Ask Fancy Anything(within reason)...

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Scumbag_Steve said:
My advice will never come with a pricetag. **** shameless profiteering on knowledge that should be shared with everyone who wants to work hard and help people. You have the green light to kill me if I ever charge a dime for advice. Or at least tell me I'm a terrible person
Click to expand...
Bruh, that's Frank Underwood. He gon kill you regardless.
 
sumin5924 said:
Bruh, that's Frank Underwood. He gon kill you regardless.
Click to expand...

Gosh....giving my entire gameplan away. Where's the suspense in that?

e77a86773eca289ce03ca5515c3900a959a901c36b7aecc5dc48e5518f34bb41.jpg
 
hellofuturedentists said:
I went to Ft. Lauderdale recently. Maybe we were in different areas but I saw a dental office on like every block
Click to expand...
Yeah but it's not nearly as bad as Miami lmao! Plus I mean you gotta live where you wanna live no? I've always wanted to live in Fl since I was a kid , I've grown up going there to see family like its a second home, it's part of my dream , I'll make it work lmao


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
fancymylotus said:
I'm a practicing dentist in the metro new york city area. I work for a parent. We own group practices. I have some idea of the business aspect of things after a few years of work. Please limit silly questions to a minimum or the mods will shut us down.

Enjoy!
Click to expand...

Hey!
I am a non-trad. student graduating Stony Brook University. I am only 27 but I have been working in the dental field since I am 17. I have worked as an assistant and reception so luckily for me I have really seen all sides of what goes into operating an office. I will be applying this coming cycle however I won't be taking my DAT until August (for the first time). I have a Cum GPA 3.04 and a Science GPA 2.7. Any tips? I really cannot afford anymore undergrad or masters or postbac institutions.
THANKS!
 
Scumbag_Steve said:
Hopefully semi-rural Florida is acceptable in your dream. Ft. Lauderdale is really bad too. All of populated South Florida is. Like I said, what's home is home and if you're willing to forgo income for other factors that's probably a better way to live your life, just trying to look out in case money is a factor.
Click to expand...
I mean I'm planning on being an associate at established place of an older doc then buying out, and I mean at the end of the day were all gonna make good money , doesn't mean we'll be rich , but decently okay is good enough for me , idk happiness isn't solely monetary , money deff matters / helps , but you gotta like where u live and raise ur family


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
Also, need some advice about dental school. I have a 3.0 cgpa and 2.75 sgpa. Junior Psychology major. Can't do anything with Psych major. After college, I will not be supported by my family in terms of tuiton so going to have to take loans for postbac or smp. I did take out some loans before but not a lot. so do you think I should pursue a different field for now just to get a good backup career in case dental school doesn't work out? I want my end result to be dentistry because I like the field.
 
Just change your major. You haven't graduated yet. Why take a postbacc or SMP? You're not at that point yet.
Hit the sciences hard, get a good understanding, and crush the DAT. You'll be good to go, no need to quit.
 
schmoob said:
Just change your major. You haven't graduated yet. Why take a postbacc or SMP? You're not at that point yet.
Hit the sciences hard, get a good understanding, and crush the DAT. You'll be good to go, no need to quit.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. Don't think I'll be able to handle both bio courses and cs courses at the same time. but will try it for a semester and see how it is.
 
tooth knockn said:
Wait is this now THE ask SCUMBAG anything THREAD???

:zip::zip::zip::zip::zip::zip::zip:

All I see is that gangsta white boy avatar !!!

FANCYMYLOTUS looks so much better😍😍😍😍😍

jk
scum
I like your posts actually

😉
Click to expand...


He is very knowledgable about a lot of things that I know nothing about.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
Scumbag_Steve said:
Thank you all for the kind words. I hope that I will be a successful dentist. I think I have the potential and make up in order to be successful, but I've got a lot of hard work and time to go before I get there! I still think Fancy's input on this thread is far more valuable than mine, since she is a practicing dentist and knows a lot of things I don't know yet, which are more relevant to our field.
Click to expand...
And he's modest too!
 
Scumbag_Steve said:
Thank you all for the kind words. I hope that I will be a successful dentist. I think I have the potential and make up in order to be successful, but I've got a lot of hard work and time to go before I get there! I still think Fancy's input on this thread is far more valuable than mine, since she is a practicing dentist and knows a lot of things I don't know yet, which are more relevant to our field.
Click to expand...

HOORAH
 
What are the best books to read to better understand finances/establishment/management of opening a new practice?
 
MAY DAY

MAY DAY

we got a 10-4

:hijacked:

There has Been a thread Hijacking

:hijacked:


Seems to be that Well known THUG

SCUMBAGSTEVE
AKA
SCUMBAG
AKA
SCUM


HE IS WELL KNOWN


:hijacked:
 
Incis0r said:
Oh boy. I can just see the headlines now: "Taxpayers foot bill for Dentist; $500,000 loans forgiven!"
Click to expand...
I prefer to think about it this way:
"$500,000 in interest forgiven"
Payments still need to be made. How much is allocated to principle vs. interest really doesn't affect my weekly budget. Even with an IBR, over the course of the 10 years, realistically a practitioner will pay somewhere in the six figures. So really, it's not $500,000 in dental school loans that are forgiven, but more so the interest that the government charged for the loan in the first place.

By the way, my post was just a friendly jab at Fancy. That's why I directed it to Steve-O.
 
Scumbag_Steve said:
Interesting you should ask. In order to summarize simply what I think the future is in our next administration would require A) complete speculation and B) knowing who the next President will be. Luckily for you, I'll make lots of assumptions.

Shrilldawg wins POUTS

Very little, if any, increase in funding/number of jobs/scholarships available for dentists with PLSF. The GOP already controls the House and Senate, and if Shrilldawg wins, whoever is left after the purge that could result from Trump being the nominee will dig in their heels and fight tooth and nail to make sure that her influence is as minimal as possible. Side note: while Trump's nomination will cause the GOP to cease to exist as we know it, I don't think that with the current level of control the party has in Congress that any amount of loss from a Trump nomination could swing the balance of power so far that Congress is deep blue. Just too many red congressional districts. Anyway, minimal to no change, thanks to the make up of congress, but any change will be an increase. She will probably be down with PLSF, just has to clear hurdles.

Kasich wins POTUS

Very similar to my prediction of funding from the Shrilldawg prediction, except for no drastic Congressional power shift because Trump wasn't the nominee (although you could argue he's done enough damage already). If anything, slight chance it decreases. It won't be a priority of his to slash the funding, but I don't think he would risk rocking the boat by vetoing a decrease in funding put forth by GOP colleagues. Overall, I don't think a Kasich presidency bears consequences much different from a Shrilldawg presidency.

Random centrist candidate GOP pulls out of their ass to stop Trump at a contested convention wins POTUS

See Kasich wins POTUS

Trump wins POTUS

If the GOP maintains its hold on Congress, the amount of PLSF won't really matter. Any of his proposed tariffs on goods with China and his blind belief that America will somehow out compete them in manufacturing will couple to cause a very steep recession. We'll have a lot more to worry about than the number of dentists who get NHSC scholarships or jobs at FQHC. The ones with the HPSP better be ready to move on short notice to hot, sandy, and bullet strewn areas pretty quickly. Or North Korea for that matter. Dude is a foreign relations liability. If he actually wins, and turns out to be a good president, the combination of which is exceedingly improbable, I don't think he will gut PLSF. I think it will remain about the same. His views on healthcare and social welfare are not radical enough to warrant any major change. Even if he did want major changes, I'm not even sure if he'd want to increase of decrease funding. Either way, I'm not sure if the remaining GOP members in Congress would even support him, and there could be a huge swing of the pendulum towards Democratic control by virtue of him being nominated. Way too convoluted of a scenario to really say with certainty what would happen.

Cruz wins POTUS

PLSF in big trouble, especially if Congress remains in GOP hands. Dude probably would do away with all types of student loans and FQHC if he could get away with it. He wants to cut funding, for better or worse, to the majority of federally funded everything. Regardless on your opinion on taxation and the size of the federal government, Cruz is objectively the most detrimental of all the candidates to PLSF.

Bernie wins POTUS

PLSF not too likely to change. He would definitely be on board with drastic expansion of funding for it, but a GOP controlled Congress would go full out Green Eggs and Ham on the floor filibuster mode to stop literally every single expansion of federal spending they possibly could if he is elected. Deadlock galore. However, maybe they could throw Democrats a bone on this one in exchange for bigger fish to fry. Change unlikely.

I'm not excited about it, but I personally believe that Hillary Clinton will be the 45th President of the Untied States. So my prediction for her is what I would use to gauge the climate of PLSF.

Scumbag Steve wins POTUS

Whether or not this can pass muster on the floor of the House and Senate, I propose the following. Get rid of GRAD Plus, or at least set a cap on the amount you can borrow, and I'd advocate for like $40,000. We can't just give dental schools the green light to continue to increase tuition until the cows come home. The bubble will burst, but not before people are lining up to take out $600,000 for private schools . Keep Stafford, which right now is capped at about $47K, and leave GRAD Plus as an option for people to make the total you can borrow around $77K per year. This will hit private school enrollment hard, and give them an incentive to stop indiscriminately charging exorbitant fees. They will first get a very weak pool of applicants because it will only be those who can afford to foot the difference between actual cost and amount which can be borrowed. Then they'll see declining enrollments because they can't get enough bodies to interview day without drastically lowering their standards. The market will force them to lower tuition to compete with public schools. The public schools will at least have a ceiling where they need to exercise caution as not to reach.

Also, on a broader note, I would change how undergraduate loans are dispersed. It should all be tied in to future earnings of the profession, and the likelihood a student has from graduating from the institution. Doctors and dentists don't default on their loans. People who attend for profit universities and CC who end up dropping out do, because they don't have the earnings to pay it back. Give money to kids studying engineering, computer science, etc at state schools, and less money to kids studying **** that isn't going to give them a lucrative career. If the person changes their major from less lucrative to more lucrative, lower their interest rate. Vice versa for a switch the other way. We are paying 5.84% on unsubsidized Stafford not because the government is making money off of us; we're paying it to finance the money that is doled out like candy to people who will never complete school/earn enough to pay back what the government willingly let them borrow. If we remedy this situation, not only will we have lower debt to even out the supply and demand for PLSF (people who are doing it just for the money will be less common), there will be more fungible money to go around to perhaps increase funding and get patients with limited access the care they need, which is the entire ****ing point in the first place.

I can't legally run for president for 14 more years though. Too young. Although I will be 2 years out of OMFS residency then and won't even have my loans paid off. Also, it won't even be an election year. Let's wait until I'm 62, and will have made the transition from practice into politics.

#ScumbagSteve2056
Click to expand...
Holy post...

First off, VERY well thought out and detailed. Whether or not I agree or disagree with some of your points is irrelevant because you back them up.

Second. I respectfully disagree with your thoughts on a possible recession. Economists can speculate all they want, because that's all it is, speculation. There are so many factors and variables involved in the macroeconomic/microeconomic relationships that it would be hard to predict such a thing.
Putting the tariffs on Chinese goods would (in my opinion) create a stronger domestic market. We are just as dependent on their low-cost goods and materials as they are dependent on our continued financial stream. A domestic recession would hit China from a globalization aspect. Either they pay the tariffs, or we continue growing the domestic market of goods and services. They are backed into a corner because their U.S. funding lines are squeezed.

Third. If your assessment of more global conflict under Trump is true, that would result in a drastic turnaround from the military's current drawdown, to a significant workup. Geopolitical conflicts tend to increase military size and funding.
Now this can have multiple effects on military dentistry.
  • The need for military dentists will increase.
  • Many dentists will avoid the military because, let's face it HPSP in times of peace is a pretty sweet deal. Not many people want to break their backs to get into dental school and get through dental school just to have their boots placed on the ground in some conflict. They would prefer the debt load instead
  • The need for dentists will increase EVEN MORE.
  • With the increasing need for dentists. come increased incentives such as increased accession bonuses (I read it was $400K a few years back for GP's, but I could be wrong), more HPSP scholarships given out, and (just speculating) continued PSLF participation.
At this point the supply for military dentists significantly outweigh the demand for them. A significant conflict can 180 that really quickly.
 
schmoob said:
I prefer to think about it this way:
"$500,000 in interest forgiven"
Click to expand...

Ok- so to answer your original question, I do not think PSLF will survive in its current form. In fact, several prominent entities are already realizing about this "doctor loophole" and are working to close it.

"The White House is attempting to cap the benefit from PSLF at $57,500, which would likely retroactively affect people who have been counting on the benefit since it was announced in 2007."

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/loophole-forgives-student-loans-for-high-earners-2015-12

Or check this quote out: “We’re subsidizing people who are going to be well-off, better than middle class,” said Gailen Hite, a retired Columbia University finance professor who has researched the program. “I could understand maybe poor people, disadvantaged people—somebody who isn’t going to be making a quarter of a million dollars a year.”

Here's another example: "The White House, in its past two annual budget proposals, has called for capping the amount of debt forgiven under this program at $57,500, which is the maximum amount borrowed by an undergraduate. Congressional Republicans proposed various student-aid changes that they suggested would include the elimination of public-service loan forgiveness. The Senate hasn’t taken up the measure."

Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-student-loan-program-proves-costly-1448042862
 
fancymylotus said:
I work every Saturday, most people I know work at least two Saturday's a month.


I will never be a Sunday dentist, I need one full day off to maintain my sanity


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
Click to expand...

Thanks fancy. I was just curious if there is a worktime regulation which is regulated by the ADA.
 
Scumbag_Steve said:
Hey Fancy. How easy would it be for somebody to pick up hours on Saturdays if they don't own their own their own practice and where they are an associate isn't open on Saturdays? So if I'm an associate OMFS and I want to work on Saturdays in a GP's office or another OMFS practice, do you think this is possible, and won't rock the referral/politics boat too much?
Click to expand...


Super easy, Saturday is a busy day for most of us, and I know there are many offices that want coverage for that day, and there are just as many people who do NOT want to work weekends, so theres always availability.
 
Scumbag_Steve said:
Interesting you should ask. In order to summarize simply what I think the future is in our next administration would require A) complete speculation and B) knowing who the next President will be. Luckily for you, I'll make lots of assumptions.

Shrilldawg wins POUTS

Very little, if any, increase in funding/number of jobs/scholarships available for dentists with PLSF. The GOP already controls the House and Senate, and if Shrilldawg wins, whoever is left after the purge that could result from Trump being the nominee will dig in their heels and fight tooth and nail to make sure that her influence is as minimal as possible. Side note: while Trump's nomination will cause the GOP to cease to exist as we know it, I don't think that with the current level of control the party has in Congress that any amount of loss from a Trump nomination could swing the balance of power so far that Congress is deep blue. Just too many red congressional districts. Anyway, minimal to no change, thanks to the make up of congress, but any change will be an increase. She will probably be down with PLSF, just has to clear hurdles.

Kasich wins POTUS

Very similar to my prediction of funding from the Shrilldawg prediction, except for no drastic Congressional power shift because Trump wasn't the nominee (although you could argue he's done enough damage already). If anything, slight chance it decreases. It won't be a priority of his to slash the funding, but I don't think he would risk rocking the boat by vetoing a decrease in funding put forth by GOP colleagues. Overall, I don't think a Kasich presidency bears consequences much different from a Shrilldawg presidency.

Random centrist candidate GOP pulls out of their ass to stop Trump at a contested convention wins POTUS

See Kasich wins POTUS

Trump wins POTUS

If the GOP maintains its hold on Congress, the amount of PLSF won't really matter. Any of his proposed tariffs on goods with China and his blind belief that America will somehow out compete them in manufacturing will couple to cause a very steep recession. We'll have a lot more to worry about than the number of dentists who get NHSC scholarships or jobs at FQHC. The ones with the HPSP better be ready to move on short notice to hot, sandy, and bullet strewn areas pretty quickly. Or North Korea for that matter. Dude is a foreign relations liability. If he actually wins, and turns out to be a good president, the combination of which is exceedingly improbable, I don't think he will gut PLSF. I think it will remain about the same. His views on healthcare and social welfare are not radical enough to warrant any major change. Even if he did want major changes, I'm not even sure if he'd want to increase of decrease funding. Either way, I'm not sure if the remaining GOP members in Congress would even support him, and there could be a huge swing of the pendulum towards Democratic control by virtue of him being nominated. Way too convoluted of a scenario to really say with certainty what would happen.

Cruz wins POTUS

PLSF in big trouble, especially if Congress remains in GOP hands. Dude probably would do away with all types of student loans and FQHC if he could get away with it. He wants to cut funding, for better or worse, to the majority of federally funded everything. Regardless on your opinion on taxation and the size of the federal government, Cruz is objectively the most detrimental of all the candidates to PLSF.

Bernie wins POTUS

PLSF not too likely to change. He would definitely be on board with drastic expansion of funding for it, but a GOP controlled Congress would go full out Green Eggs and Ham on the floor filibuster mode to stop literally every single expansion of federal spending they possibly could if he is elected. Deadlock galore. However, maybe they could throw Democrats a bone on this one in exchange for bigger fish to fry. Change unlikely.

I'm not excited about it, but I personally believe that Hillary Clinton will be the 45th President of the Untied States. So my prediction for her is what I would use to gauge the climate of PLSF.

Scumbag Steve wins POTUS

Whether or not this can pass muster on the floor of the House and Senate, I propose the following. Get rid of GRAD Plus, or at least set a cap on the amount you can borrow, and I'd advocate for like $40,000. We can't just give dental schools the green light to continue to increase tuition until the cows come home. The bubble will burst, but not before people are lining up to take out $600,000 for private schools . Keep Stafford, which right now is capped at about $47K, and leave GRAD Plus as an option for people to make the total you can borrow around $77K per year. This will hit private school enrollment hard, and give them an incentive to stop indiscriminately charging exorbitant fees. They will first get a very weak pool of applicants because it will only be those who can afford to foot the difference between actual cost and amount which can be borrowed. Then they'll see declining enrollments because they can't get enough bodies to interview day without drastically lowering their standards. The market will force them to lower tuition to compete with public schools. The public schools will at least have a ceiling where they need to exercise caution as not to reach.

Also, on a broader note, I would change how undergraduate loans are dispersed. It should all be tied in to future earnings of the profession, and the likelihood a student has from graduating from the institution. Doctors and dentists don't default on their loans. People who attend for profit universities and CC who end up dropping out do, because they don't have the earnings to pay it back. Give money to kids studying engineering, computer science, etc at state schools, and less money to kids studying **** that isn't going to give them a lucrative career. If the person changes their major from less lucrative to more lucrative, lower their interest rate. Vice versa for a switch the other way. We are paying 5.84% on unsubsidized Stafford not because the government is making money off of us; we're paying it to finance the money that is doled out like candy to people who will never complete school/earn enough to pay back what the government willingly let them borrow. If we remedy this situation, not only will we have lower debt to even out the supply and demand for PLSF (people who are doing it just for the money will be less common), there will be more fungible money to go around to perhaps increase funding and get patients with limited access the care they need, which is the entire ****ing point in the first place.

I can't legally run for president for 14 more years though. Too young. Although I will be 2 years out of OMFS residency then and won't even have my loans paid off. Also, it won't even be an election year. Let's wait until I'm 62, and will have made the transition from practice into politics.

#ScumbagSteve2056
Click to expand...

Is @Incis0r going to be your running mate?
 
I have 2 questions:

How did you KNOW dentistry was right for you?

And were you naturally good with your hands? Like, you gravitating towards things like baking, painting, etc...
 
Dentistry3399 said:
I have 2 questions:

How did you KNOW dentistry was right for you?

And were you naturally good with your hands? Like, you gravitating towards things like baking, painting, etc...
Click to expand...



I didn't know, I knew I wanted a career in healthcare, I knew I wanted to be my own boss someday and not sell my soul to a hospital system, and I did not want to be woken up in the middle of the night for most of my working career. I sort of hoped for the best and came out knowing I made the right choice.

If they let me in the kitchen I would probably burn it down, so negative on the baking 🙂 I did play a musical instrument for a long time though.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
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