Dermatology Job Market

[DrMdSoon]

Is dermatology likely to be a field in which I can be successful over the next 35 years?

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[deleted648625]

Attendings:

My goals are to live modestly 1 hr outside NYC, but afford to put 4 kids through private *insert religion* schools (20k/kid/year), pay for their colleges, retire comfortably at 65, but still afford to go on vacations 2x/yr.

All this while enjoying my job day to day and be home for dinner.

Is dermatology likely to be a field in which I can accomplish this over the next 35 years?

12 years of school * $20,000 per year * 4 kids = $960,000

1 hour outside NYC presumably a large house: not sure at all but lets assume low end estimate $500k high end $1.5 MM

pay for college: assuming no kids rn, they will be going in an average of ~20 years from now, I used this calculator Vanguard college cost projector : 4 kids * $237,000 per child per four years = $948,000

Without factoring in any cost of food/clothing/vacation/retirement savings we are at approximately $2.5-3.5 MM. With an average derm salary of ~$400k, with NY taxes assume effective rate of 35% take home is now $260,000 per year that is 10-13 years of work with ALL of it going to housing or education costs. No money saved for retirement, no food has been purchased, no gasoline, no travel.

I've made a lot of assumptions but you can use this as a model and change the specifics to see what happens with higher salary vs lower taxes vs lower housing, etc.

 

[doctalaughs]

Attendings:

My goals are to live modestly 1 hr outside NYC, but afford to put 4 kids through private *insert religion* schools (20k/kid/year), pay for their colleges, retire comfortably at 65, but still afford to go on vacations 2x/yr.

All this while enjoying my job day to day and be home for dinner.

Is dermatology likely to be a field in which I can accomplish this over the next 35 years?

Agree with above poster. You can probably accomplish many of those goals but likely not all of them. You are probably not going to be able to pay for college completely, retire later or much less comfortably.

Also ask yourself why you are wanting to live outside NYC where these goals are probably *the* most difficult in all the country (ie easy only as partner in a top law firm or senior ibanker or celebrity doctor- all of which require a good deal of luck to be).

 

[chocomorsel]

Attendings:

My goals are to live modestly 1 hr outside NYC, but afford to put 4 kids through private *insert religion* schools (20k/kid/year), pay for their colleges, retire comfortably at 65, but still afford to go on vacations 2x/yr.

All this while enjoying my job day to day and be home for dinner.

Is dermatology likely to be a field in which I can accomplish this over the next 35 years?

Jeez, are you posting these in the every damn form? It’s getting to be a bit much.

 

[MOHS_01]

I understand the wants, anxieties, and priorities.... but disappointment I see for young DrMDSoon.

 

[DrMdSoon]

Just asking

 

[chocomorsel]

Need to make a decision about what do in like the next few days lol

Stay away from NYC, and any state with high taxes, live in a good public school district and send your kids there, and only worry about college.
Why are you so stuck on private school and NYC?

 

[DrMdSoon]

.

 

[chocomorsel]

Well there are plenty of people who went to public schools and turned out just fine. Your small sample size may be a little small.

As far as NYC, well maybe think of a state close to NY that’s got less state taxes where you can still visit frequently.

Anyway, seems like you are asking about unrealistic Unicorns, so good luck buddy.

 

[asmallchild]

Attendings:

My goals are to live modestly 1 hr outside NYC, but afford to put 4 kids through private *insert religion* schools (20k/kid/year), pay for their colleges, retire comfortably at 65, but still afford to go on vacations 2x/yr.

All this while enjoying my job day to day and be home for dinner.

Is dermatology likely to be a field in which I can accomplish this over the next 35 years?

It’s trite advice but there’s a reason it’s repeated ad nauseum


Pick something you like to do and the rest will fall in place.

No one will be able to guarantee you anything in medicine over the next 35 years. If I could tell you that, I wouldn’t be posting here, I’d be collecting yet another powerball win.

 

[trobinsonmd]

I know dermatologists in nyc who make $300k, and I know dermatologists in nyc who make 1.5 and work 4 days... it is all about your practice and how it is set up... also ny may be a bit saturated, if you move somewhere like pensacola and do mohs, you can easily achieve these goals (minus the ny one obviously)... clearly you are set on sending your kids to private school, and I don't want to give parenting advice since I have no experience with children of my own, but I think your sample size is a bit small. I went to public school, as did all of my family and many of my friends, and we are all either physicians, attorneys, or engineers... I grew up with some kids who went to private school and many of them are not doing so hot... it really depends on the student and how motivated they are... you could raise a ten year old in the worst part of queens and send them to the worst school, if they are motivated, they will be successful

 

[qwerty89]

this guy has posted all over place with the same crap. Over on AuntMinnie.com (radiology forum) he posted this:


"MS4 here with applications due in a month. Question for attendings:

I finished my radiology rotation and I enjoyed it for the content and because of how unstressed I felt, compared to the ridiculous stress I experienced recently on a sub-surgical sub-internship. I like the hours too, I'm able to be home to see my newborn reach milestones. On my surgical sub-I's I had less than an hour to see her a day. On this rotation I’ve only seen rads who love their job and despite some politics don’t seem too stressed.

I recently spoke to an outside attending who used to be in private practice and loved his life, but got bought out by a big health system. He says he used to love his job, but is now so burned out and stressed by having to read 150 studies a day because of administrators forcing higher expectations that he switched to a diff subspecialty of rad bc it stresses him less. He dreads going to work now. He said one of the reasons he switched was because of the fear of missing things at the crazy pace he was being forced to read in the health system.

How true is this for you guys? I really don't want a stressful life. I've had enough stress with getting into med school, killing myself in med school to get good scores/AOA, while my buddies make great money this whole time outside of medicine and actually have time to enjoy their income. I love the low stress rad residency, but don't want the pressure cooker attending life that the guy I talked to described. I am happy to work hard to earn 400, but don't want to feel under the gun my whole life or miss out on my family life. Is DR still the best option?"

 

[MOHS_01]

Work hard, big volume, deal with the stress or make a below average income and cry about the sour grapes. Welcome to medicine today.

 

[DrMdSoon]

Is there something wrong w asking diff people’s opinions? Do you make consequential life decisions without asking the people who know better than you?
Noones forcing you to answer if it bothers you
@qwerty89

 

[reno911]

The answer to your original question is yes. The devil is in the details, of course. But it is certainly quite possible. Not guaranteed, but quite possible.

 

[doctalaughs]

The answer to your original question is yes. The devil is in the details, of course. But it is certainly quite possible. Not guaranteed, but quite possible.

I agree it’s possible but would argue its quite unlikely. I’m just guestimating but probably need an income of 600k/yr to completely pay for 4 kids private school and college, living cost for family of 6 in new york and “retire confortably.” Not to mention pay off any med school debt.

So 600 is on the higher end in saturated areas like NYC. Doable where there is less competition for sure....

I guess I would tell OP there is no medical field where these goals are “guaranteed” or even “very likely” but derm, ortho, radiology, radonc, EM, anesthesia are all ones where you have a “unlikely” shot.

 

[Shufflin]

Funny to see posts like this. I remember being on the hunt for the high paying specialties as a med student, not knowing crap about reality. Thought about specialties for money's sake. But it's a trap.

In the end I went after what I was extremely good at, and what I enjoyed. Sure, it had it's problems, but because of how I work and who I am as a professional and what not, I've managed to earn a very high income working damn good hours, home by 3pm usually, sometimes earlier. I earn twice the average salary for my specialty. I say this only as an example so you see the light a bit. This holds true for nearly any specialty that does not depend on a hospital or lab for its execution.

Stop the group-think, and listen to your gut. Financial and lifestyle success come down to not the specialty, but the person.

 

[asmallchild]

Per the OP's request, thread is to be locked as OP no longer deems this helpful.

Per SDN protocol, users can edit their posts if they no longer want it to be visible. They cannot delete entire threads though.