or anything like that in the dentist. Strictly don’t do that.
James Taylor:
But anyway, back to Bradley Cooper. So basically think about that movie, what happens in?
James Martin:
that movie. He takes a pill, doesn’t he?
James Martin:
And then he knows everything there is to know in the whole wide world and then he just sees limitless opportunities because he has limitless knowledge. So you’ve got Bradley Cooper in that movie. You’ve got a normal human being. It’s kind of like a skill, and the closer and closer you can get to that level, there’s more opportunities to see. The knowledge that you have is literally the lens of the. The skills and knowledge that you have, or the lens through which you see the world, the opportunities through which you see the world. Like if you’re a dentist and you look in someone’s mouth, then you’ll be able to see how you can treat them. You’ll see an opportunity to give them value, however that looks. If you’re a periodontist, you’ll be able to see the potential to perform some sort of period operation in their mouth. If you’re an orthodontist, you’ll be able to see an opportunity to move their teeth. The point is you can see those opportunities to help somebody. Unless you had that knowledge.
James Taylor:
Gotcha, and that’s where I am unfortunately more so, and that’s what drives me my own mind crazy, because that’s why I’ve done orthodontics and then I did also restorative and I did implants treatment because I wanted to see the whole picture and I couldn’t do that. So I’m going to learn about that. That’s helped me know my career moving forward, because when I’m helping clinicians, I do I do one to ones with with dentists with short smile. But it’s not just about moving teeth, it’s about the pre restorative, the alignment, and then the post restorative. And if you understand everything, doesn’t matter you have to understand it as a specialist word, but as long as you have an understanding, it then opens options up both for yourself and the patients.
James Taylor:
And that’s the same with with with finance. If you understand the options so it’s about having choices then you understand your choices and then it gives you a broader spectrum in order to go for, rather than just some narrow field. There’s some narrow road you can start taking. You can get to that destination on different trains, and that’s kind of where I am with with with everything I do I want. I want options and choices.
James Martin:
It all starts with learning and listen. You hit the nail on the head. I actually love to read books. The way that Dennis Invest started was me going in this big old voyage of reading random books on finance and money and crypto currency and business. I thought I’d even really expecting to find anything, and then, once upon a time, I basically started the Facebook group and I started to share that stuff and that was how it grew. So there was seeds that I planted for the group I actually planted many years beforehand and there were things that I used in my own life effectively. So what I’m saying is that the more we can propel ourselves closer and closer to that version of Bradley Cooper in limitless by learning more and more and more, it’s actually the more opportunities that we see in this world, which is awesome, and it sounds like that has played a big factor in your journey as well. Can we take a quick tangent to just ask you about what your favorite book on finance is before we resume normal service and pull it back to the qualifications?
James Taylor:
Okay, so as far as books, there’s one book that almost is like well, the first book I really read was Rich Dad, poor Dad, I don’t need you know. You know that I mean that’s just almost like a Bible and that made me think differently. But I tell you what. The real book my Bible, I guess is Robert Green, 48 Laws of Power.
James Martin:
Oh my God, can I show you what I have over here? Right, this happened pretty regularly on the podcast, where I literally have the books outside me. This isn’t 48 Laws of Power, but this is the daily laws, which will come on to me in a second, but yeah, it’s 48.
James Taylor:
Laws of Power. It’s amazing. It’s almost like a very polite art of war, but it’s absolutely that. You know, I started reading that through years and years ago and actually a lot of the stuff I already did and already not knowingly did, but that for me has been something that’s really helped me just think through and it’s the most amazing book. And now he’s got a book on mastery as well and actually quoted that I did.
James Taylor:
I’ve done some courses for dense play with, with aligners and stuff, and I use his, his analogy of mastery because because I just think it’s great and you know it is a lot of podcast stuff as well and he talks a lot. But Robert Green really is a very smart guy and that 48 Laws of Power you can really, you can really just use in every way, in every aspect. There’s a lot of stuff like tipping point and that kind of stuff. I you know I read a lot of stuff as well like that. So yeah, it’s all very useful. It just helps you think outside the box and for me it’s always been about lateral thinking just what are my other options and how to actually do something slightly different from everyone else.
James Martin:
And just for the listeners, for the benefit of the listeners. Anybody hasn’t heard of 48 Laws of Power or Robert Green. What it effectively is is 48. Now, it’s not a comprehensive list, but 48 of the coolest lessons that this author, Robert Green, has discovered over the years in terms of preserving your power in social situations so you can preserve your status and you can come across as someone with authority, which obviously helps you in many areas of your life, because, fundamentally, if you’re going to do business or you’re going to do lots of things in your life, what you have to deal with human beings, so it’s all about how to get the most out of those interactions.
James Taylor:
That’s why it’s interactions and networking and it just helps you move through life in a way that actually you’re maintaining some form of control of your existence and purpose and moving in life, etc.
James Martin:
So I gave everybody that pretext and, you’re right, you’ve added to it there to give it a little bit more context. So everybody knows the form of the book and they know how the book works. And on that very note, so just to clarity for everybody’s listening, there are 48 distinct laws. On that very note, james, what is your favorite law from the book?
James Taylor:
Oh, I have to get the door. It’s all very, very. Some of them are a little bit out. There can be a little bit, you know, head to head, but a lot of it is about just. There’s a really good one which is I can’t really call it, but it’s kind of almost like what’s the word? Less is more. So for me less is more, it’s almost. Yeah, I use that a lot. Less is more in many things, but it almost just preserve your.
James Taylor:
Just don’t go in all guns firing it’s probably the wrong way of putting it but absolutely just take it steady, keep an eye on what’s going on, keep your options open and just move forward. And same with finance. I guess. Just don’t jump in and just don’t be so focused on one area, spread everything out and then look at options and opportunities. And that’s kind of what I do. I’m a bit of an opportunist, I guess.
James Taylor:
But yeah, I guess there’s so much in that book that actually you can take as much or as little as you want. And some of you relate to some will be alien to some people and some of you say alien to me. But when you read what, when you read something that really sits with you. You then take it on board and you know, and actually what’s nice in the book is that there’s actually examples of people over the years in history that have that have, actually that they can tell a tale based on those laws as well, and it helps relate to how that would work. So it’s a good. It’s interesting. I find it very and I still read it now I find it very interesting.
James Martin:
It’s phenomenal book. And yeah, just to add to a few of the things that you said just then, the guys’ knowledge of history is beyond reproach. It’s just crazy Because he’ll quote a lot and he’ll say just like when Emperor Ming in the fifth century China, when he was dealing in the Three Kingdoms War, dealt with this other emperor, and you’re just like how the hell do you know that? Or he’s kind of like when Napoleon fell out with Tally Rand and then he did this and it’s just like what the hell.
James Taylor:
He’s not so much information, but it is brilliant. You know you can spend the whole life reading it and actually not get to the end of it, because you know, read something, go okay, and then you’ll relate that to something else and then move along, but keep referring back to it. So that’s what I do anyway.
James Martin:
One of my, one of my favorite mentors that I’ve had in my life, who I’ve met through Dennis Nurentvers, he’s read that book 16 times. That’s how much you really, that’s how much gravitas he places on that book. By the way, just to add to what you were saying, before we bring it back to finance took, with regards to what we were saying just a second ago, I think possibly the law that you might have been alluding to earlier, or the law that might concisely summarize what you were saying, is there’s one remember, and I read it a little bit more recently than you, so it’s a little bit more fresh in my head. So there’s one in there. I can’t remember which law it is and that law is in victory never overstep mark Could be that one.
James Taylor:
Essentially, there’s one that’s actually like absence is increased value by being less present, or something, Of course, what is called I don’t know. But yeah, there’s so much. It’s a great book.
James Martin:
My favorite law is the final one, which is assume formlessness, and we’re not going to go into dissecting that today on this podcast, because it’s probably like a podcast in and of itself. I’m going to leave it right up in the spare time. Anyway, let’s pull it back to finance, James, because even though that book is not necessarily anything to do with finance, there’s a lot of wisdom in there for life, which will actually make you more money, in my opinion.
James Taylor:
But anyway, let’s pull it back to finance.
James Martin:
Obviously, you went in this big voyage where you got these qualifications with regards to whether the qualifications that are necessitated to become an advisor, even though you didn’t necessarily go down that path, you got the smart, so to speak. And when you went down that path and when you learned all the things that you learned, what were the biggest, like most standout epiphany moments for you, or maybe the biggest misconceptions you feel are out there in the dentist, or maybe the biggest thing that that voyage helped you shatter?
James Taylor:
The biggest thing for me was it’s not all about income, it’s about wealth creation as well, and so you can be earning a lot of money, earning income, but you need to consider tax, and for me, the tax rates were very important because I’m looking at I don’t want to be on a treadmill just generating good income but then paying a lot of tax as well and there’s a lot of opportunities that I found for me personally where actually you can generate wealth by selling the business and selling a dental business a lot of dentists there. You’ll sell it at a profit level, like an EBITDA, like a multiple of profit six, seven, eight times, whatever that is but you can still then work as a dentist. You can still generate that income on an annual basis. But then you get this lump of cash which you’re paying a lower tax rate on, which you can then invest in the other things that you want to invest in but still generate. And so for me it’s always been about building a business, generating wealth, but keep on working as well, because I enjoy that and so.
James Taylor:
But then that comes down to the balance and having a balanced outlook to it, and I’m not a risky guy. I don’t take a lot of financial risk personally. So I’ll have a balanced portfolio, a balanced outlook. And it just gave me that understanding of really how you look at the planning of the one, three, five, seven and beyond years, just gave me a broad based understanding, which then I related to my own situation. I said, okay, how do I do that? Okay, well, I want to generate wealth. I’m a dentist. Well, I’ll build a business and I’ll sell it, but I can still work. And then I’ll do it again, and I’ve done that a couple of times and at some point I’ll probably do it again because it just makes for me, it makes sense and I can function at that level and I can do that. But anyone that has that can build a dental business and an opportunity to sell. There’s so many advantages to do that because you can keep working.
James Martin:
Big time. And well, just to add to what you were saying just a second ago, I feel like one of the biggest misconceptions is that everybody thinks that you should just get some cash flow and then start investing that in index funds or their ICES or the pensions or whatever that looks. But actually that’s kind of the slow train to wealth. I want to say slow train. What I mean is it usually takes about 30 years for us to be able to actually be remunerated from that, as in receive some income, and the reason we know that is everybody retires around 50 and 60.
James Martin:
That’s literally the point that you start dipping into those pots. So if you want cash flow sooner, that’s fine. However, it might mean opening a business or doing something a little bit more outside of the box or a little bit more off the beaten track, however that looks. But listen, it’s totally fine when everybody chooses in life. Just know all of your options and then you’re empowered and then you can pick the best for you.
James Taylor:
I’ve seen so many people that there’s no quick. There are quick fixes, but the higher risk. And so you talk about crypto and that whole journey is crazy. I’ve got my own opinion on that, but I’ve seen a lot of people lose a lot. I’ve seen people make up to people lose a lot of money in crypto, and so you’ve got to understand the risk and the rewards and it’s not as easy as some people would make out to make those quick gains and those big value stuff. And you’ve just got it again. For me, in my personal life, I’ve always gone with a balanced outlook and tried to balance between property and investments and income and try and just get that general mix there. And then I’m covered for all those rainy days and problems with the economy going. Look at us now. Things are in recession currently. People don’t have many mortgage rates going up, interest rates going up. It’s difficult. It’s harder, harder, harder. Yeah, man, Diversifying right.
James Martin:
That’s that. For me, that’s been the key.
James Taylor:
Diversifying. Looking at opportunities that are out there. I do construction. I build a house for myself. If you sell it, there’s no capital gains tax on that, it’s tax free, and if you can do that, then that’s great. Looking at other areas where you can make gains and stuff. Over the years I’ve looked at gold coins British gold coins, such as Britannias and sovereigns. There’s no VAT on them. There’s no capital gains on them. It’s bullion but it’s currency, and so there’s lots of things that I’ve done in myself and my personal. I’m not advocating anybody to do anything, because you’d obviously need to speak to the right people and get the right advice, but for me they’re opportunities that have been out there that I’ve seen and looked at and understand from my reading. Okay, maybe that’s an interesting thing to just, but I’d never go all in. It’s all part of the whole picture, that balanced outlook that I’ve always hopefully tried to achieve, love that Love, that Love that Okay, cool and.
James Martin:
I’m just curious. Okay, we’ve talked about your investment strategy high level. So whenever you obtain qualifications for a financial planner, financial advisor, usually those qualifications educate us on how we can use traditional assets, how we define traditional assets, both stocks and bonds. Those paper assets are the backbone of the majority of people’s portfolio. So I’m curious and only divulge in as much as you’re happy to divulge how does your personal strategy look on that front? And bearing in mind that everything you say on the Dentist Invest Podcast not financial advice when? No, of course not, it’s just what I do.
James Taylor:
Yeah what I’m coming at this question from is.
James Martin:
James has done these qualifications and he’s a dentist. So how does that look for you, james?
James Taylor:
That would be a fascinating question.
James Taylor:
Again. So again I’ll delve into individual stocks and shares. So what I’ve done over the years is I followed 10 shares, so 10 stocks on the FTSE good, solid, foundation companies that I will track and I’ll see and this is what I do and I’ll follow their path and I’ll know their highs and their lows and I’ll know the opportunities. I know kind of my worst case I don’t know more from my best case but I’ve put stocks and shares, I put money into ISAs and I’ve used and I’ve traded on that ISA platform to kind of generate wealth that way as well, by almost. I won’t call it day trainer, I’ll call it week trading or month trading. And if you see the stock drop for whatever reason, and stocks and shares, it’s all about sentiment. It’s about key to everything, whether you’re talking about stocks and shares, whether you’re talking about crypto, whatever it’s talking about, it’s sentiment that drives the markets in my opinion. And so if you get a feel of what’s going on with a certain company and I only track a few that I know are solid and sound then I’ll invest and I’ll rebuy. And I’ve done that over the years just spritically, intermittently, as I’ve wanted to, so I don’t go all in doing any day trading kind of stuff, but I’ll mix it. And I’ve had unit trusts and I’ve had all that kind of stuff, but they’re on the longer term strategy. But don’t forget when you’re buying unit trusts you’ve got management fees, you’ve got ongoing fees for someone to manage the money for you, so that all comes into the equation of an interest rate is the high at the moment.
James Taylor:
So do you need that extra risk? And in my mind that’s what I think Do I need that extra risk when I know I can get a decent return? But what I also do is for me, I’ll use offset mortgages and stuff, because you know, if I can save paying interest on a mortgage, then this is my personal decision. If I’m paying interest on a mortgage, I’m paying that net of tax, so I’ve got to generate double the amount basically in income in order to cover that. So to get that investment is difficult. So I’ll use offset mortgaging as well, which has helped me quite a lot to decrease costs. A bit of everything Balance.
James Martin:
I love that man. That’s so cool and there’s a lot of knowledge that will be beneficial to the listeners. What you’ve just espoused just then, which is super valuable, very curious. Here’s a question that’s just popped into my head. Very curious. As somebody who is, in a way, almost like dual qualified between dentist and with the respective exams, one needs to be an advisor. When do you think it is most appropriate for a dentist to have a financial advisor, and what can they do on their own?
James Taylor:
So that’s a difficult question because everyone has a different wealth portfolio and different stuff. So everyone has to kind of make their own decisions. But for me, at the very beginning, I wanted income protection. I wanted critical illness. I had a brain tumor 10 years ago Shit, yeah. So I had a brain tumor. I’m fine, I had treatment. I had to go to the US. I went to the US for treatment, but basically I had a critical illness policy which paid out. I’ve got a life policy still, but those things were fundamental.
James Taylor:
So the first thing I did when I qualified was I got my cell fully covered and I maxed it out. I really covered myself and that was a good call at the time. So for me, that was really important and it was the right decision. But, yeah, if you have no financial understanding and even I had some understanding now, but I still got people that I talked to about my current situation and so, yeah, a financial advice is key Someone that understand. If you don’t understand, you need to do that. I mean, if you’re going to mess around yourself, then do it with money, that isn’t important. But I would always recommend you go to see someone that understands.
James Taylor:
Look at your risk. I always want to sleep at night, so I will never invest anything. That means I’m waking up in the middle of the night checking, checking what’s happening For me. That doesn’t work for me. I want to have a restful sleep. I don’t want to be worried, so that limits my risk profile personally. Everyone will make their own judgment on that. If you’ve got loads of money, then you can do what you like. If you haven’t and you know you’ve got kids and strategy then you’ve got to just go see a financial advisor. They’ll understand where you are, see what your plans are, whether it’s private schooling or holiday, whatever it is. You don’t want to be getting advice Absolutely, and so I still get advice. Some stuff I don’t my own, but I’m 51 now so I do have some ability to invest some stuff myself and not really worry too much about what happens. But that’s the position I’m in and a lot of people will get there, I guess. But they need to take the right advice. It’s really important from the beginning.
James Martin:
Awesome man. And yeah, apologies on my behalf because I consciously threw a little bit of a curve ball just in because only because I know that that is a very pertinent question on a lot of dentists’ minds. So it’s good that you answered that and you also put a few caveats in there as well, so that we’re not giving everybody the impression to suggest for even one minute that it is a good idea for everybody out there to go and manage their affairs. Should they be quiet?
James Taylor:
No, not at all. You’ve got to understand. I take advice all the time, whether it’s from banks or from IFA’s or whoever it is. I’ll take advice as well, because it’s always easy to look at your own and to do it to kind of like positively. It’s also called something confirmation I’ve got a term but you kind of reinforce your own thought process by your own thought process and it’s nice for someone from a third party to look in from outside and say, actually do you know what? Have you looked at X, y and Z? Because you kind of missing that. So it’s always good to get. You must get advice, everyone has to get advice.
James Martin:
Okay, james, we’ll listen. Thank you so much for your words of wisdom today on Dennis and the Best Podcast Very valuable episode I feel, so looking forward to hearing all the positive feedback from this episode, I’m sure. But before we just go, I’m just wondering is there anything that you would like to say, just in conclusion, to wrap this podcast up today for the benefit of the listeners in so far as high level words of wisdom super snappy.
James Taylor:
I just think what you’re doing, james, is great. I think you’re really opening up the conversation, which is important that people are, and Dennis specifically. We’re very fortunate as a profession that we can work. There’s jobs for us all. We know we can work and generate a good standard of living, but a lot of people dentists don’t understand what really they should be doing or how they should be managing their finances and also their I say, their Christian illness and life policies and stuff. These are all really important to just and it performs part of your overall balance, and I think what you’re doing, james, is opening up people’s eyes and making them aware of that. So good on you for doing that and good luck with your mission.
James Martin:
And that hats off. We’ll listen. Thank you for that, and all I can say is it’s been a wild ride and I never expected all of this to happen, but I’m certainly immensely grateful and immensely grateful for this podcast that we have shared today. I’m already looking forward to the next one. James, thanks so much for your time. Thanks for the show. All the best. Very, very soon, In a bit, Bye-bye.