If you already had millions...

[ThinkTooMuch]

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suppose upon graduating college a distant relative dies and through strange circumstances leaves YOU with 500 million dollars in cash. So now you are faced with the pleasant reality you are financially set for several life times. Would you still go to med school? If not, and these are the ones Id especially like to hear from, what else would you pursue? In my case, I'd try and be a rock star and go to those silly American Idol things were people line up in the streets. 🙂

 

[ksmi117]

I still would. Medical school with no debt. Hell yeah!

 

[MilkmanAl]

Now that I'm in, I'd finish up for sure. I'm not sure if I'd do residency or not. If I'd won the cash beforehand, I probably would've gone eventually, but a few years' worth of screwing around would definitely have been in order.

 

[vin5cent0]

Maybe once I was older and really, really bored. Probably not, though. I'm not going into medicine for the money, but let's be realistic, you have 500 million in cash, there are many, many other things you could do that you have more interest in than slaving away 8 hours a day studying.

 

[Fer0sh]

I love studying, doing research, and learning all I can. If I had millions, then I'd probably be get an MD and multiple PhDs, buy my own lab, and library. I'll be reading and treating patients all day while my maid cooks for me and my personal assistant takes care of all my bills, etc.

 

[Gotaro]

Nah. I think psychology is a more interesting hobby than medicine.

 

[tennisball80]

I will establish my own company and start doing some business. However, I would still go to medical school.

 

[amberisma]

I tell ya what I'd do man....two chicks at the same time.
I always wanted to do that...and I think if I were a millionaire I could hook that up too, cuz chicks dig dudes with money.

👍👍👍👍👍

Best.Movie.Ever.


But I think I'd still go to medical school. I would just probably wait a few extra years instead of going in right after graduating college. I would definitely take the time to travel, and probably fulfill one of my other dreams: visit all seven continents!

 

[randombetch]

suppose upon graduating college a distant relative dies and through strange circumstances leaves YOU with 500 million dollars in cash. So now you are faced with the pleasant reality you are financially set for several life times. Would you still go to med school? If not, and these are the ones Id especially like to hear from, what else would you pursue? In my case, I'd try and be a rock star and go to those silly American Idol things were people line up in the streets. 🙂

COURSE I would. Then I'd have enough capital to start my own drug research company when I have the time, and I'd be able hire the best and make BILLIONS.

 

[randombetch]

I tell ya what I'd do man....two chicks at the same time.
I always wanted to do that...and I think if I were a millionaire I could hook that up too, cuz chicks dig dudes with money.

👍👍👍👍👍 Great movie.

 

[Toadesque]

Honestly I would try to keep going with it but let's face it. When you have that much cash you just want to go blow it on everything, not sit in a room and study. It would be really hard to motivate yourself to do well knowing that you have unlimited fall back plans.

 

[thepoopologist]

suppose upon graduating college a distant relative dies and through strange circumstances leaves YOU with 500 million dollars in cash. So now you are faced with the pleasant reality you are financially set for several life times. Would you still go to med school? If not, and these are the ones Id especially like to hear from, what else would you pursue? In my case, I'd try and be a rock star and go to those silly American Idol things were people line up in the streets. 🙂

This is a ridiculous hypothetical question, but I'll give it a whirl.

No I wouldn't pursue medicine. But since I'm in med school...if it was before second semester of second year, I'd quit. Otherwise I'd finish and make the rest of school as comfortable as possible. If I decided to finish, I'd also donate $100 million piecemeal to the med school and make it the most desirable school any applicant could possibly want to go to, thus increasing its perceived prestige to the point that it would be on equal standing with the Ivies. How would I do it? I'd bribe the **** out of everyone.

Preclinicals

Full tuition/living expense scholarship and free mercedes for every matriculant with a 3.9+ and 40+. I'd throw in an Aston Martin on top of it if they were a Rhodes or Marshall scholar or a medal winning Olympic athlete.

1 cadaver per student. Plasma screens with every cadaver with step by step dissection instruction.

HD online streaming lectures for every class. Fully bound, complete notes for every student for every class. 24/7 office hours required for the professors. Professors would also be required to gear lectures towards boards and not the minutia they research. These professors, of course, would be top talent stolen from top universities.

No attendance policy, no dress code.

Gourmet cafeteria with free food.

2 year free access to all available prep material for the boards


Clinicals

Access to every hospital within the schools region. Attendings/residents would be paid a hefty bonus for paying special attention to and giving special instruction to our students.





And no, I wouldn't do residency. Life's too short and 500-100 million too much to spend it in a hospital. Plus I'm not one of those people that only wanted to be a doctor. I have many other interests that I can pursue.



Okay, I'm done daydreaming....

 

[Meat]

Honestly I would try to keep going with it but let's face it. When you have that much cash you just want to go blow it on everything, not sit in a room and study.

Then what? Go travel? Cool. Party? Great. Get laid? Sweet.

Then what?

I would think that I could only squander so much time and money away before feeling like I needed to accomplish something. Learning is fun, yay for us!

 

[NoMoreAMCAS]

Hell no. I'd spend my life partying, traveling, playing video games, gambling, and harassing my friends while they worked. There's so much more to life than working, and I would absolutely love to never work again.

 

[apumic]

My first thought was heck ya... and then take it and go somewhere interesting to serve medically w/o any worry about money! I think going down and living in the Amazon and doing medical research as well as clinical practice the rest of my life would be amazing. With that 500 mill, I wouldn't have to worry about paying back med school debt or affording to feed my family, etc. I could simply take them down there and live life serving un(der)served people groups!

 

[greatnt249]

Money wouldn't give me a sense of fulfillment from having a purpose in life, so yes, I'd still do medicine. It'd be nice to get through medical school debt-free and not have to live under a minuscule budget, though.

 

[NoMoreAMCAS]

My first thought was heck ya... and then take it and go somewhere interesting to serve medically w/o any worry about money! I think going down and living in the Amazon and doing medical research as well as clinical practice the rest of my life would be amazing. With that 500 mill, I wouldn't have to worry about paying back med school debt or affording to feed my family, etc. I could simply take them down there and live life serving un(der)served people groups!

Until you were kidnapped and held for ransom by the drug cartels. When you're that rich, your life is too important to risk. Gotta play it safe and stay in civilized countries.

 

[apumic]

Until you were kidnapped and held for ransom by the drug cartels. When you're that rich, your life is too important to risk. Gotta play it safe and stay in civilized countries.

hahaha true.... that's why you don't let it be known your rich. but it is sad that that does happen...

 

[ThinkTooMuch]

seems like the majority would still go. interesting.

 

[NoMoreAMCAS]

seems like the majority would still go. interesting.

I don't think most really would, or at least most wouldn't finish it.

It would incredibly hard to go through the endless days of studying and never seeing the sun during medical school (even worse, in residency) when in the back of your head you know "I could be in a 5 star hotel in Paris" or "I could be cruising the caribbean on a yacht with a bunch of family and friends (or hot strippers)", or "I could be at my favorite bands concert" or "I could be sitting in the luxury box at my favorite football, basketball, baseball teams game", or........


Obviously I've got my **** planned. Just gonna need that 500 million now.

 

[avo]

I don't think most really would, or at least most wouldn't finish it.

It would incredibly hard to go through the endless days of studying and never seeing the sun during medical school (even worse, in residency) when in the back of your head you know "I could be in a 5 star hotel in Paris" or "I could be cruising the caribbean on a yacht with a bunch of family and friends (or hot strippers)", or "I could be at my favorite bands concert" or "I could be sitting in the luxury box at my favorite football, basketball, baseball teams game", or........


Obviously I've got my **** planned. Just gonna need that 500 million now.

Well, everyone is thinking of this from the viewpoint that they'd still have to make sure they got great scores, great evaluations, etc.

The reality is that a lot of that motivation would be gone, so they'd go to medical school, skim through, barely pass the exams, and basically sleepwalk through the first two years. I think once rotations start, it would be far easier to get done with the whole thing.

In short, they'd go, but I don't think they'd study 8 hours a day. More like...spend the day on the yacht, looking at some online lectures now and then.

 

[boaz]

If I won the big jackpot I'd have all the MORE reason to go to med school.
1) no debt.
2) no financial constraints as to where to live, what to eat, etc.
3) I can practice medicine without any concern that money is having subconscious effects on decisions...

This is a very instructive post, imo. Wondering why this question hasn't entered the interview question manual. 😕

 

[Law2Doc]

If I won the big jackpot I'd have all the MORE reason to go to med school.
1) no debt.
2) no financial constraints as to where to live, what to eat, etc.
3) I can practice medicine without any concern that money is having subconscious effects on decisions...

Agreed. For most, money isn't (and shouldn't be) the driving goal in the decision of medicine. But it can ease up things. You can specialize in something that interests you but that won't necessarily pay the bills. You can live like a senior attending while a resident. You don't have to worry about details during residency like when you are going to walk the dog, or grocery shop, or clean your home, or cook because you can hire people to get all that done for you. But honestly, having a lot of money doesn't make life interesting. Doing something that interests you makes life interesting. Look at Michael Jordan. He has more money than anyone needs, and yet he hasn't been able to stay retired. First returning to try to play baseball, then back to work in basketball organizations. There's only so many months you can golf and travel before you decide -- this really blows.
So you really should decide what it is you want to do in life and only then worry about how you are going to pay the bills doing what you like. Medicine, fortunately, usually pays the bills, so if you are interested in it, then that's a nice side benefit. But never never pick a career because it will make you rich, because you only get so many hours a day in life, and if you spend most of them doing something you aren't interested in, you are wasting your life. And there aren't enough zeros on the price at which you would want to sell your life.

 

[JoshUNCW]

I've get a nice yacht and sail around the world. I feel bad being one of the only people not being like "I'd still get my MD!". Now, I'm not going into medicine just for the money... but I've always wanted to do nothing but sail around the world and see everywhere humanly possible. That's an unrealistic life plan. But with 500 mill, it could happen.

 

[Law2Doc]

I've get a nice yacht and sail around the world. I feel bad being one of the only people not being like "I'd still get my MD!". Now, I'm not going into medicine just for the money... but I've always wanted to do nothing but sail around the world and see everywhere humanly possible. That's an unrealistic life plan. But with 500 mill, it could happen.

You don't need millions to get a nice sized sailboat and sail around the world. Most of the people who sail around the world and write for the sailing mags are doing it with a whole lot less. You need to buy the boat and be able to provision in, and pay various slip fees, but by and large many jobs can get you there many years sooner than physician will. Most of the guys I know who sail the world are government employees because money isn't the issue, having the time is. And you won't get that in medicine. Probably ever.

 

[justinbaily]

Do people honestly go into medicine for money? It seems like a bad strategy if that's the case.

From my experience, most people pursuing a career in medicine are intellectually driven to learn a lot of science, enjoy working with people and/or they enjoy the social prestige associated with the career. I don't think that 500 million dollars would satiate any of those motivations.

People like to bring up salaries on this board and call out people for wanting to be compensated for their work. Medicine is an intellectually interesting and intense career that matches the personalities of a small group of super-driven, curious people. It is alright for them to also want to be paid a reasonable amount for the work that they do without acting as though money is the primary motivation for their work.

 

[JoshUNCW]

You don't need millions to get a nice sized sailboat and sail around the world. Most of the people who sail around the world and write for the sailing mags are doing it with a whole lot less. You need to buy the boat and be able to provision in, and pay various slip fees, but by and large many jobs can get you there many years sooner than physician will. Most of the guys I know who sail the world are government employees because money isn't the issue, having the time is. And you won't get that in medicine. Probably ever.

Yeah, they're definitely not doing it in a large boat. And if they are, they gave up a house and car for it.

 

[MiSfiT2013]

suppose upon graduating college a distant relative dies and through strange circumstances leaves YOU with 500 million dollars in cash. So now you are faced with the pleasant reality you are financially set for several life times. Would you still go to med school? If not, and these are the ones Id especially like to hear from, what else would you pursue? In my case, I'd try and be a rock star and go to those silly American Idol things were people line up in the streets. 🙂

I'll go ahead and throw in my 2 cents. If I had 500 million dollars in hand, then no, I would not finish medical school. I think I could touch the lives of more people with that kind of money than I could as a physician. I also believe that I would have a target on my back for malpractice lawsuits. I'm happy with my decision to pursue a career in medicine, but with that much money, I'm sure I could find something to do with my life that would be equally fulfilling without the sacrifice and risks that go along with becoming a doctor.

 

[bannie22]

500million is NOT that much money.

I will be able to pay my way through medical schools.
Buy a F458 with my own money.
Then give the rest to my dad so that he has greater cash-in-hand for his business.

 

[Law2Doc]

Yeah, they're definitely not doing it in a large boat. And if they are, they gave up a house and car for it.

If you are planning on a life of sailing around the world, you have no need for a house, you are going to be living on the boat. In fact, upkeep on a house you are never at is prohibitive even if you are fairly wealthy.

 

[Janieve]

Hm. Five hundred million bucks, huh?

I'd definitely go to medical school. That's not a question. I'd probably donate some to the Gesundheit Institute, a good amount to the Red Cross, and see about supporting some research (malaria, HIV, cancer, MS, Huntington's, Alzheimer's, etc.). Once I got settled in medicine (post-residency and with some experience under my belt), I'd see about opening my own practice, maybe for people without insurance. I've always wanted to try to open a 'pay what you feel is right' type clinic, but I don't know I could without some financial security.

(Okay, and maybe I'd take a nice vacation or donate to some alternative energy research. God knows THAT's important enough to give some attention to.)

 

[Law2Doc]

...I also believe that I would have a target on my back for malpractice lawsuits. ....

You can always buy more professional insurance. Where you get into trouble as a millionaire is the lawsuits unrelated to your profession (alimony, motor vehicle accidents, business dealings, tripping on your front lawn, etc), many of which are harder to circumvent.

 

[boaz]

You know how they say that purchasing a lottery ticket makes no mathematical sense, and that the ticket is really worth much less than you pay for it (probability of winning*amount). Well, based on this thread I think it's actually worth MORE than what you pay. I mean, when the dream comes to the point where you worry not about GETTING the money but about LOSING it, you know you're having a really sweet dream.😴😴

 

[armybound]

yeah, I'd still go through with all of it, but I'd probably limit my practice to a few days a week and take a couple months of vacation per year.

 

[TheMightySmiter]

If I had that much money I could just BUY my way into whatever med school I wanted to attend, by donating a building to them. So, yeah, I'd definitely still go.

 

[red10]

I'd probably be really bored after a year or so, so I'd probably end up just delaying medical school a couple years.

The ability to buy my way in and buy all High Pass grades would be rather tempting though. Then you don't have to actually practice but you have MD after your name so any time someone calls you Mrs. Millionaire you can say "excuse me. It's DOCTOR millionaire"

 

[BassCaster]

I'd buy a select few sdn members some friends 😀

 

[TheMightySmiter]

I'd buy a select few sdn members some friends 😀

I think there are probably a large number of people here who would rather just have the money than have friends.

 

[Aromatic Amine]

Having 500 mill in the bank won't make up for the fact that you still lack in knowledge. I'd still do medical school w/o the added pressures of earning money and paying off my debts.

Then, you can focus your attention and be those type of kids who say "they do it to help people"

instead of sounding like an idiot in an interview when asked why you want to become a doctor, you can actually, for once, say that you want to do it not for the money, but for the betterment of mankind. 😎

 

[Dr Wake N Bake]

What a sick position to be in. I would combine my new wealth with my MD status and use it as an opportunity to do a lot of very effective philanthropy work. Build hospitals, clinics, create medical relief organizations, omg the possibilities are endless.
Half of my typical week I see myself doing some pro bono practicing (probably at one of the clinics that I established) The other half, I would be doing administrative work for all my charities and hospitals. Once I feel comfortable enough about the leadership that I've hired, I may start taking some month long vacations to relax and enjoy myself.

 

[vickpick]

if its AFTER graduating (and I'm hoping I get in before the end of my app year)... I would still go.. not that being a doctor will add too that 500 Mil fortune...lol....

if its BEFORE graduating.. then I won't go.. I'll probably invest 100 million in a few business, and eat, drink and party w/ the rest 400 million's interest.. also travel the world... if I get bored... there's always a possibility of going to med school, since I've already done good in UG for all these years

 

[vickpick]

500million is NOT that much money.
.

u must be loaded to think that!...

 

[Me MD]

I tell ya what I'd do man....two chicks at the same time.
I always wanted to do that...and I think if I were a millionaire I could hook that up too, cuz chicks dig dudes with money.

lmao


I also read somewhere (I believe Forbes) that the lifestyle of someone with a net worth of 500 million is about the same with someone of a net worth of 1 billion +. Any accumulation after 500 million is considered "f*$&k you money". In that after that, you really don't need to ever listen to anyone else ever again. I have met a few people like this--interesting people indeed.

 

[bannie22]

u must be loaded to think that!...

Unfortunately I am valued no where near 500Million.... at all... lolz But I think if an individual was to stop work and just start spending.. 500M can disappear very fast... especially since you have 24hours a day to spend that money...🙁

 

[UBCvan]

ok here's what I'd do:

go to medical school, become a doctor.

then build a hospital ( or more maybe).

then I'd buy a buggati veyron or lamborghini, pay my debts, and enjoy life

 

[jiayo]

If it's before I enter medical school, I wouldn't.
Only because I'd know I have something to fall back on, and let's face it: medical school is hard. Knowing myself, even though I love medicine and I really want to be a doctor, I have other interests that I can pursue, and the $500million would really distract me from studying...

If I'm already in medical school, I would definitely continue and then build my own hospital 😀

 

[Cro]

I would probably still end up going to med school and maybe start a free clinic once I was out of residency. Just because I was rich doesn't mean I wouldn't want to do something with my life that I've always wanted to do. You could work the hours you wanted to, take vacations whenever you wanted to, etc. Life would be awesome.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

if i had 500million..
i'd create a clinic/hospital
and probably somewhere in the middle of nowhere build a fortress/mansion and stock it up for the apocalypse

 

[Iso4ane]

Yeah I would go to med school, then maybe law school, or maybe buy a school, who knows then maybe I'd invest i so my family would have money for generations to come.

 

[ThinkTooMuch]

Keep em coming! Hate to be immodest but this is the best thread ever Im really enjoying reading all your responses.