One person’s “low-income” profession is another person’s “high-income” profession. It’s all relative, of course. But in medicine, there can be a pretty significant disparity in earnings when you look at the entire spectrum of doctors.
As with any other industry, some pull in a salary below the average or median pay for a group.
Do the same financial tenets and nuggets of advice apply to a doctor on the lower end of the range?
This post addresses the opposite issue—”low-income” doctors. The average physician these days makes around $275,000, and surveys show that the vast majority of doctors make somewhere in the $180,000-$450,000 range.
I don’t feel bad for doctors who have a relatively low income. I know you can have a pretty great life on $150,000 a year because I’ve done it. The ones I feel bad for are those with a high student loan burden.
Pediatricians look at hospitalists enviously, family doctors look at emergency doctors enviously, emergency docs look enviously at ophthalmologist salaries, and ophthalmologists covet the boats of back surgeons.
There will always be someone who makes more and has more than you.If you would instead spend your time looking at the 99.9% of those who have ever lived who make LESS than you, you would probably be a lot happier.
Doctors making $150,000 don’t need very many retirement accounts, and they may never need a taxable account at all. If they want to save 20% for retirement, they can get that out of a run-of-the-mill employer-provided 401(k) and a Roth IRA or two.
Disability insurance is really easy for a “low-income” physician. You can do it with a single policy. In fact, you may not ever need to do anything but exercise the FPO option on the one you bought in residency.