A new grad dentist working, ask me anything

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DentalDon18

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I'm a new grad dentist a couple years out of school working in private practice. Ask me anything?
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able to share your salary/collections from 1 year post grad to now? Are you only doing bread and butter dentistry or have you taken CE/done more complicated procedures? Where did you graduate from and did they prepare you well for PP or was it overwhelming at first?

What can I do now as a D1 to best prepare myself for clinic and what can I do in clinic to best prepare myself for post-grad?

Thanks!
 
Thank you OP.
Just curiou that have you done a GPR, can you compare and contrast the workload among 4th year dental school vs GPR if yes vs now
 
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Ryxndek said:
able to share your salary/collections from 1 year post grad to now? Are you only doing bread and butter dentistry or have you taken CE/done more complicated procedures? Where did you graduate from and did they prepare you well for PP or was it overwhelming at first?

What can I do now as a D1 to best prepare myself for clinic and what can I do in clinic to best prepare myself for post-grad?

Thanks!
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I'm doing restorative, simple exts, anterior endo, I made 200k+ last year, I take CE w/ local dental school, I went to Temple.
 
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how many years out are you? are you in PP, corp, or public health - have you been at the same job since graduation? how did you get your first gig and was it a big adjustment from school for ya?
 
Do you have any student loan debt? If yes, how do you pay down the debt.....as fast as possible or a standard 10-yr repayment plan? Are you happy with your decision to become dentist? Thank you for sharing!
 
charlestweed said:
Do you have any student loan debt? If yes, how do you pay down the debt.....as fast as possible or a standard 10-yr repayment plan? Are you happy with your decision to become dentist? Thank you for sharing!
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I have ~250K student loan debt, I am paying it down as fast as I can. I am unsure at this point if I'm happy about becoming a dentist.
 
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frenzysword said:
I guess roughly an estimate, what do you think of in terms of how quick paying off the loans
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@6% interest rate we are talking about 15k of interest yearly + safe to assume another 15k in principle payments to just scratch the surface? It going to take MUCH longer to pay off. Plus dont forget, your student mentality will be long gone by the time they put a DDS next to your name so all this talk about "live like a student with parents" BS does not fly, maybe a few in your class will achieve it but not even close to being reality for majority.
 
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DentalDon18 said:
I have ~250K student loan debt, I am paying it down as fast as I can. I am unsure at this point if I'm happy about becoming a dentist.
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Yeah, dentistry is a stressful job. I am sure for you to get paid $200k+, your boss must make you work very hard. It’s good that you force yourself to live “paycheck to paycheck” by paying back your loans as fast as you can. It's not easy for a person who makes that much and has to live like this. Hopefully when you become debt-free, you can work less, see less patients, and enjoy your job more. At least the job is stable…..recession proof. There’s no such thing as an unemployed dentist.
 
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askadds said:
@6% interest rate we are talking about 15k of interest yearly + safe to assume another 15k in principle payments to just scratch the surface? It going to take MUCH longer to pay off. Plus dont forget, your student mentality will be long gone by the time they put a DDS next to your name so all this talk about "live like a student with parents" BS does not fly, maybe a few in your class will achieve it but not even close to being reality for majority.
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True! It’s not easy to continue to live like a student when you had already spent 8+long years in school and had made a lot of sacrifice. That’s why Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball method works. It modifies your behavior and provides inspiration to get out of debt ASAP. It helps you realize that you’re a broke dentist…..and therefore, you should not live like a wealthy person despite making such great income. When you sign up for IBR and make interest-only payments every month, you don’t realize that you are broke.

I couldn’t do it. I bought a BMW, a house, and other nice things to reward myself right after graduation. And therefore, I had had to work 6 days/wk for 20 years (from 29-49 yo) so I could pay off all my debts. My sister and her husband lived with our parents at our parents’ house (for 3 years) right after graduation…..free babysitting for her 2 kids while she worked. Since our parents did all the house chores (no need for her to cook nor do laundry), she could afford work 7 days/wk when she set up her new office (3 days at her own office and 4 days for the corp office). And now, she is way ahead of me financially despite making much less.
 
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DentalDon18 said:
I have ~250K student loan debt, I am paying it down as fast as I can. I am unsure at this point if I'm happy about becoming a dentist.
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Look into white coat investor.

While paying back loans on paper as fast you can...sounds nice...on paper you actually could lose a TON of money in the long term.

If someone presented an option like:

500k mortgage at 3% interest...

or 500k invested at 7% compounded return...

In the long run, the investments compound and make more money. Every year you NET 4% gain and live mortgage free.

I paid off all my loans when I first graduated about 200k. I poured money into it like crazy. A 10k investment in Amazon back when I was pouring money into stocks...would of netted me 100k. On a conservative investment like the SPY index- I would of had 40k today.

Long story made short, a good balance of finances- makes more sense in the long run. Of course you should do your homework on what you should do with finances. Today, I basically refinanced all my debts to 2-3% and make more then enough money in the markets. Can I pay off all my loans tommorow? Yes, but why? To save 2/3%? In the end I would lose out on 10-50%.
 
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Thehighwind87 said:
Look into white coat investor.

While paying back loans on paper as fast you can...sounds nice...on paper you actually could lose a TON of money in the long term.

If someone presented an option like:

500k mortgage at 3% interest...

or 500k invested at 7% compounded return...

In the long run, the investments compound and make more money. Every year you NET 4% gain and live mortgage free.

I paid off all my loans when I first graduated about 200k. I poured money into it like crazy. A 10k investment in Amazon back when I was pouring money into stocks...would of netted me 100k. On a conservative investment like the SPY index- I would of had 40k today.

Long story made short, a good balance of finances- makes more sense in the long run. Of course you should do your homework on what you should do with finances. Today, I basically refinanced all my debts to 2-3% and make more then enough money in the markets. Can I pay off all my loans tommorow? Yes, but why? To save 2/3%? In the end I would lose out on 10-50%.
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I've heard of white coat investor, haven't checked it out too much. I haven't really invested yet because I am trying to get debt free.
 
DentalDon18 said:
I've heard of white coat investor, haven't checked it out too much. I haven't really invested yet because I am trying to get debt free.
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...
Dentistry is all about debt and living with it.

When I first graduated I was 200k in debt. Went 1.0 million into debt for a practice... Went 700k debt for a house. Today my net worth is above all that.

Get USED to debt but understand that there is good debt and bad debt.

Bad debt is consumer credit card debt. TV, BMW, Handbags, whatever.
Good debt is your education, your practice, your house.

Good debt lets you earn more. Education of 200k debt lets you earn 200k+ salary. Your practice...1 mil of debt... lets you earn 400k in income. A 700k house...lets you build equity...and before you know it- its 1 mil house.

Look up white coat investor. One of my biggest regrets was becoming debt free. I wish I had taken a more "financially saavy" approach. I would of maxed out my 401k and invested X amount into personal brokerage while balancing my student loans. (it took me 3 years to pay off 200k...and during that time I prob put away 5k into my 401k in all 3 years- today I put in the max 22k every year without fail) But I was financially "dumb" back then.

Of course you can do you- but I think eventually, when you understand this- and I never understood this until I was in my 30s... you will be like...why did I do that in my 20's.

And of course there are some doctors that never understand this.
 
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Thehighwind87 said:
Look into white coat investor.

While paying back loans on paper as fast you can...sounds nice...on paper you actually could lose a TON of money in the long term.

If someone presented an option like:

500k mortgage at 3% interest...

or 500k invested at 7% compounded return...

In the long run, the investments compound and make more money. Every year you NET 4% gain and live mortgage free.

I paid off all my loans when I first graduated about 200k. I poured money into it like crazy. A 10k investment in Amazon back when I was pouring money into stocks...would of netted me 100k. On a conservative investment like the SPY index- I would of had 40k today.

Long story made short, a good balance of finances- makes more sense in the long run. Of course you should do your homework on what you should do with finances. Today, I basically refinanced all my debts to 2-3% and make more then enough money in the markets. Can I pay off all my loans tommorow? Yes, but why? To save 2/3%? In the end I would lose out on 10-50%.
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This should work also if you have the discipline not to withdraw any of the money that you invest (except only use it to pay off other debts)…..this is supposed to be for your retirement. When you choose to go with either option (paying off the student loans ASAP or investing as much as you can), you essentially force yourself not to have any disposable income to “waste” on depreciable things like cars, travels, dining out etc. You force yourself live poor (aka paycheck to paycheck) for a while. If you don’t know anything about investment nor want to take risk, the safe way is to pay off student loans ASAP. If you make $200k but you live like when you only make $50k, you will be a very wealthy person when you are near your retirement age.
 
charlestweed said:
This should work also if you have the discipline not to withdraw any of the money that you invest (except only use it to pay off other debts)…..this is supposed to be for your retirement. When you choose to go with either option (paying off the student loans ASAP or investing as much as you can), you essentially force yourself not to have any disposable income to “waste” on depreciable things like cars, travels, dining out etc. You force yourself live poor (aka paycheck to paycheck) for a while. If you don’t know anything about investment nor want to take risk, the safe way is to pay off student loans ASAP. If you make $200k but you live like when you only make $50k, you will be a very wealthy person when you are near your retirement age.
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I literally live on less then 100$ in my checking account. Just checked I have 12.80$ right now.

To this day I still live like a poor student. Of course I pay my bills and take vacations but 99% of my income is in equities. And it’s paid off well.
 
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Thehighwind87 said:
I literally live on less then 100$ in my checking account. Just checked I have 12.80$ right now.

To this day I still live like a poor student. Of course I pay my bills and take vacations but 99% of my income is in equities. And it’s paid off well.
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So where do you put all your money?? How do you cover emergencies that arise?
 
DentalDon18 said:
So where do you put all your money?? How do you cover emergencies that arise?
Click to expand...

Oh boy you are extremely new to finance.

Do yourself a favor and get a wealth advisor and or white coat investor.

I wish someone talked to me about finances before I went stupid and went all in paying off a 3% student loan.
 
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Thehighwind87 said:
Oh boy you are extremely new to finance.

Do yourself a favor and get a wealth advisor and or white coat investor.

I wish someone talked to me about finances before I went stupid and went all in paying off a 3% student loan.
Click to expand...
Okay, I'll check out white coat investor. Thanks, let me know if you have any other recommendations.
 
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