“M, I love the blog. Everything you’ve written! You’re just saying what we’re all thinking.”
Friends from residency who had reunited to celebrate the nuptials of one of my old Med/Peds interns wanted to talk about the blog. It was a bizarre collision of past relationships now intersecting with the future. In my mind, these people were still my interns and I was still the senior resident.
And I was setting a really horrible example of what their future was going to be.
- Go into primary care
- Hate your job
- Broadcast it all over the internet
- Don’t own up to it in real life
I was surprised by how hesitant I was to discuss the topics I write about. Maybe it was because I hate feeling self-promote-y. Maybe I didn’t want to steal my friend’s thunder on her wedding day.
In truth, it was really because I’m supposed to be the person who has all their shit together.
In residency, I was that person who went to work in a dress, adorned by a dangling necklace and awesome kitten heels at 6:30 in the morning, ready to dominate the 12 hour work day. On Instagram, I’m currently #livingmybestlife filled with mountains, coastlines and DIY house projects in which J tells me I’m right about my tiling measurements.
To talk about the blog turned me into one of those head-on collisions everyone loves to gawk at on the side of the road.
Then, someone said,
“You’ve put into words all the reasons I want to quit medicine. And I haven’t even been out as long as you.”
FULL STOP
This was my opportunity to divert attention and do some research. I asked,
“How many of you see yourselves practicing medicine for more than 10-15 years?”
100% of those out of training shook their heads.
“We’re paying our student loans as fast as we can and will probably stockpile money away so we can retire early. I don’t have 20 years of this in me.”
C, the optimist in the group, chimed in.
“Come on guys, did you really do all of that to leave so soon? It’s not that bad.”
“Really C? Are you trying to say you actually see yourself doing this until you’re 60? 70? That’s the age they say we’re going to retire, you know,” I pressed him to double down.
“… Well… no. I won’t be doing this for that long.”
Career lifespan of a Millennial Doctor: 10-15 years MAX
Millennial doctors are declaring our career lifespans to be shorter than our predecessors.
At first I assumed it was selection bias due to reading all the physician FIRE blogs when starting my burnout journey. But, among my cohort of millennial doctors comprised of Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics and Med/Peds physicians at this unofficial reunion, NONE of us are planning on having a lengthy career in medicine.
4 years of pre-med. 4 years of med school. 3-4 years of residency.
All that training for us to then make enough to pay off the 6 figure loans, stockpile our money and GET OUT in just about the same amount of time it took for us to get through training to begin with.
Our predecessors may make disparaging comments about us being lazy, self-centered and “literally the worst age group” as I’ve seen described on some Facebook physician groups. They may bring up the ethical quandary of who’s going to be left to take care of everyone if we all vacate the building, as if piling on the guilt will be enough reason for us to stay.
The fact of the matter is, Millennial Doctors are contemplating early retirement as a matter of our own survival.
Millennial Doctors, meet your superpower: Student loans
We are the most student loan-indebted generation but instead of griping and complaining about it as I have in the past, I have come to see it as a hidden blessing.
The discipline it takes to put aside 45% of my take home salary to pay off my student loans since becoming an attending will translate to a 45% savings rate to be shunted into retirement funds.
I am not alone in doing this as I see my peers following the same trajectory.
Thanks but no thanks
For better or for worse, we are learning from our predecessors’ journey through medicine that has unfolded out before us.
We see them tied to this idea of the golden age of medicine, but are fully aware this no longer exists for us.
We are rejecting the traditional “doctor lifestyle” as laid out in The Millionaire Next Door. We refuse to be shackled by golden handcuffs to big hospital systems for longer than we have to. We are choosing to buy our time back rather than spend money on superfluous things.
We hear them talk about this concept of the patient-physician relationship, but the system they have created or at the very least allowed to form has made us choose between working on the assembly line of productivity or listening and being present with our patients, no matter how long that takes. Those of us attempting to do both are burning out in record time and acutely feel the void of a lack of mentorship by people who are choosing to denigrate us instead.
We see them pay lip service to selfless devotion to others, yet when another one of our colleagues chooses to end their lives, the compassion and empathy are nowhere to be found. They were no longer good enough or resilient enough to be part of the prestigious doctor club. We see them prefer to sweep another death under the rug to preserve our noble profession than to have real discussions as to why we are so broken.
So we turn to each other and compare notes
How are you?
How are you getting by?
How are you getting OUT?
Welcome to the future of medicine.
***
Photo taken at San Juan County Park, WA.
I’m with you on this one M. Our goal is to hit financial independence in about 15 years. The pile of bristol 7 that we inherited is definitely playing a big role in this.
It is also why I didn’t go into primary care. I really enjoyed being in the clinic and seeing the kids grow up. I had a few I met in the nursery and said goodbye to just before their 3rd birthdays. Those are some of my fondest memories of residency. And yet, the grind. For my slow, plodding pace, the idea of seeing 3 or 4 kids an hour was unthinkable.
Learning about financial independence and the FIRE community changed the way I view work, money, the doctor lifestyle, my time. All of it. I think we are learning in our 30s what many learn as their lives come to a close. That what they valued most, and wish they had more of, was time with their families and friends.
OMG… pile of bristol 7. It took me a second to let that fully sink in and I had to check the chart to be sure, but that is just genius. IMMEDIATELY going into my repertoire 🙂
I’ve written about this before, but I do believe time is the currency of life, and it’s the only thing we’ll never be able to buy back.
It’s heartwarming to know the majority of my peers feel the same way I do. Because of course the answer was always yes when asked, “If all your friends are jumping off a bridge, would you jump too?”
One of the great joys of pediatricianing is getting to giggle right along side my patients when I show them that chart.
You realize that, by viewing your massive loan burden as a blessing, you embody Stoic philosophy. Soon, you’ll be such a Stoic that you will embrace the suck of your career as a blessing, and you’ll no longer want to escape. If you ultimately achieve that mental state, M, please let me know how you did it!
Ha! Perhaps you are confusing stoicism for sadism, and unfortunately/fortunately that is not my cup of tea 🙂
I am technically generation X, but I identify so much with your millennial perspectives. If my medical career goes beyond 15 years, I’ll be surprised. It will have to look much different than current available career options.
I lasted 2.5 years in the typical practice of 50-60 hours per week. Initially, I was a starry-eyed idealist, but that got beat out of me pretty quick. I then made a move to a ‘part-time’ job with 40-45 hours a week. That was amazing. Yet, it didn’t stop the burnout.
I am now 8 years out. I will transition to a true part-time position (25+/-) hours a week in about 6 months. I will keep saving, and should be FI before the 15 year mark. And then we’ll see.
I really think that millennials will be the ones who save medicine. With so many of the young doctors achieving financial independence early, they can opt out of the machine, and then tailor medicine to their liking, without worrying about the finances. And if enough do this, medicine will be forced to adapt, because there won’t be enough hungry docs left to sell their souls to the machine.
I really hope you’re right! Although, I’m not sure how this will look like on the future, as more and more PA’s and NP’s are being trained to help bridge that gap. Hopefully they will also refuse to bow down to the machine and will find their way to FI as well.
I’m finding Generation X is spearheading the FI movement on all the physician finance blogs – us millennials are definitely reaping the time cost benefits of following their footsteps earlier in our careers.
Kudos to you for achieving FI before 15 years, all while cutting back to real part time to boot!