Keep in mind that you won't be in the same physical shape when you reach 60 years old. When the patients stop coming to see you because they prefer seeing a dentist who is faster, younger, better looking, and more skillful than you, you can no longer pay the office's rent + other expenses. You'll have no other choices but to retire and to sell your practice. I bought an existing practice from a 60 yo orthodontist for this reason. When that time comes, will you be able to you save enough to support yourself for the rest of your life?
I need to find ways to make money in case I can no longer practice dentistry (due to an illness, a disability, or death). Instead buying a 1+million dollar office building to set up my ortho practice like some of my colleagues (I am not a huge risk taker like them), I invested my money on several small rental properties because they are much cheaper and easier to qualify for a loan. All I need is a 20% down payment and I just use the rental incomes to make monthly mortgage payments for these investment properties. By the time I quit dentistry, hopefully all of these rental properties' mortgage debts will be paid off. Hopefully, the rental income will help me retire comfortably for the rest of my life.
As OhioDMD pointed out on the post above, you need to save/invest early. The sooner you start practicing dentistry and earning a healthy income, the better it will be. I keep telling my nieces and nephews not to waste too much time in colleges to decide which major to pursue. Finish college in 4 years. Finish professional school (dentistry, medicine, optometry, or pharmacy etc) in 4 years. Then, find a job and start saving or investing right away.
Since the pathway to become a dentist is very long, you should not waste too much time after high school, especially if you plan to get married and have kids.
This is a significant advantage that medicine has over dentistry--the absence of physical demands. Many medical fields---psychiatry, anesthesia, pathology, radiology, family medicine, internal medicine, allergy (should I go on?)--lend themselves very well to working far past 60, and many if not most people in these fields do just that.
Re: people not going to you because you are 60+--I would say that is not true for the majority of dental fields. How hard is it to work 3 days per week at your Oral surgery office? Or at your Endodontic office? Most patients want practitioners in these fields who have EXPERIENCE. That's a benefit to them, not a detriment. Perhaps Orthodontics is such a superficial field that perceptions of the practitioner apply more there, but I have a hard time seeing that in other fields.
Re: rentals--those are a good idea, but investing in the market is better. You mentioned before that you put very little money into a 401K. That's a bad idea. As a self-employed person, you should be MAXING out a self-funded 401K (~52K per year) as well as a traditional IRA. In the long-term, that will generally yield you better returns than real estate, provided you spread your assets out over low-cost mutual funds (ie, Vanguard). Rental properties should come after this.
Lastly, I respect your drive and thriftiness, but frankly I think that life experience counts for a lot. You have no other exposure to any field besides Orthodontics and dentistry (which is probably why you don't realize the value of maxing a 401K vs real estate). That's OK, but realize that many people have significant life experience from other random parts of life--work, military, etc.., that might actually give them significant benefit down the road. When I volunteered at a hospital many years ago, I remember one of the MAs there saying of physicians who went straight through to medical school, "a lot of doctors are very green in life." How true.
Life is a marathon, not a sprint.
One more thing: I contacted a young Orthodontist on Dentaltown a while back re: practice debt and purchasing. She was purchasing an Ortho practice from a guy who was
82 years old. He said to her, "I'd like to sell to you and be your associate until my time is up." An orthodontist retiring at 60 is doing so by choice, not by necessity. It is the world's easiest job. He/she could have no problem going to a chain and working there. The orthodontist I went to several years back to have my teeth straightened works 3 days per week. It is inherently a job that lends itself well to working into one's latest years. My mother's father was a railroader--a very dangerous and physically difficult job. He retired at ~74.
33 years and counting
