<p>from what i heard, when your married and still and intern or resident, family life crumbles. <em>shakes head</em></p>
<p>I was married in my 4th year of medical school. My wife had a job and on-call was tough, but we handled it without difficulty. I had my first child when I was a third year resident, and again, it was a bit difficult, but nothing that I would consider insurmountable. Again, when you and your partner believe that you are both working for a valuable future life,things become much easier to deal with.</p>
<p>Nice!</p>
<p>I read somewhere that the divorce rate jumps up to 70% when one person is a physician as opposed to 50% when neither person is a physician. Pretty scary if that data is true.</p>
<p>What does "comfortable" living mean? Nice cars, nice house, ect?</p>
<p>It doesn't mean anything where I live. Unless you inherited your house, it will NOT be "nice." You usually spend 800k on a 100 yr old, 3 bed shack and spend another 200k to make it livable. So "comfortable" is relative. But I live in the most insanely expensive state, CA.</p>
<p>Try Manhattan on for size.... I have a 1400 SQFT 2 bedroom new construction condo.... 1.5 million on the upper east side.... price per sq foot is unbelievable...</p>
<p>CA you get nice weather and more space, than cold NYC</p>
<p>OK so say I'm aspiring to become a doctor. Because itll be difficult to pay off heavy amounts of debt, would it be much wiser to go to a state school and pay much less on tuition instead of going to other prestigious and expensive schools. Even though the prestigious schools may give you a better education, is the extra amounts of money really worth it?</p>
<p>I would definitely go with the state school (unless you come from a state with an absolutely atrocious med school). Dedicated, ambitious, and hardworking students can become good doctors from any medical school. Repaying $250,000 in loans (especially during the residency years) is torture!</p>
<p>Yeah well I'm from Illinois so we have good schools. I was thinking the state school would be a better choice financially speaking, but if I changed my mind on what i wanted to do, which is possible, i would say the better college might be a better choice even though it is way more expensive. But money is an issue and serious thing to consider.</p>
<p>I concur. Go to the state school and do well. When I look at the CVs of the physicians who apply for positions in my practice, the name of their medical school is only slightly less important than the name of their college. The most important component of a CV is the quality of the last place they trained and I have found that is not often well correlated with the quality of the academic institution that preceeded it. I would prefer to take a physician who was chief resident at a good program and attended a quality fellowship who hailed from an average medical school and college over a Harvard, Hopkins, MD that did their residency and fellowship at average programs. Again, don't believe the nonsense that the only way to get a good residency is through a good med school, which means a good college, etc, etc. I've seen many applicants' CVs and that logic just ain't true!</p>
<p>msdoc, in your opinion do you think that some of the posts in this forum are a little bit extreme and are exaggerating the conditions of doctors? Like they are stating the worst possible conditions? I think if people truly wanted to be a doctor, the money would not be that large of a factor. If you are going to school and residency for more than 10 years you should have a desire for something other than money. Obviously money is a factor in everyone's lives, but how many doctors do you know that are having financial problems or aren't able to buy very nice cars or houses or other things?</p>
<p>i would agree that some of the opinions here are exaggerated</p>
<p>but the medical profession is changing and is not the gold mine it once was</p>
<p>i have yet to see starving homeless doctors but it isn't the same "honey warm up the porsche for me" lifestyle that it used to be</p>
<p>Right, and if you are in it for money, business is most likely the way to go. Not every doctor is going to be driving $120,000 cars, but they still will be able to afford nice luxery cars and live comfortably. But being a doctor also opens up opportunities for wealth. Owning a sucessfull practice = $$$.</p>
<p>People are doing this in Radiology, and in other fields. I think there will be certain docs who just want to practice medicine and do not want to deal with running their own practice. If someone with a business acumen can run a practice allowing docs to come and essentially be their own boss and run their sub practice while paying a fee to the owner doc it could be quite lucrative. Also do not underestimate the "membership" practices who have all fields of docs under one roof and the patients pay an annual 1,500 fee to be in the practice... this stuff happens, atleast in NYC...</p>
<p>Look if you can make 200-300 k and make a difference in someones life, there are worse things...</p>
<p>dcb07, I believe your points are right on. Many of the physicians who trained in the 80's and earlier came out of training with the expectation of enormous wealth and income and often that expectation was realized depending upon the specialty they practiced. Understand as well that those individuals were often willing to spend endless hours developing and growing their practices in order to make them successful. The cohort of physicians that I see these days coming out of training are every bit as dedicated to their patients but want more of a balance between income and lifestyle. The money thing is clearly exaggerated. I don't know of too many starving physicians. If a new doc has the expectation that by going into the medical field they will expect to afford a country home, exotic cars and vacations, a designer wardrobe, etc., that is not reality. You can more likely expect a life in which you will be able to live in a nice home in an exclusive neighborhood, take nice vacations, fund your children's education as well as your own retirement, indulge one or two hobbies and generally enjoy the rewards of a fulfilling profession. Remember, unlike investment banking, you can have that lifestyle in any location in the country. The path to a medical degree is well travelled and once you have your degree and license, unless you do something extremely stupid or illegal, it is yours for life.</p>
<p>Thanks msdoc...it's nice to hear a little bit of reasurance. In my opinion, this thread is extremely discouraging in many ways and I think a lot of people are looking one sided. I've wanted to be a doctor my whole life and a sway in functioning of doctors shouldn't be the reason for a change in decision. Anyways, things in 10-15 years from now will be extremely different from now. 15 years ago was 1991! I believe being a doctor is a great, challenging oppucation that gives you the ablility to help others, have an extremely satisfying job, and be able to lead a very comfortable and enjoyable life.</p>
<p>Happy to contribute my two-cents... good luck in your career plans.</p>
<p>I I start from scratch,, assosiates bachelor.. ect ect at age 23.. and If everything goes well.. at what Age can I officially call myself a Plastic surgeon.</p>
<p>After acceptance to med school, you will have 4 years of med school and if I remember correctly, 5 years general surgery residency followed by a fellowship in plastics (1 year?). somebody who actually went this route help out.</p>
<p>You guys are always mentioning.. if you go in for the money you will be sorely frustrated with the outcome.. But how much money are you guys really talking about.</p>
<p>I for one would LOVE to become a doc and make 175k after taxes mal practice ect ect..</p>
<p>lets do the math 175/12 that is $15,000 a month,, lets do more math</p>
<p>Home mortgage... lets say you bought a nice hosue for 400,000$ and you pay $3,200 a month rent</p>
<p>car les say you onw a Range Rorver and pay 800$ a month +200 insurance
$1000</p>
<p>Cell phone, Food, Water,Light,Entertainment,Clothe 2000$ a month</p>
<p>so we got</p>
<pre><code> $3,200
$1,000
</code></pre>
<p>+$2,000
that = $6000 $ now, $15,000-$6,000 is? $9,000 left, that Means you still can buy a 100,000$ yacht and pay for it.. and still have inof money to start a savings account for your retirement all this not counting your spouse who lets say rakes in 50k a year..</p>
<p>a DOC is a good living you wont be a millionare but you wont be living paycheck to paycheck wich is atleast what we require when we go into the medical field aside from helping and prestige of the name DR.
AND remember this is based ona $175,000 sallary, and from all these surveys i see Surgeon and Specialty docs average 200k+. SO for me thats is a WONDERFUL living..</p>
<p>All in all lets say your a Doc who is really the scraps of the bunch and make 135k a year your still gonna be working with $11,500 a month... buddy that is alot of money..</p>
<p>just for laughs and giggles lets do that math to see how much money that is a week</p>
<p>15,000$/4 thats $3,750 a week.. I dont make that in 3 month at my current job..</p>