How many of you have millionaire parents?

[fancymylotus]

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listen, post all you want about being well off or not, but to stick yourself in the 1% in a thread where everyone is not up there and then post about how wonderful your life is, repeatedly, is sort of a jackass move. but whatever, i post about all this crap i buy and my shoe collection so wtf do i know about tact.

 

[EMDO2018]

1st gen college grad here and not bitter about coming from meager beginnings. That being said, I do find it difficult to get to know my wealthy classmates. People who come from money get along much more easily with other people who come from money. For example: when we have a lengthy break from rotations, most people fly home or travel to interesting destinations. When they return, they share stories and bond over their travels. People like me just kind of hang around town bc we're broke as fuark. My impression is that I come across as boring and relatively un-cultured, because no one knows I have only student loans and no money to travel. In reality, I'd love to travel but will have to wait until I'm an attending to do so.

This is just one example, but you can imagine how the difference in life experience makes it easier for wealthy people to relate to and get to know one another. There aren't many (any?) "blue collar" types in my school, even the minority students are relatively wealthy. It's all good though, I don't hold it against anyone. It's an interesting phenomenon though, and it definitely has changed the way I view the socioeconomic accessibility of the medical profession.

Oh God, this SOOOOO much. being poor and black I have absolutely nothing in common with anyone here

 

[EMDO2018]

listen, post all you want about being well off or not, but to stick yourself in the 1% in a thread where everyone is not up there and then post about how wonderful your life is, repeatedly, is sort of a jackass move. but whatever, i post about all this crap i buy and my shoe collection so wtf do i know about tact.

You honestly seem really shallow to me.

 

[fancymylotus]

You honestly seem really shallow to me.

I like nice things. That doesn't equate to shallow. And that post you quoted was pretty self deprecating.

 

[touchpause13]

You honestly seem really shallow to me.

This is why you have trouble making friends

 

[Beargryllz]

I have millionaire parents

It's only the third or fourth reason I decided to go into medicine though, I promise

 

[enlightenedb]

I have billionaire parents.








































































jk

 

[Dylasa]

Did you know that AAMC put out some numbers on this in 2008? > 75% of medical students come from families in the top two quintiles for family wealth, and the percent of medical students from the lowest quintile has never been higher than 5.5% (at least up until 2005). Here's the report. The more you know... https://www.aamc.org/download/102338/data/aibvol8no1.pdf

 

[PL198]

Did you know that AAMC put out some numbers on this in 2008? > 75% of medical students come from families in the top two quintiles for family wealth, and the percent of medical students from the lowest quintile has never been higher than 5.5% (at least up until 2005). Here's the report. The more you know... https://www.aamc.org/download/102338/data/aibvol8no1.pdf

So everything you posted has to do with income, not wealth, which have little to no correlation. I agree medical school is a game generally for the higher-income kids, however there's a big difference between high income and being wealthy.

 

[Dylasa]

I am using this definition of wealth, which is the, ah, definition of wealth according to Mirriam-Webster.

wealth (wɛlθ)
n
1. (Economics) a large amount of money and valuable material possessions
2. (Economics) the state of being rich
3. a great profusion: a wealth of gifts.
4. (Economics) economics all goods and services with monetary, exchangeable, or productive value

Granted, I had high income before I started school, but used it to dig myself out of extreme poverty because my *family* was very poor. I have not had the opportunity to stack cash, as the kids say. That doesn't make me less wealthy - I just used it for things that other people usually don't. And isn't wealth relative? I feel like a rich bastard because I can pay my bills every month, have a college degree, don't need a cosigner for my student loans, have a three bedroom apartment and two used cars. I once bought a small house, and then sold it for a profit. Sure, I never go on vacations, most of my furniture is from Craigslist, my kids have a 3 year old Wii, my iPhone 4 has a shattered case and I'm not getting another one until my contract gives me one for free. Dude - I think it's rad that we always have electricity. Many (certainly not all) of my doctor peers think I'm broke.

Do edify me if I'm missing a key concept of wealth as it relates to higher income (and therefore, higher ability to purchase things and services). There's a lot about money that I admittedly don't understand.

 

[Arkangeloid]

I'm not rich, but I come from a UMC family whose net worth is high enough to fully fund my tuition. I just wanted to say that it's not all fun and games: if your parents are funding you, they expect a certain degree of success in return. If you don't meet their standards, there will be hell to pay.

 

[PL198]

I'm not rich, but I come from a UMC family whose net worth is high enough to fully fund my tuition. I just wanted to say that it's not all fun and games: if your parents are funding you, they expect a certain degree of success in return. If you don't meet their standards, there will be hell to pay.

don't let them pay for you then, and then you have no one to answer to besides yourself

 

[fancymylotus]

I'm not rich, but I come from a UMC family whose net worth is high enough to fully fund my tuition. I just wanted to say that it's not all fun and games: if your parents are funding you, they expect a certain degree of success in return. If you don't meet their standards, there will be hell to pay.

Go study Ark

 

[sazerac]

I am using this definition of wealth, which is the, ah, definition of wealth according to Mirriam-Webster.

wealth (wɛlθ)
n
1. (Economics) a large amount of money and valuable material possessions
2. (Economics) the state of being rich
3. a great profusion: a wealth of gifts.
4. (Economics) economics all goods and services with monetary, exchangeable, or productive value

Granted, I had high income before I started school, but used it to dig myself out of extreme poverty because my *family* was very poor. I have not had the opportunity to stack cash, as the kids say. That doesn't make me less wealthy - I just used it for things that other people usually don't. And isn't wealth relative? I feel like a rich bastard because I can pay my bills every month, have a college degree, don't need a cosigner for my student loans, have a three bedroom apartment and two used cars. I once bought a small house, and then sold it for a profit. Sure, I never go on vacations, most of my furniture is from Craigslist, my kids have a 3 year old Wii, my iPhone 4 has a shattered case and I'm not getting another one until my contract gives me one for free. Dude - I think it's rad that we always have electricity. Many (certainly not all) of my doctor peers think I'm broke.

Do edify me if I'm missing a key concept of wealth as it relates to higher income (and therefore, higher ability to purchase things and services). There's a lot about money that I admittedly don't understand.

Wealth is resources. That AAMC report is about family income, which is not wealth. Income is delta wealth. There is a difference.

I've found doctors spend a lot of time focusing on income, with the underlying assumption that a large positive delta-wealth correlates with gains in net wealth. Sometimes this is the case. But doctors seem to fail on keeping their negative delta-wealth (i.e. spending) to a minimum. Easy come, easy go, living large paycheck to large paycheck. It's an infantile approach to money, but somewhat understandable when doctors have such delayed gratification with little need for basic income management skills until they are into their thirties and suddenly blessed with six figure incomes.

Actual wealth more often than not comes from ownership, not income. Assets have a way of increasing in value without any temptation to spend those dollars, because they aren't burning a hole in your savings account. Many wealthy people I know have modest incomes, but significant business ownership either by owning their own business or having significant stock or stock option ownership in their employer.

 

[Beargryllz]

So everything you posted has to do with income, not wealth, which have little to no correlation. I agree medical school is a game generally for the higher-income kids, however there's a big difference between high income and being wealthy.

High income tends to result in excessive wealth. You get a huge income stream and then save it, index it to the market, and suddenly you have more money than you can realistically spend

Obviously you can mess this up royally if you decide to finance 7 audis or make some other epic blunder, but you have to see where I'm going with this

 

[PL198]

High income tends to result in excessive wealth. You get a huge income stream and then save it, index it to the market, and suddenly you have more money than you can realistically spend

Obviously you can mess this up royally if you decide to finance 7 audis or make some other epic blunder, but you have to see where I'm going with this

I really don't. Most doctors aren't wealthy. What you said is true for the people that manage their money well and manage to save a lot. That's just not large amounts of doctors.
Doctors are like honestly the worst example for income building wealth in my opinion, because they constitute a group that on the whole is extremely financially illiterate, think they actually are financially literate and make numerous terrible decisions on average.

 

[Beargryllz]

I really don't. Most doctors aren't wealthy. What you said is true for the people that manage their money well and manage to save a lot. That's just not large amounts of doctors.
Doctors are like honestly the worst example for income building wealth in my opinion, because they constitute a group that on the whole is extremely financially illiterate, think they actually are financially literate and make numerous terrible decisions on average.

Just don't spend money. It requires literally no action. You have to go out of your way to screw up a simple math problem: money earned = money saved.

It goes further than this though when you consider that just saving is dumb because you can compound what you have into a simple indexed investment.

One day, for fun, I calculated what would happen if I never finished nursing school and stayed a phlebotomist until I retired. I presumed that I would never make a raise and kept my starting wage for 35 years. Saving even 10% of that income (basically minimum wage) resulted in millionaire status (though to be fair this would be around 2050, so it hardly carries the same weight)

 

[PL198]

Just don't spend money. It requires literally no action. You have to go out of your way to screw up a simple math problem: money earned = money saved.

It goes further than this though when you consider that just saving is dumb because you can compound what you have into a simple indexed investment.

One day, for fun, I calculated what would happen if I never finished nursing school and stayed a phlebotomist until I retired. I presumed that I would never make a raise and kept my starting wage for 35 years. Saving even 10% of that income (basically minimum wage) resulted in millionaire status (though to be fair this would be around 2050, so it hardly carries the same weight)

I mean I understand all of the things you are saying, I'm just saying that the average medical student or physician does not. Not only are they screwed by this fact, they are screwed by the fact that since they've achieved at a pretty high level their whole life, they think they know about money when they don't know ****.

 

[DermViser]

I'm not rich, but I come from a UMC family whose net worth is high enough to fully fund my tuition. I just wanted to say that it's not all fun and games: if your parents are funding you, they expect a certain degree of success in return. If you don't meet their standards, there will be hell to pay.

Simple solution then. Fund yourself thru loans and you're only accountable to yourself.

 

[516662]

don't let them pay for you then, and then you have no one to answer to besides yourself

Either way you're going to feel ****ty if you fail. Don't get into the situation and let your parents pay if they are willing to.

 

[PL198]

Either way you're going to feel ****ty if you fail. Don't get into the situation and let your parents pay if they are willing to.

huh? the concept was avoiding the parents anger for poor results in their opinion. the way to do that, is to not have them pay. Also I'd wager that someone is a little less likely to fail if they have their own *ss in the game and not their parents'. Just my take.

 

[516662]

huh? the concept was avoiding the parents anger for poor results in their opinion. the way to do that, is to not have them pay. Also I'd wager that someone is a little less likely to fail if they have their own *ss in the game and not their parents'. Just my take.

Yeah we have completely different takes on it. If I did poorly, my parents would be pissed and disappointed with me regardless of who paid because they look out for me. My family runs more on a "yours, mine, and ours" philosophy when it comes to life.

 

[starstarie]

Don't your parents love you unconditionally?

 

[Pisiform]

my dad plays power ball if that counts

 

[ketosisevangelist]

Holy crap.

Did he just imply that a surgeon pockets 30K for doing an amputation?

I wonder how much he pocketed for selling those insurance policies.

 

[DermViser]

This is why you have trouble making friends

Yup, hates his family (fine, we all have different families, so that doesn't count), wants to stay alone, doesn't want to hang out initially with his new classmates, and deprecating other people for the choices they make with their own money, etc.. I can see things as going quite well for him.

 

[DrBodacious]

Simple solution then. Fund yourself thru loans and you're only accountable to yourself.

The worst part about this, is that you have to pay your loans back with post tax dollars, and you pay them back when you are in the top tax bracket. So, loan payments take a bigger bite out of your disposable income.

 

[DermViser]

The worst part about this, is that you have to pay your loans back with post tax dollars, and you pay them back when you are in the top tax bracket. So, loan payments take a bigger bite out of your disposable income.

Well yes, there is that. But obviously if your parents are shelling out money in full for your education, as it is for him, then they obviously will have an interest in seeing you succeed.

 

[DrBodacious]

Well yes, there is that. But obviously if your parents are shelling out money in full for your education, as it is for him, then they obviously will have an interest in seeing you succeed.

Right, I guess what I am saying is that the decision to refuse parents money and take out loans (to be more independent) is more expensive to your own bottom line than it might appear. All the post tax money you use to pay off loans, (I. E. money you take from you disposable income in your early career) is money you aren't using to build your 401k or make other types of investments, or alternatively, you will take that bite out of your cost of living. It depends on how things play out in the economy, but for example, in the last year the S&P grew over 20%, so the loan payments are a big opportunity lost.

That being said, taking money from your parent's nest egg is a big opportunity lost for them, even though a medical education is a good investment. So, it matters how big a deal it is for them, and your family relationship with regards to money - is it something to keep /maximize as a family, or is wealth more of an independent endeavor.

 

[fancymylotus]

Right, I guess what I am saying is that the decision to refuse parents money and take out loans (to be more independent) is more expensive to your own bottom line than it might appear. All the post tax money you use to pay off loans, (I. E. money you take from you disposable income in your early career) is money you aren't using to build your 401k or make other types of investments, or alternatively, you will take that bite out of your cost of living. It depends on how things play out in the economy, but for example, in the last year the S&P grew over 20%, so the loan payments are a big opportunity lost.

That being said, taking money from your parent's nest egg is a big opportunity lost for them, even though a medical education is a good investment. So, it matters how big a deal it is for them, and your family relationship with regards to money - is it something to keep /maximize as a family, or is wealth more of an independent endeavor.

Well..yeah. But my parents paid for grad school in its entirety with the understanding that my middle sibling and I would pay for my brothers grad school when the time comes- he's a lot younger than me- so that all of us would escape without loans. My middle sibling is sort of a lost cause atm so I'm assuming the responsibility is going to be mine, but in a few years I should be able to handle it.

 

[DermViser]

Well..yeah. But my parents paid for grad school in its entirety with the understanding that my middle sibling and I would pay for my brothers grad school when the time comes- he's a lot younger than me- so that all of us would escape without loans. My middle sibling is sort of a lost cause atm so I'm assuming the responsibility is going to be mine, but in a few years I should be able to handle it.

I don't think it's right to assume that bc Asian parents (many of whom are successful financially) pay for their children's education that somehow that's a bad thing. Many times, it's a cultural thing and those children feel it as their duty to take care of their parents till old age or parents don't want their child to feel burdened mentally with financial problems while studying and educating themselves and their children give back to them.

I don't think either way is wrong either way (parents pay vs. taking loans yourself). I think more and more though, you are seeing more wealthy (i.e. more entitled) medical students (with parents who are docs) making it into medical school and a lack a real understanding and worldview of their classmates who aren't automatically born in the top 1% or whose parents aren't physicians. It's any wonder then that the general public wants to take physicians down a peg or two.

 

[Greenberg702]

Lots of jealousy and butthurtness in this thread. For me personally ive found med school has a ton of crybabies from welfare backgrounds who got in under various special acceptance gimmicks. The med schools themselves just reinforce their woe-is-me attitudes though so you can hardly blame them. I know of an MD school who gives all non-white and non-asian students (regardless of financial resources) free copies of RR and First Aid.
The implication being that if youre not a whitey (bc all whites are rich ) or asian (bc all asians are rich and too smart to need FA) then you are automatically too poor and worthless to procure essential study resources for yourself.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile

Maybe you should get your head out of your ass. I came very close to requiring welfare at one point in my life and I guarantee you that my undergrad stats and pedigree would decimate yours. I agree that it's ridiculous to provide assistance solely on the basis of race but to say that people from welfare backgrounds get in under special gimmicks is absolutely untrue (the boost is nowhere near that of URM).

 

[fancymylotus]

I don't think it's right to assume that bc Asian parents (many of whom are successful financially) pay for their children's education that somehow that's a bad thing. Many times, it's a cultural thing and those children feel it as their duty to take care of their parents till old age or parents don't want their child to feel burdened mentally with financial problems while studying and educating themselves and their children give back to them.

I don't think either way is wrong either way (parents pay vs. taking loans yourself). I think more and more though, you are seeing more wealthy (i.e. more entitled) medical students (with parents who are docs) making it into medical school and a lack a real understanding and worldview of their classmates who aren't automatically born in the top 1% or whose parents aren't physicians. It's any wonder then that the general public wants to take physicians down a peg or two.

I mean, when your parents leave their home country to come here specifically for professional school, its a safe assumption that youre going to be expected to follow in their footsteps to some degree, and that they will do whatever they can to help you. i doubt i'll be able to buy my dad out in his lifetime, but when he eventually stops seeing patients, the business will probably pay him some sort of consultant-type fee = salary monthly so he wont have to solely live off his savings and investments.

 

[DermViser]

I mean, when your parents leave their home country to come here specifically for professional school, its a safe assumption that youre going to be expected to follow in their footsteps to some degree, and that they will do whatever they can to help you. i doubt i'll be able to buy my dad out in his lifetime, but when he eventually stops seeing patients, the business will probably pay him some sort of consultant-type fee = salary monthly so he wont have to solely live off his savings and investments.

I don't think it's the parents that irk people as much as the spoiled progeny that had everything handed to them on a silver platter that I think can irk other med school classmates. That being said, you can't be jealous of every other person who has more money than you, seems to have a better life than you, yada yada. It will literally eat you alive, esp. in med school.

 

[fancymylotus]

I don't think it's the parents that irk people as much as the spoiled progeny that had everything handed to them on a silver platter that I think can irk other med school classmates. That being said, you can't be jealous of every other person who has more money than you, seems to have a better life than you, yada yada. It will literally eat you alive, esp. in med school.

Life isnt fair. Some things come easier to people than others. I'm a good exam taker, but hand skills in dental school took me way longer to develop than it did for my friends. I used to sit up in sim lab and cry into my labwork. Not joking. And then you get over it and get past it, otherwise I would have wasted too much time feeling sorry for myself and not enough time practicing.

 

[hallowmann]

...I don't understand it if someone did have a trust fund though - why be a working professional? I'm not saying they should do nothing and be unemployed. There are a lot of more interesting, more fun jobs out there - most of them don't pay well, but if you don't have to worry about money, then who cares. Another answer that pops up in my head - kids who are funded but who still pursue being a professional are talentless and have no real passions or interests...

Or their passion/interest is science and medicine. I'm not really sure how that's hard to get. Even people with money might want to pursue medicine because they actually like the career, not because they lack passion/talent.

I mean I get that we get more jaded as time goes on, but was pre-med really that long ago that you don't get why someone would go into medicine if they didn't need money? Heck, with the way medicine is now, it would be a poor investment to go to medical school just for the money/lifestyle.

My family may have never had anywhere close to the wealth that you describe, but it's not stretch for me to imagine someone choosing medicine if they didn't have to financially (in fact I know tons of people that did just that).

my dad plays power ball if that counts

Yup! Potential multi-millionaire.

Well..yeah. But my parents paid for grad school in its entirety with the understanding that my middle sibling and I would pay for my brothers grad school when the time comes- he's a lot younger than me- so that all of us would escape without loans. My middle sibling is sort of a lost cause atm so I'm assuming the responsibility is going to be mine, but in a few years I should be able to handle it.

Yeah. Both my wife's and my family have a very communal way of dealing with our money. The understanding is that if someone is really struggling, they don't need to go far for a loan/gift.

 

[Mad Jack]

Either way you're going to feel ****ty if you fail. Don't get into the situation and let your parents pay if they are willing to.

I'm pretty sure I'd take feeling bad about wasting my parent's money if I failed over 410k in non-dischargable debt post-failure. The former would feel terrible, the latter would be suicide-inducing.

The real solution is to just not fail in the first place.

 

[516662]

I dont know why anyone would enter a profession if they felt they would fail. It's imprudent to take out loans and pay interest if someone else is paying for you. Pay them back later if you feel the need to repay.

 

[PL198]

I dont know why anyone would enter a profession if they felt they would fail. It's imprudent to take out loans and pay interest if someone else is paying for you. Pay them back later if you feel the need to repay.

That's not what anyone is saying. There's a difference between " I think this is the right thing for me," and " I know this is the right thing for me, I will shed blood, sweat and tears to make sure I get through this."

I'm pretty sure no one goes into medical school thinking they will fail. However there are definitely drastic differences in the confidence levels between students.

 

[DermViser]

I dont know why anyone would enter a profession if they felt they would fail. It's imprudent to take out loans and pay interest if someone else is paying for you. Pay them back later if you feel the need to repay.

I'm pretty sure if you ask most entering medical students - they don't go in thinking they will fail. It happens.

 

[Paccinc5050]

I

 

[13132]

My parents are filthy rich, they're both physicians. I've never had a real job before besides tutoring and now I'm in medical school lol

Strong first post. I can see you will be a valuable contributor to this forum.

 

[Paccinc5050]

I

 

[Winged Scapula]

Closing since it was bumped and then deleted.