Maybe I'm too naive as I venture into this profession, but for usefulness to those who are about to apply, can someone make a breakdown of 1)family practice MD and 2)specialist MD (ie. neurologist)? I think you'll find tons of threads on how being an MD is not AS financially rewarding as many people expect it to be, but a lot of those words are biased in some way or another, so maybe a numerical view would allow people to pass their own judgments on what they want out of life and their profession. Just an idea, so let's see if this thread takes off...
What I was looking for was a survey of how the finances can be expected to be divided: gross, malpractice insurance, taxes, MD school debt payments (assume $250,000), living expenses, etc.
Hopefully the excel file I just made goes through, its a bit rough but should provide an idea of student loan payments after school. Assumptions are that interest accrues during school, and that payments don't start until after residency/internship are over. Payments will depend largely on how long it is before the residency is done, 200K loan at 7.5% or whatever rate adds up fast when no payments are being made!
For gross salaries by specialty, google "physician salaries". Hard to say that one web site is "right" and another "wrong", but if you look at several, you'll get a feel for salary levels for different ones. I'm still unsure, for example, for ER doctors if they're paid hourly (which I suspect) or what, given one can pick up spare shifts. I'd be interested to learn more about how much flexibility different professions have for this, i.e. how much more would you need to be paid to work every saturday? Or to work every Thursday until 9pm, thereby missing dinner with the family?
Malpractice insurance - my understanding is typically this is paid by the hospital or practice you work for, only truly visible if you're a sole practitioner. Varies a huge amount by state, which is interesting, but realistically I wonder how long NV or FL are going to retain certain specialties given the malpractice legal environment there. Say the rates are 120K in one state and 40K in another. Or better yet, your salary would be 135K in one state, but with the same number of patients, 60K in another. Yes, I'd say that'll impact what some MDs do (not all, mind you)
Taxes vary, probably fed you're looking at upper rate for much of an MD's salary, around the 33% range, state tax probably ranges 2-12% or so depending. Many have progressive tax rates to sock "the rich" with a high rate on any income over, say, 150K.
You're on your own for cost of living determinations, I'd think a 400K house would be fine, others would want one 3x as big/nice..
