u/Pixel-Pioneer3

I am 42. Have a spouse and 2 kids.

Feel my coast fire number (don’t need to add to savings, let compounding do its job) is $4m and retirement number is $6m. I am far from either.

When I was single, thought $3m would be plenty. Got married, and it bumped to $4m. 2 kids. It’s at $6m.

4% rule gets spending at $240k. Feel $5m would be fine as well but $6m gives some cushion to weather a downturn.

Curious to know what’s your number given inflation and general cost of living.

Probably subjective, but I have never done churning. It probably made sense for us when our HHI was $200k (never did it then cuz I am lazy), but now at $800k HHI, it doesn't make sense. My sister is big into the churning game. She does not know how much we make given our modest lifestyle, but she knows we travel a lot and believes churning will give substantial rewards.

Each time I look into Chase CSR, Amex Plat or other reward cards, I zone out quickly on the many hoops you have to jump to maximize the rewards and justify the high annual fee. Or may be I am leaving a few $$ on the table. Our HH CC spend each year is roughly $150k out of which $50k is travel, I do the combo of Citi Double Cash + BofA Preferred rewards + Chase 5% rotating categories cash back. Our cashback is roughly $4k/yr. If I am being generous, I am probably leaving $2k on the table?!?

Thoughts? At what income level does it NOT make sense to play the CC game anymore?

I don’t mean to be a Debbie downer - I am hoping for genuine thought and debate on the future of our profession. This is what I am seeing in my 6 year old startup in a major metro area

1. Staff management is stressful.
2. hygiene model is broken
3. Patients are very demanding and wear you down
4. Insurance reimbursements are flat or declining when you adjust for inflation
5. Cost of supplies has gone up a lot and revenue has not. Need to do more volume to keep up.
6. Payroll keeps going up with inflation, insurance reimbursements do not
7. Running a business is stressful, including marketing. Anything outsourced increases overhead
8. Competition is tough. New dental offices open up often. New dental grad schools open up churning out graduates

Do you believe these things are going to improve or are things going to be the same or get worse? What is this profession going to look like in 5-10 years?

We will be moving states (from DFW to a suburb in Fairfax County, VA) to an area where there are 2 high schools. One offers IB curriculum while the other offers the standard AP curriculum.

Online search (Gemini) suggest AP courses are better suited for ADHD kids, while ChatGPT suggests IB where my son can choose an hybrid approach and choose only a few IB courses.

For context, we are first gen immigrants (now US citizens) with kids in kindergarten, but will likely stay in this area till the kids graduate high school. We are completely oblivious to the IB vs AP options, let alone navigating it with a kid with ADHD.

Thoughts on someone whose kid has gone through either, and list their pros and cons? Both schools are well funded and are known to have good support for ADHD. This is a big decision for us and would love to understand the nuances and make an informed decision.

I have a 6 year old dental office that was built from scratch. Collection is $550k/yr on a 3-day schedule, 1 day admin, 1 front, 2 DA and no hygienist, insurance is outsourced. OH is $340k so have been clearing $200k after servicing debt. Week off in spring break, 2 weeks in the summer and the office closes

I am in a blue collar area and DSOs around me have significantly scaled back. This year has seen some very good months and some have been rough. I believe this year will clear $180k with increased costs and flat reimbursements.

There is a new dental office (startup) coming a couple of blocks down my street. I am curious if DFW is a hot area (real or perceived) for new dental offices to pop up in an empty strip mall when my numbers (n=1) suggest flat numbers? Maybe my 3 day work week, is hurting me, but it’s not bad if the general DFW area is booming for young dentists.