Crush Debt, Find Freedom (E.269)

“If life is this fragile, and I’m unhappy with the path I’m on—burn the ships. It’s over.” ~Dr. Howard Polansky

Debt doesn’t have to be a life sentence. In this inspiring episode, Regan Robertson welcomes Dr. Howard Polansky, a former dentist turned financial coach, to discuss how he turned a life-altering moment into a mission to help others achieve financial freedom.

Dr. Polansky shares the strategic steps that business owners, especially dentists, can take to reduce debt, increase cash flow, and create the lifestyle they’ve always wanted. With his five-step approach, listeners will learn how to simplify their finances, free up monthly cash, and focus on what truly matters in life.

Whether you’re weighed down by debt payments, unsure how to optimize your financial plan, or seeking guidance on aligning your finances with your goals, this episode is packed with actionable advice and inspiring insights.

Dentists who listen to this episode will discover:

• How to reduce monthly debt payments without sacrificing your lifestyle.
• The power of shifting your financial strategy to maximize cash flow.
• A new perspective on balancing work, family, and financial stability.

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “How do I gain control over my financial future?”, “What steps can I take to reduce stress from debt?”, or “How can I start living the life I’ve been working so hard for?”, this episode will give you the tools and confidence to take action.

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Announcer: The Productive Dentist Academy Podcast Network.

[00:00:03] Dr. Howard Polansky: It doesn’t have to be an either or because there is going to be hard decisions that come up in life. There is going to be times that your loved ones are going to pass and you’re going to say, “I wish I had more time and the reason I didn’t is because I had to work,” and so if there is a way to go from either or two and both, that’s what I’m trying to do for people.

[00:00:29] Regan Robertson: Welcome to the Everyday Practices Dental Podcast. I’m Regan Robertson and my co-hosts, Dr. Chad Johnson, Dr. Maggie Augustine, and I are on a mission to share the stories of everyday dentists who generate extraordinary results using practical proven methods. You can take into your own dental practice. If you are ready to reclaim your time, so you can focus on great patient care without sacrificing yourself along the way, buckle up and listen in. Doctor. Did you know that PDA coaching doctors grew $219,000 on average in just the last 10 months? If your revenue goals fall short this year, and you suspect that patient communication and inefficient systems are holding you back, Productive Dentist Academy can help, but you have to take action. Register today for the PDA conference, March 13th through the 15th in Frisco, Texas. Go to productivedentist.com to snap up your seat. It is the nation’s leading course for growing your practice and your team. Plus, while you’re there, you can set up a free 60 minute session to identify your own unique opportunities for growth and if you act fast, you could score a one on one with PDA’s co founder, Dr. Bruce Baird. That’s right. We’re only offering 10 and then his calendar is full. Don’t wait. Go to productivedentist.com right now and have a great 2025. We’ll see you in Texas. Doctor, what if this is the year, the year that you are able to crush debt, you’re able to take control of your financial future and have a plan in place that you feel great about? Well, we believe in that for you. I believe in that for you. Everyday Practices believes in that for you and that’s why we have invited our guest today. Today, Dr. Howard Polanski in 2018, he experienced a life altering moment, and this happened to change the trajectory of his life and redefined his purpose to help business owners like you to achieve your own financial freedom. Dr. Howard Polanski. Welcome to Everyday Practices Dental Podcast.

[00:02:22] Dr. Howard Polansky: Thank you, Regan. How are you today?

[00:02:23] Regan Robertson: Oh, well, I’m doing phenomenally well. I’m back from holiday break. Um, you know, because of advice like yours and other entities in our PDA network, I’ve been able to work on my own situation with debt and setting up my own financial future and I can’t tell you the weight that it takes off of my shoulders, just knowing that there’s a plan in place that I can work. There’s support around me and for me. There were two things that were the hardest thing. One was facing reality and Dentist Advisors was a good help for me for that, like facing reality. What’s my net worth today? Where am I going? And then two, finding support to put into practice, like give me the tools and give me the framework so that I could move forward and once I got over those hurdles, you know, um, things change for the better. So I’m doing well. I think 2025 is going to be exciting for all of us. Can you tell us a little bit about your work and your company so everyone can have an idea of who you are? I think you’re wonderful, but let’s let the listeners know.

[00:03:19] Dr. Howard Polansky: Yeah. So I’m glad that you brought up Dentist Advisors, which I know is a huge supporter of PDA. Um, so the way that I look at financial planning, there’s five steps. Number one, maximize income. Two, minimize expenses. Three, invest. Four, protect the investments and five is to optimize lifestyle. Now, everyone kind of understands in terms of the maximizing income, because that’s on you. You chose what industry you’re going to work in. You chose the profession within the industry. You determine how many hours you want to work or grind, and that’s going to correlate to how much money comes in and then, over time, you’re like, well, I’ve got this extra money, and let me go find an advisor like that. Dentist advisors to help grow and maximize or multiply that for the future because we don’t want to work forever but the problem is we just stepped over number two. Now we’re not looking to step in number two, that would kind of be a crappy day, but how does someone work on step number two? Because if you’ve ever listened to dentist advisors podcast and yes, they did skip 2024 and they know it, um, in terms of like the annual review of numbers, the average dentist that goes from brand spanking new graduate up to people that have 30 plus practices. The average dentist spends 17, 000 a month on their personal life.

[00:04:40] Regan Robertson: Okay. Oh, that’s a good stat to know. Okay. All right.

[00:04:42] Dr. Howard Polansky: So that’s 200, 000 a year and I’ve had a chance to ask them a little bit more to say like, “How much of that is really related to debt payments?” From their numbers, I know I’m putting words in their mouth, but it’s roughly about 40 percent of that 17, 000 is specifically related to debt, meaning mortgages, car payments, student loans, medical debt, credit card debt. So you’re talking seven to 8, 000 a month is already accounted for in your budget, your personal budget every single month. What if there was a way to reduce that burden today and free up that cashflow every single month that it can be used elsewhere while you’re paying down the debt. Now I’m talking just on the personal side, but now we can do it on the business also and so if you can attack both of these and literally free up those fixed debt payments, now all of a sudden, you’re You’ve got a lot of that weight that’s on your shoulders every single month. The hernia, that six foot hurdle you’re trying to jump over every single month is now brought down to four feet or three feet, and now it’s far, far easier to be more productive because you don’t feel the burden as much every single month, every single day in terms of I got it. I’m working just to pay this debt off. I focus specifically on the debt payments, specifically in terms of how do we minimize the expenses, get optimized lifestyle.

[00:06:08] Regan Robertson: Oh, okay. So you got me excited right now. So this is a debt consolidation. Is it taking like snapshot of all the debts and all the lines of credit or where they’re all coming from and then do you group them together as like one loan? Like, do you get an extension on your home equity? Like, how does this, how does this work? And am I tracking with you or am I off?

[00:06:26] Dr. Howard Polansky: No, no, no. You, you are tracking. So I, yes, I have to get, look at all of your debts. What are the debt payments, things like that and then specifically Regan to answer your question is I’m utilizing lines of credit in a strategic fashion to take simple interest against amortized debt. And so if there is a way for us to transfer the debt, now all of a sudden that fixed payment gone and then you learn how to utilize lines of credit strategically to pay this debt off. Now all of a sudden you freed up that money and then you can attack the next debt and the next day and you’re just lowering that bar that you have to jump over every single month. So if like let’s go back to the personal side. If it’s 17, 000 a month, but all of a sudden we can lower it to 13, 000 a month and then to 12, 000 and then down to 000 and you realize I can live a really damn good life on 9, a month, do you have to work as hard, is work now going to be more fun because the stress of the debt.

[00:07:31] Regan Robertson: Yeah, I’m assumptive here, but I can speak for me when financial stress, it’s, it’s gotta be everybody. When financial stress is reduced, you’re allowed mentally to have a little bit more freedom. You definitely don’t feel that heaviness on your shoulders of I must produce every single month. I have to produce this. I think that can pepper our everyday mental health and even our physical health. You know, if you’re, if you’re running behind the eight ball all the time and chasing versus feeling like you’re in the command seat and you have a plan in place, that’s two very different things. Not only that, but if I hear you well, the way that most dentists are attacking their debt today is not just inefficient, but it sounds like it’s costing a lot of money every single month. Is that correct?

[00:08:10] Dr. Howard Polansky: Yeah. I’ve had some people, the best example so far is someone not PDA, but they came to me and they have five practices and they’re like, “I don’t know where the money is going.” I’m like, okay and so I get everything, they’re bleeding 42, 000 a month. All they know is that their spouse is working, their spouse’s paycheck is going to feed the beast. And they’re like, “This has not happened until after COVID, after everyone wants paycheck raises, after supplies go all wonky, like I’ve never been in this situation before. And in one hour, I said, “We can free up 20, 000 a month in cashflow.”

[00:08:50] Regan Robertson: In one hour?

[00:08:50] Dr. Howard Polansky: hour, in one hour, where the immediate answer was BS. And I was like, no, give me a chance to explain. And I showed step by step in terms of here’s where, how we’re going to transfer these balances. into the line of credit you’ve already got established and that 20, 000 of monthly payments you were making now just went down to 800.

[00:09:12] Regan Robertson: Oh my gosh, that must feel amazing.

[00:09:14] Dr. Howard Polansky: Now, granted we’re still negative, but at least we were a lot less negative. Yeah, it’s still a lot less negative.

[00:09:20] Regan Robertson: It’s still a big deal. It is a really, really big deal. That’s not chump change. It adds up. And I’m always fascinated, you know, one of the things that attracted me to PDA over a decade ago was the ability to simplify in the practice management and communication with patients and running the practice, all of those elements. Thank you. Looking at the fundamentals, you get what you focus on. And a lot of times I feel, you know, like business owners, they have so much on their plate as it is. So listener, you might feel the same way. Like, how are you going to know, unless you have a guided expert that can help you see, how are you going to know what you don’t know? You pay the bills and onward you move, but this is not. small. These are significant areas of growth and you know, in the intro, Howard, I, I mentioned that you had a life altering experience years ago that changed it. And you are a dentist. You were a dentist. I don’t know if it’s like the military, you’re still a dentist, but you are, you were a practicing dentist and something major changed your life. Had to have happened for you to go from being a dentist into, you know, financial, financial coaching and financial guidance. What, what was that pivotal moment for you and why did your life purpose change so much in how you help people?

[00:10:27] Dr. Howard Polansky: Yeah. So nowadays I just tell people sometimes life leaves you little clues and other times life hits you with a two by four. My two by four moment was in May of 2018. I’m sitting next to my son’s bed. He, his name is Jaden. He was 12 years old at the time. And he says, “dad,” and I, and I said, “Yeah, buddy,” and I leaned over the bed because I could barely hear him and I put my ear over his mouth and he says three words. I’ll never forget. “Am I dying?” Twelve days earlier, Jaden came home with a stomach ache. Three days after the stomach ache, we were in the ICU in the children’s hospital having emergency surgery. It was appendicitis that turned septic.

[00:11:05] Regan Robertson: Mmm.

[00:11:07] Dr. Howard Polansky: Twenty nine days in the hospital, nineteen of them in the ICU, eight straight days of sedation because he went to the operating room five times. After they take the tube out of his throat, they give him methadone and morphine to bring him down from the drugs he was on. So my 12 year old son looks like a heroin addict coming down from a high and the very first question he will only ask me are those three little words, “Am I dying?” My first breath was, did I hear him correctly? My second breath was, do not lose it right now and I look him in the eyes and I say, no, you’re not dying. You’ve had prayers from thousands of people all around the world that you’re going to be just fine. He looks at me, he knows I’m telling him the truth. He closes his eyes to get more rest. I walk outside the room and then I broke. I was already miserable. I was burnt out from dentistry. I was taking it out on everyone around me, but when I broke, only one thought seared into my mind. If life is this fragile and I’m unhappy with the path that I’m on, burn the ships. It’s over. And so that’s what I did. September of 2018, I had sold my practice and walked away from the dental chair.

[00:12:12] Regan Robertson: Wow, you just made, you knew, you knew in that moment, I think a lot of us have moments that are not maybe that dramatic, but I like the, the clues or hits you in the head with the two by four, you know, I think we can run on burnout for a really long time. I think we can function in overwhelm for a really long time until you get that one spark and it shows you what really matters in life. So you sold your practice. How long did it take you to sell your practice?

[00:12:37] Dr. Howard Polansky: Oh, longer than anticipated.

[00:12:41] Regan Robertson: Of course. Okay. I was, I was hoping, I was like assuming that that would be the answer. Cause I never hear of like really fast, successful transitions. It takes a while.

[00:12:48] Dr. Howard Polansky: No, it takes a while. Um, and just, Now, I don’t know if anyone’s ever had a good experience, but I will say I did not have a fond experience in terms of selling and, but we’ll just leave it at that but let me just kind of get to how, how the heck did I get into what I do now? So in the transition, I’m sitting with another dentist who actually happens to be a PDA alum. I’ll leave their name out of it but we’re having lunch and he asked me an obvious question. Yeah. “How are you walking away?” And I made one dumb comment to him. I said, “I kind of figured out how to make money move.” Now he gave me that Scooby Doo look.

[00:13:27] Regan Robertson: I tried to wrap song for that, right? I make money moves.

[00:13:29] Dr. Howard Polansky: Maybe Chad can figure that out but, um, or chat GPT these days, but I tried to explain it that day. I just didn’t do a good job but a few weeks later, I get the next statement in the mail for my house payment, and I send it to him as a joke and I said, “Hey, take a look at this. My house payment was 24 and 19 cents.”

[00:13:48] Regan Robertson: What?

[00:13:49] Dr. Howard Polansky: Yeah. 24 and 19 cents and so all he can write back is I see it. I don’t understand how you can have a 24 house payment. I’m buying a condo next month. Will you be my coach? Okay. Okay. He was going to do the 30 year mortgage. He paid off the condo in eight months.

[00:14:06] Regan Robertson:  What?

[00:14:07] Dr. Howard Polansky: And so he tells his business partner, I tell a friend of mine what happened, they become the next two people I help and now all of a sudden, Regan, I’m listening to my heart instead of my head.

[00:14:16] Regan Robertson: Hmmm

[00:14:17] Dr. Howard Polansky: And it says the way you’re going to make an impact in this world, it’s not dentistry. It’s not dentistry. It’s not doing another root canal. It’s not doing another crown. The way you’re going to make an impact in this world is by teaching people, these new, I call it now the new rules of finance in the system around it so that they can get to their freedom sooner. However, you define freedom. It’s not for me to define it for you. It’s for you to define it for yourself. But how do you get there far sooner than you could ever imagine? ever anticipate. And so that’s what I do now.

[00:14:45] Regan Robertson: Is this restricted to business owners or is this anybody?

[00:14:49] Dr. Howard Polansky: It is most advantageous for business owners, usually because there’s debt everywhere. However, W 2 employees that are good stewards, and I’ll say if they’re making over a hundred thousand dollars a year as a household income, it could definitely be utilized. There’s no minimum. It’s a matter of psychology. It’s a matter of behavior and having the permission in your mind to say, “I can do something differently,” because if you think about it, we’ve just gone through what the financial system has told us to do. We never really step back and say, is this really the most efficient way for us? And I assure you, they will never show you this way blatantly and explicitly, because I’m literally stealing money out of the bank’s pockets.

[00:15:36] Regan Robertson: Literally.

[00:15:36] Dr. Howard Polansky: Literally. If you are paying less interest, interest is their income. Right. This makes sense. Right. Why would they ever show this to you?

[00:15:45] Regan Robertson: Well, it would behoove them not to, right? Not be in their best interest. So just like any business model, it wouldn’t, it wouldn’t behoove you to, you know, take money away from themselves like that. That wouldn’t make any sense. For you to follow your heart as soft and unbusinesslike as that sounds, that takes an incredible act of bravery and you and I were speaking before we hit the record button about, you know, just catching up on life lately with you and your family. And as you reflect on what we were speaking about being with your family over, over a holiday break and all of that, what would have, where do you think your life would be at if you had not made that brave decision to shift your purpose?

[00:16:22] Dr. Howard Polansky: I don’t even want to think about it, honestly, I don’t want to think about it because I would be miserable. I don’t think I would be at the point in terms of like thinking of suicide. I know how negative of a person I was before. And so I don’t even want to go there.

[00:16:40] Regan Robertson: To be able to pull yourself up, to be brave and to go into the unknown. Another thing that you and I’ve talked about is having knowns and unknowns in life. That you reflected to me and I thought, Howard, you’re absolutely brilliant. A lot of people are feeling how you are reflecting to me right now and I know I myself have had a lot of challenges, you know, throughout my years, who doesn’t? Everyone has different challenges. And my heart goes out to business owners in particular, because so much of our lives are given to the job and so much life is spent unlived because of it and we’ve put our emphasis on the wrong syllable, if you will, and sometimes it’s too late for people and it wasn’t too late for you and I love that you are dedicated to help people find their own path to happiness and find their own path for what it means for them to have a life worth living without chasing constantly more money, more this, more that it’s always more, more, more and, and what I’ve reflected. Over the years too, is yes, you get a bigger paycheck and you get bigger debt as a result. It just seems to happen. It’s like you fill the pants that you’re given and I love this like paradigm shift you’re giving. Well, wait a second. What if, what if you were comfortably able to live on less? What if you just strategically looked at where you were paying down your debt? And if we could do this, what would it mean for you? So I ask you, what has it meant for you now and what does it feel like to be on the other side of that really traumatic event that happened in 2018 with your son?

[00:18:12] Dr. Howard Polansky: I go back to just what is really the purpose of what I do. Regan, I don’t know why you’re trying to beat around the bush. The son that got sick, he was born in Japan when I was stationed there, uh, as a dentist for the Navy and just the last two weeks, I’m still getting over jet lag. The last two weeks we went and visited Japan, which It was incredible, the memories that they’re going to have and it’s those types of experiences that I want people to be able to have for themselves without feeling like it’s going to be someday.

[00:18:46] Regan Robertson: Yes.

[00:18:47] Dr. Howard Polansky: I had one, one client of mine, I didn’t even know that they did it. They bought a lake house near where they live. They’re like, “That was a 20 year goal.” That they were able to do two years later and they’re like, “We can now make these memories while the kids are young.” Like that’s, that is what I’m trying to do for people is to say, it’s like, it doesn’t have to be an either or, because there is going to be hard decisions that come up in life. There is going to be times that your loved ones are going to pass, and you’re going to say, “I wish I had more time and the reason I didn’t is because I had to work,” and so if there is a way to go from either or to and both, that’s what I’m trying to do for people.

[00:19:32] Regan Robertson: Your service couldn’t have come at a better time. I just read an article. It was about millennials and Gen Z having semi retirement movements. So they are so collectively burned out and exhausted and overwhelmed. They are trying to appreciate a life today without waiting to that end and it’s, I feel like a lot of times it is a cautionary tale. How many times have we seen somebody work their entire life? Get to that retirement stage and then they pass away and life’s expectancy is an unknown. You never know. Uh, you got to take each day as it comes with it. And I think what you’re doing is so brilliant and thank you for following your heart. I know that you will be at the PDA conference coming up this March 13th through the 15th. I think it is in Frisco, Texas. So everybody, go to productivedentist.com Howard will be there and I’m curious, it’s really wonderful that you are part of the PDA community and why do you choose to come to the conference? What is it about, you know, the doctors that attend PDA that aid in that sense of purpose?

[00:20:31] Dr. Howard Polansky: Before transitioning to this, I went to the PDA conference twice, I think even before you were actually part of it, Regan. So the caliber of people that are there, the quality of dentistry that is done by the community that’s there, the quality of the patient. people, both dentists and team members that are there is why I keep coming back. The other part of this is knowing how high caliber the practices that come to your workshops that do the coaching with you guys. Look, there’s a ton of debt that comes with it and even though the practices are excelling, there’s still a ton of debt. They’re feeling the same frustrations as someone who has not attended and the impact can be just as great with what you guys and how you have evolved in terms of getting practices investment grade to be able to sell to private equity. If they choose the issue that has come up and speaking with some of your PDA business coaches is because of the debt, they still don’t feel like they walked away with anything.

[00:21:38] Regan Robertson: Yeah.

[00:21:39] Dr. Howard Polansky: Now there is a way. For the practice to thrive, to get the debt out of the way, to enjoy the cashflow now, because the debt is out of the way. And to say, when you finally decide to sell, oh my God, the money is there.

[00:21:56] Regan Robertson: Imagine that you are rewarded and you feel rewarded for all of the effort all of the time everything invested

[00:22:04] Dr. Howard Polansky: at that point or not at that point but even before that point like now you’re using dentist advisors because they’re the offensive coordinator and I’ve been playing the defensive coordinator and this is how you have yeah it’s a it’s one of those I’m not competing with financial advisors I’m really not, they’re just focused on what’s left over and how do we grow it? I’m saying, how do we shrink in terms of how much our expenses are? So all of a sudden there’s more there to be able to keep growing. There’s not a competition. It’s a synergy between whoever your advisor is, whoever your accountant is, and what I do so that all of a sudden you can win the game far sooner.

[00:22:43] Regan Robertson: Wow. Okay. Howard, how do people get ahold of you aside from coming to the BDA conference? Is there a website? Where can we find you?

[00:22:52] Dr. Howard Polansky: I’ll start with the email. It’s howard@cashflowcoachusa.com. That was my old company name. I just haven’t bothered to get a new email, but the new website, the company name now is Financially led. So financiallyled.com and the lead is just a play on words, lift the burden from fixed debt payments. Step two, expand your cash reserves three, deploy the extra dollars into other assets.

[00:23:19] Regan Robertson: financiallyled.com,  howard@cashflowcoach

[00:23:24] Dr. Howard Polansky: usa.com

[00:23:25] Regan Robertson: The brand manager in me says, get your URL changed to your email.

[00:23:31] Dr. Howard Polansky: I know, but here, last part, if you want to text me. Or call me 512 608 1020. It’s me. It’s my cell phone. No spam, no autobots, no chatGPT, no big team. It literally is just me.

[00:23:48] Regan Robertson: Well, thank you, Howard. It’s been an honor to interview you and I’ll say, you know, of the hundreds of interviews that I have given over the years and people that I’ve got to know in business centers that I aspire to, the ones that really make the greatest impact put their whole heart in and I see that you do that. So well, and I’m grateful that you are a guide to so many. We know how stressful it is just to be a dentist, let alone a business owner and everything that comes along with having a family and a life. So thank you for all you do. And I look forward to seeing you in March in person.

[00:24:20] Dr. Howard Polansky: Thanks Regan.

[00:24:21] Regan Robertson: Thank you for listening to another episode of Everyday Practices Podcast. It would mean the world if you can help spread the word by sharing this episode with a fellow dentist and leave us a review on iTunes or Spotify. Spotify. Do you have an extraordinary story you’d like to share or feedback on how we can make this podcast even more awesome? Drop us an email at podcast@productivedentist.com. And don’t forget to check out our other podcasts from Productive Dentist Academy at productivedentist.com/podcasts. See you next week.