Over the last couple of years I have received feedback from time to time that I may be alienating people who have a lower than average physician income or who have fewer retirement account options than I have. Here's a good example (but certainly not the only one) from a comment left a few months ago:
As a Pediatrician, I don’t make a salary of $200k a year and likely never will so the whole “You too can own a mansion in the mountains, go heliskiing in Japan, drive a luxury car, and give all you want to charity, if you only delay your gratification” pitch is a little hard to listen to. We do delay gratification in all the ways listed above but putting $200k towards retirement a year will never be our reality short of getting another source of income. I think what is hitting me the most this morning is the question of why my time as a Pediatrician is so much less valuable than every other specialty out there. Do I need all the things discussed in the blog? Absolutely not, but it would be nice to be more equally compensated for the work I do. Throwing out numbers that are unattainable for most in primary care does ostracize a significant portion of the potential audience.
In My Defense
Before moving on to the subject of this post, I'd like to give a few points in my defense:
# 1 This is a website directed at high-income professionals.
That generally encompasses a range of income from about $100K to about $1.5 Million. Some posts are aimed more at the $100K PA and some are aimed more at the dual specialist couple with the 7 figure income. Most probably fall somewhere in between. I do not apologize that my posts aren't directed at “Average Joe” who lives in a household making $55K a year. There is probably some useful information for Average Joe on this website, but he isn't the target audience of the blog. There are plenty of financial blogs out there aimed at those who are not high-income professionals. What makes this one unique and useful to its readers is the fact that it isn't. I tell guest posters the same thing and reject guest posts that aren't squarely aimed at high earners.
# 2 Like with any blog, take what is useful to you and leave the rest without feeling offended by it.
The fun thing about reading a blog is the personal aspect of it. You get a glimpse into the personal life of the blogger that you'll never get reading the Wall Street Journal or Forbes. But nobody else is in my EXACT financial situation. Not a single one of my readers. So figure out those ways in which you can relate, and apply them in your life. Some of you are poorer than me. Many of you are richer than me. That's okay. I can deal with it and so can you.
# 3 I am a little unique among attending physicians in that I have been in every single tax bracket.
As an attending. You don't think I can relate to you with your sub $50K taxable income? It wasn't that many years ago that I WAS YOU. Trust me, I haven't forgotten what it was like. We might have a fancy new dining room table, but the couches are all hand me downs. Still. 11 years out of residency.
# 4 Why do I talk about what we spend money on?
Because I am trying to demonstrate a simple point–that if you “take care of business” early on in your professional career, you can enjoy “the good life,” which I defined in The White Coat Investor book as
“…a life free from financial worries, a career where you make a real contribution to society, a few luxuries along the way, the ability to help others financially throughout your life, and a comfortable retirement at a time of your choosing.”
I talk about my boat or my car or my latest vacation to show readers that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I'm not advocating a Mustachian spartan existence here where you live like a resident for decades (although it would probably help the planet if I did.) You may define “the good life” a little differently than I do, and you likely are interested in different luxuries than I am and that's perfectly fine. But my point is that you CAN have them, eventually.
# 5 Why do I talk about my retirement accounts knowing that I have access to more than the vast majority of my readers?
Is it just humble-bragging? No. I view it as teaching. Every time I mention I have more than one 401(k), someone emails or comments to ask “How do you have more than one 401(k)?” Every time I mention a defined benefit/cash balance plan, someone asks, “What's that?” If I casually drop the words “Backdoor Roth IRA,” all of a sudden there is one more physician family who can squirrel away $11K a year in an asset protected account that will never be taxed again.
The Wealthy Pediatrician
Enough of that. Let's move on to the point of this post–pediatricians. I love pediatricians. They are some of the nicest and most dedicated professionals I've ever met. I am particularly in awe of the many pediatric subspecialists who voluntarily underwent years of additional training without any significant income increase for their efforts. But I'm going to be real frank here and just tell it like it is.
Financially speaking, pediatricians are a lot like employee dentists. While medicine generally makes financial sense even if you have to borrow the entire cost of your education, it is getting to the point where that is not the case for dentistry. $500-600K in student loans for a career that might pay $120K? Not wise. As the big squeeze between dropping salaries and rising tuition affects medicine more and more, pediatricians, as the lowest paid physicians, are going to get hit first. This is not surprising to anyone who steps back and takes an objective look at the finances. In fact, I know of at least one physician-focused financial advisory firm who deliberately avoids picking up new pediatrician clients. They know the money isn't there.
Life Isn't Fair
I tell my kids repeatedly- “Life isn't fair.” They don't always get what I'm saying. They usually take it as “I'm getting hosed because life isn't fair,” but at least half the time I use that phrase, I'm indicating something else entirely — “Life isn't fair to your benefit, the more you can do to make it even more unfair, the better off you'll be, and your mother and I are working very hard to keep life unfair for your benefit.” Don't take this the wrong way.
I'm not advocating racism or anything like that. What I am advocating is a worldview where one realizes that not only is life not fair, but it isn't going to be fair any time soon and in reality, when you really think about it, you don't WANT life to be 100% fair in the way most kids think about it–i.e. equality of outcome. Sure, we want everyone to have equal opportunity and should work toward that, but it isn't going to happen anytime soon. Especially with all of us parents trying to give our kids more than their equal share of opportunity.
Choice and Consequences
If you're a pediatrician sitting in your office at 7 pm finishing charts and wondering why that orthopedist makes four times what you do, it may be worthwhile considering a few points. First, that orthopedist had to bust his butt a lot more than you did to get into an ortho residency. Second, he spent 2-3 more years in training than you did. Third, he gets sued more frequently than you do. Fourth, there was no one keeping you from going into orthopedics. Presumably, you chose pediatrics because you love it and I think it is a very rare medical student who isn't aware that most pediatricians make less than most orthopedic surgeons. You get to make the choices in your life, but they are connected to the consequences like two ends of a stick. You can't help but pick up the far end of that stick once you pick up the near one. You can't divorce the consequences from the choices.
How Much Do Pediatricians Make?
Yes, you can earn more than $200k. A lot of relatively low-income professionals such as pediatricians, family docs, dentists, or advance practice clinicians (hopefully that's still the correct term by the time this post runs) have a bit of a defeatist, nihilistic attitude toward their income. “I'll never make more than $200K. Wo is me!” I would submit these two counterpoints:
First, I have always been impressed that the intraspecialty income differences are so dramatic compared to the interspecialty income differences. In the 2017 Medscape Physician Compensation Report, it lists the average orthopedic income as $489K and the average pediatrician income as $202K. That's a pretty big difference, but that's as big as it gets, and there's almost no difference between an ophthalmologist and an oncologist. But I am far more impressed that some orthopedists make $1.3 Million and some make $130K. That's a HUGE range.
So if you're a pediatrician who thinks he'll “never make $200K,” the question you should be asking isn't why orthopedists get paid so much more than you, but why some pediatricians make so much more than you and what you can do to be like them. I mean, Medscape says the average pediatrician salary is $202K. Why can't you be at least average again? That doesn't seem like a big hurdle to me. I mean, you might need a different job, you might need to move, and you might have to work a little harder, but an average salary certainly seems doable. As an example, when I mentioned I was writing this post, a pediatrician sent me this:
Saw you are writing a post about the wealthy pediatrician…a lot don't think it's possible – they are WRONG. I am a pediatrician. 3 years out of residency. Partner in a group of 12 pediatricians in midwest. Made a $490K salary last year and more this year. It's possible and I have a fantastic practice and lifestyle (work 3.5 days per week) and call q11. The most important things that have aided in my success: be in private practice, become a partner, own your building, have mid-levels to help see sick patients, market yourself to healthy patients with good insurance (I do a few prenatal classes at our big hospital per year and get tons of new patients from there – all good parents with good insurance), monitor your sick:well ratio, do procedures.
This doc might be an outlier, but why can't you be an outlier too? (And yes, I asked for a guest post, but that paragraph may be all you get.)
Second, your decision to put bread on your table by working as a pediatrician is not irrevocable. Now, I'm not talking about entering the match and trying to get into an orthopedics residency. I'm talking about changing careers entirely, preferably gradually. I had a conversation with an emergency doc recently who was working 16 nights a month and felt like she was locked into that in order to maintain her family's lifestyle. I pointed out that she was intelligent, hard-working, and apparently willing to endure a great deal of pain in her career and that if she applied those same characteristics to ANY OTHER FIELD such as business, finance, real estate, selling insurance, giving financial advice, etc that she could eventually be making as much or more than she is making shepherding drunks around the ED at 3 am.
The less you make, the more likely it is that you can boost your income or make more doing something else. You don't even have to quit pediatrics. While medicine might not be a great business, it will always remain a great profession and even a calling. I obviously don't have to see patients anymore, and yet I do. Why? Because being a doctor is awesome. Not quite awesome enough to do it for free, but certainly still awesome enough to do part-time if you choose to support your family in another way.
I want YOU to be a pediatrician!
Uncle Sam Loves Pediatricians
Here's another point that most people don't get until they've been there. I always chuckle when I get an email from residents asking what they can do to decrease their tax burden. They have no idea what is coming in a year or two when they'll be paying their entire resident salary plus in taxes. It is the same way for some pediatricians. They see that orthopedist surgeon making $489K and look at their measly $202K salary and assume the orthopedist is making 2 1/2 times as much as them.
In reality, once you start applying that progressive tax code and realize the pediatrician may be paying 24% of $200K ($48K) in taxes and the orthopedist is paying 34% of $489K ($171K) in taxes, the difference still exists, but isn't nearly as big as you might think, especially when you consider the orthopedist's student loans compounded for an extra 3 years during training. To make matters worse, the orthopedist will need to save a larger percentage of his take-home income to maintain his lifestyle because his tax burden in retirement will be larger. And she'll have to do it with less assistance from tax-protected retirement accounts. Bottom line–you always come out ahead with a higher income, but it isn't as far ahead as you might imagine.
You Can Still Be Wealthy as a Pediatrician
But at the end of the day, whether the pediatrician is making a salary of $150K, $180K, $200K, or $230K, that is still PLENTY of money to pay off your student loans, eventually move into your dream house, and retire early as a multi-millionaire. 20% of $150K = $30K. $30K compounded at 5% real for 30 years = $2 Million. $2 Million = $80K in retirement spending + $30K in Social Security = a very comfortable retirement.
You might be worse off than 95% of the house of medicine, but you're still better off than 95% of the US population and 99.5% of the world population. It isn't going to be as easy for you as it might have been in another specialty or if you had married another high-income professional or if you had received a big inheritance, but it is still certainly well within your grasp to be very financially successful.
What do you think? What would you say to your classmates who went into pediatrics? If you're a pediatrician, what do you have to say about finances to the rest of the house of medicine? Can a pediatrician sole earner become a multi-millionaire? Why or why not? Are you a wealthy pediatrician? Tell us your story. Comment below!
Really appreciate reading this post. I’m a peds specialist making $330k + benefits. Total compensation $400k. Have plenty of primary care pediatricians. Some make $150k. Some make > 400k. Difference? 400k docs work like crazy and take their patients phone calls and have insanely good rep. Only private pay.
Completely agree with your post that if you CHOOSE to work 9-4 4 days/wk with no weekends and see 20 pts/day and take Medicaid – more power to you. Just don’t complain about how little you make.
Want to make more money as a gen peds? Start doing circs and seeing your own nicu level 2 patients. I was making 6 figures during residency 20 years ago. It’s not only possible – it’s pretty easy.
…. Or you could skip the call, Years of training, decades of committed, terrifying, soul sucking labor and join the other half of our medical system-the administrators whose purpose is to make more than we do, paid by income that we create,all while dictating our practice methods and cracking the whip. As one slithering but brilliant Admin reminded: “you work for me”
You make a of great points in this post, thanks. I was going to share it with my pediatric intensivist spouse, but…. You come out of the gates so defensively, like you are arguing with the pediatrician whose comment prompted this post, that it’s honestly rather cringe-worthy to read until you get to your excellent, objective points further down. She won’t read this post, I know it. So we’ll keep using other resources for financial infotainment. You’ve written some very uplifting, confidence-boosting, “you-can-too!” posts, but this isn’t one of them because it starts off on the wrong tone. It’s a pity because you make some great points that will never reach the needed audience in this case- pediatricians themselves. As good as this post is, you can do and have done much better. Just some (hopefully) constructive criticism.
Yea, something definitely went wrong on the tone in this post based on the feedback. Hopefully I’ve gotten better since then.
Such a discouraging post for those who have just joined their pediatric residency. Stop discouraging budding pediatricians.
Would it be better to just lie to them and tell them that the financial life of a pediatrician in San Francisco and an orthopedic surgeon in Indianapolis will look exactly the same?
Lying doesn’t do anybody any good so does putting an element of doubt in people who truly work hard to follow their passion and after achieving it land up reading posts like yours on websites worldwide. I didn’t choose to read this but it’s right there and popped up when I was searching for something else. Ruined my day for sometime but I later realized that one shouldn’t give the power of controlling one’s mind by posts like these. Happiness is a choice after all and if you follow your passion, excellence comes along. To all the budding doctors out there, don’t chose a specialty coz it pays you more, chose it coz it’s your passion, you need that drive to get you through life. And if you have a huge bank account and no peace of mind, happiness or sense of achievement in your life then you have failed in every conceivable aspect. That feeling of guilt(I should have chosen what I liked) will haunt you and destroy you if you choose a branch just for the pay package.
@ WCI why did you forget to mention the fact that most leukemia cases are seen in orthopedicians because of their significant daily radiation exposure ?
And who told you that pediatricians are paid less?On what basis have you drawn this conclusion?🤔
Please cite the paragraph from this post where I told people to choose a specialty because it pays them more. I don’t recall writing that or saying that in any post, presentation, or podcast I’ve ever done.The closest I can find is this one:
It basically says don’t borrow $600K to become a pediatrician. If you think that’s bad advice, you’re not very financially literate. It doesn’t don’t become a pediatrician. It doesn’t say choose the specialty that pays the best. It says it isn’t wise to borrow a half million dollars and then take a job that pays $120K. Elsewhere in the post it mentions pediatricians who are killing it financially. Later in the post I said this:
Is there something incorrect there? Not that I see.
I have no idea what your point about leukemia is. Were you under the misunderstanding that this blog is about radiation? It’s not. It’s about finances. So we write about the financial consequences of decisions. Once more, I would refer you to this paragraph at the beginning of the post:
Take what you find useful, leave the rest. Are you worried I’m somehow going to talk every medical student in the country out of going into pediatrics and you’re going to have to take more call or won’t have anyone to sell your practice to or something? Are you advocating people don’t go into a given specialty with a realistic view of its earning potential? Are you advocating that people ignore the financial consequences of their choices? Or are you just mad that I used pediatrics as my example instead of dentistry or family practice or preventive medicine or public health or something else with similar pay?
I think you’ll prefer an upcoming post where I highly some pediatricians making $400K+.
And pediatricians told me pediatricians are paid less. Here’s the latest Medscape salary survey.
https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2019-compensation-overview-6011286#3
I didn’t write this post trying to prove anybody wrong I just wrote it because there maybe kids out there who would be dreaming of becoming pediatricians but land up reading this blog, they shouldn’t get demotivated to follow their dream. It’s for them.
No offense you cited your opinion and I cited my point of view. I know this post has got nothing to do with radiation but if at all somebody wants to take up orthopedics after reading this blog, they should be aware of it too.
If you get demotivated to follow your dream because you realize your career choice dream does not align with your income dream, then that’s probably a good thing. Do you really want pediatricians in your field who didn’t know that it pays less than most specialties when they signed up? Or would you prefer people who want to take care of kids anyway? I prefer the latter.
Is it better for budding pediatricians to discover in detail the financial consequences of their choice before they choose it? Or later when it’s too late?
It seems to me that WCI is doing the field of pediatrics a great service in ensuring that there aren’t masses of embittered, fully trained pediatricians who are learning too late the financial consequences of their choice.
So it’s better if they read the blog, decide not to take up pediatrics and end up drowning in guilt (of if I would have) for the rest of their life?
Put yourself in the shoes of pediatricians(empathy please 🙂 and then give it a thought. Maybe then you will understand what I’m trying to say 🙂
Why wouldn’t you go into pediatrics if you love it? Can’t you live on/have a financially awesome life on $200K? My wife and I became millionaires 7 years out of residency on an average income those 7 years of $180K/year. And if not, can’t you figure out what the other pediatricians making $400K are doing and copy them?
But you need to be aware your road is steeper in pediatrics than in EM for instance. Income does have significant effect on your financial future. But come on. It’s still $200K. Physician on FIRE travels the world and only spends $60-80K a year.
I’m a pediatrician and I do well financially. I’m a mom of two kids. I work full time and am partner in my practice. And I also work my butt off. I live in a LCOL area that others may find less desirable but it also means much less overhead which translates to more earnings. Sadly for me this also means I live far away from my parents and extended family. But mainly, I make more because I work so very hard. It’s possible to be well off as a pediatrician but it comes down to choices you make. I do all of our own xray, casting, hospital work, and urgent care work myself. It is the dream for me. Not the money…sure that’s nice, but the breadth of the work and the independence private practice brings. Every morning I wonder when this bubble is going to burst. I generally feel pediatricians are underpaid in most places, but I also generally feel it is our own fault because we fail to advocate for ourselves then later complain that we don’t make as much as our peers. And most pediatricians choose to be employed instead of owners which affects their income. The reality is that many of the high paid specialties take on high risk that is a burden pediatricians do not take. So, in peds if you want to do well financially you have to make up for that by working both hard and smart. So I don’t think you should look at the post as demotivating, but as a way to understand the economics of pediatrics and to plan your finances strategically and accordingly and know it can be done. It is possible to have a lot, but you cannot have it all. You may have to give up your dream location or that academic job…but it all comes down to choices. And the more informed you are by posts like these, the better equipped you’ll be to plan those choices for your future.
I am always shocked when I see pediatric salaries in the sub 200’s. I think the polls that show low pediatric salaries are highly skewed by part time docs. It’s is an amazing specialty and I’m compensated fairly well. My day is diverse, from rounding on healthy newborns, sick children up to age 21-22 and seeing a good mix of sick and well in the office. My patients generally get better too. I do a fair amount of procedures, mostly suturing and abscess drainage, nursemaid reduction. I’m in a private practice setting with buy in for 2 years (low salary—total package about 155k for 2 years with opportunity to bonus). The partners in my group make 285k-360k depending productivity for the year. We work four days a week, and I’m on call about once a week and once every 4-5th weekend. Pediatrics is all about volume and having a good payer mix. We see around 40 patients a day in the winter and 25-30 in the summer-fall. Between spring break and summer is generally slower, maybe 20-25 a day. I can boost my income by moonlighting in a pediatric ED. If I moonlit every day during the week I had off (to make it a normal 5 day workweek) I could add an additional 65k-75k to my salary. If I did circs (which I stopped doing—add another 25-30k). So in an up year, working 5 days a week (4 days in office and 1 day moonlighting) I could easily pull in 440-450k. The key is private practice, procedures, volume, good payer mix and find a side gig.
There is no coincidence that pediatricians are the happiest of all physicians.
Although I cringe when I hear about mid-levels earning more than I do (10 years out of residency), I find comfort in the fact that I love my job and I am well respected in my community.
Mo’ money, mo’ problems? Probably not a popular phrase here though !
Very disheartened by how the financial aspect of medicine has become one of the most important decision factors for many who enter into medicine. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be compensated by your hard work, but as a future pediatrician I believe medicine is truly a calling. If your life goal is to accumulate and enjoy as much wealth as possible, then this article makes total sense, and yes medical students please don’t go into peds even if you like it because it just doesn’t make financial sense. I honestly hope that most physicians’ life goals is actually to fulfill their calling and that young physicians in training are not discouraged to join the noble profession of caring for children due to this disadvantage it has when compared to other specialties. I may be young and even naive, but with all due respect I don’t think people who are primarily interested in making money should enter into medicine.
Come back in 5 or 10 years and let us know if you feel the same. Many of us felt the same as you when we were rising interns. But hang $400K in student loans over someone’s head for a decade and have them work 80+ hours a week during that time taking care of dying kids and the money starts mattering a little more than it used to. I hope you can maintain your idealism as long as possible. I can remember being in medical school thinking I’d still be a doc for $50K a year. A couple of lawsuits and many sleep-deprived nights into my residency I felt a little differently.
At any rate, the intraspecialty variation is far greater than the interspecialty variation. I know pediatricians making more than the average orthopedist.
I used to think the same thing. When you’re young , call nights don’t even phase you, and you don’t have kids, it does not seem like continuing to work long hours is a big deal. Plus the kind of money you make as an attending is more of an abstract idea at that point. Now that I am out, I gotta say knowing that I did 3 extra years of training compared to my friends in ED, I work 40% more hours then them (I’m doing about 200 hours a month compared to their 120), and I still make less then them is very aggravating. Don’t get me wrong, I like my job, I prefer working with kids to adults, and I hated all the primary care stuff I had to see on my ED rotation; however, when I’ve done two service weeks already and its 2 AM on my 5th call of the month it does get to me a little. That’s when I remind myself I make a lot more than my co-fellows who went into academics at least.
In medical school talking about salary is taboo, but that’s a mistake. I bought into it. I probably would still have done PICU but I would have had my eyes a bit more open going in. The “money does not matter” mentality only helps administrators pay us less.
I appreciate both of your replies. I have no idea what it’s actually like to be overworked and underpaid to the extent you described. My hope is that physician wellness becomes more of a priority in medicine, for both their and the patient’s sake. Physical and mental health alike. I am actually interested in going into PICU and have already been advised against it due to the intense hours that don’t go away as an attending. Regardless of which path I go into, I agree that it is better to make an informed decision and have an accurate picture of reality to avoid major disappointments.
for some reason my previous comment isnt showing to me, so sorry for anyone who sees this part without the last part. However, for intern: I certainly don’t mean to convince you not to do PICU. I’m glad I did, but I should have gone into it with my eyes open more than I did. Keep in mind PICU is shift work. You don’t have to over work yourself. I’m only a few years out so busting my butt to try to build up our next egg early and get a house downpayment (preferably more than 20%). You can back off on hours as you age, but you have to be set up where you are able to make less. If I just worked the minimum hours I’d have one seven day stretch and one 5 day stretch off each month. Most of us however, don’t just work the minimum. It’s too tempting to take that extra shift when it’s put in front of you particularly when you’re putting 20% of your salary into retirement, and another 20% into your house fund.
Thank you for this post.
As a pediatrician, sometimes envy creeps into my mind but I don’t regret my decision. Happiness is not just about money. I am happy with my 170k job. I work full time 40 hours per week (a real 40 hours, no extra hours doing charts or “wrapping up for the day”) I get to live in a major city with access to fun activities for my family, bought a 4bedroom home for 330k, get to live close to a major airport, Have NO NIGHTS (god i hated nights as resident), pretty much no call (1 week per year via phone), no in house call, no holidays, get 5.5 weeks vacation, no need to do procedures, and no stress. I’ll stick with this any day over a 300k job that has me in some backwater state having to work nights.
I follow a frugal lifestyle (don’t believe in restaurants), vacation on credit card points (my 2 year old has already flown in long haul business class 3 times and we stay in $300/night rooms without paying for them), my spouse doesn’t work, and plan to be financial independent before 50 (sooner once my spouse starts working, 50 is more of a worse case scenario). I graduated only 80k in debt with no help from parents by having a full undergrad scholarship and then going to a foreign medical school and then residency in the USA.
It’s wonderful to be able to have the ability and information to make an informed choice like that. Certainly one can have a very good life on $170K/year.
Via email:
Thank you so much for your site and everything you have done and continue to do to help MDs and other high income professionals realize that their future is in their hands!
Fortunately, I figured this out at an early age and double majored in Biology and Business in college. Fortunately/unfortunately, I also fell in love with pediatrics (had grades and scores to do anything I wanted) and am now back in my hometown practicing general pediatrics.
I just ran across the old post about “The Wealthy Pediatrician” and wanted to share a little hope for others in peds.
While I see some of the lucrative incomes of other specialties, I am now averaging $800-900k per year as a pediatrician. I am in private practice in a multispecialty clinic but 90% of our income is eat what you kill. I work 4.5 days per week (but take 3-4 weeks of vacation per year) and am very busy on those days. Additionally our group staffs Saturday and Sunday morning clinic for our patients so work those every 5-6 weeks and take call 1 night per week but most weekend and night call is light and never have to go to a hospital except call day rounds at the hospital that delivers babies in town. It def took me a few years to build up to this but it is now sustainable and I am having to tell the local OBGYNs to slow down referrals.
We have lived by many of the principles you preach and my wife and I and our 4 kids are now debt free, have well over 50% equity in our $1.6M home we built a block form the kids school, have over $500K in retirement (hammering this now), and almost $200K saved for kids college.
I may not cross the $2M threshold that some of my non peds colleagues make, but I think I have carved out a nice life for a little ol pediatrician!
Thanks again and just wanted to share that there is light even in the lower fields of medicine!
Just curious, what is the patient volume per day to pull that much? Do you have ownership in the multi speciality group.
I’m in a large-hospital owned group. Pre -COVID volume 25-40 per day. Work 1/7 weekends, call once a month and 4 day work week. No rounding. Pay is eat what you kill and ranges 300-400k per year depending on volume. There are some in group who make 600-700k, but don’t take a day off during week and see 50+ per day.
Low pay in peds is largely a myth. My job can be stressful, but where else can I make 300k+ working 4 days a week and averaging about 40 hours per week?
If you are considering peds, don’t let the naysayers sway you. You can have a great lifestyle.
I wouldn’t say it’s a myth. I’ve met a lot of academic pediatricians in big cities making $150K, especially if not working full time but even some working full time. The intraspecialty pay differences dwarf the interspecialty average differences.
The key word there is “academics.” It’s not a secret that academic pay is less. Private practice can be lucrative—so it’s largely a myth that you can’t find a well paying job in peds.
I had multiple people tell me “you won’t make money in peds.” These were all by people who were fed that lie and had no peds experience. I’ll take the potential for 400k+ and not have the headaches my adult colleagues have any day of the week.
I read this post before I started looking for Jobs and was able to get a 320k job as a new grad in Pediatrics straight out of residency in the West Coast. Thank you for raising awareness of future earning potentials in Pediatrics. It helped me to start looking early for opportunities that fitted my income aspirations.