Quote:
Originally Posted by Germanauto
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cinco
As a doctor, would have to disagree completely. Didn't go into it for the money, and would say the majority of people do not go into it for the money. If you want to make a ton of money, you would probably not go into medicine. Medicine affords a decent salary for relatively low risk, when you get to the end of the road. But you lose a ton of investing years because of medschool and training. I remember thinking wow, my classmate in college who went into I-banking started at 22 to make 300k/year. I made about 30-50k until I was 32.
Besides the cost of medical school (and I went to a state school so it wasn't terrible but still, after college still hurts), I then made about 30-50k/year for the next 6 years doing internship, residency and fellowship, working about 80-100 hours/week. In order to get into residency and fellowship, you had to rack up huge debt on your credit card travelling to different states and programs. I never paid that credit card off until end of the first year of my first real job.
Totally not fair to say most go into medicine as a business to make money. Part of the distrust of science and medicine that we see these days goes to poorly thought out views like this that are tossed around the internet without any research or data to back it up.
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I'm completing my Residency and have learned that idiot posters like the one you are responding to reflect the viewpoints of a lot of American society. Doctors are sadly not respected and mistrusted.
The opportunity cost of Medicine is what has made it an increasingly hard sell. I'm in my late 20s and have a very limited investment portfolio with 6 figure debt. Not to mention so many key years of my 20s spent studying and working endlessly, and therefore so many life experiences left unfulfilled. Yet the average idiot thinks Doctors earn too much when in reality America's healthcare problems have nothing to do with Physician compensation. Insurance companies, politicians, medical schools, residency programs, nursing/PA/NP unions enrich themselves at our expense. We sacrifice so much only to be told off by posters like the above and politicians who think we don't pay our "fair share" in taxes.
Sure not a lot of professions offer a $250k-300k salary by time time you hit your late 20s, but they also don't require a minimum of 7 years training AFTER college. 4 years of that you don't earn a penny and are instead raking in eye watering debt.
I can't quite say I regret it yet, but part of my wonders where I'd be had I instead opted for tech fields like some of my friends did. I started undergrad a decade ago, was only 17 at the time, and didn't know shit. Was told all my life that Medicine is the most lucrative field and went ahead with it. Reality is with Medicine you have to be in it for the long haul. The money comes, but at what cost? And these days with how expensive everything, notably student loans and real estate have become, you need a dual income Physician or Physician-Tech/IB/VC household to really feel well off. |
This is a really great post. Thanks! The discipline needed to be a doctor, if applied to investments etc could lead to equally large incomes IMHO, I have seen that many times. None of the doctor friends I have did it for the money. Not saying there aren't any, but that is true of any service profession as well…