Harsh bro. Gee. I did everything this bloke is contemplating with much less money to start but similar earning potential. Started practice a few months short of forty. Paid off school/residency loans with first two paychecks as an attending. Then wasted my earnings for about a decade before waking up and adhering to boglehead standards. Retired at age 61; yeah I know I blew it by profligate spending and naivety in investing and falling into personal finance potholes, but did manage to have a near eight figure portfolio at retirement. Most importantly, I feel I made the right decision. Not an easy path. Robert Browning said it best: “ A man’s reach should exceed his grasp. Or what’s a heaven for?” Best wishes to OP and you.I'm a physician, a pediatric sub-specialist. Growing up, all I wanted to do was to become a physician. It was my dream during my whole childhood.
If you don't take ANY of the rest of my advice and you wind up in medical school, for the love of all that is sacred please at least follow this advice: do NOT go into pediatrics. You will be working until you are 75 years old and have very little savings to retire.
The loans vs pay out of pocket is a bit tough to decide but the loans really add up quickly and that debt gnaws at your heart.
I am late 50's now, hoping to get out as soon as possible. I am glad I went through the process of becoming a physician but I am also glad to be close to getting out of there because it is not even remotely what I thought a career as a physician would be.
I worked for two years after college in a research lab and took grad school courses to enhance admissions chances. Got into my top pick medical school, worked harder for four years than I ever did before, or after in my life, graduated mid-1990s. Let me assure you of a few things so far: No, you definitely will not be able to work at all during medical school; you will need a lot of money for tuition and fees; you will need a lot of money for living expenses during medical school and a minimum of three additional years of residency. That's seven years where your $250K income will not be earned.
You are already 30 which probably feels pretty close to 20 for you, but you are not even there yet for applying to medical school because of the coursework you need to complete before starting medical school. By the time you get done pre-application coursework, medical school, and at least three years of residency you will be about 40. Maybe you are in great shape and have great physical stamina. Life changes for all of us around 40. The energy level starts to drop off, the on-call nights get harder, and you missed out on the financial (and career) freedom of 7-10 years of earnings that would make those long work weeks and longer work nights on call seem OK. Then when you have to keep working through your 50s and 60s because of your lost savings into medical school tuition and supporting your life for those years of training, you are going to be one really bitter, burned out middle aged guy who feels like you made a giant mistake.
Best case scenario is you somehow get to be a cardiac or neurosurgeon, although entering those residencies in your late 30s is going to be a hellish experience, but you get through it somehow and make a million dollars a year until you are 55 and you retire (if you had the discipline to live the whole time like a guy making $250K instead of a million) and then you go find this thread on the Internet and send me a private message telling me what an idiot I was. That's the best case. I guess I would have to quote Clint Eastwood here: How luck do you feel....?
Making $250K a year now, with your savings, you can work for 10-20 more years and do whatever you want in life, totally free and independent. Why blow that?
Let me lastly state for the record that as I said, becoming a physician was my dream when growing up, but if I somehow wound up in your shoes, age 30, your income, no medical career so far, there is no way in any universe or set of circumstances that I'd NOW try to go to medical school. And, like I said, please whatever you do, please do not go into pediatrics. You will work as hard or harder than any adult physician and make 50% of what they make. Best wishes to you for whatever you decide.
Statistics: Posted by Derpalator — Fri Sep 27, 2024 9:00 pm