'You Are A Broke Dentist' – Dave Ramsey Recommends Doctor With $300K Student Debt to 'Go Back To The Pain' And Adopt 'Scorched-Earth Lifestyle'

Published: Feb 21, 2026 2:01 PM • Updated: Feb 23, 2026 12:56 AM • Original source

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Lawrence from South Carolina graduated from dental school with about $309,000 in student loans and soon after took on a mortgage for a house and financed a Lexus GX.

Despite a high income, the growing debt load eventually began to bother him.

He called into "The Ramsey Show" for advice on cleaning up his finances and getting out of debt.

Personal finance expert Dave Ramsey told Lawrence he sees this pattern often with young doctors. Many are confident in their future earning power and start making expensive purchases as soon as they finish school. That's because they spend years delaying "pleasure" while staying in school longer than most people, watching others start earning and building their lives.

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"It’s almost as if you’re holding your breath and as soon as you graduate and pass your boards and get your job it’s like you have this exhale of lifestyle," Ramsey said. "You’ve been delaying pleasure and instead of staying with that a little bit longer and knocking off the 309, you preempted your ability, you neutered your ability to get at the 309 by adding all these other payments and lifestyle."

Lawrence told Ramsey he earns about $260,000 a year and has $100,000 in savings. Along with his student loans, he still owes $29,000 on the Lexus GX and another $24,000 on a leased car. Ramsey said the solution was straightforward: tap back into the same discipline that got him through dental school.

"If you want to get to wealth the fastest thing you can do is go back to the pain of living like no one else," he said. "I don’t want to hear about your $260,000 income and you going on vacation because you are a broke dentist. Don’t buy anything, don’t get to go out to eat, you don’t have time. You’re paying on debt, scorched-earth lifestyle."

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Ramsey told Lawrence to pay off the cars immediately, stop investing and direct all available money toward wiping out his debt. If he stayed focused, Ramsey said, the entire balance could be gone in about three years.

"Do this in three years," he said. "You can do it. Live like no one else. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but it yields a harvest of righteousness."

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