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Financial Controls
13 Plays13 days ago
About the Hosts:
Dr. Savanah Craig and Dr. Ronnetta Sartor are seasoned dentists and co-hosts of the "Beyond Graduation" podcast. Dr. Craig graduated in 2022 and has since been navigating her early career, going through residency, and now working as an associate dentist. Dr. Sartor, seven years post-graduation, is an experienced practitioner and a practice owner. Both share a passion for mentoring young dental professionals and guiding them through the early stages of their careers.
Episode Summary:
In this insightful episode of "Beyond Graduation," hosts Dr. Savanah Craig and Dr. Ronnetta Sartor tackle the critical subject of financial controls for new dental graduates. With a keen interest in helping their peers navigate life beyond dental school, they share practical advice and personal experiences about managing finances in the early years of their dental careers.
Dr. Craig and Dr. Sartor emphasize the importance of balancing lifestyle improvements with realistic financial planning. They discuss strategies for saving, the significance of early investment habits, and how to leverage resources like disability insurance and financial advisors. The conversation also touches upon the impact of the economy, comparing their experiences during different economic climates.
Key Takeaways:
- Start Early with Financial Planning: Instilling habits of saving and investing right from residency can make a significant difference in achieving financial goals.
- Living Within Means: Adjusting lifestyles post-graduation without overspending is crucial. Avoid making big purchases immediately after graduation.
- Find a Trusted Financial Advisor: Professional guidance is essential as dentists are experts in teeth, not finances.
- Balancing Family and Career Goals: Synchronizing financial planning with personal life goals like family responsibilities, practice ownership, and home buying is vital.
- Impact of Economy and Interest Rates: Being aware of economic conditions and interest rates can influence decisions about significant purchases and investments.
Connect with Us:
- Savanah Craig, DDS: @savanahcraigdds
- Ronnetta Sartor, DMD: @dr_sartor
- FutureDentists Beyond Graduation: @futuredentistsbeyondgraduation
- Dental Residency Guide and Beyond Graduation eBooks: https://ignitedds.com/subscription-resources/
Don’t miss this episode’s valuable insights on managing finances as a new dental graduate. Listen to the full episode and stay tuned for more expert advice in the "Beyond Graduation" series.
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Transcript
Introduction: Life Beyond Graduation
00:00:00
Speaker
Join Dr. Savannah Craig and Renetta Sartor as we navigate life beyond graduation. Real conversations about forging our own paths in our early years, in our careers. There's a reason it's called practicing dentists. All right, welcome back to another episode of Beyond Graduation. um I am Savannah Craig. And I am Renetta Sartor and we're so happy to be back.
00:00:26
Speaker
This week, we are talking about financial controls. um So here in the Ignite DDS world, we talk about our self-determined future and you know how we can take control over putting our life you know on the path that we want. So we look at a bunch of different areas of control that we have in our life, and finances are a big part of that. So shout out to Dr. David Rice for the topic idea this week.
Impact of COVID-19 on Financial Perspectives
00:00:57
Speaker
I'm interested to hear your perspective on it because you are what you graduated around a time of COVID and all that stuff, right? Yeah. So I'm two years out, 2022.
00:01:09
Speaker
And so the economy is a bit different. um Once you know you got out of school and graduated compared to when I did, things were a bit different. So I think it'll be interesting to hear your perspective, especially because you are um two years out and I'm feeling old, but at this point I'm seven years out. so Go for it. Yeah.
Transition from Dental School to Practice
00:01:38
Speaker
Um, so I think, so I, I feel like I ramped up to it cause I went into residency and you know, we were making good money when you went from dental school where you were losing money constantly. Um, and then, you know, obviously now as an associate, getting real paychecks is awesome. Um, so I think.
00:02:03
Speaker
The biggest thing for me was finding balance between, you know, making your lifestyle a little bit nicer. You don't have to live like a student and have roommates and all of that. ah Well, I have Adam, but different um versus trying to still, you can't come out of dental school in my opinion, and go buy, you know, a brand new car, all these things, just trying to allow yourself some freedom to have a nicer life because you worked really hard for this career, but also being realistic and trying to save for other goals. If you want to buy a practice, if you want to buy a house,
00:02:59
Speaker
And there are ways to make all of that work. So we had a little we lived in a nicer apartment in residency than I did in dental school, but it wasn't astronomical. It helps that I have a partner with a full
Financial Stability and Personal Support
00:03:18
Speaker
-time job too. So that's a specific privilege that I have in those moments where I could save more of my residency salary and those sorts of things. But just living within your means and has been ingrained in me from family and friends and mentors. So that's that's helped over these last two years. But we're still taking vacations and impulse buying massage chairs off of Facebook marketplace. But you got it for a really good deal, though. Right? See, balance. Balance. There you go. So you didn't go out and get like a brand new one. You found one that was within your means. Exactly. I guess I would say from my perspective, one of the best things that probably could have happened to me was in dental school, we had like some finance people come in and like talk to our class for lunch and learn. Um, but after one of the guys, he followed up with me.
00:04:28
Speaker
You know, you're in dental school. Like you say, we're going in a negative, yeah you know, as the hours like speak, like as the hours go by. And so I'm like, okay, like I'll meet with you, but like I have nothing to give. Like there's nothing here. Like I'm eating ramen most nights or, um, just eggs trying to figure
Planning for Future Goals
00:04:50
Speaker
it out. Um, but it was one of the best things that could have happened because it gave me perspective. And then when I was in residency, um, he followed back, back up with me and, you know, we talked about, okay, this is.
00:05:05
Speaker
These are your goals of what you want. so We talked about um that I'm the eldest of my se sibling and I, and at some point I may need to um help take care of Our mom, we talked about at some point, I wanted to get married and have children and have a practice and all these things, which was fundamental to me figuring out what I needed to do for finances.
00:05:37
Speaker
so one of the first things and i'm sure they talk about it in dental school all the time and the ada thank god for the ada giving us the free um disability insurance policy but i would say just about everyone that you talk to will say that that's the first piece of the pie because you have to protect your assets and your assets are pretty much your hands and your eyes um and your body as well kind of the whole shebang as much of it as you can protect.
Disability Insurance and Financial Planning
00:06:08
Speaker
Right. It all has to be working. And so, you know, that was the first step for me in residency and it was cheaper in residency because you got student rates to get to disability insurance. But from there, just, okay, well, I need to save X amount per paycheck to get to this amount. And then once you get in the habit of doing that, okay, well now I can,
00:06:34
Speaker
I have a little cushion in an emergency fund, so now I can start investing, but even learning, okay, this is how you invest and that sort of thing. So I think a very important part for me early on, especially because um I'm a first-generation college student, like first-generation kind of everything. Yeah.
00:06:56
Speaker
and I didn't have like someone to tell me this is how you should do money. This is how you should make your money like work for you and that sort of thing. So it was very important to have someone that you know at the time, thank God, like he he didn't really care.
00:07:16
Speaker
that um you know I had zero dollars in. you know um It was more so, um he was passionate about educating people on what to do with your finances. so Yeah, I think you bring up such a good point of finding an expert who, we know teeth, we don't know finances, finding somebody you trust to help guide you.
00:07:44
Speaker
is really important, also starting early. It's really hard to go back.
Early Saving and Investing Habits
00:07:54
Speaker
I i think it would have been really challenging to not have had those habits of saving, investing when you didn't have a lot and then trying to, once you had an associate paycheck, now decide I have to save and invest. So I think if you can start those habits early and just let everything sort of in the same ratio grow as your income grows,
00:08:30
Speaker
is a lot easier than not having any of that like structure or system in your life for saving and looking towards the future and future goals. I agree.
00:08:44
Speaker
what Did they tell you anything in dental school at all about you know this is what you should do with your finances if you want to be a practice owner? or For some reason, in the back of my mind, it's always been like $50,000 that you have to have in a bank account to prove to the the bank that you can get a practice loan. I don't know if that's true.
Debunking Practice Ownership Myths
00:09:12
Speaker
I've heard a variation of that. I've heard much lower and I've heard higher as well. So I think my game plan was, okay, I know within X amount of time, I want to be a practice owner. so Right.
00:09:30
Speaker
I really have to live below my means and save everything that I can to be able to prove to them. Okay. I've got this saved. I'm ready. Um, one of the, the myths or pieces of information that I've learned relatively recently, probably since I graduated dental school, is the whole idea that banks don't necessarily look at your debt to income ratio, because I don't know just where I came from, pay off the debt as fast as possible, all of those things. But the bank's really looking at your monthly student loan payment or car payment or whatever, so compared to your income. So even if it takes you longer to pay off your debt, if you have a smaller monthly, right, it almost makes it look better to get your practice loan or your mortgage or whatever.
00:10:30
Speaker
and So I pretty much was told the same thing, you know, get the, the plan that would allow you to have the lowest huh student loan payment. Now, if you want to pay extra so that you take over the interest, that's fine, but banks care about what the payment shows so that they know, okay, well, they'll have the money to pay the loan back. Right. They want their piece of the pie as well, fair enough.
00:11:04
Speaker
o
00:11:07
Speaker
you know, besides who you marry and buying a home and that sort of thing, it's probably one of the most important, but also expensive decisions that you'll make.
Real Estate Decisions vs. Practice Ownership
00:11:22
Speaker
Yeah. So how you've been doing this for longer than I have things changed, you know, if one, if you could go back, would you change anything?
00:11:35
Speaker
you know pretend you're you're talking to yourself five years in the past, what would your advice be? And how have things changed from first out resident to associate now as a practice owner? I'm sure the financial systems you have are super different now.
00:11:56
Speaker
So it's a lot more plate spinning now for sure. in But from a perspective of, I think your first question was, would I change anything? I think, cause in school we always heard if you want to, gosh, I'm losing my voice. Hold on.
00:12:22
Speaker
Bray and early podcasting here, everybody. I know. If you want to be a practice owner, buy the practice before you get to house. um I don't know if I would change it. um I think it really depends on what the economy doing is doing and what the interest rates were. um At the time when I purchased my house, I did not have a practice yet, but interest rates were in the 2% range. So I said, why not?
00:12:53
Speaker
yeah You know, it's just going to go up anyway. And, you know, I purchased, uh, the practice maybe less than a year later and Biden had gone up at least 2%. Is it the reason, is the reason for that advice just back to that monthly like debt payment. You know, why did, why did they tell you get the practice first?
00:13:23
Speaker
You know, that's a good question. I maybe should have asked for more clarity, but so yeah but I've heard, I've heard that from so many people and I didn't know. Yeah. I guess to your point, um, cause I mean, they factor in, if you're winning, they'll factor that in too. Um, so yeah, I think a lot of it depends on where you live. Right. So I'm in South Carolina. So what I was paying for an apartment I could have had a house and paid less than. hu And so for me, it made sense. But if you're in you know a big city, it may not. It may be that you can rent for cheaper. yeah And as long as that number is smaller, I would think that it's more appealing to the bank ah um because you have less that needs to go out and you'd be able to make that payment to them.
00:14:15
Speaker
Right. It's just all about money and money out. So I think that's one of the things that from that perspective, I can see it. A lot of it is where, where do you live? Where do you want to live? As Dr. Rice would say. Um, and then just knowing what things cost, running the numbers to see, you know, I, when I bought my house, it
Managing Personal and Practice Finances
00:14:38
Speaker
was, um,
00:14:40
Speaker
my lease was about to renew on my apartment and I knew what the the price was going up to. So i had a you know I had an idea of, okay, well, if I could get a mortgage that's within that range, then I'm doing something. you know um And so I won't say that I would change that because it ended up working out, but I think it is something that, you know,
00:15:07
Speaker
We all want we Leave school. Okay, I want to be Homeowner practice owner, but I think ah a lot of it depends on where you live and how much things cost in um To your point that we spoke about earlier what the economy is doing like now the interest rates three times what it was when I bought my house So that number is gonna be larger than what it what it was before You asked as well about how it looked as a resident versus an associate versus now a practice owner. So as an ah associate and as a resident, like I said, I was just stowing as much money away as I could just to um save it, invest it and see it grow as quickly as it could, because I knew that at some point I wanted to be a practice owner and I wanted to be able to make that dream a reality.
00:16:04
Speaker
um
00:16:07
Speaker
I think now is different because I have to have a bigger team when it comes to managing those things. So um my CPA is more involved. I talked to the same guy that I met While in dental school about financial stuff and investing and all that kind of stuff um but now it's it's making it sure that Home as well as the practice are on the right path And making sure that you know, I'm not overspending
00:16:44
Speaker
in the practice because the practice has its own bills, but also You know making sure that at home. I'm doing what I need to do for um You know you never know what if we have another um you know, COVID-19 scare or some other catastrophe or yeah um pandemic breakout. You want to make sure that not only can I sustain myself at home, but um I'm also now responsible for my team has six other people. I'm responsible for the financial lives of six other families.
00:17:28
Speaker
Yeah. And so now it's making sure that, okay, it's not only about me now, every decision I make from a business standpoint can impact these people who are my team. And I want to make sure that they are happy and healthy and their families can sustain as well. What a crazy, I would love to talk to a financial planner about how COVID changed the the whole
Financial Preparedness for Uncertainties
00:17:59
Speaker
landscape. That was not something any of us thought could ever happen. and her But you have to consider your practice closing for several months or something absolutely bizarre and out of your control. But i with finances in general, sort of planning for the worst, hoping for the best, and having your systems in place,
00:18:25
Speaker
because you you can't. We call it financial control, but there's really no control. I think it's like you said, right? The first thing is you know staying staying within your means, right?
Building a Financial Team and Partner Alignment
00:18:44
Speaker
know That might mean having a budget and knowing all of those things. I think the next most important thing is your team, but also who you do life with and making sure that you're on the same page with
00:19:01
Speaker
whoever your partner might be to make sure that, okay, this is our goal and keeping your eye on the prize, especially as a young dentist. Yeah, it's just another area of delayed gratification. And that skill, it's it's so hard because I understand the people who come out of dental school and you have just been so burnt out for four years that you want to ball out and not saying that you can't go on a nice trip or you know do something to reward yourself for the hard work you've put in, but and you also have to use those skills that you learned of delayed gratification to prepare your your future life to.
00:19:53
Speaker
I would even say and to your point, like once you're in an associateship or once you're a practice owner, the same rings true because it's like, man, we work really hard. Dentistry is hard. it's harding Your body is hard on your mind and everything. So you want to have some sort of reward. So like you said, it's, you know, keeping it
Delayed Gratification and Future Stability
00:20:21
Speaker
in check. Okay. This is what I can do. Like we said, that's within my means and you know, the world's not going to stop. If I do it, we'll still have something to fall back on. Yeah. Yeah. Just being as realistic as you can.
00:20:42
Speaker
And I think also comparison, trying not to, but that's that's a topic for another day, comparison. It's a huge topic. um But that's easier, is easier said than done. But once, once you know what your lane is and you're able to, you know, go for that lane and what your purpose is, I think it helps a whole lot to cancel out the noise of comparison. Staying
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:21:15
Speaker
true to your, yourself and your own goals and life.
00:21:22
Speaker
Well, I think that's going to wrap up our episode on financial controls. Let us know what financial controls you all have in place and um any that we may have missed that you think is really important. um Please let us know. You can reach me on Instagram at Dr. Underscore Sartor and you can reach Savannah at Savannah Craig DDS.
00:21:50
Speaker
And we look forward to seeing you guys next time. And that's it for now. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Beyond Graduation. If you enjoyed this week's episode, be sure to share it with a friend. Connect with us on social media, Savannah Craig, DBS, and Dr. Underscore Sartor. And remember, you are not alone on this journey.
00:22:11
Speaker
This episode was sponsored by the Dental Residency Guide and the Beyond Graduation eBooks. These eBooks can be found at IgniteDDS.com slash eBooks. Thank you so much for listening to the Beyond Graduation brought to you by Ignite DDS and Future Dentists.