When Your Survival Guy started my series “There’s Nothing Wrong with Making Money Slowly,” the idea was to show you that yes, you can become rich too, without some of the risks associated with trying to make money “fast.”

When you think about how a Rich Man invests, the phrase “money makes money” comes to mind because number one, when you have money, you have options, and you’re not pressuring yourself to make more.

And two, you can invest in areas that you are comfortable investing in, where others may not have the patience or solvency to do so.

One group that is a target for the slick salesmen is dentists.

I wish every dentist starting out would read Your Survival Guy and get to work understanding that their trade is not investment management. I want them to understand that the slow and steady road to success works.

Unfortunately, the heavy debt load is a pressure cooker, and many dentists get caught up in get-rich-quick schemes that cost them a fortune. As I’ve said before, financial lessons will be taught no matter who you are. Read this from the WSJ:

Many dentists don’t save enough and will run out of money when they sell their practices, according to Chris Sands, a partner at Pro-Fi 20/20 Dental CPAs, a Suwanee, Ga.-based accounting firm that serves dental practices nationally.

Instead, Sands sees them loading up on bitcoin, backing niche dental-technology companies and pouring money into questionable real-estate ventures.

“A lot of dentists want to throw a dart and hope they hit it rich,” Sands said.

Dentists’ reputations for being maverick investors have made them targets for unscrupulous actors. Many have lost money to multifamily housing syndicates and investments that turned out to be scams.

Pahouja got tangled up in one ill-timed venture. He invested $250,000 in five multifamily housing deals between 2020 and 2022. The deals were pitched by Ascent Equity Group, a firm founded by a Boulder, Colo., physician, whose website touts “passive real estate for physicians, by physicians.”

When the Federal Reserve rapidly raised interest rates in 2022, the properties became distressed. Pahouja expects to lose 80% of his investment.

Ascent didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“It was a big lesson learned on my end,” Pahouja said. “There were a lot of things we just didn’t see coming.”

Action Line: Having debt and feeling the pressure to make money is a double-edged sword that can lead to costly mistakes. Try to develop a plan that you can live with, and over time, you may be surprised at how well you’ve done. Want to talk? Email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com. And click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.

Read the entire series here.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.