Background. Retirement planning is an issue that concerns all working people. In this article, the authors present their analysis of the results of a 1995 American Dental Association survey that asked dentists questions about their plans to finance their retirement.
Methods. The ADA’s Survey Center conducts a periodic "Survey of Current Issues in Dentistry," which gauges dentists’ opinions about a variety of topics of interest to dentistry. The authors analyzed the results of the 1995 survey in which retirement savings was one of the topics.
Results. The majority of responding owner/dentists whose primary occupation was private practice (40.7 percent) indicated that they were relying only "a little" on the sales of their practices to finance their retirements. Overall, dentists whose primary occupation was private practice reported saving an average of 10.5 percent of their income specifically for retirement. The average total amount of money dentists invested in various retirement plans increased with age and was highest for the 55 to 59 and the 60 to 64 years of age cohorts. The only exception was the 401(k) plan, in which the peak occurred in the 65 years of age and older cohort.
Conclusions. Fifteen years ago most dentists retired between the ages of 60 and 69 years. Recent trends show that dentists are retiring at younger ages. This means that while in practice, dentists must save enough to support themselves for 20 or more years of retirement.
Practice Implications. The transition from private practice to retirement can be difficult. Therefore, planning for the future is important. Dentists can benefit from making appropriate decisions based on age, investment goals, risk tolerance, monetary constraints and time until retirement.
