There's this, interesting angle: American Seminar Institute | Travel CME Anywhere
Agree with this for the most part. Elementary school age kids will appreciate cool local activities as much as big vacations 99% of the time. I've been to around 30 states starting when I was 3 or 4 as well as a few international trips, mostly for random sports events/tournaments. I can honestly say that other than Disney World, the biggest things I remember about those trips where what cities had really cool zoos or beaches.
I remember the DINK days fondly. Enjoy it! I wish we were even more aggressive with trips back then.
I'm not sure that's crazy at all. That's the type of itinerary qualifying for 9/10 in ballin' points. If each of those meals is a 1-3 michelin star restaurant and the tickets are court side, it's basically what 9 figure rich people do on a weekend vacation (well minus the private jet in if they don't happen to be in NYC already). As long as that's not the regular occurrence, certainly something you can do 1-2x a year and feel completely fine about if you are otherwise reasonable with money and an attending without significant debt.
Don't be so sure, we did Disney for the first time when my kids were 4 (first real vacation we did with them). They had an absolute blast. One of them had little happy spasms every time she saw any of the characters she knew.
We've got the single income, but it's honestly plenty. Still living like a resident, but saving lots of money and going on vacations while doing it
Botox has some evidence for depression and anxiety! Might be safer to try than some oral medications if it's just as beneficial.
This is the dilemma. Being a DINK during med school, residency, fellowship puts you at the prime age to have kids once you finish that training. Wait any longer and you might have fertility issues. When we had more time, we didn't have the income. When we had the income, we no longer have the time with taking care of kids.
People who truly prefer rural areas have a major financial advantage. Double that if you like snow. I've accepted my fate of dealing w/ homeless people, traffic, and paying 1 million dollars for 1000 sq feet. Me and the other 9.8 million people in LA county must need our heads checked.
I think the thing that would get to me would be lack of good, varied, and relatively convenient restaurant options in rural areas.
Come to Irvineno homeless. Spot clean. Everything you need.
There are plenty of places that are LCOL, minimal traffic, minimal homeless issues/low crime, where you can have a really nice house and car and still grow a nice nest egg with an average psychiatrist salary and take nice vacations. No need to go rural. They're called suburbs, and they are abundant in the midwest. I lived in one in residency. I live in a large one now. Where I currently live I actually find the food variety better than Chicago where I spent the first 20+ years of my life (other than pizza). You do have to deal with non-Cali weather, but if you like seasons you don't have to go to the countryside to find a great lifestyle. I'm in a city of >500k and with metro >2mil, we bought a fairly new 4,000+ sqft house about a year ago for well under $600k. This isn't particularly unique either, there's plenty of other cities like this.
I lived in in a nice midwestern suburb during residency so I get it. Agree with you that food variety is not the biggest issue. There’s usually at least 1-2 good options for Mexican, Thai, sushi, etc. Besides weather, I just feel that if you grew up in one of the large coastal cities, the midwestern towns feel so parochial and small. Sort of like moving to Costa Rica because it’s cheap and they just opened a Cheesecake Factory and Costco.
I guess, but compared to NYC or LA, everything is small. Even San Diego is "small" (1/3 the size of LA) and it's the 8 largest city by population in the US. I've been to the really big cities, and honestly other than some stuff with the arts (shows) and general culture which varies regardless of size, I don't really see more variety in actual things to do in the big cities than in the "smaller" large cities (500k-1mil pop). I don't really see how the Costa Rica comparison you made fits.
I think it depends on your interests. If you want Beyonce/Taylor Swift to be coming to your city, it's not going to be likely in a 500k pop city. When you travel to a city and google "things to do in xyz" there is a marked difference between places depending on size. Festivals, pop ups, night life, restaurants, theater/orchestra/ballet, etc do almost precisely vary by the population of the city/metro.I guess, but compared to NYC or LA, everything is small. Even San Diego is "small" (1/3 the size of LA) and it's the 8 largest city by population in the US. I've been to the really big cities, and honestly other than some stuff with the arts (shows) and general culture which varies regardless of size, I don't really see more variety in actual things to do in the big cities than in the "smaller" large cities (500k-1mil pop). I don't really see how the Costa Rica comparison you made fits.
ETA: I realize plenty of LCOL cities aren't like this, but there are plenty that are.
.
I think it depends on your interests. If you want Beyonce/Taylor Swift to be coming to your city, it's not going to be likely in a 500k pop city. When you travel to a city and google "things to do in xyz" there is a marked difference between places depending on size. Festivals, pop ups, night life, restaurants, theater/orchestra/ballet, etc do almost precisely vary by the population of the city/metro.
While I personal think there are a ton of great cities that are not coastal in this country, there is certainly a buzz to being in the big heavy hitting metros in the US. Docs make enough money to choose a thing or two (e.g. have a ferrari, nice boat, vacation house, live in a HCoL area, retire early) but not enough money to do everything. People need to pick and choose what matters to them. Or partner with another high income earner if you really want it all
