Building Your Nest Egg: A Spring Guide for Dentists

By Iain Stevenson

Springtime offers an excellent opportunity to reflect on your financial health and consider whether you’re setting yourself up for a secure and prosperous future.

Just as you wouldn’t put all your Easter eggs in one basket, you wouldn’t want to rely on a single strategy when it comes to your financial planning. Let’s explore some essential financial planning tips to help dentists take control, avoid costly delays, and build a secure nest egg.

Take control of your financial basket

The first step in any successful financial plan is ensuring that you have control over how you contribute to your investments. This means:

• Deciding how much you can comfortably set aside without compromising your current standard of living.
• Determining whether you want to contribute regularly or make lump sum payments when extra funds become available.
• Ensuring you can increase, decrease, pause, or stop contributions as your financial situation changes.

For dentists, this level of control is essential. Your income may fluctuate depending on patient demand, practice performance, or unexpected expenses. By maintaining flexibility in your contribution strategy, you’ll have the peace of mind that you can adapt without disrupting your overall financial plan.

Just like a well-balanced Easter basket, having the ability to adjust how much and how often you contribute ensures that your financial future remains stable, even if life throws you a curveball.

Access and flexibility – keep your eggs within reach

One of the biggest mistakes in financial planning is locking away funds without considering when you might need them. As a dentist, your career path and personal life may shift unexpectedly — from expanding your practice to handling unforeseen medical expenses.

You want to know that you can access your funds when you need them, not just at a fixed point in the future. For example:

• If you’re saving but need to fund a practice expansion in seven years, you shouldn’t have to wait 10 years to access your funds.
• If you inherit money or receive a tax refund, you should have the flexibility to invest it as a lump sum.

Building flexibility into your financial plan ensures that you have a safety net and can adapt as your priorities shift. The peace of mind that comes from knowing you can access your funds when needed is invaluable — and it helps prevent you from feeling trapped by your own plan.

Spring into the new tax year

No one wants to give more of their hard-earned money to the taxman than necessary. That’s why it’s important to make your financial plan as tax efficient as possible.

Getting professional guidance on tax efficient savings helps to ensure you’re not overpaying and that you’re making the most of government allowances and incentives. Think of it as protecting your Easter eggs from greedy little hands...

It can also be beneficial to get ahead on this area. You don’t need to leave it until the end of the tax year, potentially adding pressure and stress to a financial planning area that can be looked at all year round.

The cost of delay – don’t let procrastination bite into your returns

One big financial mistake dentists can make is putting off decisions that they are ready to make. It’s understandable — dentists are incredibly busy professionals. But the cost of delay can be substantial.

The risk is that you tell yourself, "I’ll sort it out next month," or "I’ll wait until I have more time." Before you know it, six months becomes two years, and two years becomes five. The longer you wait to start saving and investing, the more you miss out on the power of compound returns.

Think of compound interest like a snowball rolling down a hill. At first, the snowball starts small, just like your initial investment. But as it rolls, it picks up more snow (interest) along the way. The bigger the snowball gets, the more snow it collects, which makes it grow even faster.

In the same way, with compound interest, not only does your initial investment earn interest, but the interest itself starts earning interest, potentially making your money grow exponentially over time.

Every month you delay decisions you are able to make is a missed opportunity to grow your wealth. Worse still, if you find yourself short of funds when you need them most, you may end up having to borrow — which means paying interest rather than earning it.

Starting early, even with small contributions, puts time on your side and allows your investments the potential to grow over the long term. The earlier you start, the more powerful the compounding effect will be.

To be balanced, however, you equally shouldn’t make hasty financial decisions without all the facts – financial decisions should be made with eyes wide open.

Why specialist advice matters

Dentists are time-poor — your focus is on your patients and running your practice. But that’s exactly why seeking professional financial advice is so valuable.

A financial adviser can:

• Help you develop a strategy tailored to your specific circumstances.
• Ensure your investments align with your goals, risk appetite, and tax position.
• Keep you on track and adjust your plan as your situation changes.

It’s tempting to rely on advice from colleagues, friends, or even Google — but what works for someone else may not work for you. Your financial plan needs to reflect your personal and professional situation, not someone else’s.

Professional advice gives you the confidence that your plan is tailored to your needs and designed to grow with you over time. That peace of mind is worth its weight in gold — or chocolate eggs.

Start building a financial nest egg that lasts

This Easter break, while you’re potentially enjoying some well-deserved downtime, take a moment to reflect on your financial health. Are you in control of your contributions? Is your plan flexible and tax-efficient? Are you taking the right level of risk — and avoiding the cost of delay?

Building a secure financial future requires balance, strategy, and flexibility. Spread your investments, seek professional advice, and see if you are in the right position to take action and lay a strong, secure nest egg for the future.

Wishing you a happy and financially secure Easter.

The value of investments may go up and down and you may get back less than you invest.

Speak to a dental Specialist Financial Adviser at Wesleyan Financial Services to start building a nest egg. Book here or call 0808 149 9416.

Please note: Charges may apply. You will not be charged until you have agreed to the services you require and the associated costs. Learn more at www.wesleyan.co.uk/charges.

Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future.