What else can I do to make more than the average medical doctor?

[LizzyM]

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Can someone explain to me what other fields give you anything close to $200,000-$500,000 per year?

Professional sports (excluding women's basketball)

TV news anchors in larger markets

Pop singer/celebrity

 

[schrizto]

I wanna be a rock star.

 

[anbuitachi]

go into cs and designing and make your own neopets

 

[flip26]

430K and 500K is pretty high for an MD and outrageously high for a dentist. I'm not saying I don't believe you, but the average dentist doesn't make anywhere near that much. 125-130K is probably the median dentist salary. Every field will have outliers.

General dentistry is far more lucrative than primary care medicine. Also requires less formal training, less debt.

And like medicine, dentistry also has specialists who make the really big bucks.

 

[msbbc833]

That's why I included the bit about going to a top 15 law school Ms. Smartass. And good job referencing an article about the economic downturn's effects on lawyers - we all know that recessions are permanent, right? Please take an economics class before trying to use articles about the economy to argue about how bad going into law is, especially to a freaking economics major such as myself. 😉

Obviously, someone as intelligent as you (which is not at all) would never make it in law. Stick with medicine - at least you'll have a job if you somehow make it through. Which is just the saddest thing ever because you're the epitome of a bad doctor - arrogant, pretentious, and a completely brainless (lol good luck even getting married). Ehh, you'll probably just fake your way through interviews though. Hope you don't kill too many people in your life.

Oh, and here are some median starting salary statistics (for those who chose to go into the private sector):

Northwestern - $160k
http://www.law.northwestern.edu/career/statistics/

UCLA - $160k
http://www.law.ucla.edu/home/index.asp?page=1307

USC - $160k
http://lawweb.usc.edu/why/facts/

NYU - $153k
http://www.law.nyu.edu/careerservices/employmentstatistics/jobtype/index.htm

Stanford - $160k
http://www.law.stanford.edu/experience/careers/ocs/prospective/statistics/

You clearly know nothing about the legal industry. Those median salary figures are pure bull**** and everyone knows it. Law schools use those misleading salary figures to lure students into paying hundreds of thousands of tuition. Most of their law grads cannot even find jobs right now. I dare you, go ask a recent Harvard, Yale, Columbia, NYU grad if they or any of their classmates from the past 1-5 years is employed. All of them will tell you that maybe 10% have jobs.

 

[randombetch]

You clearly know nothing about the legal industry. Those median salary figures are pure bull**** and everyone knows it. Law schools use those misleading salary figures to lure students into paying hundreds of thousands of tuition. Most of their law grads cannot even find jobs right now. I dare you, go ask a recent Harvard, Yale, Columbia, NYU grad if they or any of their classmates from the past 1-5 years is employed. All of them will tell you that maybe 10% have jobs.

From Northwestern's site:

Employed at Graduation

2001 96%​

2002 97%​

2003 98%​

2004 97%​

2005 97%​

2006 98%​

2007 98%

​

From UCLA's site:
99.1% of 2008 UCLA Law School graduates seeking employment secured professional employment within 9 months of graduation.

Sorry, but I believe the schools over your speculation. If you want to disprove me, please show me some reliable sources.

And if you think they're making those numbers up, why not go sue them and get your med school tuition covered?

 

[Slack3r]

Dentistry is the easiest way to make your money. I have couple of friends that graduated from dent school 3 years ago and this year one made 500k and the other made 430k. They are practicing in Texas. I think going into medicine for money is the most *****ic thing you would do.

You're aware dental school costs MORE than med school right? USC dental is just under $500k for 4 years. And many popular areas to live (i.e. just about every major city and all of SoCal) are completely oversaturated with dentists. Most of the $400k+ dentists are outliers.

That's the thing, 90% of dentists aren't "salaried," they work as associates and earn a % of production or own their own practice, in which case they can make much, much more. Is 500K average? No, but it's pretty well established that private practice dentists on average make more than PCP docs. This becomes especially true when you consider the $/hour. My personal dentist I shadowed said she didn't know one dentist that worked over 40 hours a week (not that that doesn't happen, just her experience, and mine as well).

I know a PCP that's pretty successful for himself (~$300k) He doesn't accept Medicare and is a pretty savvy business man.

I know a Mexican contractor without high school education who netted 500K last year laying down sheetrock.

Some of the richest people I know all have small companies. My ex-gf's step-dad has a Beverly Hills mansion and drives a Bently GT....he sells tires. It's all about being a savvy businessman and making smart investments. No one gets rich off their salaries.

Besides, no one needs a private helicopter or a bugatti veyron to feel complete.

Speak for yourself, bud. 👍

And to answer the OP, medicine is bad if you can get yourself stuck in a practice that is run poorly or in academic medicine. There are many ways to successfully run a practice and maximize your income. People have the (horribly) misguided idea that simply being a doctor means you're financially secure, and that the MD behind your name allows you to sit back and let the money flow in. You still need to be able to make smart business decisions and handle your money properly, same with any of these other "lucrative" professions everyone is posting about. Too many people fail to understand that medicine is, at the end of the day, part business as well and should be treated as such.

 

[penguin24]

Join a drug trafficking cartel, either Colombian or Mexican...Make sure you do well in Chem and Ochem and decent on your MCAT. Being Bilingual also helps..

Yeah, but if I screw up in medicine, the lawyers will make me pay a malpractice fine.

If I screw up in the click, the lawyers will make me go to prison & be some big thug's boytoy for 25 to life.

 

[circulus vitios]

I'm not talking average.

I gave you two examples of actual living breathing people whom I know, who are running successful businesses, and making more than your run-of-the-mill doc. Draw your own conclusions.

I am staying in medicine for the same reason: because I am way better than average.

Why do you constantly post about construction workers/dog sitters/nurses pulling in $250k if even you admit they're outliers? It's a ******ed waste of time. You rail against medicine yet you stay in it because you're way better than average? How do you figure that? If you were above average, you wouldn't bitch and whine about it all the time.

 

[chman]

Here is a crazy idea; go into something that you might enjoy, and the money will follow. But please, do not become a doctor for the money.

EDIT: Most dentists make about 150,000. Now specialty dentists that go to school for longer can make a lot more. But it is hard to get into these schools because there are not very many.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Want to make more money as a doc? Work more.

 

[halekulani]

Can someone explain to me what other fields give you anything close to $200,000-$500,000 per year?

My friends are telling me that if money is what you are interested in, go into engineering, dentistry, pharmacy or business.

I'm sure engineering is better at first because you're at a solid $70,000+ after 4 years, but who honestly believes 70K > 200-500K?

Once again with dentistry, how do people come to the conclusion that 110-130K is > 200-500K?

And business is different because it requires a different set of skills. For example, I assume that most doctors could have become engineers or dentists or pharmacists because they seem to excel in math/science.

I laugh when people tell me I should have gone into business if I wanted money. I took a basic business class in high school and finished dead last in net profits for one of the projects. Bottom line is that I suck at business and wouldn't be able to make it big at all. And if I don't make it big in business (unlike in medicine) I do not make that much money at all.

So how exactly can I make more money in a field other than medicine?

nobody gets wealthy by having other people sign their checks
it's all about what you do with your own money towards personal investment. your job is a means to acquire capital but you're still supposed to do something with it if you want to get wealthy.