How Can Therapists Actually Retire? - An interview with David Frank, financial planner for therapists
Curt and Katie talk with David about managing finances, including student loan debt and retirement. We look at when to start saving, what to do when you’re starting to save for retirement later in life, and how much is too much to save. David also shares his concept of a Money Date and how you should start looking at your financial picture. He also talks about financial planning and when to seek a professional for support.
Interview with David Frank, Turning Point Financial Life Planning
In this podcast episode we talk about: Managing Personal and Professional Finances
- How perfectionism can get in the way of saving
- The importance of “just getting started” in saving for retirement
- Saving money is a practice, not something you figure out once
- Why it is important to save money as soon as you can
Navigating Student Loan Debt
- Student loan debt and how overwhelming it is to look at these debts
- The desire to pay off this debt as quickly as possible
- David’s advice to save at least one time your annual income before aggressively paying off your student loan debt
- The comparison of interest rates on your debt versus returns on investing money
Retirement and Investing in your Future “Starting to save and invest young is such great advice… and… it’s advice for time travelers”
- For younger folks, the advice is to save as soon as possible
- What to do if you are closer to retirement age and you haven’t started saving for retirement
- How to determine when you can retire
“No one does this money thing perfectly, even if we start out of the gate pretty strong.”
- What to do when life happens and you have to start over
- David’s own story of having to start over
- Societal fear due to 2008 and the Great Recession
David Frank’s Concept of “Money Dates”
- Reserve time each week to look at your money
- Start understanding how much you need to save
- Idea: go to the Social Security Administration Website to see what you’re entitled to in social security
How Much Money to Save
- The money mindset concerns that can get in the way of saving (or even looking at) your money
- How much money is too much money to save?
- Emergency funds and the feeling of safety and security
- The risks of saving too much money
- Quality of life questions when you are underspending
- Online tools to identify what you need in retirement, so you know when you’ve saved enough
- Actual numbers of what to save for retirement and what you can spend now
Financial Planning – When and why to seek help with your money
- The complexity of the decisions related to paying debt versus investing
- The number of options available to each person when making decisions on our money
- Get feedback on how well you are doing on your practice financials and saving for retirement
- Risk planning, financial planning, estate and incapacity planning
- The importance of understanding your values when you look at how to spend your money
- Financial planning when you don’t have a lot of money
- Choosing what you sacrifice when you decide to invest in shiny objects
- The problem of “shoulds” and getting financial advice from other therapists
