What do you do that you earn six figures?

[u/fidgit86]

It seems like a lot of people make a lot of money and it seems like I’m missing out on something. So those of you that do, whats your occupation that pays so well?

[u/r5d400]

I feel physicians are so underrepresented in the finance subreddits. like, I get that doctors take a while to make good money due to all the years of schooling, but once they're done with that, it's huge salaries all the way.

and yet they still don't show up much to these subreddits

[u/Obecalp86 → u/r5d400]

Many docs are financially illiterate which may be why they’re underrepresented. Also, many don’t start making a high salary until mid-30’s. Many of my colleagues go straight for the million dollar house and expensive car while they’re not maxing out payments on their $200k+ student loans. Can’t remember the exact number, but a large minority of doctors in their 60’s have a net worth <$1mil, which should be “impossible” for individuals making $200-500k/year (or sometimes more).

[u/MrMudPhud → u/Obecalp86]

Yup. Doctors are financially illiterate, and because of that we get taken advantage of. "Oh, $300K/year to be an ICU doc? That's way better than $130K/year as a software engineer." Then, hospital administrators and med schools look at the situation and go, "So how far can we push these kids using salary as justification?" The answer is about 10 years of missed income and $400K in debt.

I have tried over the years, on many occasions, to explain opportunity cost to other med students/physicians. You can literally make all the sacrifices of a doctor through your mid-30s and come out ahead if you go into almost any other decently high paying field that doesn't require tons of post-graduate training. People on these forums see that easily. They understand how an extra ten years of compounding interest will dramatically change any investment portfolio, but if I make this point on a physician subreddit I get bombarded with downvotes and non-quantitative hunches. The only reason physicians are richer in real life is that almost no one takes advantage of their retirement savings while young. The wealth building opportunity is exactly the same. Engineers overwhelmingly choose a higher QOL than what med students have.

People here of course understand it. If I told you that basically any professional would spend the first 10 years of their career spending $25K and living like a med student/resident, you would all tell me that they would become rich. Most people don't get this. They just see salary.

A lot of the time it comes down to it just not mattering. Most doctors don't do it for the money and wind up fine. They get to spend on big purchases and that's what they really wanted. Then they enjoy a more modest retirement, and that's also fine.

Also, the number of doctors making >$500K/year is also pretty low. Increasingly doctors are employees. Like in any industry, there are some outliers, but the days of $500K+ are dwindling.

[u/AssaultOfTruth → u/MrMudPhud]

Great post. Moreover the average software engineer doesn’t work anywhere near as hard as a med student. There is also no chance of being $300k in debt almost finished it and...oh crap mental breakdown or health event precluding completion. There are people who are not doctors but have a lot of med school debt.