Come on people, I thought you were finance pros. It’s all about risk/reward. You go to med school, spend a ton of time and money, but when you get out it’s pretty much guaranteed you’ll be clocking in the low 6 digits in a few years - more in private practice, less in academic medicine, and again, the trade-off here is risk/reward. Very few will clock $1MM plus - the top dog at my parent’s hospital is under $500K. A finance career moves you out to the flat part of the frontier - a much larger chance you’ll get stuck in the back office or a crappy front office role, but with a very real opportunity to generate serious wealth.
Yeah, we need to calculate the Sharpe ratios for both and compare. 
you’re however assuming that people make choices of occupation based on monetary rewards only. some people do things because they’re good at it and they like it. money isn’t everything.
FrankArabia Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > you’re however assuming that people make choices > of occupation based on monetary rewards only. some > people do things because they’re good at it and > they like it. money isn’t everything. Of course. Also your fate is involved as well.
Well obviously people have different reward priorities, but money places somewhere on everyone’s curve.
Never thought Id see a response such as this on a site such as this, but…I agree FA. My definition of wealth is not done so in strictly monetary terms. How much money is enough money…? I am certainly not rich in terms of $$$…combined income in our household barely tops 100k annually. Working at a hospital, my perception of surgeons is that they get in, and are in the field for much more than some sort of risk/reward ratio…but then again, what the heck do I know…I’m just a dumb ol’ blue collar construction worker that is looking to make a switch into the financial field because I find it interesting and it presents a nice challenge…a cool annual salary of $70-80k satisfies my level of thirst for money.
The farther the surgeon is in his career, money becomes more of a reason to stay in the field than the love of it. At that point you’ve gone through several frivolous lawsuits and you’re worried that everyone will sue you. Theres no reward in treating people when you do whatever you can to treat someone and still worry about these lawsuits.
Grizzum, I have the utmost respect for surgeons; IMO, these days, surgery residencies have the highest percentage of people truly dedicated and loving what they are doing. Admittedly, I’m not like that: I want a job that pay first, prestige and power is distant second. Surgery training is extremely taxing on young doc’s very physiology. As one orthopedic surgery resident put it: “It’s not about working hard whole night. It’s about working hard whole night and then being scared that you won’t finish your work on time”. When I was graduating medschool, more surgery residencies than ever were being filled by foreign medical grads, because US grads simply shy away from surgery as a career and instead they choose specialties which provide similar money and better lifestyle. My prediction is that the trend will continue, and eventually expand into other fields.
i thought doctors lived as Christian Troy does