Don't go to Dental School

[charlestweed]

the reality hits you later in life 10 years into life- mid 30s- when you have two toddlers, a 500k-1 mil mortgage, a 1 mil practice loan and compounding student loan debt that you plan on playing the long game 30+ years tax forgiveness.

That’s rough. I can barely muster up 20 years in this career. 30 years? Whew…. Good luck. You need it.

And 10 more years after this (in your mid 40s), the expenses will get a lot bigger. These toddlers will become teenagers and will need a car.....and it’s not cheap to buy auto insurance for these young inexperienced drivers. You will also need a bigger house for your growing family. You will be a lot busier than you are right now because you will need to focus not only on work but also to spend more time to raise your children (for things like after school and weekend sport/music activities). That’s why I’ve always told young people to work as hard as they can now when they are still healthy and have a lot of free time. I don't want them regret for not saving enough and still have to work very hard when they're in their 40s and 50s.

Work becomes more enjoyable when you become financially independent…..when you don’t have any bills to pay….when you don’t have to worry about the production….about pleasing the PITA patients….about the landlord raising your office rent......about the decline of the dental profession….about a young competitor who opens an office next to yours.....about inflation, recession etc. Pay off debt ASAP and work will become less miserable to you.

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[2TH MVR]

Health insurance is expensive. This is why many people can’t retire early (and still have to work part time) even though they have zero debt and have saved lot of money. Last year I paid $1900/month for my Blueshield PPO plan for my family of 4. This year, the premium increases to $2300/month because my wife and I are getting older every year. And we have to continue to pay for our children’s health insurances until they turn 26. At this rate the health insurance premium will probably be around $4k/month when I turn 65 (12 more years from now).

How's your home insurance rates?

 

[Firm]

How's your home insurance rates?

Insane.

 

[charlestweed]

How's your home insurance rates?

It's not bad, surprisingly.....only $3k a year, which is only $2-300 more than what I paid a few years ago. And we are in the fire risk area also. Each home here is required to have a fire sprinkler system installed. The property tax amount is crazy though.....it's $23k/year or almost 2k/month 🙁.

It's the auto insurance that has increased significantly in recent years. And they go by the mileage.....the more miles you drive the higher the premium. My oldest car, which is a 6 year old 2018 Tesla, has the highest premium......$3900 for 6 months🙁.....it's because I drive it the most. I pay less than half ($1400 for 6 months) for my newer 2023 Tesla model X because it's my weekend car.

Here is the chart of the increase in payments due to inflation. And auto insurance is the worst one.

 

[charlestweed]

It's not bad, surprisingly.....only $3k a year, which is only $2-300 more than what I paid a few years ago. And we are in the fire risk area also. Each home here is required to have a fire sprinkler system installed. The property tax amount is crazy though.....it's $23k/year or almost 2k/month 🙁.

It's the auto insurance that has increased significantly in recent years. And they go by the mileage.....the more miles you drive the higher the premium. My oldest car, which is a 6 year old 2018 Tesla, has the highest premium......$3900 for 6 months🙁.....it's because I drive it the most. I pay less than half ($1400 for 6 months) for my newer 2023 Tesla model X because it's my weekend car.

Here is the chart of the increase in payments due to inflation. And auto insurance is the worst one.
View attachment 397830

I called my Mercury insurance agent and complained to them about the premium increase and they were able to give me a $646 credit. So the total premium for my 3 cars was reduced to $6,396.09 for 6 months, which is still a lot of money. This means that I have to pay more than $1k per month in auto insurance. Since my 2018 Tesla is very old, I plan to drop the bodily damage coverage and just buy the liability coverage only on the next renewal cycle.

 

[princeafrica]

I called my Mercury insurance agent and complained to them about the premium increase and they were able to give me a $646 credit. So the total premium for my 3 cars was reduced to $6,396.09 for 6 months, which is still a lot of money. This means that I have to pay more than $1k per month in auto insurance. Since my 2018 Tesla is very old, I plan to drop the bodily damage coverage and just buy the liability coverage only on the next renewal cycle.

View attachment 397880
View attachment 397878

Why continue to pay? Can't you just drop the tesla to liability now and they would refund you the difference

 

[charlestweed]

Why continue to pay? Can't you just drop the tesla to liability now and they would refund you the difference

Edited the post after I reread your post. Why? Because I can afford to do so. But I plan to drop to liability in 6 months.

 

[Thehighwind87]

12k premium a year on car insurance… lol that’s insane. I pay about 2.8k total for 2 cars bmw and tesla.

12k is just crazy burning money

 

[charlestweed]

12k premium a year on car insurance… lol that’s insane. I pay about 2.8k total for 2 cars bmw and tesla.

12k is just crazy burning money

And this auto insurance is not enough. I also buy a $5M umbrella policy, which costs me another $2k/year, to supplement it. It used to be a $1M umbrella policy. The living trust attorney, who helped wrote the will for us, advised me to upgrade to a $5M policy. Gotta protect my family.

I know everything in CA is expensive. But wait until your kids start to drive and you have to buy another car and add them to the policy…..it won’t be that cheap anymore.

 

[OncePreDent]

And this auto insurance is not enough. I also buy a $5M umbrella policy, which costs me another $2k/year, to supplement it. It used to be a $1M umbrella policy. The living trust attorney, who helped wrote the will for us, advised me to upgrade to a $5M policy. Gotta protect my family.

I know everything in CA is expensive. But wait until your kids start to drive and you have to buy another car and add them to the policy…..it won’t be that cheap anymore.

Smart to have at least a $5M umbrella. absolutely worth $2k a year.

 

[charlestweed]

Smart to have at least a $5M umbrella. absolutely worth $2k a year.

Yeah, you have to continue to pay for all these insurance plans (auto, health, life, umbrella, home, investment properties etc) for as long as you are still alive (or at least until you turn 65, when you will be qualified for cheaper medicare health plan). So for the people who plan to retire early (way before the age of 65), they have to make sure they have enough in savings and in investments to cover for all of these expenses….and they keep rising every year due to inflation. You don’t have to worry about any of these if you are single and don’t have to support anyone. Kids are expensive.

 

[2TH MVR]

To bring this back to the original post. I'll agree. Dentistry isn't exactly what it used to be. One advantage to dentistry is that you can practice for a long time if you want. Yes. Ortho is a little easier on the back. But if you eat right and stay in shape .... there is no reason you can't practice for a long time. I just turned 62. I work 4 days per week. I have no intentions of slowing down. Not yet anyway. I'll retire when I want to. I work because I still love what I do and ....... I like to spend money.

Dentistry can be very rewarding if ....... and that's a big if ..... you don't start in a huge debt hole. There are other lucrative professions. I remarried recently after my 1st wife passed a few years ago. My new wife is in medical sales. A corporate account manager for large hospitals. Last year. She made more money than I did. Yep. Medical sales. I was so proud of her.

 

[askadds]

150k+ w/o any debt and many years of sacrifice is achievable by anyone who is smart enough to get into dental school. duh. But sure take the chance and hope to be in the top 10% of dentists and make 300k with debt and personal sacrifice.