1. You're only 39? The depth of your professional experiences always led me to believe you were give or take 50.
2. That is a very large net worth for someone who does not keep their asset in the stock market.
3. You have the respect of a group of internet strangers, what payday could possibly be worth more than that!?!
1. That's more true than not as most don't get into the business until their mid-20s. Well, I non-jokingly say that I have 29 years of pharmacy experience (was a tech in my family's pharmacy at 10 and a runner even younger when the Board didn't care about those things), and know enough of the profession's history to know that this horrible time has happened before. I more seriously say that I had enough contact hours to sit for the Boards at 16 (and I would have handily passed given what a joke the exam was). My family are all in the business, we make a decent amount, and the knowledge I came in with into the profession prepared me to not make the same mistakes my parents, aunts, and uncles made. The first mistake is believing that your labor as a pharmacist is worth anything alone which many of the financial hustlers (I mean this in a good sense) absolutely believe in and are working to the degree that their labor does not generate their financial self-worth. But the real value is being borne to a couple of capitalists who run a business, know most of the easy cons to avoid, and have enough money that their son can repeatedly fail until he succeeds because there is always enough money for him to try high risk activities that most cannot due to funding issues. It's more that I could not fail rather than succeed. And it also helps that I am married to someone that is far above my station that I barely make enough to pay her taxes.
2. Not really. Most workaday physician specialists are more than comfortably in that range, and their financial sense is worse. Most of my pharmaceutical industry colleagues have cashed out once to live simply and some are still in the game for the Big Kill. It's not in the market, but it's not lost either. Most CRO contracts pay in the $500-1100/hr range. If I contracted as an IT Specialist for the Federal Government, it would be between $250 and $350 an hour as that is what we pay (you can look that up in SAM for the rates and also the winners). When people figure this out, they leave to be contractors if they feel that they can keep themselves afloat if they aren't predatory enough to make their own business (and every single CIO and USH we have had has done this post-office as an equity partner or a founder). The payout is not retiring at the end of your job, it is the move to consultancy or contracting as a principal or owner. If I had known better about the revolving door and not made so many commitments to academia, I would have basically made a "small" business and fleece the government for contracting money. That still is not out of the question. It's why I'm still working, I am looking for that Big Kill myself, and working those leads is worth it. If it does not pan out, I am not self-harming and it is a better life than being a house husband.
3. I have my safe and comfortable house where the troubles of the city are not my problem, some good friends, and the joy of seeing this country inflate it all away, so I'm spending now as possessing too much money is an inherent risk with the market. I am not concerned with earning money anymore but more how to use it effectively to the ends.
I think though if you poll most specialist physicians who are after 10 years of practice, if they are not in the mid-7's, they probably mismanaged their money. But, it's never enough for some.