Big income- and still no money?

One of the reasons I wanted to start writing this blog was the fact that most of the doctors I know(and some other professionals, such as lawyers and engineers) are struggling financially.



Readers who are not doctors themselves or don't have a family member who is a doctor can be very cynical about such statement. "Yea, right!.." "Poor doctors!" " With a six-figure income, they are struggling"

The notion of a wealthy doctor is ingrained in our society .If you ask 100 random people who the wealthy people are, most would name doctors and lawyers.(in big cities, responces will include investment bankers and stock brokers). Mothers still dream of their child becoming a doctor or at least marrying one.



Doctors themselves, especially the younger ones, would probably disagree.
And not necessarily because they know what their outstanding student loan balance is ( for college and med.school). And not necessarily because of all those years of delayed gratification ( 3 to 8 years after med. school in residencies and fellowships).
It's probably because when they are finally done with all their training and become attending physicians with a better salary they do not feel any richer that when they were residents or fellows. And most of them ARE not any richer.

In my posts that are (hopefully!) to follow, I'll try to explore this seeming paradox.