Divorced, broke, 500k+ debt new dentist ready to change

[Soren Loftus]

Hello everyone,

My story makes me a little sick to think back on and retell, but it’s mine and I’ll claim it if for no other reason than the satisfaction of the difference when I’m free.

I grew up in a rich home but in a “poor dad” mentality home. My dad is also a dentist, so we were never without anything. I did work but was always paid too well and didn’t learn any financial literacy or the difference between wealth and income.

I racked up 60k in undergrad loans, 415k in dental school loans, 12k in credit card debt over the last 6 months between jobs that lasted longer than intended, and most recently 25k in a “moving and living advance” from my new employer and 10k from my dad to move to Alaska for a new job. (Moving plus living expenses for two months while waiting for my license to come through so I can start working again. 

All this is financially complicated by the fact that I’m divorced with 2 kids and refuse to put them in the school system, so I fully support my ex in a second rental so she can stay home and homeschool them.

I’ve obviously made a **** ton of big financial mistakes.

But that all changes this year. It actually changed while I was driving for doordash a few weeks ago for some extra cash while I waited for my dental license. I got so pissed off wasting my time driving that I went into a financial plotting frenzy. Listened to the rich dad poor dad audiobook while driving. Read think and grow rich. Currently reading How to Invest in Real Estate and Set for Life. Ordered some other real estate books from the library and now I’m here. Planning to build an emergency fund and pay off as much debt as possible this year.

I have a guaranteed income of 188k, but I hope to be able to do closer to 250k based on production. (Before anyone barks at me for overtreatment, I’m a very conservative dentist that always fully explains patient’s options with pros and cons and let’s them decide with no pressure.)

Sounds great if I had any tax deductions (I’m a W2), my ex’s house is 2600/month and mine is 2100, her car payment is 360/month and everything is more expensive in Alaska. 

It’s honestly a very embarrassing situation to look at, but my current plan is to reduce variable expenses and look at breaking our leases and moving to more affordable housing in the summer. Build a 5k emergency fund and pay off our credit cards and loans from my employer and father. This year is honestly about building a solid financial literacy foundation and climbing back to zero.

I’ll do that through my dentist income as well as learning as much as I can about investing in real estate with little or no personal money down. Hopefully, I can find a couple deals to make 20-50k this year and pay off more high priority debt or roll it into more assets depending on where I’m at with everything.

So that’s me. I’m starting deep in the negative, but this time next year I’m committed to having my finances under control and a growing asset column.