Why all the money talk???

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sbf

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I'm a little confused folks, and please don't take this as an attack. But why is there so much talk about "how much can I make" and "will I earn more in x or y" and "what is the highest paying specialty for the least hours"??

I think this represents a very ugly undercurrent, and appears as though people may well be choosing their specialties (wisely or unwisely) with a very heavy weighting on financial remuneration.

Certainly this is a relevant factor, but is it really one of the factors that needs to be constantly raised?
Surely a more appropriate question would be "why do you like GI/Cardiology/Endocrine? etc" or "what sort of work does a Chest physician do?" or "what will the future prospects for Radiology hold?"

Isn't it more important that you pick something you truly enjoy, are good at, and are suited to?

I've never encountered a "poor" subspecialist..... some make more than others, but all are comfortable and certainly in the "very well paid" bracket. In fact, the vast majority will tell you that you couldn't pay them enough money to make them do .............. (insert job) as a specialty. Doesn't this mean something?????

At the end of the day would you rather be rolling in cash doing a job you don't like and working hours that don't suit your desired lifestyle, or would you prefer to enjoy getting up to go to work each day and comfortable in the fact that you'll be living a much better lifestyle both financially and personally that many other people?

Food for thought

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I agree with your comments regarding that the interest of a particular field should drive one's motives, however, the reality is that loans must be paid and the field of medicine as a whole is experiencing dramatic financial cutbacks. There are still altruistic people out there who choose fields based on interest and not on fiscal gain.

I don't necessarily think people who choose certain fields primarily for financial gain should be viewed negatively. In the end, they still have to do the work effectively to earn their income and one would presume that they would do a fairly good job.
 
answer is simple.... loans. and lots of money to be paid back. what i dont understand is how the foreign grads from other countries (no offense), who dont have nearly as much debt to pay back as the US grads or the US grads who go study abroad, are so hungry to make that dollar.

but yeah, if u dont enjoy what you do, no matter how much money you make, you will be miserable. no question. another thing to realize is that salaries change and market forces change. so you may go into something for financial reasons and find yourself getting less than you thought.. and then what are you left with? something you dont enjoy and youre not getting paid.

all in all, people are in their late 20's and early 30's and are eager to get their life started.... buying a house, a car etc....
 
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I'm a little confused folks, and please don't take this as an attack. But why is there so much talk about "how much can I make" and "will I earn more in x or y" and "what is the highest paying specialty for the least hours"??

I think this represents a very ugly undercurrent, and appears as though people may well be choosing their specialties (wisely or unwisely) with a very heavy weighting on financial remuneration.

Certainly this is a relevant factor, but is it really one of the factors that needs to be constantly raised?
Surely a more appropriate question would be "why do you like GI/Cardiology/Endocrine? etc" or "what sort of work does a Chest physician do?" or "what will the future prospects for Radiology hold?"

Isn't it more important that you pick something you truly enjoy, are good at, and are suited to?

I've never encountered a "poor" subspecialist..... some make more than others, but all are comfortable and certainly in the "very well paid" bracket. In fact, the vast majority will tell you that you couldn't pay them enough money to make them do .............. (insert job) as a specialty. Doesn't this mean something?????

At the end of the day would you rather be rolling in cash doing a job you don't like and working hours that don't suit your desired lifestyle, or would you prefer to enjoy getting up to go to work each day and comfortable in the fact that you'll be living a much better lifestyle both financially and personally that many other people?

Food for thought


My friend...will you pay off my $230,000 debt which is currently in deferrment and will probably be more when I do start paying it! I am an ethically sound person who treats their patients without bias of race, color, creed, orientation, etc. and I will continue to be that way, however when everything is said and done, only I can look out for myself and my debts, true? I realize that the counterargument of how much $$ does one need to be happy, and that $$$$ doesn't = happiness are very valid points, but these are COMPLETELY arbitrary and differ from one to another. For example, one person with no spouse and no kids will be very happy and live VERY comfortably with $200k and a $300k house, whereas another with a spouse and 3 kids in their teens will probably seek more since they ahve other things to worry about (saving $$ for college, more expenses, etc etc). There's also the idiosyncratic aspect as well. By that, I mean that someone may rightfully think that they have worked their butt off during college to get to med school and then worked their butts off in med school (boards, honors, etc.) to get into a good/competitive residency and then scutted themselves to get into a strong fellowship and then scutted some more in fellowship and now they should be entitled to some monetary priveleges that their friends who finsihed college and went straight to financial sector, consultant sector who have been working a third less and making $$$ for atleast 4 years while we spent out time not making a single penny while ADDING debts (med school), and now it's their time to relax and enjoy ALL that they have sacrificed for all that time!! (whoa....now THAT'S A run on sentence if I've ever seen one! :laugh: :laugh: ).

The thing that bothers me about people who contantly criticize that we in medicine think about $$ all the time is that people may implicitly equate the pursuit of $$ with the notion that this is ALL that we think about, which is not true, or that $$ comes before patient care, which is also not true. I cannot say that there are not rogue physicians who DO indeed think about $$ over the fair and accurate practice of medicine, but the %age of "these people" I would bet are approximately similar to the %age of rogue lawyers (well....probably LOTS less than lawyers), or buisness people, or accountants, or car salesman, or anyone else. So then WHY is it that physicians get slammed with these questions!! OF course my patients come first, but that doesn't mean that we should play ostrich when it comes to thinking about $$! I may be naive, and I can only speak for myself, but I think that a good majority of physicians want to balance their mind set of money and patient care, at least that is what my view point is on this whole matter.

Just another opinion...that's it!
 
Please post to my thread on the Internal Medicine board.... no trolling intended.
 
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