... or plan on working hard to pay off your debt and have money to invest at the same time. There is no easy way out, but that doesn't mean there's no way out either. If you plan for mediocrity, of course, you will stay mediocre. I'm not discounting the opportunity costs of a million dollars of debt w/ compounded interest, but as a competent practice owner-dentist, you may be able to knock that debt out in a few years without much sacrifices on your quality of life. But... who knows, ymmv, this is my own personal experience - I won't sugar coat it but I'm also not a hypocrite and say that it's hopeless or you shouldn't do it when it's definitely worked for myself and countless others.
It still astounds me that people want to try and ignore their financial obligations through government programs that may or may not be there and accept to being a slave to student loan debt with the government in hand rather than just trying to work hard and knock out the debt in a timely fashion. You want to make the big income to be able to afford your debt service, have money to invest, AND live a good lifestyle? Move somewhere where there's opportunity, be willing to work hard, evolve as a professional, and do what it takes to succeed. Student loans are like a startup loan to your DDS/DMD. Whether your borrow 100k or 600k, it all leads to the same thing, a dental degree. From a business perspective, you want to reduce your startup costs as much as possible.
If you want that big house, that fancy car, and all the fancy trimmings of a doctor lifestyle, saddled with student loan debt, you could put yourself in a higher risk/more leveraged position, but you cannot be that person that shuts down in times of stress - in fact, you must thrive and iteratively improve to be able to support a more leveraged lifestyle. It's not an ideal way to approach things, but one thing that this pandemic has taught me is that life is too short. You could be dead tomorrow from covid 5.0 or whatever version they are selling now. You want that fancy house but have no money? Get a doctor's loan/mortgage with no money down. Want to be an owner but every bank has turned you down? Do it cheap, save some cash, build your office for the cheap. Ideally, you should be as frugal as possible until you get an office started since every action has an opportunity cost, then when your office is making enough to significantly service debt/life obligations and then some, then you're home free from your financial prison. Once you have made your money and have income that supports you, it's time to live. Work to live, not the other way around. I've said it many times, the difference between 10MM and 100MM isn't that much in lifestyle. If you live to be 50, every year you burn is 2% of your life that you will NEVER get back. The pursuit of wealth may be someone's idea of a fulfilling life, but there are limits. Would I turn away money? Definitely not, but I wouldn't waste my time pursuing more and more wealth if it meant that it takes away from me living my life.
There is at least one thing I can be thankful for in dentistry, besides the financial/material things, is the surprisingly strong immune system from the chronic exposure to everything in the oral cavity.
Students and applicants need to know themselves well before going into dentistry. Know your strengths and weaknesses. You may not know how it is to be a dentist, but you can definitely know yourself even if you don't know yourself right now. That way, you know if you have what it takes to become a successful dentist (and not just A dentist).
Fishy
