Doctor salary poll!

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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Below what salary would you stop wanting to be a doctor?

  • Doesnt matter, i would do it no matter how little it pays

    Votes: 15 6.8%

  • 20 k

    Votes: 3 1.4%

  • 30 k

    Votes: 6 2.7%

  • 40 k

    Votes: 6 2.7%

  • 50 k

    Votes: 11 5.0%

  • 60 k

    Votes: 16 7.2%

  • 70 k

    Votes: 23 10.4%

  • 80 k

    Votes: 24 10.8%

  • 90 k

    Votes: 11 5.0%

  • 100 k

    Votes: 107 48.2%
  • Total voters
    222
Z

zurned

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Below what salary would you stop wanting to be a doctor?
 
mmmmm.....anything below 110k

But I wouldnt want to "stop" being a doctor or practicing, I would just be really pissed. 😛
 
hold on, dont reply b4 the choices are shown
 
im actually glad that most people chose the highest number, it shows that money does matter (surprise 🙄 )
 
"Doesnt matter, i would do it no matter how little it pays"

Yeah right. Enjoy eating your air dinner, driving your invisible car and living in your grass hut. 🙄
 
Yeh helping others is fantastic but there is nothing wrong with helping ourselves. Physicians are one of the few occupations that actually deserves its rather high salaries.
 
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below 150. engineering, finance, management offer close to these returns with far less hassle. this poll isnt crafted very well, the increments should have been probably 25k, and the max higher
 
and another thing, who the **** voted for 30k?? so youre saying that you want to spend 8 yrs of your life in class and 3 yrs in a hospital to make as much as a bank teller at washington mutual?!!
 
jtank said:
and another thing, who the **** voted for 30k?? so youre saying that you want to spend 8 yrs of your life in class and 3 yrs in a hospital to make as much as a bank teller at washington mutual?!!
Click to expand...

Maybe they are independently wealthy.
 
tacrum43 said:
Maybe they are independently wealthy.
Click to expand...

maybe they are naive.
 
Damn, the poll doesn't go above 100k. 😳
 
Seriously, 100k as the max? Go up to $250k, and then maybe we'll talk 😉
 
8 years of school/training

200 thousand dollars in debt+30 thousand dollars in loans from undergraduate+interest

I damn well better be making over 100k.
 
I am willing to make significantly less than the average doc in exchange for fewer hours and more vacation days. I would also sacrifice pay to work with underserved populations where there may not be much money to begin wth.

Now, if I am doctoring old fat rich white men I expect to get paid accordingly.
 
If I got tons of vacation time and worked fewer hours, I'd do it for way less.

The kids can share a bedroom and get scholarships or aid to pay for over half of college. Besides, I'm never buying my teenager a car.

:meanie:
 
The lowest I could go would be 80K. Any lower and you are really pushing it.
 
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350k (in a traditional setting with all the hassles and no time)
80k (when i can pick and choose)


i know, i know...high expectations.
 
Shredder said:
below 150. engineering, finance, management offer close to these returns with far less hassle. this poll isnt crafted very well, the increments should have been probably 25k, and the max higher
Click to expand...

I agree, and make it open so we can harrass some idiots that actually think they would be doctors at 30k a year. 150 is about my limit too.
 
As I said on a few other threads in the past day, about $80k. But it depends on how much I owe in loans. And if the healthcare system doesn't get cleaned up so it's easier to deal with, I certainly wouldn't work for less than that. But basically I would only work for as much as it took to pay off all my loans, live in a relatively nice house (not huge, just big enough for my family) and support my family. Not less than that. But I don't need more than that, either. Another thing people aren't mentioning is how many hours this is for. If I'm working 80 hours I week, I would certainly expect over $100k.
 
I am astonished at how many intelligent SDN folk are just financially clueless. Kinda falls in line with the whole "myth" that docs are bad at finances/business. heh. I dont think many of you realize the economic realities of the future. I guarantee you will want to riot if you make 80k a year as a doc, regardless of the hours per week (unless you barely work, if thats the case you shouldnt get the degree in the first place!). Think about the costs of practicing, such as a family doc in an office somewhere. You've got to cover: overhead (which includes alot of crap like hydro,building insurance, etc.), malpractice, pay staff, pay for equipement, pay for repairs/upkeep. Even if you did join a group, you still gotta chip in a sizable amount. Then you'll probably want to buy a house, have a family, buy a car, cover huge loans, etc. Oh, and you eventually want to retire right? Try socking away about +1 mil making 30k, even 80k. Have fun. Want to take many vacation days off? Go for it. But the cost of not going to work has to be paid by you anyway. How about the rising costs of living? As of now, middle class homes with two wage earners is the norm, and most of them say they are just getting by (No, I dont have a survey, but many townhall meetings with the President echo this concern. Thats why there are tons of tax cuts and refunds targeted to help the middle class working family.). The list goes on and on. Sorry folks, a lot of you are just dreamers. I just hope you don't get hit in the side of the head by a 2X4 of finanical pain one day. You've heard this saying over and over again: Money does turn the world around. Unfortunately, love/altruism/humanitarianism/whateveryouwanttocallit doesn't. Later.
 
Jon Davis said:
I am astonished at how many intelligent SDN folk are just financially clueless. Kinda falls in line with the whole "myth" that docs are bad at finances/business. heh. I dont think many of you realize the economic realities of the future. I guarantee you will want to riot if you make 80k a year as a doc, regardless of the hours per week (unless you barely work, if thats the case you shouldnt get the degree in the first place!). Think about the costs of practicing, such as a family doc in an office somewhere. You've got to cover: overhead (which includes alot of crap like hydro,building insurance, etc.), malpractice, pay staff, pay for equipement, pay for repairs/upkeep. Even if you did join a group, you still gotta chip in a sizable amount. Then you'll probably want to buy a house, have a family, buy a car, cover huge loans, etc. The list goes on and on. Sorry folks, a lot of you are just dreamers. I just hope you don't get hit in the side of the head by a 2X4 of finanical pain one day if you keep thinking the way some of you do. Later.
Click to expand...

aha! I never said I would be in private practice for $80k. In fact, I don't intend to do private practice, and if I'm in a large group it will probably be in emergency medicine or something, so not much overhead there. And I know plenty of people with salaries at that level who are financially stable, with a house and a car and kids. No, they didn't have the same type of loans. That's why my one caveat with my $80k number is that it does somewhat depend on paying back loans.

You know, don't assume that people are financial idiots just because we say we could live on $80k. As a matter of fact, I'm quite good with finances. My husband and I live comfortably on my salary as a Clinical Research Coordinator, which really isn't very high, alone. The only debt we have is due to his med school loans, and we save money every month. And here I'm talking about an $80k physician salary, which would be doubled due to the income from both my husband and me. I have no doubt we could live very comfortably, with kids and all, on that.

Also, suggesting that people who "barely work" shouldn't get the degree just irks me. Who are you to decide who should and should not become a doctor? A doctor who is working part time is still contributing to healthcare.
 
Jon Davis said:
I am astonished at how many intelligent SDN folk are just financially clueless. Kinda falls in line with the whole "myth" that docs are bad at finances/business. heh. I dont think many of you realize the economic realities of the future. I guarantee you will want to riot if you make 80k a year as a doc, regardless of the hours per week (unless you barely work, if thats the case you shouldnt get the degree in the first place!). Think about the costs of practicing, such as a family doc in an office somewhere. You've got to cover: overhead (which includes alot of crap like hydro,building insurance, etc.), malpractice, pay staff, pay for equipement, pay for repairs/upkeep. Even if you did join a group, you still gotta chip in a sizable amount. Then you'll probably want to buy a house, have a family, buy a car, cover huge loans, etc. Oh, and you eventually want to retire right? Try socking away about +1 mil making 30k, have fun. Want to take many vacation days off? Go for it. But the cost of not going to work has to be paid by you anyway. The list goes on and on. Sorry folks, a lot of you are just dreamers. I just hope you don't get hit in the side of the head by a 2X4 of finanical pain one day if you keep thinking the way some of you do. Later.
Click to expand...

I'm fairly certain nobody's saying they'd work for 80K gross practice billings.. in a lot of specialties they'd wind up with a net NEGATIVE salary after overhead! But if they're willing to work for 80K take-home, well, more power to them!
 
tigress said:
aha! I never said I would be in private practice for $80k. In fact, I don't intend to do private practice, and if I'm in a large group it will probably be in emergency medicine or something, so not much overhead there. And I know plenty of people with salaries at that level who are financially stable, with a house and a car and kids. No, they didn't have the same type of loans. That's why my one caveat with my $80k number is that it does somewhat depend on paying back loans.

You know, don't assume that people are financial idiots just because we say we could live on $80k. As a matter of fact, I'm quite good with finances. My husband and I live comfortably on my salary as a Clinical Research Coordinator, which really isn't very high, alone. The only debt we have is due to his med school loans, and we save money every month. And here I'm talking about an $80k physician salary, which would be doubled due to the income from both my husband and me. I have no doubt we could live very comfortably, with kids and all, on that.

Also, suggesting that people who "barely work" shouldn't get the degree just irks me. Who are you to decide who should and should not become a doctor? A doctor who is working part time is still contributing to healthcare.
Click to expand...

I never directed ANYTHING towards you. Sure, you can come up with a lot of things to prove its all good. Situations aren't all the same for EVERYONE. Its the typical pre-med mentality here on SDN which I can't understand. "Hey, I'm right if this and this are true!" "No, you're wrong because you don't hold the faith of a true doc. This is the right thing..." Blah Blah Blah. If you enjoy your life, great.
I am just posting an opinion. Period.

tigress said:
Also, suggesting that people who "barely work" shouldn't get the degree just irks me. Who are you to decide who should and should not become a doctor? A doctor who is working part time is still contributing to healthcare.
Click to expand...

You want to go through all the pain to be a doc just to take off time for many vacations? Does that sound ECONOMICALLY sound to you? Lets not get off the track of this thread, its about the economics of being a doc, not the philosophy of being one.
 
I predict this thread will be a huge flame war really soon with a lot of bickering. Here we go...
 
do not mind the overzealous and pretentious premed. they're not doctors. no where near.
 
Its interesting the amount of hypocracy that goes on on this forum... people constantly spouting forth holier than thou nonsense then claiming they would be unwilling to work for less than 80,000. Thats pretty rich. Hey no one is forcing you to go to some prestigous medical school and rack up 200,000K in debt. In fact there are many ways to go throught medical scholl with minimal to no debt espescially if you got to a state school. I am sure you all realize that millions of people in America live off of less that 30,000 a year. Just becuase we have "educations" we assume that we some how are entiled to make a ridiculous amount of money? I serious think that after 40K a year it becomes more about luxuries than about living comfortably. Shame on you all.... shame shame shame :meanie:
 
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stupibname said:
Its interesting the amount of hypocracy that goes on on this forum... people constantly spouting forth holier than thou nonsense then claiming they would be unwilling to work for less than 80,000. Thats pretty rich. Hey no one is forcing you to go to some prestigous medical school and rack up 200,000K in debt. In fact there are many ways to go throught medical scholl with minimal to no debt espescially if you got to a state school. I am sure you all realize that millions of people in America live off of less that 30,000 a year. Just becuase we have "educations" we assume that we some how are entiled to make a ridiculous amount of money? I serious think that after 40K a year it becomes more about luxuries than about living comfortably. Shame on you all.... shame shame shame :meanie:
Click to expand...

how old are you and have you ever worked for a living?
 
Jon Davis said:
I never directed ANYTHING towards you. Sure, you can come up with a lot of things to prove its all good. Situations aren't all the same for EVERYONE. Its the typical pre-med mentality here on SDN which I can't understand. "Hey, I'm right if this and this are true!" "No, you're wrong because you don't hold the faith of a true doc. This is the right thing..." Blah Blah Blah. If you enjoy your life, great.
I am just posting an opinion. Period.
Click to expand...

Did I ever say you directed anything to me? I didn't. I was just posting my opinion. Period. And I disagree with you. I don't think it's financially clueless to think we can live comfortably on $80k a year. Many, many people do it. I'm also not a typical bleeding heart pre-med. In fact, I'm not going into medicine because I want to "help people" or anything like that. I mean, it's great that I will get to help people. I just like medicine.


You want to go through all the pain to be a doc just to take off time for many vacations? Does that sound ECONOMICALLY sound to you? Lets not get off the track of this thread, its about the economics of being a doc, not the philosophy of being one.
Click to expand...

You're the one who brought it up. But yes, I think it would be great to work part time. And if I can work part time and still make enough money to live comfortably, how is that not economically sound?
 
radioh3ad said:
how old are you and have you ever worked for a living?
Click to expand...

17... and no I have not... but hopefully with the aid of loans and a Phd/Md program i won't have too for another 10+ years....... 😉 ........ man ignorance is bliss... sweet sweet bliss :laugh:
 
stupibname said:
Hey no one is forcing you to go to some prestigous medical school and rack up 200,000K in debt.
Click to expand...

Have you looked at any tuitions/budgets lately? I'm pretty sure every school I applied to w/ the exception of UC (my state school) and I think SUNY upstate have budgets of over 50K/yr....and these aren't the "prestigous" schools your talking about
 
tigress said:
Did I ever say you directed anything to me? I didn't. I was just posting my opinion. Period. And I disagree with you. I don't think it's financially clueless to think we can live comfortably on $80k a year. Many, many people do it. I'm also not a typical bleeding heart pre-med. In fact, I'm not going into medicine because I want to "help people" or anything like that. I mean, it's great that I will get to help people. I just like medicine.




You're the one who brought it up. But yes, I think it would be great to work part time. And if I can work part time and still make enough money to live comfortably, how is that not economically sound?
Click to expand...

More power to you.
 
C.P. Jones said:
Have you looked at any tuitions/budgets lately? I'm pretty sure every school I applied to w/ the exception of UC (my state school) and I think SUNY upstate have budgets of over 50K/yr....and these aren't the "prestigous" schools your talking about
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's true. And all of the "not prestigious" private schools have huge tuitions too. It's really hard to come out with much less than $200k in debt.
 
C.P. Jones said:
Have you looked at any tuitions/budgets lately? I'm pretty sure every school I applied to w/ the exception of UC (my state school) and I think SUNY upstate have budgets of over 50K/yr....and these aren't the "prestigous" schools your talking about
Click to expand...


you sure.. hmmm... my state med school's tuition is like 25k a year so about 100K for the whole thing... this is not including living expenses granted... but if your staying on campus and using a meal plan it would not be too bad... but then agian.... What do I know?..... NOTHING...... :meanie:
 
stupibname said:
you sure.. hmmm... my state med school's tuition is like 25k a year so about 100K for the whole thing... this is not including living expenses granted... but if your staying on campus and using a meal plan it would not be too bad... but then agian.... What do I know?..... NOTHING...... :meanie:
Click to expand...

My state med school is $30k. Besides, not everybody gets into their state school, and the "lower tier" private schools are mucho expensive. And some of us are married, and many schools do not have on-campus housing or a meal plan (it isn't college; and I know, some schools do have these things).

I'm sure you know plenty. But it is true that many, many people have no choice but to get almost $200k in debt. And even $100k debt is a ton.

(Then there are those of us whose spouses are also going into medicine, who will have maybe combined $400k debt! 😱 )
 
I can see how some ppl say you can live comfortably with 40k and some say that you cant. I think it all boils down to standards. And what really defines a comfortable lifestyle? Is it just being able to pay the bills and feed the family? Or is it about goin to europe every half a year to sightsee and golfing every weekend? I think that many ppl are used to growing up well off financially (i mean to a poor man's standards. That individual might just see it as a regular average lifestyle). But yea, as long as we're happy with wut we make for a salary, then I think thats great.
 
stupibname said:
you sure.. hmmm... my state med school's tuition is like 25k a year so about 100K for the whole thing... this is not including living expenses granted... but if your staying on campus and using a meal plan it would not be too bad... but then agian.... What do I know?..... NOTHING...... :meanie:
Click to expand...

No, you really don't. I think you underestimate living expenses, not to mention books, etc. Even living on campus, that came out to almost 10k a year, and I live in an area where living expenses are relatively cheap. I'm sure it's almost twice that in places like NY or CA.
 
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Jon Davis said:
I am astonished at how many intelligent SDN folk are just financially clueless. Kinda falls in line with the whole "myth" that docs are bad at finances/business. heh. I dont think many of you realize the economic realities of the future. I guarantee you will want to riot if you make 80k a year as a doc, regardless of the hours per week (unless you barely work, if thats the case you shouldnt get the degree in the first place!). Think about the costs of practicing, such as a family doc in an office somewhere. You've got to cover: overhead (which includes alot of crap like hydro,building insurance, etc.), malpractice, pay staff, pay for equipement, pay for repairs/upkeep. Even if you did join a group, you still gotta chip in a sizable amount. Then you'll probably want to buy a house, have a family, buy a car, cover huge loans, etc. Oh, and you eventually want to retire right? Try socking away about +1 mil making 30k, even 80k. Have fun. Want to take many vacation days off? Go for it. But the cost of not going to work has to be paid by you anyway. How about the rising costs of living? As of now, middle class homes with two wage earners is the norm, and most of them say they are just getting by (No, I dont have a survey, but many townhall meetings with the President echo this concern. Thats why there are tons of tax cuts and refunds targeted to help the middle class working family.). The list goes on and on. Sorry folks, a lot of you are just dreamers. I just hope you don't get hit in the side of the head by a 2X4 of finanical pain one day. You've heard this saying over and over again: Money does turn the world around. Unfortunately, love/altruism/humanitarianism/whateveryouwanttocallit doesn't. Later.
Click to expand...

I think people meant 80K salary ("take home" for private practice). You couldn't run a clinic with only 80K gross coming in.
 
zurned said:
I can see how some ppl say you can live comfortably with 40k and some say that you cant. I think it all boils down to standards. And what really defines a comfortable lifestyle? Is it just being able to pay the bills and feed the family? Or is it about goin to europe every half a year to sightsee and golfing every weekend? I think that many ppl are used to growing up well off financially.
Click to expand...

👍

I love it when you say you could live on x salary, and get the response "have you ever worked for a living?"

I think we should hold a seminar on how to make a budget and live within it.

The median household income in the most recent census was $41,994, with 105,480,101 households and 2.59 people per household. This means 52 million households in this country took in less than 42K a year. On average that less than 42K supported between 2 and 3 people. If someone says you can't support yourself on 30K or less, they are the ones showing their ignorance. Maybe they don't have the self-restraint to do it, but people do it all the time.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html

I'll spare you the anecdotal evidence of my own experience.
 
dbhvt said:
If someone says you can't support yourself on 30K or less, they are the ones showing their ignorance. Maybe they don't have the self-restraint to do it, but people do it all the time.
Click to expand...
👍 👍
 
radioh3ad said:
how old are you and have you ever worked for a living?
Click to expand...

um, ive worked for a living to support myself making 30k/yr (before taxes). As a single person, i'd say that this was pretty luxurious. I was able to afford a car, house, insurance, and a ton of food, with money left over every month to buy cds and cable tv. Now to me, this is satisfaction.

Having a family who somehow feels self righteous entitlement to a million dollar house... well it's going to cost you a million dollars.
 
Don't forget that where you live makes all the difference in the world. If you make 100K a year in Southern California you will be broke. 100K in the middle of Iowa and you live large.
 
stupibname said:
you sure.. hmmm... my state med school's tuition is like 25k a year so about 100K for the whole thing... this is not including living expenses granted... but if your staying on campus and using a meal plan it would not be too bad... but then agian.... What do I know?..... NOTHING...... :meanie:
Click to expand...

i clearly said w/ the exception of my state school and SUNY upstate...which i don't actually know the tuition of

your state school is probably out of state for me, and i probably didn't apply b/c (a) it's too expensive...i.e., Colorado (b) they are a state school, duh

and b/c residency is a huge factor, most of the schools i have applied to are private schools....drexel, penn state, albany, gw, etc...and all of these have astounding tuitions, and living expenses definitely count as it will add to my debt
 
jimkat said:
If you make 100K a year in Southern California you will be broke.
Click to expand...
:laugh: Where are you from that you say this? Just curious.
 
I have lived in So Cal.

NapeSpikes said:
:laugh: Where are you from that you say this? Just curious.
Click to expand...
 
dbhvt said:
👍

I love it when you say you could live on x salary, and get the response "have you ever worked for a living?"

I think we should hold a seminar on how to make a budget and live within it.

The median household income in the most recent census was $41,994, with 105,480,101 households and 2.59 people per household. This means 52 million households in this country took in less than 42K a year. On average that less than 42K supported between 2 and 3 people. If someone says you can't support yourself on 30K or less, they are the ones showing their ignorance. Maybe they don't have the self-restraint to do it, but people do it all the time.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html

I'll spare you the anecdotal evidence of my own experience.
Click to expand...


I don't think I could live comfortably on $30k a year if it was our only salary. If my husband and I were both making $30k a year we'd probably live fine. I think I could support us on $40k. And this is taking into account wanting to support children, as well. When I was in grad school making $25k my parents had to help us out. Now I'm making around $37k, and we're fine, but adding kids would make it tight.

Also, keep in mind that a huge number of people in America who are making low salaries AREN'T able to support themselves. Just read Nickel and Dimed. It's a horrible book (the author is completely full of herself), but it's the best I've read that gives a real idea of what it's like to try to live on minimum wage.
 
jimkat said:
I have lived in So Cal.
Click to expand...
Cool. That's where I am now. No worries, I understand your first post about the difference in cost of living, but I'm sure you'll agree that even in SoCal, being broke with $100K is an exaggeration. 😉
 
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