How much money does a doctor need to retire and enjoy a typical “doctor retirement”? Short answer: It depends.
Better answer: The number will vary from person to person depending on a wide variety of circumstances, but that shouldn’t stop us from coming up with an estimate for you.
Truthfully, the number doesn’t actually vary based on profession alone.
A doctor has no inherently different retirement needs than anyone else.
At the same time, it’s hard not to notice the fact that most doctors and other high-income individuals tend to spend more money than the average person, and thus will need more money to retire.
A number I’ve seen several times, including in this forum thread at the Student Doctor Network and another on the White Coat Investor Forum is $10 Million. I once had the $10 Million Dream myself.
$10 Million is a lot of money. Few physicians will ever be able to claim a net worth of $10 Million, let alone retirement savings of $10 Million. The vast majority of physicians will retire eventually with less than half of that.