Do you think doctors are rich people?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Funny — me too! Exactly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:one major value of being a doctor is that your employment is practically guaranteed for life and you have great geographic flexibility. It shouldn't be underestimated. Doctors never have to stress about having a good job. To me, this is priceless.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an attorney who has seen a lot of physician contracts. The more elite specialties - interventional cardiology, for e.g. - are over a million. So are many surgeons - e.g. ortho and eye - though income depends on the number of procedures and whether they are salaried for a hospital system or have an ownership interest in an ambulatory surgical center. I've seen surgeons who own their own ASCs make upwards of $7m.

In addition, many docs supplement their income with training, teaching, speaking etc. activities for drug and device companies. And surgeons can get involved in product development for device companies and get royalty streams. Bottom line is that doctors can still do very, very well if they are entrepreneurial.

$7M?? These numbers are incredibly hard to believe. Human beings, apart from Warren Buffett types, do NOT earn that much money.

[Anonymous]

My Dad's a pediatrician. There was some budget dispute in the state between the governor and legislature and my Dad and most other doctors didn't get medicaid billings paid for over a year. My Dad specifically picked his specialty to help people so he has never turned away patients based on Medicaid status but he definitely took a financial hit.

[Anonymous]

My dh is a pediatrician who makes $160k. I work in a low paying job that I love very much. We live in a safe but not a flashy neighborhood, our kids go to public school, we don’t take expensive vacations. We didn’t come from wealthy parents, so no help with med school or paying off undergraduate loans, no help with down payment on a house, nobody bought us our first car as teens. We do have savings and investments, but we are hoping to give our kids the leg up that we didn’t get, so we aren’t big spenders. Are we rich? That’s all perspective—a lot of people wish they had what we do. And a lot of dcum people probably think we are poor…it’s subjective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an attorney who has seen a lot of physician contracts. The more elite specialties - interventional cardiology, for e.g. - are over a million. So are many surgeons - e.g. ortho and eye - though income depends on the number of procedures and whether they are salaried for a hospital system or have an ownership interest in an ambulatory surgical center. I've seen surgeons who own their own ASCs make upwards of $7m.

In addition, many docs supplement their income with training, teaching, speaking etc. activities for drug and device companies. And surgeons can get involved in product development for device companies and get royalty streams. Bottom line is that doctors can still do very, very well if they are entrepreneurial.

$7M?? These numbers are incredibly hard to believe. Human beings, apart from Warren Buffett types, do NOT earn that much money.

They are business owners, not just employees at a practice.

[Anonymous]

Yes don’t most surgeons earn well over million a year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes don’t most surgeons earn well over million a year?

depends on the specialty and years of experience

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an attorney who has seen a lot of physician contracts. The more elite specialties - interventional cardiology, for e.g. - are over a million. So are many surgeons - e.g. ortho and eye - though income depends on the number of procedures and whether they are salaried for a hospital system or have an ownership interest in an ambulatory surgical center. I've seen surgeons who own their own ASCs make upwards of $7m.

In addition, many docs supplement their income with training, teaching, speaking etc. activities for drug and device companies. And surgeons can get involved in product development for device companies and get royalty streams. Bottom line is that doctors can still do very, very well if they are entrepreneurial.

$7M?? These numbers are incredibly hard to believe. Human beings, apart from Warren Buffett types, do NOT earn that much money.

They are business owners, not just employees at a practice.

Exactly. These are doctors who have crossed over from practice to the business side. The real money is in ownership/admin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband worked in a private practice in Maryland, where there are limits on the amount of money doctors can get reimbursed by insurance companies for procedures. The old docs in the practice who started out under the old rules were rich, with huge houses, boats, vacation homes, etc. The young docs on the current salary were barely making ends meet in the DC area. We left, and now feel comfortable on the same salary in a lower COL area. But we are far from rich. Med school loans are costing about 3k per month for the forseeable future. Started saving for retirement, college, etc at age 35 instead of 25. We could definitely be richer if we moved to a less desirable area of the country.

We're paying our DC1's med school and I know it will make a huge difference. Medicine is becoming the choice for only high income families now.

Yes, because it's a $400k degree unless you attend a state school. it's difficult to borrow $400k. My spouse is peripherally involved with admissions at Georgetown and almost all their students are wealthy. It's a concern to many that you have to come from
signigicant money to become a physician.

The state schools are also $$ and you can't be really picky where to go, because the admission rates are so low. UVA in state is between 72 and 77/year. Everyone wants to be specialist because the costs are so high. I hope more schools would follow into NYU's steps and make med school free, at least for pediatricians and primary care physicians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:one major value of being a doctor is that your employment is practically guaranteed for life and you have great geographic flexibility. It shouldn't be underestimated. Doctors never have to stress about having a good job. To me, this is priceless.

Plus, despite the paperwork and overwhelming legal stuff, it's a very valuable job. You actually save someone's life, even when you do preventive procedures.

[Anonymous]

My BIL is a surgeon who finally finished residency and training at close to 40 years old. It took him longer bc he also did lab research and an md/PhD which added several years. He went from 60kish to 300kish . He and SIL have two kids so they basically had to live on rice and beans through their 30s to afford daycare and didn’t save anything. Luckily he didn’t have medical school debt bc he did the PhD which PhD for his schooling. But still, they have so much catch up to do and he’s not making THAT much, not what I would consider a rich person.

[Anonymous]

Rich? No. UMC? Yes. My friends who are doctors make a comfortable salary but most have major loans or other expenses involved with their practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friend’s husband is a hand surgeon. The last I recall was an average salary of $500,000.

This sounds about right.

Op, do you consider 500k HHI rich?

Some people may think that is rich. Others won’t. Dh is a ortho. He makes $1m+.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend’s husband is a hand surgeon. The last I recall was an average salary of $500,000.

This sounds about right.

Op, do you consider 500k HHI rich?

Some people may think that is rich. Others won’t. Dh is a ortho. He makes $1m+.

Ortho...dontist? Pedist?