Tweet
Seeking permission from my random friends on this forum. I’ve posted before about my increasing professional burnout and I’m now at the point where I am considering dropping down to four days/week or just cutting back my schedule during the days I work by 20%. I’m a dental specialist and I’m seeing about 25-28patients per day in my 2-provider private practice. I’m the jr partner but I have the latitude to make my schedule essentially as I see fit. Over the past year and a half, the pressures of keeping referrals happy and the fortunate problem of having tons of patients trying to get in has driven the schedule to getting absolutely overloaded; at least it’s too many patients for me to feel that I am practicing at a high/safe level. I’m running around from room to room without doing any notes all day, trying to find 90sec for a bathroom break most days. I do take a 30min lunch that I usually get at least 20min of. I’m at the point where I’m ready to take one day off per week or keep the patient encounters to the low 20s. Otherwise I’m not going to last another year or two even. Down side would be referrals can’t get all of their patients in and that may harm the practice I guess.
Im 39 in a few weeks, practicing for 5 years now since residency, married with no kids yet. Hoping to have one on the way soon, probably max of two.
We have zero debt other than 290k remaining on a mortgage on a house now worth about 500k.
Started out making about 300k, that has grown to about 900k this year and last including wife’s salary which itself is about 5% of the total income. She is planning to quit her job when the kids come but that income going out the door won’t affect us much financially.
Have a total of 1.6M: (I don’t count the house toward net worth.)
300k in various retirement accts
140k in cash in HYSA
1.15M at vanguard in 80% indexed equities, 10% reit, 10% muni bond fund
Am I being dumb in slowing down a bit from my 5 day a week schedule before I even hit 40? Is it a mistake professionally or from a business standpoint? They say the 30s are the time to bust your a** and work like a dog and I have been doing that. I know the patients I don’t see will go somewhere else. But I KNOW without a doubt that at the pace I’m going I will have a mental breakdown. The last few weeks in particular have been miserable. Would really benefit from having more time for family, staying in shape, and getting back in to the hobbies I had before residency. What say ye? Have I reached a financial point where it is reasonable to take a step back?
Im 39 in a few weeks, practicing for 5 years now since residency, married with no kids yet. Hoping to have one on the way soon, probably max of two.
We have zero debt other than 290k remaining on a mortgage on a house now worth about 500k.
Started out making about 300k, that has grown to about 900k this year and last including wife’s salary which itself is about 5% of the total income. She is planning to quit her job when the kids come but that income going out the door won’t affect us much financially.
Have a total of 1.6M: (I don’t count the house toward net worth.)
300k in various retirement accts
140k in cash in HYSA
1.15M at vanguard in 80% indexed equities, 10% reit, 10% muni bond fund
Am I being dumb in slowing down a bit from my 5 day a week schedule before I even hit 40? Is it a mistake professionally or from a business standpoint? They say the 30s are the time to bust your a** and work like a dog and I have been doing that. I know the patients I don’t see will go somewhere else. But I KNOW without a doubt that at the pace I’m going I will have a mental breakdown. The last few weeks in particular have been miserable. Would really benefit from having more time for family, staying in shape, and getting back in to the hobbies I had before residency. What say ye? Have I reached a financial point where it is reasonable to take a step back?
Comment