By Josh Katzowitz, WCI Content Director
Need to get caught up on the first two parts of our From Fourth Year to the Real World series? Here’s part 1 which introduces the ones we follow and part 2 which tells the tale of them transitioning from medical school to residency.
In the months before their friends and family joined together to raise a toast in appreciation and optimism, Ariel was super stressed about the party that was to celebrate the marriage between her and Danny.
It was her intern year, so her medical training was already intense and sometimes overwhelming, and the couple owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in combined student loan debt. Ariel’s father had agreed to pay for their April 2023 wedding celebration, but she was mostly the one to plan it and to try to keep it within the $80,000 budget.
Ariel felt herself in a downward spiral, caused by the stress of the party, the steep learning curve of her intern year, and the guilt that her retired father was the one paying the bills.
“It was horrible,” Ariel said. “The crux of the problem was the financial stress on my dad. Knowing he could handle it but still feeling bad and burdening him with such a large amount of money in such a short amount of time. I went to therapy every week in that two- or three-month time frame.”
Growing up, Ariel didn’t care about having such a grand wedding, but when her wealthy father a year earlier had given her a choice between him paying off the remainder of her medical school loans (about $90,000 worth) or an extravagant wedding, she chose the latter. In the leadup to it, she began having doubts.
“I thought it was such a waste of money,” she said. “If he had paid for school, even if it was $20,000-$30,000 more, I would have been fine with it.”
Ava and Patrick also had separate awakenings this year. In the month leading up to her intern year in 2022, Ava, even with a new job and impending imposter syndrome on the horizon, was calm. You could have even described her as “chill.” A year later, Ava can’t believe how naïve she had been.
Meanwhile, a year ago, Patrick’s wife had just welcomed their third child into the family, and with an enormous amount of student loan debt, a new house in a new part of the country, and a $14,000 IRS refund check that seemed to be lost in the mail, his life was full of stress—and this was even before he started his new job. Now, even with a fourth child on the way, Patrick has never been more comfortable with his financial standing and what he sees as his family’s future.
In the time since WCI last caught up with the four medical-students-turned-interns, they’ve all made incredible strides in their lives, in their careers, and in their finances. Their attitudes, though, run the gamut from unprecedented comfort to unyielding burnout. For all of these interns, the last year has been filled with bumps and bruises, and yet, all of them have survived their first year of residency intact. They can all smile about it now.
The First Year of Residency
In February 2022, we started a new series called From Fourth Year to the Real World where I write about a quartet of graduating medical students who have begun their residencies.
Since they’re completely transparent with how much they owe and how much they make—and with how they’re mapping out their financial futures—we aren’t using their real names. We check in with these newly minted doctors occasionally, and today, they’re reminiscing on their intern years and how they utilized their new resident’s salaries while, in their own words, they began learning how to adult.
Here’s a quick introduction to the ones we follow:
- Ariel and Danny: This newly married couple owe close to $400,000 in student loans, and they’ve just officially joined their lives (if not their financial accounts) together in matrimony. They earn $120,000 together (and will earn a combined $126,000 in Year 2), and they’ve come through a stressful year while maintaining their individuality.
- Ava: For the first time in her life, Ava made a solid salary (she earned $60,000 as an intern, and that will bump up to $65,000 in her second year), but she’s learned plenty about herself in the past 12 months. She’s not a big spender, and the new money was nice, particularly since she doesn't have any student loan debt. But she also nearly burned herself out during her intern year.
- Patrick: He won’t become an attending until he’s in his mid-30s, and Patrick owes nearly $500,000 in medical school loans. Patrick will soon be a father of four boys, and he juggles his parental responsibilities with his wife, Brittany, who makes more money than him as a nurse.
Ariel and Danny Bonded Together While Maintaining Some Separation
There’s little doubt that Ariel and Danny are comfortable with their new financial status. She’s enjoying her annual pass to one of the country’s top-notch amusement parks, and Danny bought season tickets to the local major college football program. They sit together on the couch of their $1,900-per-month apartment on this day, and they look at ease. They have jobs. They have friends. They can do what they want when they want because they have money and because they’re not currently having to pay off student loan debt.
The site where Ariel and Danny exchanged their vows.
They’re married, so they’re bonded together. But they’ve maintained separate accounts. No joint checking, no joint savings, no joint brokerage account. One pays for groceries, and the other reimburses them through Zelle.
There have been discussions about possibly opening an account to which they both have access, especially now that they received $13,000 in wedding gifts (at the moment, that total is in Ariel’s account). But they eat separate dinners—Ariel will make a big batch of chicken that she then can use for lunch over the next few days; Danny is more content with a ground beef offering that he might scarf down all at once. And their money is isolated as well.
“Having checks with the same name, that would be nice,” Danny thought aloud.
Said Ariel: “My aunts and uncles think it’s strange. But we have different habits. I’m not bothered by his. He’s not bothered by mine. We make the same amount of money. We just don’t need to put it in the same pile.”
Maybe the decision to keep their finances separate is generational. Born in the mid-1990s, they’re among the youngest millennials, and perhaps that generation is more apt to remain financially independent from their spouse. Or maybe it has something to do with how they were raised.
Danny’s father was a truck driver—he’s still working in his mid-60s on overnight shifts—and his mom was a stay-at-home spouse before finding work as a grocery store cashier. His family didn’t have wealth. Danny worked while he was in college, and he lived at home to save money. He comes from a blue-collar upbringing.
Ariel’s father, meanwhile, was rich.
Danny made it clear before they were married that his student loan debt was his alone. He didn’t want Ariel’s money (or, indirectly, her father’s wealth) to pay off what he owed. Even though they both make the same amount of money as residents (together, they earned $98,000 as interns), they are simply more comfortable with this setup.
How and when to pay off those student loans is still a question. Thanks to the federal government’s student loan holiday and the frozen interest rates, Danny has been making $0 payments. When student loan payments resume, potentially later in 2023, he figures he’ll pay about $370 per month. He’s considering trying for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. It might not be worth it for Ariel since she’s only in a three-year residency and might not want to work for the government or a nonprofit. But Danny’s residency is a year longer, and he might add on a fellowship that could take him 50%-60% of the way toward PSLF and getting his loans forgiven 10 years after he graduates from medical school.
Otherwise, the two are secure. Ariel is budgeting (and up until the wedding, she was actually sticking with it), but they’re not aggressively saving. They’re contributing to their 401(a) retirement plans—unfortunately, they’re not getting a match from their employer—and they’re contemplating opening Roth IRAs.
“I have a cushion now,” Danny said. “If anything comes up, we can afford it. If the car goes out, we can afford it.”
“And we have that $13,000,” Ariel reminded.
The two have newfound financial freedom, and they don’t have to answer to anybody (not even each other). They’re joined together in matrimony, and they have separate accounts. They’ve worked hard, and they’re not necessarily looking to skimp.
“I hear all the attendings say that we’re going to be a two-physician household,” Ariel said. “It’s like, ‘Let’s just spend the money now.’”
In a Better Spot Than Ever Before
Spending money now? Yes, Patrick knows a little something about that.
Though Patrick and his wife Brittany have maintained an emergency fund of at least $5,000 in his first year of residency, the costs continue to get more intense. Patrick grew up in a household that was always worried about money (he heard his father vomiting from stress in the middle of the night, and if he would have asked his dad for a snack at a gas station, “there was no way in hell that was going to happen”).
But now, he can realistically say that he’s in a more comfortable financial spot than ever before.
Patrick earned $58,500 last year (that’ll increase to $64,000 for second year), and—thanks to her full-time salary, her signing bonus, and her moving stipend—Brittany made about six figures at her nursing job in the past year. Yes, their student loan debt of $460,000 is still sitting there untouched, but Patrick hasn’t felt pinched by paying their bills and splurging on the occasional vacation.
As he’s talking, his second-oldest child is playing with the remote control to the ceiling fan, popping his head in and out of view of the computer’s camera. Patrick is working nights this week, so he’s taking care of his two youngest kids. But childcare is still expensive, and it’s about to cost the family even more when Brittany has their fourth child and transitions to part-time work in the next several months.
Their oldest child is in kindergarten, and though there’s a childcare center right in their neighborhood, that convenience costs $3,000 per month. They’ve eschewed that and instead pay a babysitter $20 per hour for two of the kids and $25 if she’s watching all three. That costs them $300 per week, but even more stressful is the fact that they’ve already burned through a few babysitters this year until they found the right fit.
Patrick figures he averages fewer than five hours of sleep per night with Brittany getting even less. When she’s on an overnight nursing shift, she gets home at about 8am, falls asleep by 9, and then awakens at 2pm to pick up the oldest from kindergarten.
Stress, exhaustion, and burnout? Yes, Patrick and Brittany know a little something about that.
“We are burnt out,” Patrick said. “It’s not sustainable any longer.”
Patrick, though, remains appreciative and optimistic.
Although the family will lose some of her salary when Brittany transitions to part-time work, Patrick plans to moonlight as much as possible a year from now when third year begins. If he covers one inpatient unit for the weekend, he can make $2,000. Do that a couple of times per month, and he’s suddenly replaced Brittany’s income (and maybe she can even stop working altogether). Plus, when he’s a third-year, he can arrive at work an hour early and make $160 to see a new patient or $80 to follow up with one who’s already established. He can stay two extra hours after his shift and earn the same money. He can eventually conduct ED admissions while working from home and make $115 per hour through the wonders of telehealth.
“Once third year rolls around, I’d be fine working from 7am to 8pm if I need to 2-3 days a week and do 2-3 weekends a month,” Patrick said. “If my wife is still working, we’d have more than enough money. But it has not been nearly as stressful as I anticipated it would be. We have that surety of a stable income.”
But what about his loans? For now, it’s all in deferment, but he’ll likely try for PSLF eventually. While he’s in residency and a possible fellowship, he figures he’ll end up paying close to $9,000 a year. By the time he can apply for PSLF, he’s hoping about $240,000 would be forgiven.
“It’s not scaring me nearly as bad it was before,” he said. “Before, it was this huge number; how can I attack it? But once you get looking at the attending salaries, you realize that as long as I don’t upgrade my life extravagantly, I could pay this off pretty reasonably within 5-10 years. I’ll finish residency at 36, so I’d be in my 40s when I pay them off. I’d probably be getting greedy; I’d want a nicer house and a Tesla. But it’s those extravagant wants that you need to check.”
Growing up, his parents worried about where the next paycheck was coming from, and no matter how hard they worked, they didn’t have much earning potential. They didn't have much room to breathe. Patrick has a different mindset.
No. 1, he’s not scared of intense labor. In college, he worked at a moving company, and sometimes he put in 80-90 hours per week of schlepping furniture around. No. 2, he knows that in a few years, he’ll be earning hundreds of thousands of dollars.
That’s why his future is so freeing.
“We still have to exercise some restraint,” Patrick said. “There are things we want that we’re not getting right now. But that’s different than saying, ‘Shoot, the credit card bill is running up. We have to pay for this soon, but we don’t have the money.’ That’s a different feeling than us saying, ‘Oh, we can’t buy a hot tub yet.’”
Patrick and Brittany have never been at a point where they have this little amount of financial stress. But a new baby is coming. The mortgage on their 1,800-square foot house still needs to be paid. Diapers and baby wipes could be as much as $200 a month. Baby formula is astronomical.
Yes, Patrick, who knows residents who can earn up to $200,000 of extra income, has grand plans to moonlight as much as possible by the fall of 2024. But the specter of true physician burnout is never far away; it can still pop in and out of view before you realize what's happening. Patrick still needs to figure out a way to make space in his life to relax and spend time with his growing family. He still needs to figure out a way to breathe.
What Ava Didn’t Know About Life and Medicine
When looking back at her first year of residency, Ava takes in a deep breath, reminisces about her mindset only 11 months earlier, and exhales in wonder at how little she knew about what was to happen.
Ava was supposed to move into a newly built apartment only a few days before she started her first rotation of intern year. She was fine with that. But the move-in date kept getting pushed back, and eventually, she realized that she was going to be homeless unless she acted soon. With a week to go before she started her neuro-radiology rotation, she began frantically searching for another apartment to sublet.
The stress of her intern year never subsided.
“I was,” Ava says now, “a little bit naïve.”
Ava grew up as a world traveler, living in wealthy countries like Oman and the UAE and in poorer areas in Bolivia and Venezuela. Her family avoided a lifestyle of big spending and they saved their money, habits that have followed Ava into her mid-20s. She’s in a better financial position than most, because thanks to a half-scholarship to medical school and her parents’ willingness to cover the rest of her tuition and living expenses, she has no student loan debt.
Her parents didn’t teach her much about money, but she is still utilizing their indirect lessons on saving. She’s putting 5% of her salary into her Roth 401(k), and she gets a match from her employer. One paycheck a month goes toward paying her rent. The other is hers to spend and save. She likes seeing at least $5,000 in her checking account, so even though she might occasionally buy a $300 dress or spend $200 on a haircut, she’s still driving the same 2016 Volkswagen she’s owned since college. She’s also never had to ask her parents for money, and for that, she feels proud.
Those relatively sparse spending habits allowed her to buy a $2,000 plane ticket so she could spend a month in her native Argentina in 2022. She’s going to Mexico on vacation soon, and when we spoke, she was in the process of planning a trip to Portugal —after her $1,600 plane ticket, she’s budgeted $2,000 for two weeks as Ava and two of her pals drive the Iberian peninsula coast while avoiding fancy hotels and dinners.
“I’m not a big spender,” she said. “I’ve never had a big budget to spend. And if I’m working 12 hours a day on six-day work weeks, I don’t have time. That’s been helpful, too.”
Well, that intense workflow has been helpful in some ways. In other ways, though, it’s forced Ava to reckon with her work-life balance and how to navigate her intern-year burnout.
“I didn’t realize how sheltered I was in medical school,” she said. “Medicine is really glorified in medical school, and you start residency and you think, ‘This isn’t as magical as I thought it was going to be.’”
This year, Ava has learned about the failures of the healthcare system; how some people don’t have access to care; the insurance costs of medicine; and how difficult it is to find, build, and sustain relationships when you’re not working. She learned a $3,000 mistake when she went to an urgent care this year for help with a gastric ulcer. She was shucked into the real world without an apartment, where she’d work long hours and then collapse into bed after she got home. Her one-year relationship with a boyfriend fell apart.
At the same time, she likes residency more than she enjoyed medical school. She’s made connections with patients. She’s been motivated by them. She’s felt rewarded by them.
“You have this incredible opportunity to be by people’s side at their most vulnerable,” Ava said. “It’s incredibly rewarding. That’s what has kept me motivated.”
Like all the fourth years who have now spent a year in the real world, Ava has grown as a doctor and learned more about herself as a person. She and Patrick battled through burnout. Ariel sought weekly therapy. Danny had to reckon with the economic help he received from his father-in-law.
They’ve all lived to talk about it, and their transformation as doctors and as people since the last time we caught up with them is striking.
They’ve got money in the bank. They can enjoy their lives away from work, or they’re trying their best to learn how. They’re appreciative and optimistic, and they’re grateful that the journey —and all of the unforeseen barriers that are sure to keep coming their way —will continue.
Make sure to get caught up on part 1 and part 2 of our From Fourth Year to the Real World series.
[Editor's Note: For comments, complaints, suggestions, or plaudits, email Josh Katzowitz at [email protected].]
These Josh Katzowitz articles are so unbelievably random.
They really cheapen the value and experience of WCI, in my opinion.
Agreed. They are pretty skipable
Thanks for the feedback. Always nice to have the negative feedback privately though rather than the first public comment.
Very fair point. Been reading the blog consistently since almost the beginning and have found it hugely valuable. These kinds of pieces though have become more and more common, and it has really started to bother me. I have to wonder, if I were to have started reading now, would I come back? Would I consider it a credible source? I’d hope I would – because it’s critical stuff. However, like other financial websites, it’s easy to develop a reputation for entertainment/fluff instead of credibility. I’d hate to see WCI continue down that path.
I like to think of blogs and podcasts as intellectual buffets. Not everything at the fanciest Vegas buffet is going to appeal to me. The brisket, the short ribs, the buttery scones….those are for me. The oysters, the crab legs, the shrimp cocktail….those aren’t for me.
I pass on the crab legs and can’t quite see the value in resenting, critiquing, or judging those who produce or consume them. I am agnostic on the oysters because I’m working hard to remind myself not everyone shares my values or preferences. I’m grateful for diversity of preferences and perspectives, otherwise life would be an echo chamber of boredom created by my own myopia.
Abundance, gratitude, and Thumper’s axiom cost us nothing. Scarcity, churlishness, and unsolicited self indulgence cost us more than our society can continually afford.
Thanks Josh for bringing more items to the buffet of our community. May we all enjoy the myriad selections to our own level of satiation.
Certainly appreciate counterpoints by blog readers. However, this increasing pattern of any critiques being immediately countered by other WCI columnists is a little depressing. I am curious if Jim thinks that is best practice?
Also, what is Thumper’s axiom?
Choosing to interpret peers and colleagues support for one another as “depressing” is an unusual perspective but one you are certainly entitled to.
If a patient was spontaneously and unnecessarily rude to a MA in your office and you said to the patient, “we actually really appreciate the good work Mark does in our office and are grateful for his contributions to our team”, I find it a stretch to interpret that level of public support for a co-worker to be depressing.
I recognize the degree to which your mood is made worse and your life saddened by the outward positivity expressed by others even when inconsistent with your own experience is probably not going to be impacted by commenters in a blog post.
My broader point is that so much of the division, vitriol, and malice in our society could so easily be avoided or at least assuaged if we all opted for kindness wherever and whenever it is presented to us.
“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible”. – Dalai Lama
“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all” – Thumper
Point well taken. Thanks for the feedback. If I comment again, I will try to be less harsh and more constructive.
I will point out though that I was commenting on the content, not the person. Meanwhile, for offering a critique, I have been insinuated to be rude, churlish, unsolicitedly self-indulgent, and offering only vitriol and malice, etc etc – by someone employed by WCI. That’s fine, and like I said, I think you made some good points.
I wasn’t trying to be a troll. I’ve just chatted many times with colleagues about the frustration with the direction of the content on WCI. This frustration I hear in person is often strangely absent in the comments. I have no problems with supporting colleagues, but in this type of forum, frequent defensive posts by employees can drown out readers opinions.
I think critical feedback is helpful, and I’ll try to do it better in the future. Thanks again
I think we have deep alignment on this conclusion. I personally crave and value critical feedback. I can’t and won’t improve in any areas of my life if those around me aren’t willing to describe the impact I’m having. Often the impact I am having is not the impact I intend to have, and I’m so grateful when people point that out to me. Sadly the word “criticism” has a negative connotation in our culture but I don’t see it that way, it’s immensely valuable and it sounds like we may share that perspective.
I am continually impressed to see how the WCI company seeks out this feedback and is very responsive to it. The annual survey is combed through every year and changes are routinely made in response to those critiques. I hope you and your colleagues take advantage of that opportunity each year to share your perspectives as I know they will be taken seriously.
Ironically, the content you see in this post is a response to the broader feedback from many, as shown in the comments below that aren’t affiliated with WCI, who have expressed desire for these types of pieces.
I’ve heard Jim say, “you can’t please all the people all of the time” and of course that’s true with anything. My hope is that we can all select items from the intellectual buffet that appeal to us while honoring the reality that other items on the buffet are appealing to others, even if not to me.
As for implying that you as an individual person is churlish, malicious, or vitriolic, I apologize that I communicated those ideas in association with you personally. That was not my intent, and I own the fact that it was my impact. Thank you for the critique.
I will aim to do better at making the distinction between perspectives about an individual comment and my opinions about societal trends. I am very confident that if we had lunch I would find you magnanimous, self aware, and engaging.
Sadly, we, the collective internet commenting world, don’t get to have lunch, and so we are dependent on our ability to communicate solely with words which are absent of all the subtly and nuance of in person communication which lead us to have fruitful disagreements without the anger and disdain we see in the Twitterverse. It is that reality of growing unease amongst us as online communities that prompted my initial defense of the piece and I am grateful for your civil and articulate engagement with me about it.
All the best,
Tyler
Thanks for the response. All very good points, and especially insightful regarding internet culture. Thanks again
Critical feedback IS helpful, but it’s far more effective when given privately. It’s more useful, more specific, and less likely to cause one to be defensive when it can simply be addressed rather than calling for a public response.
There has been serious discussion for many years of just turning the comments off like Mike Piper did in something like 2014. They’re hardly a required part of a blog. It’s very interesting but people write very differently when they email you than when they leave anonymous blog comments. Some people also act like a blog comments section is a public sidewalk where anything goes rather than a living room, where one would be rapidly removed and never invited back for inappropriate behavior. The first amendment doesn’t apply to the inside walls of my house nor the comments section of a privately owned blog. Polite disagreement and debate are fine, but far too many people act differently online than they would in real life and that causes problems, including problems recruiting and retaining talented writers.
All good points. Certainly respect your right to turn off comments if that seems best. Also agree – the initial comment was born out of built up frustration and thus less helpful, especially in an online context.
Interestingly, it was actually your fairly harsh online critiques of financial advisors that were so helpful to me and so many others. But I get that that is different.
Anyway, all this FI you’ve helped me achieve is leaving way too much time in the middle of the day to comment on blogs. Very reasonable not to disturb WCI comment section any more, as you indicate. Will need to find a different new hobby to fill the time 🙂
Hope WCI keeps helping others achieve the same freedom for generations to come!!
I can understand why some people wouldn’t like these articles as they aren’t really focused on financial knowledge. I like them though since they show the personal part of personal finance.
Hey Bob, I appreciate the feedback. But the truth of the matter is that while we will continue to publish plenty of “traditional” WCI content from Jim that focuses on investing, saving, insurance, taxes, etc., part of my mission as the content director is to bring in a variety of new voices and new topics. Not everybody will like everything we publish, a fact of which I’m reminded over and over again.
And hey, some people like my writing and my columns. Some people don’t. One person even threatened to stop reading the site they said they’ve loved for years because I write a couple of times per month. It’s fine either way. Some people, like you, are apparently bothered by new topics and new voices. There’s not much I can do about your feelings, but I’m not going to stop where WCI is headed. You call it “fluff.” I call it “expanding our horizons” and, hopefully, bringing in lots of new readers who can learn from Jim, our columnists, and our guest writers.
The good news for you is that my columns publish like clockwork every other Sunday. So, if you think the topics I write about cheapen the value of WCI – a website that doesn’t cost you anything to read, I might add – and you don’t like them, just skip reading this site on Sundays. It’s all good.
Hey Josh- thanks for the response.
Not bothered at all by new topics and new voices. That’s worthwhile, and you should keep doing it. Still, I’d encourage you also to focus relentlessly on quality as well. Many I’ve talked to are frustrated by less focused, more meandering articles, and a trend toward clickbait and more tabloid-like style. I get it – that’s a style and personal preference issue. But I think there’s a reason NY Times/WSJ have a different reputation compared to NY Daily News/NY Post. Same with eg Morningstar vs CNBC/Marketwatch.
I’d love to see you and WCI thrive. I’d hope there doesn’t have to completely be a “my way or the (new) highway attitude” toward long-term readers. If this is the clear preference from the readers surveys, then that’s one thing – my understanding was that was not the case though. Of course, you and Jim are far more privy to that data.
One easy change is to add the author on the blog article titles.
In any event, you’re definitely right – it’s all good. Wish you all the best.
Note that the new columnists have not decreased my own output. All of that “new stuff” is in addition to what was already being done here. I’m still writing as much as I ever have.
Nah man I have to disagree with Bob. I love these real look at real docs starting out on their financial journey. I am kind of confused with Patrick. He deferred his loans while in residency and fellowship and “by the time he can apply for PSLF” then there will be 240k to forgive? Why not apply for PSLF now? Does his program not qualify?
Also a fair point. But if you are Rikki Racela, another WCI columnist, I think it’s reasonable to have that made clear in your supportive comment. If not, disregard. I’ve seen a lot of that in the comments recently though….
I enjoy this series, and many of the “fluff” pieces. Maybe because I am earlier in my financial journey, it is nice to hear stories of people at different points along with the more technical info.
As long as you are still providing the more focused finance content + content from Jim in addition to the other content, I am happy. I am also happy to skip articles that I am not interested in, since I am interested in the vast majority. I recognize you cannot please everyone, and what is not relevant to me today (student loans) might be critical for someone else.
As a graduating med student getting ready to start residency in less than a month and already anxious over this financial transition, I very much appreciate this article. It’s very interesting to see how their situations evolve through this challenge period and how the financial decisions/stressors affect them.
Lol honestly everything doesn’t have to be for everyone at the same time.
But it could be good to include links to recommended topics/education maybe at the conclusion of the article.
I am still trying to wrap my head around an $80,000 wedding.
Try Indian weddings. They can be five to ten times that amount!
I went to a bat mitzvah this month that probably cost $150,000.
That’s more money than my father had in his entire life.
Depending on your culture’s expectations, it can be so, so easy to spend $80k. Not saying it’s good, just that if you’ve ever watched TV, you have to be wickedly disciplined to keep costs down.
This is why normal people hate us. Our training and jobs are subsidized by the taxpayer, and we make WAY more than the average worker- yet we claim oppression and that it’s a struggle.
One columnist here admitted to mistreating a cancer patient in order to pay for a whole life insurance policy. We need to have better optics, or else the public-at-large will not be so kind for much longer. Look at NHS doctors- they ain’t paid like us.