Student debt is an ever present reality, especially for medical/dental students. Since debt coming from medical/dental school is so large, it’s easy to just accept it as a reality forever and forget that you’re even paying for it. If that happens, debt will suck you and your practice dry.
Debt shouldn’t be at the forefront of your mind every second of every day. Usually, debt is paid on a monthly basis, so that’s about how often you should be thinking about it. Remember that interest on it accumulates over time. Since we’re talking about medical school debt that’s taking you years to pay off, you may end up paying double the amount you originally owed if you only pay what they ask for every month.
The best practice for handling debt is to set up your monthly payment and then either add a set amount as an additional principal payment or make a second payment based on a percentage of your collections each month even if it is only 0.25%. Of course, you’ll pay off your debt faster, but you end up paying a lot less in the long run because you will be paying less interest. And the quicker you pay off the debt, the quicker your practice can grow. Debt’s a big expense, and if you’re able to remove it quickly, you should.