When can you afford to retire—do you have enough savings to retire?  What is the best way to retire?  The answers may not be that complicated.

Retirement can take many forms.  It can be sudden—sell your practice and move on to another phase of your life.  It can be gradual—take on an associate and practice a few days a week for five or 10 years.  It can be long-lasting—sell your main office, keep a small office and work a day or two a week—some doctors never fully retire and work until it is too difficult to do so.

But, when can you actually afford to retire and move on?  When you have enough savings to get you comfortably to the end of the line.  The answer is simple once you know the lifestyle you desire and how much it will cost per year.  Some doctors retire with 10’s of millions, most with about four or five million and some with much less.  It doesn’t matter how much you have, as long as it is enough.  Use the attached Excel spreadsheet to calculate when you can retire based on how much you will need to live on.

Knowing HOW to retire is important.  It is very difficult to go from decades of busy practice work to doing very little—it takes years of practice to wind down from a hectic to a moderate daily pace.  Travel and golf are great, but you can’t do it forever—you need other distractions—a bucket list helps (and the longer the list, the better).  You also need a daily routine to replace your busy practice routine—it should include daily exercises proper diet and creative distractions (hobbies, volunteering for your causes, etc.).  You need to find your creative side—creativity in the later years promotes longer life, better health and is fun.

Are you considering an associate or partner, or are you planning to retire?  Then the "Ultimate Practice Transfer Kit" might make it more successful.