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Doctor vs. Software Engineer: Lifetime Earnings Comparison
- woohoopizzaman 4y ago
- al_borland 4y agoThey seemed to make numbers up to support the conclusion they wanted. They have the doctor's lifestyle at 2x the software engineers. It shouldn't be news to anyone that living on less increases your savings rate. I replicated this spreadsheet to see what would happen if the doctor also lived on $50k/year, so they are living the same lifestyle. When that happens the doctor becomes a millionaire at 42, just 1 year after the software engineer. By age 44 the doctor has surpassed the software engineer. And by retirement at 65 the doctor has $4M more than the software engineer. In the linked example the doctor can save more, but they chooses not to. At the end of the day, these numbers are all made up. Raises happen, life happens, different people have different priorities, investments, etc. Both fields provide the opportunity for someone to do well and the choice should be made based on which type of job a person is best suited for, rather than money alone.