If you look around, you’ll find quite a few young men and women who have successfully pulled off an early retirement at age 30 to 35, an age at which most physicians will have a negative net worth.
Or maybe they’re not real, and I’m not real, and early retirement is a farce. Whichever it is, physicians can’t realistically earn enough from being a doctor by those ages to retire.
If I had retired the moment I was FI, it would have been a couple months shy of my fortieth birthday. That would be very early, but I know physicians who stopped practicing even earlier. I’ll break it down into five year increments.
The stay-at-home spouse. I worked with one family physician whose wife finished residency with him years earlier. Diplomas in hand, she remained home to raise and home-school their children.
The Suddenly Wealthy.A large windfall at the beginning of one’s career could be all it takes to transition a disenchanted physician out of practice. The money could come from any number of sources. Inheritance and lotto winnings could come into play here.
The Career Transitioner. While it’s not exactly “retirement,” pursuing a non-clinical career is effectively a retirement from clinical medicine. Some physicians may realize that the bedside is not where they belong.