by Mark Radermacher, D.C.

President of Total Practice Management

 

            Dr. Radermacher has been a chiropractor for 22 years and has been coaching some of the largest practices in the country for the last 14 years.

 

Regardless the reason a person becomes a chiropractor, the realization that money provides options strikes a critically important chord at some point in practice. The magnificent plethora of reasons supporting this realization are often ignored and sometimes depressed because of personal challenges, frequently including financial insecurities.

            Once a practical understanding of the options money provides becomes evident, then a chiropractor has the opportunity to create a better life which can include providing better care for the patient. To contemplate, synthesize, and implement the options money provides, even in the early stages, helps provide the impetus to complete the task of securing a level of financial independence that offers a continuation of enjoyment with options in life that are dreamed of by many, but lived by only a few.

            Simply stated, money gives a person options. The list of options is an impressive one that spans a spectrum providing very positive personal and professional impact. One of the most important options is to decrease stress. The first place to melt away stress is in one’s personal life. Most people who don’t have money produce stress for themselves just worrying about money. Unfortunately, the majority of financial worry takes place during most waking hours. This can ruin or even eliminate many activities because the burden of financial worry is intensely suppressive.

            Exercising the option to decrease stress requires some effort and does not occur just because a person has money. Aperson may need to put effort into becoming more intimately involved with family and personal activities that further personal interests and enjoyment. These activities must be personally identified but might include music, art, travel, discussion, literature, and sports. Money can provide the option to become involved to levels of fulfillment well beyond performing these activities just for the sake of going through the motions.

            The next area a chiropractor can decrease stress, because money offers the option to do so, is in one’s professional life. Most chiropractors have a deep and long lasting concern of earning enough money to pay the bills to keep the office from closing down. Plenty of chiropractors have proven that earning more money doesn’t automatically pay all the bills. This occurs because so many chiropractors overspend in the office to the extent that even while earning more money, they still never have any money and are just paying the bills.

            While earning more money in the office, a chiropractor needs to plan and exercise fiscal reasonableness; then there will be money left after all the bills are payed. Achiropractor in this position will begin to notice, then expect, more patient cooperation. Most chiropractors who handle money poorly in the office often have a far greater majority of patients who say they have money challenges. These financially deficient chiropractors seem to draw financially challenged patients.

            With greater financial patient cooperation, a chiropractor will see more money produced and collected, thus providing even greater options because of having money. Moreover, the patient who understands the importance of paying for care often understands why care is so important an opportunity to acquire. Therefore, a chiropractor who has more money is provided the option of having more patient cooperation in the realms of both patient care and finances.

            Money also provides options when it comes to purchasing goods. An endless list exists, defining the many goods a person can purchase. Unfortunately, the majority of people will buy goods whether they have the money or not. With the extreme abuse of credit in today’s society, financial reasonableness is often non-existent. To “purchase”something on credit is not to purchase at all but, in reality, to rent. Tax breaks and low interest rates are not reasons to buy, but excuses to feed an insatiable appetite to acquire more. Lenders and credit card companies can be no more blamed for this abuse than a drug pusher, because this decision is one of personal control and understanding, or lack thereof.

            With more money and financial reasonableness, a person can exercise the option of becoming debt-free and then financially independent. The definition of debt-free is a person owning, free and clear, a house and a car and not owing on credit cards, business loans, or student loans. A person who is debt-free owes no one anything. Only a very small percentage of Americans ever achieve this debt-free position. This isn’t because of the inability to earn money but because of the inability to control spending. It never was or never will be how much a person can earn, but how much a person can save after purchasing what is essential to live. The option to become debt-free has always existed in a free country, but the option to spend all the money has lured the greater percentage of people instead.

            A person can’t even think about becoming financially independent unless becoming debt-free is a forgone conclusion. The people who have become debt-free and financially independent often are not the highest payed people but are instead the people who have the purest intent to achieve these goals. Becoming debt-free isn’t for the chosen few or the special but for those who quietly and diligently undertake the task.

            Some of the options that exist when a person is financially independent are impressive. Retirement is on the list but is typically unhealthy and not recommended. Instead, options exist, such as furthering an education, using creativity to advance personally or professionally, even teaching others what a person has learned in order to create similar options for themselves. The person who begins to understand and work toward financial independence can become powerful in creating a multitude of ongoing options. Instead of debt producing a pity party of failure, having money becomes a means to progressively advance through stages of success.

            The decision to have money is a decision for each individual to make. Money doesn’t technically make a person a better chiropractor, a better spouse, a better parent or a better person; money provides options that could be used to advance all these traits and characteristics. The realization that money provides options is a realization that does strike a critically important chord at some point in practice. For those who feel they’ve waited too long to satisfy this intent, money and the options it provides will never be theirs.

            Conversely, for those who realize time is not the relevant factor but function is, personal challenges and financial insecurities will eventually be overcome. When the decision to acquire money is made and the options that money provides begin to present themselves, momentum will be created. This momentum will, even in the early stages of success, provide a relevant impetus to complete the task of securing a prestigious level of financial independence. This level of independence can provide fulfillment and enjoyment in life that are beyond what most people limit themselves to imagine; but then, this level isn’t being achieved for them, it’s being achieved for oneself. Money will not buy time; therefore, to wait, to think, to hope to achieve this level of financial independence would leave a person to wallow in a mire of failure, never to succeed. To decide otherwise is the first option a person must choose.