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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Engineer here. Lots of good discussion, and the point I always make is that you have to consider the time/year variable when comparing salaries. You can't just look at what someone may earn at 45. If an engineer is making $60k at 22 and $85k at 25, when the future MD and JD are still in school borrowing $60k a year, that's a roughly $140k per year delta DURING THE MOST IMPORTANT YEARS of your total earning cycle (i.e., the early years).

Understand the time value of money, and you can end up like me. Decent engineering job, 40 years old. 40 hours a week, every Friday off, $150k, not in a particularly high COL area, house paid off, net worth of $2.5M.

So with $2M invested, figure you can count on 7% a year on average, that's $140k for doing nothing, and that's mostly tax-free, and that goes up every year.

My wife makes about $80k working part time.

Combine everything, and we're looking at over $250k per year, and we have no bills.

Meanwhile, my internist whom I play squash with is still paying off his med school loans, is nowhere near paying off the mortgage, and hasn't had a chance to accumulate much in the way of investments. He'll never be able to catch up. (And NPs and PAs are infringing on his, and all doctors' incomes, a little bit more every day.)[/quote]

This is such an engineer's answer... and I love it!

- Math major who manages 200 engineers.

P.S. You had me at hello. [/quote]

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