Any medical-field related owners out here?

Medical Photographer/Illustrator/Graphic Designer for a teaching hospital. BS & BA. I’ve been doing this for 20 years & have a nice house & 4 sports cars. The 328 Ferrari I bought after my dad died & left me some $. But the others are purchased & modified by me.

 

Ortho...Ha...
What's the definition of a double blind study???
Two orthopedic surgeons reading an ECG

 

I am now expecting a huge backlash from the Ferrari oprthopedic community

 

That reminds me of something that happened when I was an intern on an ortho service. There was a guy admitted to the medicine service with bad DTs. The guy fell out of bed and broke a hip. He was transfered to the ortho service to have his hip pinned. After the surgery the medical team would not take him back on their service. The chief resident called for the medical third year resident and told him the patients was have chest pain and now had EKG changes. The ortho resident gave the medical resident the EKG but handed him the EKG strip upside-down. The medical resident shook his head and agreed to take the patient back. We all had a good laugh over beers that night.

 

Like Tony I am a cardiologist. I work hard like all cardiologists and it would be a mistake to do this if you didnt love it. The money is a fringe benefit. Having said that, I live in a nice house and my wife and kids want for nothing. I bought a 328 GTB at age 34 (2 years after I finished training) and a 330 GT 2+2 last year at age 38 and can easily afford to maintain them. Dont be a doctor to get Ferraris though. Be a doctor to be a doctor!

Tony, love to see that beautiful 330 one day!

Dan

 

Since you have a family member in dentistry and medicine, you must have a good insider perspective on both.
I agree with many of the posts relating to doing what you like. I think the money will follow since you will feel rewarded and work hard at what does not feel like work to you.
I have been a denstist for twenty years now. I also have an MBA which I got after being out ten years. When I first started, being an MD was the place to be. Now the roles are reversed. Dentistry is much more fiancially rewarding unless you are in a few of the very elite specialties.
I would like to add the demographics plays a critical role for health care and your earning potential though.
Finding an under served area with health care providers will most likely be the most lucrative.
I practiced in the North Shore of Chicago for fifteen years. Great life and restaurants, good income, fierce competition.
Now I practice in Florida. Spend several months at my home in Thailand, play with my toys in good weather. Competition is almost non existent, income is three times what it was, living and housing costs are 30% less, restaurants are horrible.
There is always a trade off.
Good luck
Gary

 

I am a chiropractor and I am 27 years old. This is my second year of practice and I will make about $600,000 this year. I am sure you will give me crap about it since the "real" doctors are getting crap, but I am happy and I help many people. I just sold my 348ts, but here are my cars:

Lambo Diablo VT
Mercedes G-Wagon
H2
Porsche Boxter
Saab 9-3
87 Silverado

 

I'm shipping the wife to DDS school!

 

Chiropractors make $600k within 2 years of practice?

 

Spilt your time between Florida and Thailand?

 

?Your practice makes 600,000$, or you NET $600,000. If you are taking home $600,000, thats outstanding...

A typical MD practice might gross 1.5-2.0 mm...but of course that isn't what I get to spend....

 

DBWorld: The US does not pay us anything in dentistry. It is up to us individually as to whether we choose to participate in any insurance plans or be a fee for service office. I personally have experience in only fee for service denstistry. We choose our target market in the population and the type of dentistry we want to provide and we are on our own.

Westworld: I used to provide some dentistry for Budhist Monks from Tibet, Nepal and Thailand many years ago. When I sold my practice in the Chicago area, I was invited to live with the Monks in Wat Cholapatan, which is a large temple located near Bangkok, while I helped the Monks and taught at the University Chulalongkorn while also studying Thai language and culture there.
It was a very relaxing and rewarding few years. I bought a home there during that time and continue to go back several months a year.
It is possible now for me to do this since I have two partners and one associate. After being a solo practitioner at first and now having partners, I would never practice alone again. I have so much more free time it is great.

 

I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV.

 

I am a chiropractor as well. I am 47yo and have been driving Ferraris since I was 29 (about 1 year out of school). I have had everything from a Mondial to an F40, so affording cars has never been an issue. I also never financed one. The biggest problem at one point was making sure I rotated enough cars so that I didn't have dead batteries. I am not posting what I make on a public forum as I don't think that is all that smart.

It all sounds great, but you gotta love what you are doing, as I do. You also have love your patients, and finally....you have to do a great job. With all the changes in reimbursement and insurance company BS, if I had it to do over again I would probably do commercial real estate or investment banking(Alex is my hero!).

There are docs that make great money and there are docs that barely scrape by, it all has to do with the paragraph above.

Ciao

 

BTW: I'm the only one at this hospital driving a Ferrari. Been here 10 years & know most of the high paid docs in cardio/thoracic, plastic, etc. We’ve got a BMW Z8, new Mercedes AMG, Viper-blue w/ white stripes, wide body 911, Prowler, Crossfire, Hummer, etc parked in the MD garage but never a Ferrari. Most of the docs drive SUVs.

 

This can be difficult - sometimes you find yourself worked into a position where there are very lucrative options that would provide more immediate payoff vs. the unknown. I think the greatest difficulty for young people is just "knowing" what you want to do. As a grad student, I get asked that a lot - in every interview: "Is this what you want to do?" You want to say, "how should I know!? I've never been a professional like this before."

The decision gets exponentially worse when they offer you a multiple of your parents' income to start. Do you do it for a few years, get some money and "earn your stripes? Or follow your heart and be wild when your young? What about your wife and kid?

Of course, no one else can know for you. But it's a real mind-frick for young people to find out. The dirty secret of law schools (and I'm going to bet med schools and the like) is that 2/3 of law students, even at top schools, don't know what they want to do or be or how they'll get there. It sounded good to get, and now they owe $100k+, and someone is offering $100k+...

 

Word that. Do what you love or you will never make it through grad/med school. Let alone the next 30 years in your chosen profession.

 

Also, to the OP - I see that you're Canadian, I'm from Niagara area myself.

Don't get hung up on the JD/MBA. If you want to do finance, the JD is irrelevant. Just get an MBA. Schools are marketing their joint degrees heavily but oftentimes it doesn't pan out that you use both - and what ends up happening is that MBA employers peg you as a lawyer and law employers peg you as a businessman.

 

I always though of Doctors as sedan-types. Are many doctors big spenders in all aspects of life?

I am suprised at how much chiropractors are getting paid.

 

I am not going to get into too much details here, but I will say that it is very possible for a medical doctor to become very wealthy. It just depends on how much you work, where you work and how good you are.

One of my cousins works in Picton, Nova Scotia(far from big cities) as a Radiologist and makes 700 K CND a year. Although he works a lot of over time and is on call an awful lot. My son is working as a radiologist as well but specializing in cancer therapy in Florida and is making, no exaggeration, 2 million dollars a year. He is 45. Apparently his insurance costs are several hundred thousand dollars a year but with a salary like that it doesn't matter. That being said, I am proud to say, my son is one of the best in the world at what he does so he can command that salary.

Getting into Medical school is very challenging especially in Canada you really need to be a TOP student to become one. Although there are many medical students, even at the best medical schools that are there mostly for the money. My wife was one of them.

Good luck at U of T. I and my children did our undergraduate there and we all agree that it is a very difficult school. Life science is a black hole of students and it is easy to get lost. I used to teach some courses there as well. That 65-67 enforced class average can really chew up some students.

Study hard, and stay out of trouble. My only advice.

-Defcont

 

DON'T GO INTO MEDICINE FOR THE MONEY.

1. 4 years of college (no pay) 2. four years of med school (no pay) 3. 1 year of internship (mail clerk salary) 4. three to four year residency (glorified mail clerk salary) 5. sub specialty fellowships (secretary pay) 6. YOUR LIFE IS HALF OVER 7. SEE BELOW

The day of big bucks is over. Insurance companies, the fed gov't, and hospital corporations all want you to work for them as their n*ggers for free. Also different payors will pay differently according to regions. The future is not looking too well from a reimbursement standpoint- nobody wants to pay.

I really enjoy when the insurance companies raise the rates on my employees health insurance by 40% and then come back trying to negotiate a discount on fees.......despite the fact that the cost of living goes upward.

FWIW Most internists, FPs, pediatricians can only afford corvettes.

If you want to be an orthopod do it because you want to. I'm a radiologist and just love my job. I also happen to make a sh*tload of money, but I love my job.

Enjoy life, take every day as a gift, because tomorrow may never come. I've got enough life insurance to keep my family living very, very well and I spend every ******* penny I earn............life is too short..........
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Just turned 40. The spider was my gift to myself for my 40th. The Vanquish was just to piss off my wife...........and it DID!

Don't get me wrong go into medicine because you WANT to. Don't go into medicine for the cash. Orthopods make good cash, but call is a *****.
Good luck to you, Frank

P.S. Don't forget to marry young, have her support you through med school, then dump her for your nurse or secretary..........(inside joke)