At what age do you plan to retire after a career as a physician?

[wisconsindoctor]

At what age do you plan to retire after a career as a physician?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Thumper137]

Until the day I die

 

[MattD]

I don't have plans to retire. I'm sure I will one day, I don't plan on dropping in the OR or anything, but I'll work till I don't feel like working anymore.


Given the OP, I would like to institute a side poll: How many replies before the OP launches into a tirade about how you'll have to work until you're 127 to break even because medicine is such an awful career?

 

[cpants]

I plan on working until after I die.

 

[Squiddie]

I'll work in the Navy until they kick me out. Then I'll work in a hospital until I die.

 

[Squiddie]

I don't have plans to retire. I'm sure I will one day, I don't plan on dropping in the OR or anything, but I'll work till I don't feel like working anymore.


Given the OP, I would like to institute a side poll: How many replies before the OP launches into a tirade about how you'll have to work until you're 127 to break even because medicine is such an awful career?

I'm going with 15...though most people so far seem to want to go until they die, so I'm sure the OP will be okay with that.

 

[Law2Doc]

At what age do you plan to retire after a career as a physician?

The days of retiring early in medicine based on a physician's salary ended several decades ago. Unless you invest well, you will simply not be in a position to retire prior to age 65, and most people push it beyond that. Social security will be gone, and if you have a family you won't be socking away enough for retirement to keep living the same quality of life you will be during your practice.

Heck, there are a couple of specialties out there where the median age of practicing physicians is 65, thanks to long training tracks. So unless folks hit it big in the stock markets (or in Vegas), or have a spouse earning at least as much, if not more, then they are, folks should plan to practice well into their senior years. When your hands get uncooperative, you teach the young'uns.

 

[Law2Doc]

I plan on working until after I die.

That's possible if you donate your body to an anatomy lab.

 

[Charles English]

...

Given the OP, I would like to institute a side poll: How many replies before the OP launches into a tirade about how you'll have to work until you're 127 to break even because medicine is such an awful career?

👍 too true. i can almost feel wisconsindoctor's doom & gloom around the corner.

 

[MattD]

Hey I just noticed, there's no option on the poll for my most likely scenario, you might want to fix it...


Add 1 vote to "Working until I'm a danger to my patients (due to alcoholism)."

 

[The Doctor]

The days of retiring early in medicine based on a physician's salary ended several decades ago.

While I agree with you in the sense that reimbursements are steadily declining and that many fields are certainly not as lucrative as they once were, I have to respectfully disagree with this sentiment and other views I have seen on SDN predicting financial woes for physicians. Personally, I didn't enter medicine for the money, and I have no plans to retire until I'm at least sixty-five (it seems like medicine should logically be a lifelong career given the need for doctors and the long personal and societal investment in training). But if you look at the real world job offers (as opposed to salary surveys which tend to underreport earnings as far as I have seen), there are plenty of specialties with incomes in the 300-400k range. It is not unheard of to see salaries of over 600k in some of the top earning specialties such as radiology. Granted, many primary care specialties fall far short of this, but earners in this upper range who save wisely and do not require lavish lifestyles could easily retire by age 55. Given that the per capita income in the US in 2007 was $38.6k and that somehow non-physicians manage to retire, I don't see how having 10x the income would present an insurmountable challenge to retirement.

 

[Law2Doc]

While I agree with you in the sense that reimbursements are steadily declining and that many fields are certainly not as ludicrous as they once were, I have to respectfully disagree with this sentiment and other views I have seen on SDN predicting financial woes for physicians. Personally, I didn't enter medicine for the money, and I have no plans to retire until I'm at least sixty-five (it seems like medicine should logically be a lifelong career given the need for doctors and the long personal and societal investment in training). But if you look at the real world job offers (as opposed to salary surveys which tend to underreport earnings as far as I have seen), there are plenty of specialties with incomes in the 300-400k range. It is not unheard of to see salaries of over 600k in some of the top earning specialties such as radiology. Granted, many primary care specialties fall far short of this, but earners in this upper range who save wisely and do not require lavish lifestyles could easily retire by age 55. Given that the per capita income in the US in 2007 was $38.6k and that somehow non-physicians manage to retire, I don't see how having 10x the income would present an insurmountable challenge to retirement.

Actually these days salaries in the 600k range are not being given out like they used to -- if you see one, it is someone with a rather unique skillset and experience, or someone who got in when the getting was good. You and I will never see such a salary, sorry. The more competitive specialties and those with significantly longer training are the ones that can get up into the $300k range (but most won't), and by then you have greater debt and have forgone earnings for a lot longer. The less competitive fields tend to earn 140-200 post residency, and incomes have been stagnant for quite a while. There have been numerous articles in the public media about folks in this range working absurdly long hours and takng on second jobs to make do. But the issue is not that folks couldn't set themselves up to live on a low income family type pittance by age 55. It's that they cannot live the same kind of quality of life that they will have gotten used to. With social security effectively gone, real estate prices high, interest rates crummy, educational costs for kids through the roof, and salaries at best stagnant, you simply cannot do what the prior generations did. So nobody is going to retire at 55. And maybe it's not so wise to retire at 65 anymore.

 

[LifetimeDoc]

Let's see....36 years old...1st year...graduate when I'm 40...Residency 3-7 years, start working let's say at 45 on average, 7 years to pay off loans, that s 52. So at age 52 I'm starting out with a blank slate. Put in 15 more years (and hopefully save up enough money in that VERY SHORT time to retire on), age 67. Retire! Well, not really retire...just no steady job, just helping out folks at free clinics or traveling doing the same.

 

[AmoryBlaine]

That's possible if you donate your body to an anatomy lab.

Whatever man, my cadaver didn't do ****. He mostly just laid there.

 

[Chizwheel]

If a single payer system gets instituted, I'll retire now and go on welfare since that seems to be the best route for a secure income in this country nowadays.

 

[LifetimeDoc]

Whatever man, my cadaver didn't do ****. He mostly just laid there.

That's why they are called "silent teachers". 🙄

 

[abooodMD]

We are studying many years to become good doctors ... and I think we should keep working to help others till the last day of our lives ..


my greetings ..

 

[drc243]

My goal is to work until the day that i am not longer able to work, which is hopefully the day I die. The longer I can keep my mind stimulated the better able i will be able to beat neurodegerative diseases and keep my sanility. However, i hope that in my olders years i can slow down, work less hours, and practice medicine the way it used to be done.

 

[sgglaze]

If a single payer system gets instituted, I'll retire now and go on welfare since that seems to be the best route for a secure income in this country nowadays.

Yeah because people just love being on welfare! I bet single moms are running to pickup their checks with a smile on their face laughing all the way to the bank as they celebrate their own brilliant financial decision making (best route for a secure income nowadays as you say) and screw out hard working Americans like yourself!!! You're sooo right!!!!

If welfare really is so go great maybe you should go on it! Please. Now, please reply with a rant about how you worked soooo hard for everything you have and didn't have any help on the way there. We're very proud of you!

 

[Husky85]

Sanility...that's a new one. I too hope to keep my fusion of "senility" and "sanity." 🙂

just messing with you...I plan to work until the field gets so socialized that I can't tolerate it. I don't need to work hard only to have my job dictated to me by the government. hopefully that happens soon enough that I'm still young enough to have the motivation to set up practice somewhere overseas where the don't treat physicians like pawns.

My goal is to work until the day that i am not longer able to work, which is hopefully the day I die. The longer I can keep my mind stimulated the better able i will be able to beat neurodegerative diseases and keep my sanility. However, i hope that in my olders years i can slow down, work less hours, and practice medicine the way it used to be done.

 

[MattD]

Whatever man, my cadaver didn't do ****. He mostly just laid there.

mostly?

 

[Husky85]

sgglaze...relax...most of us are rightfully frustrated that we will be working hard to treat patients for our whole lives...and that often these patients will not have the means to compensate us for our work...and that our tax dollars will be supporting their existence, regardless of their means (or lack thereof)

it doesn't mean that life isn't bad for the people on welfare, life kinda stinks for most of them...i think the poster's comment was more intended to show how badly he believes that we will be treated in the future as physicians...and he is not without a basis in that argument (sadly enough)

Yeah because people just love being on welfare! I bet single moms are running to pickup their checks with a smile on their face laughing all the way to the bank as they celebrate their own brilliant financial decision making (best route for a secure income nowadays as you say) and screw out hard working Americans like yourself!!! You're sooo right!!!!

If welfare really is so go great maybe you should go on it! Please. Now, please reply with a rant about how you worked soooo hard for everything you have and didn't have any help on the way there. We're very proud of you!

 

[45408]

That's why they are called "silent teachers". 🙄

Ours made some squishing noises periodically.


I think I'll work until I'm 70 or otherwise incapable of doing my job. I might start cutting back hours before that, or I might continue working after that point with reduced hours, but I have no desire to retire at 55.

 

[Doctor J]

"Retirement" is a plastic term nowadays. It rarely means what is used to, the total absence of any form of paid work.

Job duties change, work hours are cut, and job location can change as well. If I can arrange a 3 day-a-week schedule in my 70's I'll consider that "retirement"... As long as it is in an area with a decent payer mix...

You can pick up teaching duties as well, or move into administrative areas of medicine. The possibilities are really wide.

 

[speeter]

If a single payer system gets instituted, I'll retire now and go on welfare since that seems to be the best route for a secure income in this country nowadays.

Post of the day!

 

[Chizwheel]

Husky...you are right. Apparently some of ppl here failed to take the sarcasm & hyperbole course offered by their schools. Don't get all defensive sgglaze, if you keep that no humor attitude, you're going to get slaughtered during residency. You've got to learn to laugh at things, even serious ones if you want to survive in this field without serious emotional/mental problems.

 

[Re3iRtH]

We are studying many years to become good doctors ... and I think we should keep working to help others till the last day of our lives ..


my greetings ..

I don't get this rationale...
We are studying our asses off for a big part of our life, and we should
help others till the day we die? Am I missing something? I worked my
ass off while most people in the USA ate cheeseburgers to get heart
disease and diabetes, and it is my obligation to break myself down
to repair their mistakes??

 

[DBR]

Im guessing by the age of 70 Id like to retire and maybe beyond 60 id like to work reduced hours.

Thats a long ways away though so its hard to say. I dont think Id like to retire too early though. It would be kind of boring.

 

[coffeebythelake]

Until I'm satisfied I made enough money.

 

[coffeebythelake]

😛

 

[LeLu]

Until I'm satisfied I made enough money.

Your avatar is super cute!

 

[Jwax]

Add 1 vote to "Working until I'm a danger to my patients (due to alcoholism)."

😆 Perfect.

I figure 65 sounds like a good age. I'll finish residency at 30-32 years old so 30 years of doing the same thing every day sounds like plenty. I like the thought of what others have said about working reduced hours before retiring, so maybe I'd start that at 60. I hope to still do volunteer clinic work pretty much until I die or am a danger to my patients (due to alcoholism or whatever else).

 

[Trismegistus4]

I don't have plans to retire. I'm sure I will one day, I don't plan on dropping in the OR or anything, but I'll work till I don't feel like working anymore.


Given the OP, I would like to institute a side poll: How many replies before the OP launches into a tirade about how you'll have to work until you're 127 to break even because medicine is such an awful career?

As soon as I read your post, I thought to myself, it won't be the OP, it will be Law2Doc, and his (her?) theme won't be that medicine is an awful career, but that you need to be realistic and better love medicine for its own sake, because the golden age has passed, you can't count on making a lot of money anymore, incomes will continue to decline, and you will probably be able to completely retire only at a very advanced age. I swear, I thought all of that before I read on. And what do you know? The financial scold of SDN appeared right on cue.

I must say, though, why should anyone expect to retire, as we understand the term, anyway? For most of human history, people have had to work for as long as they possibly could, if only to avoid being a burden to their families, who had to take care of them when they became decrepit. If you think about it, for anyone--whether he be a doctor, engineer, teacher, or carpenter--to be able to quit working entirely with 20-30 years of healthy life left, and to be able to spend it doing nothing but playing golf and going on cruises, is an extreme luxury that no one should really feel entitled to. (I say this reluctantly, as someone who has always had a secret wish to be independently wealthy and spend his life puttering around the house and pursuing hobbies.) I'd hope to be done with full-time practice by the time I was 65, but can easily see myself continuing to work part-time, maybe locum tenens, through my seventies.

 

[Doctor J]

As soon as I read your post, I thought to myself, it won't be the OP, it will be Law2Doc, and his (her?) theme won't be that medicine is an awful career, but that you need to be realistic and better love medicine for its own sake, because the golden age has passed, you can't count on making a lot of money anymore, incomes will continue to decline, and you will probably be able to completely retire only at a very advanced age. I swear, I thought all of that before I read on. And what do you know? The financial scold of SDN appeared right on cue.

I must say, though, why should anyone expect to retire, as we understand the term, anyway? For most of human history, people have had to work for as long as they possibly could, if only to avoid being a burden to their families, who had to take care of them when they became decrepit. If you think about it, for anyone--whether he be a doctor, engineer, teacher, or carpenter--to be able to quit working entirely with 20-30 years of healthy life left, and to be able to spend it doing nothing but playing golf and going on cruises, is an extreme luxury that no one should really feel entitled to. (I say this reluctantly, as someone who has always had a secret wish to be independently wealthy and spend his life puttering around the house and pursuing hobbies.) I'd hope to be done with full-time practice by the time I was 65, but can easily see myself continuing to work part-time, maybe locum tenens, through my seventies.

Agree with this - all of it. When social security was enacted the average life expectancy was only a year or two longer than the age at which you could collect benefits. Now we have an average life expectancy of 15-20 years longer than benefit collection age... no wonder the system is going bankrupt. If we tied benefit collection age to average life expectancy we'd be somewhere good, but fat chance the baby boomers will agree to that before they collect their due and crash and burn the entire damn thing.

How many people here had grandparents who actually retired? Or, since this crowd can be a bit young, great-grandparents? It wasn't really an option 60 or 70 years ago. When you got old you did different things, but you always worked.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

My dad recently "retired" but took a "part time" job doing something he loved so he wouldn't get bored. Currently he's working 40+ hours a week at that part time job.

I imagine I'll do something the same, doing the staged retirement thing. Slowly decreasing my patient load, spending more and more time in medical education as I get older.

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

I guess I'll be the rarity -- 55 baby!

 

[JacobSilge]

I guess I'll be the rarity -- 55 baby!

I love the irony, Doctor4life!

 

[yohimbine1]

You need way earlier options...

 

[Bolo]

This poll doesn't take into account the medical advances that very well may be occurring in the relatively near future regarding life extension. In this case, if we all live into our 120s, and remain healthy, some of us may be practicing longer than we think.

Would be nice, who knows.

 

[Sean2tall]

When I've paid off all my debt and if I ever have enough money to not work.

 

[etf]

i'm thinking 68-70, unless my family guilts me into doing it sooner...