If you like science, it’s not unreasonable to be weighing your options in becoming an
engineer versus a doctor.
But which is better financially speaking?
Stay tuned to find out.
Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com.
For those who are new here, my name is Dr. Kevin Jubbal.
If you want to know the down and dirty of what it’s like to be a doctor, check out
my second channel titled Kevin Jubbal, M.D. Link in the description below.
In certain cultures, becoming a doctor is the highest achievement, followed by becoming
an engineer or lawyer as number two.
Why is becoming a doctor so highly valued at number one?
There are a few reasons:
First, it’s an incredibly competitive and difficult path to complete, and the type of
work you do is often considered noble.
For that reason, being a doctor is highly prestigious.
Second, the financial aspects.
Job security is high, because people will always have health issues and doctors are
always in demand.
Additionally, doctors are some of the highest paid professionals, making low to mid six
figures on average.
In short, being a doctor is safe.
It’s the only profession where if you work hard, you are almost guaranteed to make low
to mid-six figures.
Can you make more in other professions?
Sure, but going into business or engineering doesn’t have that guaranteed level of salary.
The range is much broader, meaning you can make much less or much more than the average
physician, but on average you’ll probably be making less.
Did your parents ever pressure you to become a doctor?
If so, mash that like button and drop a comment below.
So let’s say you want to get rich above all else.
You don’t care about job satisfaction, or lifestyle, or your purpose in life.
You’re just trying to make it rain.
In that case, going into medicine must be the best choice, right?
After all, it’s the highest paid profession.
This is the part where we crunch the numbers.
With any analysis, a series of assumptions must first be made.
On the doctor side, we’ll have two comparisons: primary care and specialist.
To become an average primary care doctor, you’ll finish college, then spend 4 years
in medical school, graduating with an average debt of $198,000, and then complete 3-4 years
of residency prior to earning your attending salary.
Based on recent data, that starting salary will be $223,000.
To become the average specialist, you’ll again have to complete 4 years of medical
school, but since becoming a specialist like a plastic surgeon or dermatologist is so insanely
competitive, many students take an extra research year to bolster their residency application.
For that reason, we’ve simplified the analysis with 5 years of medical school.
You’ll still graduate with an average of $198,000 in debt, but now residency is a bit
longer.
If you go into orthopedic surgery, it’ll be 5 years, 7 for neurosurgery, 6 for plastics,
and 6 for cardiology.
For simplicity, we’ve rounded residency and fellowship to 6 years in length.
The starting salary for specialists is $329,000.
On the engineer side, you’ll be starting immediately after college and be pulling in
a starting salary of $100,000, which is actually on the lower end of the starting salaries
for a computer programmer in San Francisco.
However, given the wide range of starting salaries for engineers, we’ve set $100,000
as the starting point.
Additionally, student loans will accrue interest at 6%, investments earn 7% per year, and wage
growth increases at 3% annually.
If you’re confused about the wage growth rate, understand that inflation is on average
1-2% per year, and salaries usually steadily increases over the course of one’s career
due to promotions and other factors.
In order to reduce extraneous variables, we have eliminated living expenses and savings
ratios, as it’s impossible to accurately estimate the average engineer’s versus doctor’s
living expenses — cue lifestyle inflation.
Therefore, we are going to be looking at only the lifetime earning potential.
Do you have a problem with any of these assumptions?
Fantastic.
Feel free to download the excel spreadsheet I created and plug in your own numbers using
your own assumptions, and drop a comment to let us know about your findings.
You can find a link to the spreadsheet down in the description below.
First, between primary care doctor and specialist, it’s clear that choosing a specialty that
earns a high salary is far more advantageous from a financial perspective.
Despite spending 1 more year in medical school and 2 more years in residency, specialists
blast past primary care doctors just 8 years after completing their training.
Given the high salary, they must also blast past engineers, right?
Not so fast.
Despite a starting salary of more than 3 times that of an engineer, specialist doctors only
surpass engineers in lifetime earnings at the age of 45.
That’s right, from the age of 22 to 44, engineers are in a more favorable financial
position than even specialist physicians.
Primary care doctors don’t catch up to engineers until the age of 49, just a little over a
decade away from retirement.
To most people, this is counterintuitive.
It comes down to one often overlooked and underestimated factor: opportunity cost.
While future doctors are toiling away in medical school and residency, engineers are already
making six figures.
And if you manage to save that money, the powerful force of compounding comes into effect,
accelerating your wealth accumulation.
This analysis is far from perfect — and that’s beside the point.
If you want to adjust the assumptions, feel free to download the spreadsheet and modify
it yourself.
No whining in the comments.
That being said, you’ll likely find similar results.
The purpose of this analysis was to demonstrate that becoming a physician is not as lucrative
as you or your parents may initially think from seeing those salaries.
There is a massive opportunity cost due to over 10 years of training and massive student
debt.
This is why you hear so many physicians warning youngsters from going into medicine for the
money.
On one hand, the training to become a physician is incredibly challenging, and the desire
to get rich won’t help you push through in the same way that more personal motives
will.
But equally important, it just doesn’t make financial sense, unless your idea of financial
success is being dirt poor during the best years of your life, and being rich only when
you’re too old to fully enjoy the wealth.
If you are on the fence about going to medical school, my advice is that you spend the extra
time making sure it’s the right path for you.
Shadow doctors, gain more clinical experience, and only pursue it if you are truly going
into it for the right reasons.
If you need help deciding, I recommend you start with my video titled “Do Not Go to
Medical School (If This is You).”
If, on the other hand, you know that becoming a doctor is in your future, you’ve come
to the right place.
Whether or not you plan on going into something hypercompetitive like plastic surgery, it’s
in your best interest to be the strongest applicant that you can be.
By crushing my MCAT, having a near perfect college GPA, and a rock solid application,
I had my pick of top medical schools, with some even offering to pay my bill.
That alone saved me over $200,000.
My suggestion is to invest in yourself so you too can be in the best possible position.
Improvements in your grades, test taking skills, and application will only have compounding
effects, so you won’t be pigeon holed as you move forward with your training.
Rather, you’ll open additional doors, and have your pick at the best opportunities.
Trust me, it’s much harder to become an orthopedic surgeon at a leading institution
if you aren’t at the top of your game and crushing it in school.
Med School Insiders is innovating and turning the tutoring and admissions consulting industry
upside down.
If you work with us, you’ll always get a phenomenal experience.
No hit or miss like you may experience elsewhere.
Don’t believe me?
Our results speak for themselves.
We have industry leading satisfaction scores and our students’ success is second to none.
Visit MedSchoolInsiders.com to see for yourself.
Thank you all so much for watching.
I’m curious, did your parents pressure you to go into medicine at all?
Why or why not?
Let us know down in the comments below.
Much love to you all, and I will see you guys in that next one.