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“Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honourable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
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August 2024 will mark the tenth anniversary of my departure from practicing dentistry full-time.
August of 2014 marked my entry into what is termed a phased retirement. Over the last ten years, my practice schedule has gradually diminished to the point where in 2024 I will work approximately six to eight weeks. During this period between 2014 and 2024, I obtained my CRPC™ (Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor) designation, and I’ve been honored over the last ten years to assist people in deciding to transition from full-time employment to full retirement or phased retirement.
This transition period is a very stressful and emotional period in most people’s lives.
People facing retirement have many questions, most of which are variations of basic questions facing all potential retirees. Let’s consider some of the questions that most people facing Retirement ask, and situations I have already experienced concerning quitting full-time work.
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Quit or Keep Working?
Probably the most stressful question involves the actual decision to quit working or quitting full-time work. The vast majority of people have work careers that span thirty or more years and arrive at the retirement decision juncture not being able to remember a time when they didn’t work. As enticing as the prospect of not having to work every day seems, the prospect of quitting work creates a great deal of stress.
It is a part of human nature that doing the same thing almost every day becomes comfortable and routine. Quitting work means that this comfortable routine is permanently disrupted. Working itself may not be comfortable or enjoyable after many years at the job, but the daily routine that working provides is very comfortable for most workers. Retirement disrupts this comfortable routine as now there is no daily workplace or schedule. Every day becomes a blank sheet with no routine. Dreaming of every day being unscheduled and to be filled with leisure activities can be both seductive and terrifying.
After working full-time for approximately 36 years, my retirement decision came rather suddenly. After two months of employment, an associate in my practice made an offer to assume control of the practice. Approximately four months later I transitioned my practice to the new owner (my former associate), and I was suddenly semi-retired. As I was contractually required to remain in the practice for six months, the initial decision to continue to work on a part-time basis was uncomplicated. The decision to continue working after the initial six-month contract expired was much easier for me than I would have expected.
For many workers, the retirement decision is much more binary. For these workers, the only two options are to work full-time or fully retire from their present employment. Workers may also be forced into a mandatory retirement. In every case, the decision to fully retire is not easy and is fraught with emotion.
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Full Retirement or Phased Retirement?
More businesses are realizing the value of long-term and highly skilled employees. To retain these skilled workers at some employment level, many businesses are beginning to offer different work options to afford a “phased” type of retirement where workers gradually work less and less until they fully retire. See: THE GREAT DEPARTURE: CHOOSING BETWEEN SWIFT OR GRADUAL RETIREMENT.
My initial thoughts were that I would help the new owner transition into his new practice and fully retire after six months. My work contract expired at six months and I thought that I would only work for that time. In reality, my career in my former practice lasted much longer, and I eventually remained with the practice on a limited basis for approximately eight years.
Other practitioners contacted me for help with their practices and I quickly transitioned to doing contract labor. Over the last ten years, I worked in sixteen separate dental practices for periods between one day and eight years.
In the last two years I’ve started to reduce my work schedule, and this year (2024) I’ll work exclusively in one practice for a period of five to seven weeks.
Being able to control my workload for the last ten years has allowed me to reduce my work schedule from full-time practice to about 180 days a year, and ultimately to approximately 42 days this year (2024.)
My career “glide path” to retirement was not the result of financial need. I was financially independent in my 50s. My career glide path was the result of my desire to stay actively involved in dentistry and patient care. Many salaried workers and professionals don’t feel the need to continue working once they decide to retire from full-time work. Using the phased retirement, gradual glide path approach to full retirement has allowed me to mentally and emotionally adjust to the beginning of the retirement phase of my life.
I understand now that transitioning from full-time practice to fully retired in one step would not have been emotionally unhealthy. Working at my desired pace and creating a schedule with decreasing practice days has allowed me time to mentally and emotionally process the gradual phasing out of my dental career. Phased retirement has been of great benefit to my particular needs.
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Do I Miss Working?
Running a dental practice and providing dental care is a stressful career path. A solo practitioner must provide dental care and run a small business. Wearing both hats of business manager and dental provider consumes vast amounts of time and energy. In my particular situation, the business of running a solo dental practice brought me the least amount of joy. I still enjoy treating patients, but did not necessarily enjoy the business side of dentistry or running a dental practice.
I can truthfully say that I do not miss the business side of running a dental practice. I do miss the social and dental interaction with staff and patients, most of whom had a long-term association with my practice. Both staff and patients became friends that I no longer see and interact with regularly.
Doing locum tenens dentistry on a part-time basis in dental practices provides a connection to the practice of dentistry, but my current interactions are with patients with whom I am unfamiliar and with whom I have no long-term relationship.
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Do I Miss Staff and Patients?
The aspect of my work I miss most is that I no longer interact with patients and staff that I have known most of my adult life. This is what I found most rewarding about the practice of dentistry, and this is what I miss the most.
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Final Thoughts
Am I Glad I Followed the Retirement Path I Chose?
Having a fixed daily schedule is both a blessing and a curse. Most people enjoy the ease and familiarity of a fixed routine. But, having every day planned for months in advance can also become a curse because a rigid schedule doesn’t allow for variability.
Changes to my daily schedule were difficult because any changes involved me, my staff, and patients who made special arrangements to come to our office at a specific time.
Do I regret leaving full-time work? The short answer is no! Leaving full-time work has provided freedom. I would never consider giving up all of the time I’ve spent with family and friends for all the money that I would have made by continuing to work. I still continue to enjoy working part time, even after becoming financially independent over 15 years ago, I have continued to work on a part-time basis, because I still enjoy treating patients. But, quitting full-time work has given me the freedom to plan each day as I desire, freedom to work or not, and freedom to live each day as fully as possible.
Leaving full-time work almost ten years ago has afforded me adequate time to evaluate my decision from many aspects and in the final analysis there are almost no regrets in my decision to leave full-time work. I miss interactions with staff and patients, but I don’t miss the grind of managing a practice and providing care under the pressure of a continuously rigid schedule.
Using a part-time practice model to provide a gradual glide path to retirement has been beneficial from both a monetary and psychological standpoint. I became financially independent several years before I departed from full-time practice.
At the time I started working part-time, I didn’t realize the power of the income generated by working part-time. My part-time income allowed existing retirement funds to continue to grow virtually untouched. Part-time income also allowed me to continue contributing to my retirement plan.
Psychologically, a gradual glide path also allowed a slower and easier transition from full-time work to full-time retirement. I still enjoy treating patients and practicing dentistry and will continue my gradual glide path to retirement until I decide to fully retire.
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