Very true. Having docs burn out and quit as soon as they can financially manage is a big waste of everyone’s time and resources. Working a long, productive and happy career should be the goal. Ironically, working a bit harder up front and having that financial security may actually accomplish this goal, as there is more leverage to design a job that is more sustainable deeper into our lives.

Thx for the comment Loonie Doctor. Building that personal capital is very important. Good luck on shaping your (potential) part-time career in the future.

Burning out docs is a really bad financial move for society beyond all the other reasons it is bad (another externalized cost brought by the system).

Crazy. Any time a system increases in complexity, there is the potential for weird and perverse incentives to pop up.

F-U money will be different for everyone. Maybe it is a few months of living expenses in the case of someone who can easily find another job somewhere else. Maybe it is full blown FI to someone in a highly specialized job that they are tied to for various reasons (can’t move easily due to family issues, etc.). The more risk averse and difficult job replacement is the higher that number.

I have had to go “part time”, by which I mean, I no longer do any extras/locums etc. We are a colleague down, and we are being paid in time off rather than money because the money would just trigger the tax trap. Now I am getting 10 weeks a year annual leave, 2 weeks study leave, 1 week paid parental leave.

However, many of my more indebted colleagues have been unable to cut back as they need to maintain their income for their high cost lifestyles. They have had to opt out of our defined benefit pension scheme in order to avoid the tax traps, which means they are now working for something they used to get for free.

Good times

So, I never had a grand plan. But I liked working and achieving goals and growing. So I worked full-time.
I never had a fixed savings rate, but looking back, it probably averaged about 38% of gross (maybe 50% of net). I reached FI in 17 years.
So this is basically talking about reaching FI in 10 years, right? So that takes savings 2/3 of net salary? Is that right? That would be tough if so. Especially for family docs with low salaries and high debt loads. Right?

Also, how do you define F-U money? I love the idea, but I’ve heard it defined anywhere from 1-2 years of salary to all the way Fat-FIRE.

Thank you Fishbird. Even though peds is one of the lower paying specialties, in my experience those docs are among the happiest. There are bad peds jobs out there though, and as you point out, healthy finances give you more options about choosing the job that works for you.