Short answer: if you only did a handful of things in each area of your financial life, these are the ones that matter most. This is a fast, high-leverage checklist — the top 5 moves for retirement, practice ownership, taxes, investing, and protection — so a busy dentist can see at a glance whether the big rocks are handled.
How to use this checklist
Most financial results come from a handful of decisions done consistently, not from optimizing everything. Below are the top five moves in each major area. If these are handled, you’re ahead of most high earners. If several are missing, they’re your priority list.
Top 5 for retirement
- Save at least 20% of gross income — more if you started late.
- Use the right plan for your practice, and add a cash balance plan if you’re a high earner.
- Know your “number” — roughly 25× your annual spending — and track toward it.
- Automate contributions so saving happens before lifestyle spending.
- Don’t rely on the practice sale alone; build assets outside the practice.
Top 5 for practice ownership
- Know your numbers — overhead, profit margin, and production per provider.
- Protect and grow hygiene — it’s the engine of profit.
- Reduce staff turnover — it’s one of your biggest hidden costs.
- Choose the right entity and tax structure with your CPA.
- Build the practice toward an eventual transition, even if it’s years away.
Top 5 for taxes
- Plan proactively year-round with your CPA, not just at filing.
- Max tax-advantaged accounts — retirement plans, HSA, backdoor Roth.
- Get your entity and reasonable salary right.
- Coordinate the timing of income, big purchases, and any liquidity events.
- Use charitable and giving strategies intentionally if giving is a goal.
Top 5 for investing
- Invest in a diversified, low-cost portfolio matched to your time horizon.
- Diversify away from the practice — it’s already your biggest concentrated bet.
- Keep fees low and stay the course through volatility.
- Automate investing so it’s consistent and unemotional.
- Avoid concentrated, illiquid “opportunities” you don’t fully understand.
Top 5 for protection
- Carry strong own-occupation disability insurance.
- Hold adequate term life for your family’s needs.
- Keep malpractice, business, and a personal umbrella policy in force (the full list).
- Maintain an emergency fund and a practice reserve.
- Use entities and asset protection sensibly, with an attorney.
Frequently asked questions
If forced to pick one: automate a high savings rate (at least 20% of gross) into the right tax-advantaged accounts. It compounds over a career and protects you from the “high income, no wealth” trap. Close behind is protecting your income with strong disability insurance.
Proactive tax planning, adequate disability coverage, and diversifying beyond the practice. Many dentists are busy and well-paid but leave tax savings unclaimed, carry too little income protection, and hold most of their net worth in a single illiquid asset.
Founder & Financial Planner · Investment Adviser Representative · Series 63 & 65
Ian McGinnis is the founder of Dental Wealth Partners and a fee-only financial planner dedicated to dentists. As an investment adviser representative (Series 63 and 65), he built the firm to give dentists coordinated, fiduciary advice across their practice, taxes, investments, retirement plans, and long-term goals — the whole picture in one strategy. A graduate of Belhaven University, Ian previously worked at Davis Private Wealth, MML Investors Services, and Northwestern Mutual, and is based in the Jackson, Mississippi area. He is the author of The Wealthy Dentist and hosts the Smiles & Cents podcast.
Keep reading
- The most common financial mistakes dentists makeHigh income doesn’t guarantee wealth. The recurring financial mistakes we see dentists make — lifestyle creep, under-saving, bad insurance, and no plan.
- How much should a dentist have saved by age? Net-worth benchmarksNet-worth benchmarks for dentists by age and career stage, why dentists start behind, and the savings rate that actually builds wealth.
- How should a dentist invest?Most dentists build wealth with a boring, diversified, low-cost portfolio — after maxing tax-advantaged accounts and diversifying beyond the practice.