Despite the $350,000 average wage for America's one million M.D.'s, with 10% earning over $1.3 million, and the top 1 percent taking home more than $4 million per year, this demographic struggles managing finances… Why?
Becoming a doctor doesn't happen overnight. A bachelor's degree, followed by medical school (4 years), residency (3-7 years) and sometimes fellowship (1-3 years) maintains Doogie Howser as a fictionalized account; the average physician begins practicing around age 30. While other high achieving college graduates earn six-figure salaries, hopeful physicians spend over $200,000 attending medical school. Student loans are nothing to balk at, nor are the 80+ hour work-weeks for which residents earn minimum wage.
After analyzing one of the largest data sets of provider salaries ever accrued (nearly 12 million data points), the National Bureau of Economic Research explains, "Each extra year of training is associated with $143,000 in extra annual income."
The longer hopeful-providers train – in residency or fellowship – the more they'll earn over the course of their career. But in the short term, additional training causes a messy financial picture, as trainees live off of credits cards and agitate the revolving door of debt.
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