'I Have Over $1 Million in Student Loans': Dave Ramsey's Blunt Response Was 'What Were You Thinking?'

An American orthodontist who called The Ramsey Show for advice said he owed more than $1 million (£750,000) in student loans. Host Dave Ramsey answered with a question. 'You're kidding,' he said. 'What were you thinking?'

The caller, identified in the clip as Justin, had just finished his training. The interest on the loans alone came to about $5,800 (£4,350) a month. Asked how the balance had climbed so high, he offered no defence. 'Well, I wasn't thinking, clearly,' he said.

The exchange first aired in 2020 and reached a far wider audience after Ramsey shared it as a clip on TikTok, where it drew more than a million views and thousands of comments about the scale of the debt.

The Interest Trap Behind a $1 Million Student Loan

Justin said he expected to earn about $250,000 (£188,000) a year, a figure he noted was before tax. His fiancée worked in the practice the couple had just opened and took no income from it. Between them, they planned to put around $10,000 (£7,500) a month towards the loans.

He set out two options. The first was an income-based repayment plan costing roughly $3,000 (£2,250) a month, which would free up $7,000 (£5,250) to aim at individual loans. The second was to cover the monthly interest first, then work down the balances. The couple expected to raise their payments sharply as the practice grew, aiming for $20,000 to $40,000 (£15,000 to £30,000) a month in later years.

Ramsey's warning was about the arithmetic. On the income-based route, he said, the interest would outrun the payments and the balance would keep rising. 'You're not making any mathematical progress by doing the 3 and 7 idea,' he said, 'but you will make emotional progress because you'll be able to knock off some of the smaller ones.'

What Dave Ramsey Told the Orthodontist to Do

Ramsey told Justin to live like someone with nothing. 'You have to be very, very careful to just act like you're a broke college student because you are a broke orthodontist,' he said. That ruled out holidays, buying a house, leasing a new car and eating out. 'It gives me an anxiety attack, and it's not even my debt.'

'You cannot relax,' he said. 'You have to cut as deeply as you can cut.' Beyond taxes, food, water and electricity, he wanted every spare dollar going to the loans.

He also steered the orthodontist to the debt snowball, which starts with the smallest balances. Those, Justin said, were about $4,500 (£3,380) or less. According to Ramsey Solutions, the method has borrowers list their debts from smallest to largest, regardless of interest rate, and clear the small ones first before rolling those payments into the next balance.

Justin's total is an outlier even in a field built on heavy borrowing. The average indebted dental school graduate in the class of 2025 owed $297,800 (£223,000), according to the American Dental Education Association, a figure that has slipped lower in recent years. Graduate students can borrow up to $50,000 (£37,500) a year in federal Direct Unsubsidised loans, on which interest starts building the day the money is paid out.

The rules are tightening. New loans issued from 1 July 2026 carry a fixed rate of 8.07 percent, and the Grad PLUS programme that many dental students leaned on is being withdrawn, a change likely to push future borrowers towards private lenders. The maximum rate on such loans can reach 9.5 percent, although accrued interest no longer capitalises once repayment begins.

The mechanics are what make a seven-figure balance so hard to shift. With interest near $5,800 a month, a borrower clears that sum before touching a dollar of the principal. Ramsey's parting message was that the income was the way out, so long as Justin lived broke until the debt was gone. The wonderful news, he said, was the earning potential. The horrible news was the figure sitting next to it.