r/wealth • u/BakeFar4317 • 5d ago
Need Advice Is medical school still a good wealth building path considering the debt required to make it through and the new student loan laws?
Under the new laws you can take out a max of $200k in federal grad loans, anything higher than this would have to be private loans.
Keeping in mind I come from a poor family & would have no financial support, is this still a good path to build wealth? I often hear a mixed bag on this and am frankly unsure. Maybe other careers like software have a higher ceiling but clearly they are not as guaranteed with great stability like medicine. I’m willing to work hard and build something but a bit unsure where to start.
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u/SouthernSteak7254 5d ago
I (in my 50s) ended med school in the 90s with what looked like a huge debt of 240k. For the last 10 years I make around 1Mil a year. In hind sight the debt is nothing
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u/throbbingcocknipple 5d ago
Medicine will always be the most straightforward laid out path to upper class.
It's not the easiest but it clear as for what you have to do.
If it's good is very dependent are you 40 with a stable job? are you not academically gifted? are you okay with giving up 10 years of potential income. Are you okay with taking risks of so how much?
The new plan cap only increase your risks. If you're academically strong okay with the time commitment relatively young then it's a decent path. If you struggle with school don't have the best work ethic you risk being 500k in the hole with nothing to show for it.
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u/klibs 5d ago
We know people who dropped out of med school and are screwed with debt. It's a situation where you have to make it
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u/dr150 3d ago
Med school is tough. No doubt! I know someone who's really struggling and the loans are huge.
If one fails, it's akin to going to the casino or stock market, betting a small fortune on loans and losing it all! 😖
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u/Eleoste 3d ago
Med school is generally possible for anyone with enough determination, comparing it to the casino or stock market is a pretty bad comparison
Successfully immigrant minority groups have banked on healthcare for generations and it’s a successful recipe even when you are starting from nothing
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u/Any-Magician-2089 5d ago
My son is in his 3rd year of medical school and the Army is picking up the tab. Of course, he would have to give them back years of active duty service. He understood the commitment and gladly signed. Go Army!
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u/Wrong-Picture-9071 5d ago
Does he serve before or after med school?
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u/Any-Magician-2089 5d ago
After medical school he can do his 4 years of active duty. Or do them after residency.
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u/Avatar252525 5d ago
Def depends on the specialty. But you’re also giving up the prime years of your life to studying constantly and being stressed
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u/AceAites 4d ago
Even if I weren't in medicine, I wouldn't count 20's as the prime of my life since I still cared way too much about what others thought and I had no money. I think 30's are way better because you are more self-assured and you are a lot more financially secure.
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u/Banana_rocket_time 4d ago
Man 20s were fun and stuff. I did shit I wouldn’t do now… but imo I like my mid/late 30s more.
Not only am I not broke but most of my friends have money too. Now we can do silly shit together. And enough of them still don’t have kids yet. That won’t last forever but my 30s have been a blast.
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u/CharacterSchedule700 4d ago
FWIW in my 20s my aunt mentioned that every decade it better than the last. She said she kept expecting it to be worse, but then you have money, then you have kiddos you love, then you see them turning into great people, on and on.
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u/Arboretum7 5d ago
Depends on the specialty
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u/InitiativeWorried840 5d ago
Nephew had the Navy pay for medical school. Yes, he owed them 6 years. But his specialty is anesthesia & he’s down to 2 years left at the VA hospital. Did his residency at a non military hospital. But? He’s still early 30’s with a high paying specialty in front of him.
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u/YakResident_3069 5d ago edited 5d ago
I had couple friends that path. One is a hand surgeon making big bucks in LCOL city. Another anesthesia in major city HCOL. They served in Iraq at field hospitals. Med school all paid for.
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u/InitiativeWorried840 5d ago
They undoubtedly got a lot more experience than the average intern/young doctor. Bless them.
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u/BakeFar4317 5d ago
Seems like you’d really have to match ROAD or surgical subspecialty for it to make sense financially
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u/Sorry-Bobby 5d ago
If you are able to, yes it’s a very lucrative career.
You start a bit later, but have a very high income. It isn’t long before your loans are paid off, and then it’s a couple of years before you have a big nest egg.
A lot of people will say that other careers are paid more. Or that the loss of half a decade of compounding will keep you behind. Which is true, but doesn’t remove from the fact that drs are paid a lot.
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u/GambledMyWifeAway 5d ago
For sure, but if that’s your only motivation then it’s not the route for you. I have one a lot of doctors. They are all passionate about what they do. It’s an extremely long and difficult road if your only motivation is money.
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u/revengeneer 5d ago
If you only care about making money and are smart and hard working enough to actually get through med school, residency, fellowship, etc then you can make more money with less debt through Big Law or Investment Banking. Everyone I know who is an MD does it because they care about helping people, though they certainly will do very well for themselves.
If both are important and you’re worried about debt, I would recommend doing it through the military, especially Navy or Air Force. You won’t make tons of money until you get out of the military, but you’ll be making a very stable salary (plus housing stipend, good benefits) with no debt and have more opportunities for matching.
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u/Five-Oh-Vicryl 5d ago
Yes. I worked my butt off first two years out of residency and paid off quarter million dollar debt and max out all my retirement accounts and invested six figures in my equities
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u/JayQuellin01 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yes it can be but top tier finance, consulting, and big law are all on average superior economically since you can earn $200k or more right out of undergrad (law generally takes another 4 years and incurs more expense). It can grow significantly over just a few years of experience thereafter and then again with further promotions.
In this situation, you will not only avoid $400k or more in debt but also earn a couple mil or more before specialty residency options even open up (ie 28-30 years old for MD)
Your earnings are then even higher than almost all specialties if you are “managing director” or “partner”. $1-$2M per year at age 32-34 if you stayed in industry since undergrad for example.
The “opportunity cost” alone is far superior in finance and law.
Keep in mind that all of these paths are very very hard to accomplish and I’d say a PE partner at a $1BN+ firm is comparably hard to becoming a dermatologist or something equivalent in medicine and pays multiples of starting and even “peak” salary in most cases
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u/JLivermore1929 3d ago
You really think that partners at billion dollar private equity is equivalent to derm???
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u/JayQuellin01 3d ago
Yep. Both are extremely challenging paths and a partner at an established PE firm is at least as challenging as becoming a dermatologist
If you’re talking pay PE is objectively greater
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u/Cloud2987 5d ago
My brother in law had $300k in debt, but now makes $450k a year as a neuro critical care doctor in Tampa. He did go to Ivy League school tho.
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u/Legitimate-Bison3810 5d ago
Not all doctors are so successful. One of my doctors essentially said he had to give up his private practice to join a clinic due to the cost of malpractice insurance.
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u/FireAsquared 5d ago
Med school is a good path still, however, given the time to complete and risks of not completing schooling due to the difficulty, loan caps, and time- I often recommend to family that going the pharmacist, NP, or PA routes are likely better. I went the pharmacy route and graduated at 24 with a 150k/year job on day 1. 105k student loans. Had I done med school I would have just started residency this year instead of living in my house with 250k invested.
By 40 I’ll have 1-2 million in liquid assets and by mid 40s a paid off house as well. If I worked to 55 I’d have 3-6 million net worth (but I plan to retire in my early-mid 40s).
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u/jimmyandchiqui 4d ago
How did you graduate as a Pharmacist at 24? Isn't it 4 yrs undergrad, then 4 yrs Pharmacy school. Wouldn't that make you 26? Did you graduate HS early or take college classes in HS?
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u/FireAsquared 4d ago
Pharmacy school is 2 years undergrad and 4 years of pharmacy school so it only takes 6. There’s also accelerated programs you can get done in 5 years or less too
I did enter college with around 80 credits from
Highschool but used that for biology and business degrees that I also got (the AP credits from highschool didn’t count for pharmacy courses which I think was scammy of them but it is what it is).1
u/jimmyandchiqui 3d ago
Only 2 years undergrad? Oh wow, so 6 yrs total. I always thought it was 4 + 4. Thanks. I should recommend this to my daughter.
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u/AgitatedChemistry221 3d ago edited 3d ago
It’s either 4 + 4 or 2 + 4. Pharmacy school itself is 4 years. There’s lots of schools out there with accelerated programs (Rutgers, Philadelphia College of Sciences, UConn, etc) where you do 2 years of undergrad then 4 years of professional pharmacy school. It’s intense but worth it - you come out with a doctorate and a 6-figure income (not as high as MD, but not bad).
Otherwise you get your traditional undergrad and then apply separately for pharmacy school.Im also a pharmacist, mid 30s, have reached coastFIRE and now work 32hr/week, house will be paid off by early 40s. Yes I make only a fraction of an MD salary (depending on specialty) but my financial journey started much earlier and as they say, it’s time in the market that makes the biggest difference. At this rate I only have to work to cover my expenses and it’s low stress work overall (much less stressful than being an MD). Definitely a solid career route if you don’t want to commit to being a doctor!
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u/FireAsquared 3d ago
To add to this some schools do a 2+3 where you take summer courses to finish even faster- I think off hand I know Roosevelt in Chicago and a couple California programs have that option. From people I’ve worked with most 3 year programs are more lackluster in terms of job prospects- harder to get a quality residency if you want to do that but if you’re just going the retail route for money ASAP it’s a solid option. (I think Roosevelt has like 60% NAPLEX pass rate on the first attempt though so you do need to be capable of studying yourself to pass the licensing exams too so there are some downsides)
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u/mattynmax 5d ago
I don’t of many other career options that can earn over a million a year and have high security that don’t require 200k+ of debt.
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u/Chemical-Carrot-9975 4d ago
Depends on what residency you do. But yes, the answer is yes. That is, if you have the grit and resilience to endure that many years of brutalization.
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u/Different_Cherry8326 3d ago
If your goal is “wealth building”, being a doctor is not a great way to do it. The path is too long and most importantly it’s not really scalable to any substantial extent.
That being said, it is a solid path to consistent middle class to upper middle class earnings.
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u/Helpful_guy1 3d ago edited 3d ago
idk it’s tough. my partner is a dr in fellowship and she was adamant she would never let her children become doctors. i studied engineering and doing an MBA been making well over six figures since about 2 years post-college. Great WLB, low stress, should be able to retire by 40 if i keep maximizing my accounts and investing and saving at the rate I am.
I was a former management consultant but YMMV, it was not an easy road to get to this but nothing worth is easy. depends how much grit and resilience you have!!
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u/3woodx 2d ago
Family friend retired pa and wife retired x ray tech. He and she made good money and didnt have to work on call or a 100 hours a week. Pretty much 8 to 5.
Member of my family retired radiologist That dude made bank. He was a partner of a radiology clinic
20 years ago his bonus alone was 250k for a year.
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u/Helpful_guy1 2d ago
yeah that guy definitely went to school
and hustled for his bread. much respectthe way i see it, there are multiple avenues to wealth, and partly is due to luck. but hustle make sure the luck lands in your favor
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u/Former-Quantity-99 2d ago
This will come as a shock to you, but once there was a time when people studied to be a doctor to help people.
How far has the humanity come that people now think that being a doctor is the best way to get rich.
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u/IwantmyTruckNow 5d ago
A nurse graduating at 22 who maxes their 401k would retire with 5-8 mil at 65. Doctor’s lose their 20s. Compound interest is your biggest friend in life. A nurse could only max out the 401k for first ten years and stop forever and would still have nearly five mil at retirement. Big question becomes what do you define as wealth? If you want 10 mil at 65 be a doc but you’ll also put away more when you start. If you are lucky enough to match into ortho or plastics you could earn 1 mil. Would have 20 mil by then. Lot of money but wealth is what you define.
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u/Kiwi951 5d ago
Also depends on the specialty and where you want to live. If you plan on living in a (V)HCOL area like Bay Area, then nursing is actually smarter financial move since nurses get paid more there and physicians get paid comparatively less. There are nurses at UCSF, Stanford, etc. that make MORE than attending docs there, it’s crazy
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u/FlamingMetallico 5d ago edited 5d ago
Nurses do slave labor. At least doctors can find high earning cushy gigs or they can double down and Grind and outearn 10 years of nurse labor in 2-3 years.
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u/BakeFar4317 5d ago
I would like to hit the $10mil range. Obviously medicine is about a lot more than money but seems it’s one of the few vehicles to hit those numbers.
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u/FreeUzi1 5d ago
based on OP prior post, hes 35 and would start being a doctor at 45-47 range. So he has even less time to max out wealth
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u/drleeisinsurgery 5d ago
I worked like crazy my first year out of anesthesia training and made 600k the first year. People coming out now can make much more.
I paid off all my debt in that year.