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- Dec 2, 2009
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Don't make the same mistake that I did.
Back when I was a teenager, I decided I wanted to be a doctor, but I think what I really decided was that I wanted to be wealthy. Besides the obvious lack of foresight of allowing 16 year old MaxillofacialMN to make career decisions for 29-60 year old MaxillofacialMN, this was an incredibly misguided decision. If you are going into medicine because science/medicine/altruism genuinely interests you, this post is not for you. If you want to be a doctor to become wealthy, DO NOT DO IT.
I graduated college with decent stats (3.5 GPA, chemistry degree, 31 MCAT, etc), and got accepted to pod school for 2013. I had family, friends, and a girlfriend that I left behind in Minnesota, and started at DMU. It sucked, big time. Medical school is probably exciting and cool if you like anatomy, disease, and learning, but if you are just interested in dollars, it will be the worst experience of your life. You will keep telling yourself that the $$ are just 6.5 short years away, and then your life will be great. Except, it won't. Sure you'll be making a ton of money with some letters behind your name, but you'll also be saddled with over $200k of debt hitting you with insane amounts of interest payments monthly. Maybe you'll be married at this point (if you found time to love between rotations), and you want to buy a house. Good luck with no money. You will probably end up buying a house anyways that is commensurable to your salary (not net worth, because all your fellow physicians have big, luxurious houses, not to mention cars, vacations, etc), and you'll be saddled with even more debt and structured payments. This is not financial independence.
I was really afraid to leave podiatry school, because I thought my prospects elsewhere were dismal. I looked at average salary for a bachelors degree, and it was depressing. I based all my forecasting off this number, and it had my net worth breaking even around age 42, and then DPM skyrocketed past into the many millions of dollars. But then I realized something important, that you should realize too. I wasn't average. I was in medical school. I could do great things with my life! At the end of my first year, I took the plunge; I withdrew from school.
Since leaving school, I got married , bought a house, and am net worth positive. I am in consulting, and my wife is in sales. Our combined income is ~$170k. If we keep this up, we will be worth a million dollars before my wife is 30 years old - the same age some of you will potentially be finishing your residencies strapped with $200+k of debt. Not only am I far better off financially by leaving school, but I have so much more freedom. We travel all the time - in the last year we've gone to Paris, Mexico, and this weekend we're taking a roadtrip to meet some friends. We get weekends off, we see our families regularly.
I don't want to encourage anyone who is genuinely interested in medicine to stop pursing it, but for those of you in it for the money, don't. It's not worth it.
Back when I was a teenager, I decided I wanted to be a doctor, but I think what I really decided was that I wanted to be wealthy. Besides the obvious lack of foresight of allowing 16 year old MaxillofacialMN to make career decisions for 29-60 year old MaxillofacialMN, this was an incredibly misguided decision. If you are going into medicine because science/medicine/altruism genuinely interests you, this post is not for you. If you want to be a doctor to become wealthy, DO NOT DO IT.
I graduated college with decent stats (3.5 GPA, chemistry degree, 31 MCAT, etc), and got accepted to pod school for 2013. I had family, friends, and a girlfriend that I left behind in Minnesota, and started at DMU. It sucked, big time. Medical school is probably exciting and cool if you like anatomy, disease, and learning, but if you are just interested in dollars, it will be the worst experience of your life. You will keep telling yourself that the $$ are just 6.5 short years away, and then your life will be great. Except, it won't. Sure you'll be making a ton of money with some letters behind your name, but you'll also be saddled with over $200k of debt hitting you with insane amounts of interest payments monthly. Maybe you'll be married at this point (if you found time to love between rotations), and you want to buy a house. Good luck with no money. You will probably end up buying a house anyways that is commensurable to your salary (not net worth, because all your fellow physicians have big, luxurious houses, not to mention cars, vacations, etc), and you'll be saddled with even more debt and structured payments. This is not financial independence.
I was really afraid to leave podiatry school, because I thought my prospects elsewhere were dismal. I looked at average salary for a bachelors degree, and it was depressing. I based all my forecasting off this number, and it had my net worth breaking even around age 42, and then DPM skyrocketed past into the many millions of dollars. But then I realized something important, that you should realize too. I wasn't average. I was in medical school. I could do great things with my life! At the end of my first year, I took the plunge; I withdrew from school.
Since leaving school, I got married , bought a house, and am net worth positive. I am in consulting, and my wife is in sales. Our combined income is ~$170k. If we keep this up, we will be worth a million dollars before my wife is 30 years old - the same age some of you will potentially be finishing your residencies strapped with $200+k of debt. Not only am I far better off financially by leaving school, but I have so much more freedom. We travel all the time - in the last year we've gone to Paris, Mexico, and this weekend we're taking a roadtrip to meet some friends. We get weekends off, we see our families regularly.
I don't want to encourage anyone who is genuinely interested in medicine to stop pursing it, but for those of you in it for the money, don't. It's not worth it.