My story
From food stamps to semi-retired at 45
- Age 19
Married Shawna
We got married before dental school. We've been together 27 years now, and we have four kids.
- Dental school
University of Michigan School of Dentistry
We lived on borrowed money and food stamps, and had our first two kids while I was in school. The self-checkout would say, very loudly, "Please swipe your EBT food stamp card now." We wanted to disappear.
- Age 28
My dad died at 54
My dad, Kent Tibbitts, was a small-town attorney. He had a heart attack playing basketball at church. His law practice had little to no value without him, and it ended with him. That's the day I decided to retire at 45.
- 2006
Bought my first practice in Murrieta, CA
It was doing $1.1 million a year with nine operatories. I put 0% down and worked five days a week, seeing 20 to 40 patients a day.
- 2007
Bought my building with my mentor, Musa
Musa, a retired dentist, talked me into buying the building with him 50/50. I almost said no. It lost money the first year. It became the deal that changed everything.
- 2008
The crash nearly sank me
The Inland Empire got hit as hard as anywhere. I bartered dentistry for anything of value, including cars and avocados. I hung on, and the practice grew 30% a year, three years in a row, to over $2 million.
- The growth years
Eight or nine practices, and the buildings under them
I kept growing practices and kept buying medical office real estate, mostly with partners. I did a cost segregation on every building I owned.
- Age 45
Sold to a DSO, kept the real estate
I sold all but one of my offices to Straine. I owned three of the buildings my practices were in, and signed long triple net leases, mostly 10 to 15 years, now paid by a very financially stable company.
- Today
Semi-retired, 1.5 days a week
I still see patients a day and a half a week because I want to, not because I have to. And I'm helping other dentists do the same thing, sooner than I did.