Quote:
Originally Posted by YOWetal
If you are a physician it's kind of crazy to retire after only working 15 years of working but I know a few talking like that and they like their jobs. I'd argue that's a result of being over-paid. Though in the end once they settle in to a more expensive lifestyle I am sure thoughts of quiting with only $3 million in the corp will go away.
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You don't seem to miss a chance to continue with your treatise that physicians are overpaid.
I know of only a few physicians who have quit the profession in their 40s.
By and large, most physicians are just starting to crawl out of (professional) debt by that point. 11-15 years of university (and lost years of income), with $200-250k of university debt, as well as another $100k or so to start up your practice will do that to you.
The physicians that I know that quit early are overwhelmingly female, family physicians, and completely disillusioned with their life choice. Medicine (at least family practice) is not what they expected it would be. Family medicine is tedious, confined to private offices, deals primarily with difficult to manage chronic diseases, and the amount of paperwork dumped on family physicians is deadly (sick notes, mandatory physical examinations for certain occupations, letters to insurance companies, patient charting, referral letters to specialists etc.). It just isn't what they signed up for. Burnout is also a real problem which cannot be overstated. Not many jobs require a workweek of 40-60 hours AND on call responsibilities on top of that.
FPs in their 40s, if they don't quit outright, will choose alternate careers as hospitalists, or salaried positions such as public health officers with the government.
The physicians that stick it out until their late 60s or 70s tend to be hospital based physicians in specialties that are technically or procedurally oriented, and exist at the cutting edge of medicine. These specialists don't keep working because they are inordinately greedy. It's because it is interesting and rewarding work, and you KNOW you are making a real difference in your patient's lives.
A 72 year old neurosurgeon doesn't need more money. He just can't imagine giving up what he does.
You make everything seem so mercenary, and governed by the almighty buck. It isn't really. Only a minority of physicians are unusually concerned about their billings. Most of us just want to make sure that when we do retire, that we will be able to do so comfortably, without a huge decrease in our standard of living. This isn't really a big ask for 40 years or so of destroying our health and our relationships by being workaholics.......
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(I suspect I won't)
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