Isn’t it nice when you don’t have to think about money anymore? That’s because you are in full control of your personal finance. You have a house, vacation house, commercial buildings, cars etc. That’s your reward for taking the risk and your hard work for the last 13 years. I don’t think you would have this kind of relaxed thinking if you were drowning in debt like many of the recent dental grads are facing right now. It's hard for new grads not to care about money when they have nothing....no house... just a beat up car and a huge debt. And it’s even tougher when one has kids to support.
Money can’t buy happiness but not having enough (and being in massive debt) can lead to some serious problems like divorce, depression, feeling of unworthiness, having suicidal thought, feeling stressed at work etc. I don’t need to ask my wife’s permission whenever I want to help my parents (monetary gifts, fixing their house, buying a car etc). It’s the same when she wants to help her parents. That’s because we have money and the amounts that we helped our parents were so miniscule to us that they didn’t have any negative impact on our finance. We are happy when we can make our parents happy. Not having to fight each other over the money is a good thing in a marriage.
With much higher cost (and the tuitions keep rising) of earning the DDS degree, I think the new grads should focus on making money when they are still young and healthy….making a lot of money….so they can get out of debt as fast as they can. Only when they are debt-free, then they can have a more relaxed view about life like what you and I have right now: less about money and more about other things like health, religion, hobbies, places to visit, spoiling the grand kids etc. While it’s not a race but dentistry does have a limited shelf life…..although it’s not as short as that of an Olympic gymnast or of a NFL running back…..you can’t work forever. The older you graduate from dental school, the less dentistry you can practice and the less money you will earn to pay back the debt and to save for retirement. The older you get, the more pain your body will experience and the less productive dentist you will become. I am in Dave Ramsey's camp.....do whatever it takes to become debt free asap and then you can live and give like no one else. I don’t want to see the young grads, who are drowning in debt, to have to work until they are in their 60s, 70s......That's not living.....that's a life long slavery.