Do you think doctors are rich people?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, for wealth purposes. a hand surgeon is not a pediatrician.

This. Pediatricians make little money.

[Anonymous]

First of all I do agree with others that making any assumptions based on someone’s house size is quite silly. In fact, people that “appear” rich because of all of their “things” and big houses, new cars, often actually don’t have as high of a net worth as you imagine. Sometimes the people with the used car and the smaller house have WAY more wealth because they are good at socking it away.

Second, yes a hand surgeon makes an extremely high salary. That being said, it takes a lot longer for drs to build wealth than many other professionals which is why people say you shouldn’t do it for the money. There are much quicker ways to wealth. Because medical training is so long - for a hand surgeon the training portion where salary is low would likely be at a minimum of 9 years, for example, and the debt incurred by most to go to medical school is so astronomically high - it usually isn’t til later in life that the “wealth” is felt in the way you are thinking. So they may be in a smaller house because they like it, or because boulder is expensive, or because they are still paying off student loans. But it’s unlikely he doesn’t make quite a high salary. It’s just complicated.

And why do you care, anyway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I have this one friend and she married a doctor. He is a hand surgeon. They live in a very small house in Boulder, so no way they are rich. So my question would be why so many people consider doctors rich?

Lol that you think the size of someone's house is an accurate measure of their wealth.

Exactly. I though people were beyond that by now.

Their millions are invested instead of a large home they don't want or need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I have this one friend and she married a doctor. He is a hand surgeon. They live in a very small house in Boulder, so no way they are rich. So my question would be why so many people consider doctors rich?

Lol that you think the size of someone's house is an accurate measure of their wealth.

Totally agree. I hate a big house for many reasons. A cute cozy home in a a great place in Mt dream home.

[Anonymous]

Yes. My husband and I are both doctors, and we have plenty of money. We aren’t DCUM rich, but I’m always surprised when people ask if we can afford things like an evening babysitter or a week of summer camp.

[Anonymous]

What a weird question? Why do you care...
As someone married to a doc, the salaries vary widely as does the student debt.
It depends on
A. what you consider rich
B. How much student debt they are bringing to the table
C. If you take into account the lost years/income of residency
D. Specialty and if they are in private practice, community, rural, etc.
E. If they do any side hustle like botox

Make an equation out of any of those and get back to us...

[Anonymous]

My Dad's a doctor. A company bought the clinic he works for and increased all the use fees for the clinic. They basically increased the amount doctors are expected to contribute to facilities by a huge amount. They also started acting as a middlemen for the scribes so the scribes get the same pay, but now the clinic charges the physicians a huge amount extra for them. Nickel and diming all around.

Basically the MBA/corporation types are raking in profits off the backs of the doctors. My Dad's a specialist and his billings are fine but his younger colleagues particularly those with medical school debt, are struggling, particularly with COVID canceling their routine/well/elective visits, which bill better. This is happening at clinics around the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Housing stock in Boulder is interesting. Their house may be be small AND expensive. What’s it like? If it’s in a good neighborhood and nice inside, it may cost more than you think.

Lots of people with money choose to spend it on things other than housing. Do they travel a lot? Eat out frequently? Have expensive hobbies? Do they ski? Do they maybe have a second home is Estes Park or Breckenridge? Etc.

Also, I know a lot of doctors who never quite over the experience if being a resident even when they advanced and started making a lot of money. They never really feel rich even when they are. This happens with doctors kids, too, if they have childhood memories if those very long hours without that much money. I know people whose parents paid out of pocket for college and grad school, helped them with a down payment, and pay fir annual family vacations to Europe or the Caribbean, but describe their parents as “middle class”. Their early experience skewed their perception and it never adjusted.

You just described my childhood! I thought we were poor all through elementary and middle school because we drove to vacation (which were always to battlefields, historical sites, state parks, etc) and stayed in crappy motels. Always went places off season, no name brand clothes, few Christmas presents. I thought we were poor and my friends whose parents drove trucks and worked at the GM plant were rich because they always had the nice cars and cool clothes. My dad was just in a different frame of mind as he was building his practice. We suddenly had a vacation HOME and moved into a giant house when I was in 8th grade, and I was like “oh wait, are WE rich?!” My parents are multimillionaires now but still fly coach, drive their cars until they wear out, wear cheap watches, and reuse everything. That mindset is hard to shake even when you’ve sent three kids through boarding school and private college.

[Anonymous]

Some doctors are rich, some are not. Impossible to know.

Same with any other profession

[Anonymous]

I don’t think so unless they have been successful in a business sense with their practice, they’re in a lucrative specialty, or they have gotten lucky with investments.

I think some people (people who haven’t yet learned what we have learned) think they’re rich because they do pay higher than your typical job that you learn about as a kid (doctor, lawyer, ballerina, fireman).

[Anonymous]

The doctors I know are pretty well off. The GPs and internist work a lot of hours and are not "rich" but can take nice vacations and full pay their kids private school education K through grad school.

The eye laser and cosmetic surgeons are flat out rich. Country clubs, Netjet membership, 2nd homes, big time charity donors. It looks really nice.

I'm not a doctor but it appears you want to be a doctor for people with money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I have this one friend and she married a doctor. He is a hand surgeon. They live in a very small house in Boulder, so no way they are rich. So my question would be why so many people consider doctors rich?

Putting aside the silliness of the question, have you ever looked at Boulder real estate? Every single piece of property in the city is expensive.

[Anonymous]

The only new “rich” docs are crooks. They must see a huge load of patients and perform procedures, tests (many unnecessary) to make a higher comp. My father, recently retired as a urologist surgeon was in a solo practice during the last 30 years. He is filthy rich because during his era, surgeons literally had a license to charge whatever they wanted. This is no longer possible - unless you engage in poor care or perform unnecessary tests or procedures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Dad's a doctor. A company bought the clinic he works for and increased all the use fees for the clinic. They basically increased the amount doctors are expected to contribute to facilities by a huge amount. They also started acting as a middlemen for the scribes so the scribes get the same pay, but now the clinic charges the physicians a huge amount extra for them. Nickel and diming all around.

Basically the MBA/corporation types are raking in profits off the backs of the doctors. My Dad's a specialist and his billings are fine but his younger colleagues particularly those with medical school debt, are struggling, particularly with COVID canceling their routine/well/elective visits, which bill better. This is happening at clinics around the country.

This! Medicine looks very different that in the 80s for many reasons but this is the latest trend. It’s mimicking what’s happened with college costs, price increases but none of it goes to the doctor. Medicine is increasingly becoming admin heavy and that’s what drives the high prices. If you look up “facility” fees vs doctor fees, you’ll see doctors get reimbursed very little for their services.

OP shouldn’t be judging wealth by house size, but there has been a big shift in medicine and a career that traditionally made a good salary, no longer does, especially when accounting for time/money spent on training.

[Anonymous]

I’m in training and plan to go into primary care with a public interest husband. Our combined salary will likely be 350k. However, we are behind on retirement savings since and have kids in daycare. Because of the fact that we can’t plan on any financial aid- we have to aggressively save for college. We don’t think we can afford private school or anything like that. We live in a small house and plan to stay in one for the long term. Def feel like we will be well off meaning we won’t worry about money but not rich.