When success quietly creates too much risk

You may feel diversified while quietly becoming more dependent on the exact same sources of wealth.

In this episode of 20/20 Money: The Business of Optometry, I explore concentration risk from two angles that practice owners often don’t connect: what’s happening inside an investment portfolio and what’s happening on their personal balance sheet as their practice becomes more valuable.

We start with the S&P 500. Because the index is market-cap weighted, the companies that perform best naturally become larger portions of the index. Today, the largest companies represent a significantly greater share of the S&P 500 than they have historically. That doesn’t make the S&P 500 a bad investment, but it does challenge the idea that simply owning VOO means you’ve built a complete, diversified portfolio.

“VOO and chill” is an implementation strategy. It isn’t an investment philosophy.

The same phenomenon can happen with a successful optometry practice. You may never intentionally decide to put the majority of your net worth into one business. You simply grow a great practice. But over time, your income, distributions, enterprise value, and perhaps even your real estate can all become dependent on the same economic engine.

Having a high net worth isn’t necessarily the same thing as having diversified wealth.

The solution isn’t to stop growing the practice or abandon the S&P 500. It’s to broaden the sources of your wealth. That means consistently harvesting excess cash flow from the practice and investing it outside the business while building a portfolio that captures more than just one segment of the market.

We also discuss why this matters enormously when it comes time to sell your practice. The more financial independence you’ve created outside of the business, the less dependent you become on receiving a specific number or specific terms from the eventual sale—and the more optionality you have when navigating that transition.

The Next Best Step: look underneath both sides of your balance sheet. Ask yourself how diversified your investment portfolio really is, what percentage of your family’s net worth depends on the success of your practice, and whether you’re intentionally becoming more diversified over time—or simply becoming more concentrated in whatever has worked recently.

Have a podcast-related question? Contact our team here!

Resources:

• Podcast: Are you building wealth, or just feeding the machine
• Book a Triage call with Adam
• Download the Practice Owner’s Financial Toolkit
• 20/20 Money Ultimate Financial Success Masterclass
• OD Mastermind Interest Form
• Check out Adam’s book: How to Buy an Optometry Practice

—————————————————————————————
Please rate and subscribe to 20/20 Money on these platforms

Apple Podcasts

Spotify
—————————————————————————————

For past episodes of 20/20 Money with full companion show notes, please check out our episode archive here!