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Dentists know stress. Between back-to-back patients, managing staff, keeping up with regulations, and handling the financial side of a practice, it can feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day.
The reality is simple: money can’t create more hours, but it can buy back your time—and with it, peace of mind, health, and joy.
One of the key findings from Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton is this: people are happier when they use money to buy time. For dentists, this principle is a game-changer. Here’s how.
Think about the last time you bought something big—a car, a phone, maybe new office equipment. It was exciting, sure. But the novelty wore off quickly, and before long, it just became another item to maintain, insure, or upgrade.
Now think about the last time you bought time. Maybe you hired someone to clean your house, freeing up your Saturday for a family outing. Or maybe you invested in a skilled office manager who takes care of payroll, scheduling, and HR headaches. The relief you felt? That’s the payoff of buying time.
The truth is simple: things add clutter, time adds freedom.
For most dentists, the practice itself is where stress piles up fastest. And too often, the solution isn’t to work harder—it’s to delegate smarter.
Here’s what buying time in your practice might look like:
Every hour you get back from delegation is an hour you can spend on higher-value activities—or on yourself.
Dentists often carry the same “I’ll do it myself” mindset into their personal lives. But every chore you take on comes with an opportunity cost.
Examples of buying time at home:
Don’t spend your free time scrubbing floors or pulling weeds—redirect it toward relationships, health, or recharging.
Here’s why buying time isn’t indulgent—it’s essential:
When you free yourself from busywork, you’re not just saving time—you’re reclaiming mental bandwidth.
Ready to put this into action? Start here:
Buying time isn’t about laziness—it’s about prioritizing what only you can do and letting go of the rest.
As a dentist, you juggle more responsibilities than most professionals. But you don’t have to juggle alone. The smartest investment you can make isn’t always in equipment, real estate, or even marketing—it’s in time.
Because at the end of the day:
Spend wisely, and you’ll find that the true luxury isn’t a faster car or a bigger home—it’s a calendar with more space for who and what you love.
Listen to Episode 126 of The Dental Boardroom Podcast and explore how dentists can use money to buy not just things, but peace of mind.
Wes knows what's best for dental practices. He's been doing this for a long time and he sees lots of practices. He can tell me how our practice is doing, and what we can do to increase our productivity. With past CPA's, there were no ideas. It was all coming from me, saying "I think I can do better, but I don't know how." I come in to meet with Wes and he says "You CAN do better, and I know how."
PracticeCFO is in hundreds of dental offices around the country. They know what numbers should look like. They know what percentages of payroll, rent and supplies should be, and they will hold you accountable to those numbers, which will really help you stick to your plan and your path of growth and savings. That is invaluable
Whenever something comes up, whether it's building or practice related and we weren't sure where the numbers would go, PracticeCFO has been instrumental in helping us figure that out. I can't say enough of how important that is - that it goes beyond that initial partnership. They make sure this business marriage works.
When I go home from work, I don't spend a whole lot of time stressing about what my books look like, or how much I owe in taxes. By using PracticeCFO, the burden of keeping track of a lot of the big financial numbers and metrics are taken off my plate.
PracticeCFO helped me develop a plan for the future. I have colleagues that work with other accountants that don't have a plan - they just look at the numbers of the practice and that's it. There's no plan for 10, 20 years from now. But with PracticeCFO, you get that. PracticeCFO makes you feel like you're they're only client.
(In reference to his practice sale) What could've been super stressful, wasn't! When picking John and Wes, it was from word of mouth recommendations and other people's experiences from the past that really did it for me. And it turns out that those recommendations were right on the line.
Wes knows the business side of dentistry. His comprehensive plan will organize your personal and professional finances so you can focus on taking care of patients. Massive ROI.
I can’t say enough good things about everyone at PracticeCFO. Everyone on the team is professional, organized, knowledgeable, helpful and kind. They also respond to emails and phone calls immediately and are always happy to help. They have helped me navigate year-to-year as a business owner. PracticeCFO gives me peace of mind that my business is in good hands.
I love Practice CFO! They have helped me obtain a practice and maintain a practice. They are incredible people who are on top of everything and make owning and running the business portion of a practice easy. They couldn’t be better for my business and my sanity. They have every detail of the business and taxes taken care of where all I have to do is show up and follow their easy steps to success!
Practice CFO has the best tools I’ve seen for personal tax and financial planning in addition to top-tier corporate tax and accounting services. I have been very pleased with the level of quality service. They manage my monthly bookkeeping and accounts payable. It is a great system and saves me a ton of time, and it allows us to have monthly financial statements within a week of month end.
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