Medical School is such a scam

Started by miacomet
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FFS you're exhausting.

But fine, here we go.

My FM residency was probably around 8000 hours total. Med school was probably 7500 hours or so. So let's round up a bit and say total training time is 16000 hours.

Student loans from my time with the interest rate at the time would end up costing around 280k across the lifetime of the loan.

Based on my last year's take home income (which includes all benefits and retirement/HSA contributions across a standard FP career, we're talking just over 8 million dollars. So we subtract the student loan amount and we'll even round down to 7.5 million.

I'm in the office 36 hours per week for let's say 45 weeks per year. So 1620 hours per year. 35 year career brings that to 56700 hours. Add the 16000 training hours. So a total training/working time of just shy of 73k hours so we'll round up to 73k. That ends up all told being just above $100/h after taxes and benefits and whatnot.

Now let's look at teachers.

In my state they start at 43k and increase pretty linearly to 63k. So we'll take the midway point of 53k and multiple by 30. 1.6 million. But that's gross. State pension is 7% pretax, not sure what medical insurance is so we'll call in 1.2k/year (that's 100/month so that seems fair). So take home pay is 38.5k/year. Across 30 years that's actually around 1.2 million. We'll assume no loan burden to give them a leg up.

Teachers here work from around 730 to 330. Many work extra with grading, lesson plans, and so on. But we'll go with that. 8 hours per day. They work 190 days per year. Across a 30 year career that's 45000 hours.

So teachers in SC are getting across a career are around $26/hour after taxes and benefits.

So literally 1/4th of the hourly rate of physicians even when med school and residency are taken into account.

Are you happy now?
And what about the retirement and pensions teachers get and lifelong healthcare?
 
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And what about the retirement and pensions teachers get and lifelong healthcare?

I mean every doctor who is employed will usually get a employer match.

For example, i get 4% of my income put in as a match.

Let’s round that off to 15k a year of employer contribution, 30 year career, 6 percent annual return - you end with 1.27M of contribution purely from your employer.

I mean…really…if i truly worked for 30 years, my retirement accounts will be worth a lot more than any teacher’s pension.
 
In 2008 when the market tanked many physicians stocks were terrible and they had to keep working. People with pensions, not so much. How many years for a teacher to qualify for a pension?
 
In 2008 when the market tanked many physicians stocks were terrible and they had to keep working. People with pensions, not so much. How many years for a teacher to qualify for a pension?

ermm...so? Markets eventually recover. Work for Kaiser if you want a pension. But most bear markets last for 1-2 years, a globally well diversified portfolio should eventually recover.
 
And what about the retirement and pensions teachers get and lifelong healthcare?
I get the exact same pension teachers get so I left that out. And infact given the difference in what they will get out of it and what I do, this will push things much much more in the "doctors have it better" direction.

As for insurance, the monthly premium for a teacher is right at $100/month.

A Medicare supplement plan in SC is going to run about $150/month.

A $600/year cost difference isn't going to make an appreciable difference in those overall numbers.

Nice try though.
 
Since I know this is coming, we'll pretend I don't have access to the state retirement program.

Between my contribution to that, my 401k, and my employers 401k match (which I would get if not enrolled in the pension), I'm getting around 60k/year in retirement savings.. If we assume 6% returns across a 35 year career, we end up with 6.6 million dollars. Let's say that I live for 30 years after I retire (I would be 95 at that point) with no additional growth from that retirement money. That's 220k pre-tax every year.

The state retirement plan pays you 50% of your highest 12 consecutive quarters if you meet the requirements for full benefits. Let's take the 63k/year at the end for the teacher and use that. So around 32k/year until they die. Now a teacher who started right at age 22 could retire with full benefits in my state at 56 years old. If we assume they also live to be 95 (we'll say 96 so the math is easier), total amount from that pension is 1.3 million.

So as I'm growing tired of repeating, its not even close.
 
So we are talking about med school being a scam now, not however many years ago. What's the cost now, what's the interest now? What are today's numbers?
At my alma mater loans went from around 160k for 4 years to 240k for 4 years. Interest rate is unchanged.

So let's be generous and say that adds an extra 200k in cost across the life of the loan. That's a drop in the bucket for lifetime physician earnings.

You're very mocking of teachers.
No, I'm mocking the stupidity of using income to determine hourly rate across a lifetime that includes training.
 
At my alma mater loans went from around 160k for 4 years to 240k for 4 years. Interest rate is unchanged.

So let's be generous and say that adds an extra 200k in cost across the life of the loan. That's a drop in the bucket for lifetime physician earnings.


No, I'm mocking the stupidity of using income to determine hourly rate across a lifetime that includes training.
You said 20 dollars is how much teachers make an hour. That was mocking them.
 
You said 20 dollars is how much teachers make an hour. That was mocking them.
Sorry, my math showed it was $26/hour so I exaggerated slightly to make it work with the post I was responding to. Would you like me to go back and edit that or have you had enough of being proven wrong again and again to concede you were wrong and let this go?
 
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To accuse a poster of denigrating teachers and then to claim that it's a low level of responsibility to ensure the (increasingly imperiled) physical and mental wellbeing of our children while also shepherding them along their academic path in the setting of increased public scrutiny...that's "rich"
 
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Fran Healy Error GIF by Travis
 
Because when things are cheap the doctor salary lets you do way more.

I'm FM, my wife is IM. So together we probably make about what the middling specialists do.

We live in a reasonably sized old house (love the old glass and high ceilings) in the neighborhood with the best elementary school in the area. But because of both of us working, both kids are in private school (they have extended hours). This year we're spending a week in Aspen, a week at Disney, a week in London. Plus at least a weekend trip locally most months. Just had to get a new roof and car within the last 4 months. Still live very comfortably.

All of the other doctors we know either have much nicer houses (1mil or more) and/or do more frequent or more expensive vacations. Lots of 2nd homes in fun areas.

Sure, we miss out on some of the culture and music scenes that larger metropolitan places get but there's enough around to enjoy between trips.
Agree... I like my ~280k brand new home (same home would cost 1.5--2 mil in southern California). I can visit NY or CA whenever the f... I want. In fact, this year, I will spend 5 days in NY, 5 days in the Bahamas, 4 days in Barcelona and 8 days in Italy (Rome and probably Florence), and a few days in south FL where I have relatives. It's nice when your mortgage payment is akin to a luxury car payment.
 
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High pay in VLCOL areas also means you can vacation to any HCOL area you want.
And anytime if your schedule allows it... ED docs and hospitalists like myself can easily find time in our schedule to do that.

I think medicine is GOOD. I am not aware of that many gigs out there that I could make 400k w/o working myself to death.
 
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Not only that the pay is 50-60k you also have to do meetings for parents and sometimes supply school supplies for your students.

EM pays well and it is far more family friendly than many jobs. You can choose to be a noctornist or just work 6 shifts a month and makes 200k
People won't believe you if you tell them you make 200k working only 6 nights/month.

Medicine is not sunshine and rainbow, but we have it better than >95% of the country.
 
Teachers start working much earlier than us. They put money in retirement etc earlier. There's a diagram that they end up making much more than physicians with much less work and responsibilities
You really think people who make 50k/yr can put a lot $$$ into retirement!
 
It does. And then they get a group of plumbers etc to help with their business. You guys aren't thinking about this from a different angle in terms of TIME. And it's not slightly earlier. It about a decade earlier. We do a lot more school. And a lot more hours. A ridiculous number of hours.
 
This is super interesting, thanks for posting
It is interesting, thought it worth pointing out that it says "live in households in the top 1%".

So, an office clerk that works in the legal office of their lawyer spouse (whose income puts them in the top 1%) would also get representation on this graphic.

That doesn't invalidate it, but it should be considered in the interpretation.
 
Idk where nurses (meaning RNs) make 400k/yr. The highest I'm aware of is in California , night shift, weekend pay after 31 years of work, 8 hour shifts 11P-7A (Kaiser NorCal). That will max you out at 275k if you charge 5 nights a week and work every weekend in your 50s. Most people probably don't want that... and you have to live in Cali to do that. Otherwise you're talking travel nursing which isn't super compatible with enjoying your non-work life unless you want to be permanently itinerant, sucks to work anyway, and travel isn't paying 300k+ rates anymore on a consistent basis.

Plus, you have to want to be a nurse. I suspect that most people posting here wouldn't want to be. Heck, I don't anymore, which is why I'm here. Kinda tired of being the person permanently assigned to being punched, groped, verbally assaulted, and outranked by every other member of the team.

Grass ain't greener, folks.
 
You really think people who make 50k/yr can put a lot $$$ into retirement!
Most teachers are in the pension system, their contribution is taken out of their paycheck automatically.

From someone on the fringes of this discussion, I'll offer this perspective - I'll retire in about 2 and a half years from the FD and my "retirement job" will be as an ED or flight nurse working 2 days per week. I made plenty of money as a firefighter, will make an absurd amount of money for 2 days per week once you factor in my pension, and have lived and will continue to live comfortably for the rest of my life.

That said, there are still times I wish I could go back to that day in 2000 when I abandoned my plan for medical school and went to the FD instead.

Sometimes, it's about more than what makes financial sense.
 
Most teachers are in the pension system, their contribution is taken out of their paycheck automatically.

From someone on the fringes of this discussion, I'll offer this perspective - I'll retire in about 2 and a half years from the FD and my "retirement job" will be as an ED or flight nurse working 2 days per week. I made plenty of money as a firefighter, will make an absurd amount of money for 2 days per week once you factor in my pension, and have lived and will continue to live comfortably for the rest of my life.

That said, there are still times I wish I could go back to that day in 2000 when I abandoned my plan for medical school and went to the FD instead.

Sometimes, it's about more than what makes financial sense.

Fire fighters make significantly more than teachers though right?

Educate me, what’s the starting salary of a fire fighter? What’s the salary 5-10 years in usually?

How many years of service before you get a pension and how much is the monthly benefit for a pension after 20 or 30 years of working?
 
Most teachers are in the pension system, their contribution is taken out of their paycheck automatically.

From someone on the fringes of this discussion, I'll offer this perspective - I'll retire in about 2 and a half years from the FD and my "retirement job" will be as an ED or flight nurse working 2 days per week. I made plenty of money as a firefighter, will make an absurd amount of money for 2 days per week once you factor in my pension, and have lived and will continue to live comfortably for the rest of my life.

That said, there are still times I wish I could go back to that day in 2000 when I abandoned my plan for medical school and went to the FD instead.

Sometimes, it's about more than what makes financial sense.
That’s what I did. I finished paramedic school, which I had started after getting EMT-B and hunting a firefighter job. During paramedic school, I decided I wanted to go to med school and my lead instructor tried to convince me to join the fire service, arguing that I’d be a battalion chief within x years, etc. Figured I’d kick myself rest of my life if I didn‘t try. I worked as a volunteer FF/medic while finishing pre-med courses and loved it and now I’m kind of but not 100% sure I made the right choice.
 
Fire fighters make significantly more than teachers though right?

Educate me, what’s the starting salary of a fire fighter? What’s the salary 5-10 years in usually?

How many years of service before you get a pension and how much is the monthly benefit for a pension after 20 or 30 years of working?
I just checked the contract for our teachers, looks like it's fairly close. Obviously they need a degree though, and it takes them longer to get to the top.
 
I think the comparison is a bit off.

There are kids graduating from college making 85k to start.

Med school isn’t a scam cause what you get at the end is a known. There isn’t a switcheroo.

I would Encourage my kids to go into medicine if they liked it but I would push incredibly hard against emergency medicine.

I will say my best friend is an optometrist and he says he wouldn’t let his kids do optometry. I’ll also say he built a super successful practice and now sold it. He made derm type PE money in his sale and he kept the building.
 
I think the comparison is a bit off.

There are kids graduating from college making 85k to start.

Med school isn’t a scam cause what you get at the end is a known. There isn’t a switcheroo.

I would Encourage my kids to go into medicine if they liked it but I would push incredibly hard against emergency medicine.

I will say my best friend is an optometrist and he says he wouldn’t let his kids do optometry. I’ll also say he built a super successful practice and now sold it. He made derm type PE money in his sale and he kept the building.
You think private equity is bad, imagine being directly employed by Wal-Mart or Costso.

Optometry is a pretty neat field, but the business end can be pretty bad. My dad was a solo practice optometrist, for context.
 
I’m about to pay off a $400k house I bought 3 years ago. No way in hell I could have done that on a teachers pay lol
Financially, medicine is GOOD.

I will reiterate what you said above. I just purchased a house last year for 280k and I can literally pay off that house in 2 yrs, max out all my retirement accounts and still have the typical mid-to-upper middle class lifestyle.
 
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It’s entirely location based, but I’m at 96k base and they’re at 92k.. Midwest state, capital seat and major metro area. Our area cities all pay significantly higher than even the surrounding counties though.

96k base is starting or after a certain number of years? How many years have you worked to get to this base of 96k.

What’s the monthly benefit for the pension? How many years of service for this particular monthly benefit? Can you only get it after hitting 65 or as soon as you get out of the system?
 
96k base is starting or after a certain number of years? How many years have you worked to get to this base of 96k.

What’s the monthly benefit for the pension? How many years of service for this particular monthly benefit? Can you only get it after hitting 65 or as soon as you get out of the system?
Just to be clear, I'm saying despite my decent salary and the life I made on it, there are still times when I wish I could go back and go to medical school..

My pension will be 60k per year starting when I turn 48. Combined with a part time RN job, I'll be doing fairly well in retirement working 2 days per week.
 
Fire fighters make significantly more than teachers though right?

Educate me, what’s the starting salary of a fire fighter? What’s the salary 5-10 years in usually?

How many years of service before you get a pension and how much is the monthly benefit for a pension after 20 or 30 years of working?
Keep in mind that a lot of teachers only work 9 months out of the year.

Firefighter salaries vary significantly by region. We start them off at $50k/yr at my department. Fire chiefs make >$120k. Seattle starts at $82k/yr currently.
 
You think private equity is bad, imagine being directly employed by Wal-Mart or Costso.

Optometry is a pretty neat field, but the business end can be pretty bad. My dad was a solo practice optometrist, for context.
I know my buddy worked for one of the big lenscrafter type shops til he opened up for himself.

Most of the ODs who work at walmart or whatever do so as ICs or rent space. I am quite familiar. That being said by buddy sold his practice for enough that he is basically retired in his 40s.
 
Teachers are one of the worse jobs. Kids don't listen, parents don't care, admin doesn't support. People who go into this profession to affect the next generation start to realize that they are stuck til they hit pension or quit. Lets not compare a doc's job/salary to a teacher's salary. I rather make 80K as a doc than 80K as a teacher assuming no debt.

EM docs have it good and better than 90% of the professions. To compare the top end salary as a nurse (>200K) and bottom MD salary is just dumb. Compare the low end and top end of both is more of a fair comparison. my 1st job started at 400K for 40hrs/wk. I eventually hit 600K working about 40hrs/wk. I currently make high end NSG salary working less than 40hrs/wk. I have many partners who make more than I do working even less.

EM is what you want to make of it. You can avoid working nights and weekends if you are willing to sacrifice salary and some regional flexibility. You can schedule off when you want. I can't remember missing any of my kids big activities in my life. I took 2 weeks off all the time for vacations. No way can a teacher's job have this flexibility and actually not many fields in medicine can. I am going camping for 1 week for my kid's school event and 3 other docs I know with kids (Anesthesiologist, Surgeon, Surgeon) can't go b/c they all work. This is my 3rd kid going through the camp and I have been to each.

EM sucks and there are alot that sucks, but so do many jobs that do not afford the $$$, time, flexibility. Really, I would not change fields if I had to do it over. All specialist complains that their jobs suck.