When to walk away from pharmacy

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MrBonita

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When would be a good point to exit the pharmacy field. My goal is to pay off my mortgage, student loans and have 1 million in savings. Anyone have suggestions when it is best to step away. If I were to downgrade my home I could easily wipe out my student loans and mortgage in one blow.

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That depends. Have you worked as a pharmacist? If so, how long?
 
I started working as an Rph at 27 and I am now 39.
 
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You didn't provide enough information.

Retirement is tricky because you don't know how long you are going to live and investment goes up and down, just to name a couple.

I would feel comfortable retiring if I don't have any debt, have paid off my mortgage, have investment that is 25 x my annual expenses, have 5-7 years of living expenses, have a side gig.

Your health and your healthcare expenses are also a big factor.

If you walked away from pharmacy, don't expect to come back. It is not going to be easy.




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1 million in savings? Now I feel really, really far behind.
 
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If you're planning to live an average lifespan and never work again then $1M really isn't a lot of money for a 39 year old. A couple of unfortunate events can wipe out a lot of that quickly. Cost of living will certainly change a lot over the next 40 years. Proceed with caution
 
Walking away from pharmacy and never working again, period, is not the same as switching careers. People do the latter all the time.

In my case, I decided to leave the profession in early 2012, when I realized my job was literally killing me and that the profession had mutated into something I didn't recognize. I don't have anywhere near a million in savings, but I do have a sizable nest egg that mysteriously isn't shrinking, although I did put myself on an allowance that is nowhere near a pharmacist's salary, and live very modestly while running a home-based non-health care business. That I did not have children sure helps.

I'm still licensed, because you just never know, but as of right now, I have no plans to return to it and it's a decision for which I've had 100% support. The closest I came to this in the past 5 years was a large free dental clinic that needed pharmacists, and the spots were all full by the time I had a chance to sign up.
 
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Thank you everyone for your advise. I am going to start going to a community college to get certificates and start another career. Not sure yet but seems like a good start.
 
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Have you considered a desk job instead unless you're trying to completely leave healthcare (like become a plumber)? I have a feeling the future blue collar job is programmer and the future technical job is plumber and carpenter.

Look, when you get out of your immediate survival situation, some of us take a look around and wonder why the hell we're here. It's not necessarily that the grass is greener elsewhere, but what you're doing right now is not what you are going to do.

As you do your soul-searching though, it probably is a good idea not to burn your bridges. Quitting your job like Kevin Spacey might be entertaining for about a month, but stay patient.



Also, if you are going back to Community College, you might want to get some career counseling about what's hiring in your area. Usually there is a company or two that more or less sponsors a technical training program to do something.
 
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Just wondering, why do you want to leave the pharmacy field?
 
In case you didn't notice, he didn't say WHY he wanted to leave pharmacy. He just wondered when it would be financially safe to do so
Just, get out while you still can. It's pointless to keep talking about the same thing over and over again without any actions to change your situation. If I were still a P1 and I had your type of views about the field of pharmacy, I would have dropped out right away to pursue "better" opportunities. You were told not to go into pharmacy, but you did anyway. You don't listen to anyone's advice. It seems like you just come on here to bash pharmacy.

Everybody has their own reasons for wanting or not wanting to be a pharmacist. You look for the negative. I don't get it. If it's so bad, then leave and drop out. If it's not that bad, then stick around, study, and be the best pharmacist you can be.
 
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Just, get out while you still can. It's pointless to keep talking about the same thing over and over again without any actions to change your situation. If I were still a P1 and I had your type of views about the field of pharmacy, I would have dropped out right away to pursue "better" opportunities. You were told not to go into pharmacy, but you did anyway. You don't listen to anyone's advice. It seems like you just come on here to bash pharmacy.

Everybody has their own reasons for wanting or not wanting to be a pharmacist. You look for the negative. I don't get it. If it's so bad, then leave and drop out. If it's not that bad, then stick around, study, and be the best pharmacist you can be.

Geez, let me reiterate -- the original intention of my post to this thread was to simply ask the OP why he/she wants to leave pharmacy (I.e., is it too stressful, they're just bored with it, they graduated a long time ago and the field has changed for the worse, they're just tired of the subject matter and want something new, etc.). I am just curious to know why they want to leave the field; that's all.
 
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Geez, let me reiterate -- the original intention of my post to this thread was to simply ask the OP why he/she wants to leave pharmacy (I.e., is it too stressful, they're just bored with it, they graduated a long time ago and the field has changed for the worse, they're just tired of the subject matter and want something new, etc.). I am just curious to know why they want to leave the field; that's all.
Right. I'm sure.
 
Ouch, you've been working 12 years and still have student loans?

I've seen rphs switch careers after just a couple years, they seem to be happy with their choice. You can stay per diem just in case. Always good to have a backup plan.
 
When would be a good point to exit the pharmacy field. My goal is to pay off my mortgage, student loans and have 1 million in savings. Anyone have suggestions when it is best to step away. If I were to downgrade my home I could easily wipe out my student loans and mortgage in one blow.

My plan shifts often but includes
no mortgage
1.5 mil/ or investment income 50k yr
children's college fund
For myself I will not exit as long as I have a job I like making a fair salary. Once the job becomes unpleasant I will leave if I have above things covered.
 
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Aren't you the guy who works at Kaiser for some absurdly high salary? I don't know why you would quit that just to go BACK to college for a degree that in all likelihood would end up having a lower salary. And at the same time, aiming for a lower retirement age.

I mean, if you don't like the job and you're asking about how much you can need so that you can quit and enter a job you enjoy albeit at lower pay, I guess I could understand that. Anyway, I imagine you'll have to keep up with increasing cost of living, which would likely be a fairly substantial in California.

I'm also not sure why you still have student loans/mortgages but so much in savings. You should have wiped those out long ago if you're able, unless your investments are somehow guaranteed to beat their interest rates.
 
Aren't you the guy who works at Kaiser for some absurdly high salary? I don't know why you would quit that just to go BACK to college for a degree that in all likelihood would end up having a lower salary. And at the same time, aiming for a lower retirement age.

Yeah, no kidding. I had to deal with the disappointment of pharmacy not being the dream career I thought it would be after graduation, but my current job is pretty low stress and the pay is alright. I'd just stick it out until you lose your job.
 
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Yeah, no kidding. I had to deal with the disappointment of pharmacy not being the dream career I thought it would be after graduation
Same, but one of my part times jobs isn't too bad but hell of a commute and my other part time gig is crappy and long commute. I haven't even been a pharmacist for a year yet and I'm already counting down when I'm able to get out and go into something else. What is keeping me in is student loans and not knowing what else I would want to do :/
 
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Same, but one of my part times jobs isn't too bad but hell of a commute and my other part time gig is crappy and long commute. I haven't even been a pharmacist for a year yet and I'm already counting down when I'm able to get out and go into something else. What is keeping me in is student loans and not knowing what else I would want to do :/

How much student loans do you have?


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Just, get out while you still can. It's pointless to keep talking about the same thing over and over again without any actions to change your situation. If I were still a P1 and I had your type of views about the field of pharmacy, I would have dropped out right away to pursue "better" opportunities. You were told not to go into pharmacy, but you did anyway. You don't listen to anyone's advice. It seems like you just come on here to bash pharmacy.

Everybody has their own reasons for wanting or not wanting to be a pharmacist. You look for the negative. I don't get it. If it's so bad, then leave and drop out. If it's not that bad, then stick around, study, and be the best pharmacist you can be.

Honestly, you look petty for writing all this. It's an open forum...he can contribute his opinon. You can disagree with him but to go on this whole tirade about what he should do with his life? lol....please.
 
Honestly, you look petty for writing all this. It's an open forum...he can contribute his opinon. You can disagree with him but to go on this whole tirade about what he should do with his life? lol....please.

It's not his (or anyone else's) opinion that actually bothers me -- it just seemed to me like PharmD500's response was out of place and mostly irrelevant to the question I was asking. It's like if someone who likes to cook asks a chef how he goes about preparing a recipe, and the chef snaps back with, "Why, so you can tell me everything I'm doing wrong?" or something like that, when they were genuinely just curious to hear what they had to say.
 
Ouch, you've been working 12 years and still have student loans?

I've seen rphs switch careers after just a couple years, they seem to be happy with their choice. You can stay per diem just in case. Always good to have a backup plan.


Just wondering, what careers did they switch to?
 
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