Law2Doc said:
The reason people going into these other fields will actually be doing better in many cases is because you are neglecting the big kicker -- the time value of money. Law and business schools take fewer years, cost less, and do not obligate one to 3-5 years of low pay training following graduation. Thus someone earning a decent salary, but much lower than a radiologist, will have already banked a lot by the time a radiologist would start earning. And if they invested wisely, they would be way ahead. And also bear in mind that there is no guaranty that you will even get into a competitive field like radiology unless you are in the top of your med school class anyhow (it's not an easy feat - you may find). More likely you will be earning a more modest physicians salary, which is well less than $300k, and the average salary has actually been dropping annually, thanks to HMOs/reimbursements/insurance issues. Thus if you are going into medicine for the money (and I know you said not), you are probably not choosing well. But the salary is certainly comfortable, if you have other more important reasons for choosing such a career.
It's true that a doctor's training period and tuition expenses are far higher than a lawyer or business school'ers. So I decided to put together a little spreadsheet to model law and medical school student net worth over the years. My assumptions:
$35K tuition/year for med school, $20K/year for law school.
3 years law school, 4 years med school.
Average beginning lawyer's salary: $80K, linearly progressing to $140K over 30 years (from salary.com, Attorney I -> Attorney III)
Residency Salaries (MD): $40K, $44K, $48K (3 year residency)
Post Residency Salary: $140K FIXED (no increases ever)
Future cash discount value: 7% (so debts accrue interest, positive net worth is invested)
Law students make $15K a summer between years of law school.
From these, I calculated net worth per year. The results? Of course, the lawyer is ahead initially, but they break even at year 23 (e.g. if starting grad school at age 22, at age 45), and the doctor pulls ahead thereafter.
Note that I chose a physician salary that is on the low end ($140K), with absolutely no increase (or even adjusting for inflation). If I change the fixed physician salary to $160K (probably a little better average), the physician beats the lawyer by year 15 (e.g. age 37), and pulls away thereafter.
Conclusion? Even with higher costs of tuition, more years of school, and low-paid training years, the vast majority of doctors do better than lawyers, who are already some of the highest paid professionals in the country. Note that this is simply looking at the situation financially, with no accounting for the costs of # of hours of effort put in, friends/family time sacrificed, etc..
If anyone wants the spreadsheet, let me know.
Orthodoc40 said:
Spoken like a couple of people that haven't researched a whole lot of options out there, but go by what the perceptions are, but maybe you're younger. I shouldn't have said a LOT more money, but I think Law2Doc says it better than I did.
Care to give some examples of options? Sounds like you know lots of them...
OP -- sorry for hijacking the post...
😳
a_t
