What Career besides medicine/dentistry would you recommend to your children?

[Craigy]

I want my kids to have the freedom and the joy to choose to be whatever kind of MD they choose to be.  :lol:

I will not pay for and will actively discourage my kids from going to law school.

In all seriousness, I wonder this all the time.  Best answers for my kid that isn't smart enough to go to MD school, in order:

2nd tier

River boat pilot

Marry an MD and treat her like a goddess.  Really this is top tier.

Possibly get a DO depending on the state of the market

3rd tier

MBA in econ or finance from prestigious university.  But this doesn't count since you could have gone to MD school.

CRNA  Might put this ahead of DO due to cost, effort.

Engineer

Actuary

Comp sci from prestigious university

4th tier

UPS driver

Commercial pilot

Accountant

Firefighter

5th tier

Business degree from regular school, bonus be willing to move

Professional lawn maintenance (seriously)

Welder

Military or other state job where he gets good benefits a good pension, and is difficult to fire.

 

I think you could reasonably expect to be able to make 200k in tiers 2 and 3.  Possibly as an accountant too if you run your own practice but it's a lot of work.

Truth is you can be FI on any income but to really build wealth you need to make a lot of money, plain and simple.

[q-school]

both my brother in laws are stay at home dads.  my sons keep saying they want to be like uncle steve or uncle john.

that seems good.  they get kids to school and then play video games in the morning.

hmm.

 

[DCdoc]

Tech. I hope all 3 of our kids major is some sort of computer related field.

[Lordosis]

q-school wrote:

both my brother in laws are stay at home dads.  my sons keep saying they want to be like uncle steve or uncle john.

that seems good.  they get kids to school and then play video games in the morning.

hmm.

 

Click to expand...

Sounds great for school age kids.

I have 4 under 5.  I will stay at work

[DCdoc]

I thought I would want to be a SAHD. Now I have 3 kids under 3. I look forward to going to work.

[Craigy]

I am about to go down to 4 days a week to be a part-time SAHD.

I don't think I'm ready to do it full time.  Nor do I think I ever will be.  :lol:

[ITEngineer]

Software engineer.

Get to start work at 22 and graduate debt free (or with minimal debt). That's a huge time jump on all you doctors

Let time do the heavy lifting and by the time you are 40, you will have a net worth well over $1M and depending on where you are, maybe even $2M.

Work from anywhere (no one cares where I am) with lots of flexible hours. No midnight shifts (well.....rarely.....)

There is an insane amount of job security. Yes - some people get laid off in their 50's and struggle to find new work. IMO - They don't have any relevant skills.

That would be the one negative of the tech world. Everything changes every 5-7 years. That's bad as you constantly need to retool. That's good because you can know nothing and be an expert in minimal time.

[Tim]

CFP Head Coach .
SEC Head Coach of football team.
MLB starting pitcher (1 or 2).
Cable TV talking head.

Actually, the pyramid in any other profession besides medicine is very steep. Hire 50, one makes partner, for awhile.

The highest probability is owning your own business. Plumbing, construction, manufacturers rep, franchise owner, even owning a dude ranch. If you survive after failing (which you will), you will make a good living but few hit FI.

[Craigy]

Tim wrote:

Actually, the pyramid in any other profession besides medicine is very steep. Hire 50, one makes partner, for awhile.

Click to expand...

^^^^^ This  ^^^^^

This seems to be the thing that most docs ignore when they suggest law, business, finance, etc.  Unlike medschool, where you study hard, graduate anywhere in the class, work hard, and boom you've got a guaranteed meaningful and well-paid job, when you get a business degree, you can work as hard as you want and there are still no guarantees or even great likelihoods.

That new york biglaw friend of yours pulling in $800k is busting his ****************** and likely has been doing so his whole life, has at least one ex-wife and is currently married to his future ex-wife, and may actually be up to his eyeballs in debt maintaining that lifestyle.  Dare I say, he's probably working harder than most (not all ) of y'all docs on here do, with all of the same stress or worse.  Fridays off and wednesday afternoon tee time doesn't come until late in the game when you're an old man.  And again, that's all assuming you survive and make it up the pyramid.

[GoBlueMD]

Multi-level marketing. You can be super wealthy, gain self confidence and transform yourself into a demi-god. Everyone will love you, believe what you say and buy what you are selling by the truckload.

That’s what I hear.

When I hear doctors say they wish they did other careers, I think about the MLM scam. They are basically disregarding the fact that 90+% of people in the other careers make less than the average doctor. Though in MLM, you are just plain losing money.

[Tim]

@GoBlueMD,

Power in the numbers! If you can stipulate that the top 10 or 10% is the magic.
1000 university students (acctg, prelaw, whatever)
Only 100 get to even interview. Everyone wants the top 10%. Maybe 10 get the prestigious offer. That’s 1%.

The anecdotes be used are most likely from university setting. How many people from high school does anyone know that chose something other than medicine that ended up taking in big bucks? Most people know less than 10 friends from high school, it would be rare if a physician found another high income friend. Two fro the same English class would be unlikely. No other career has the odds.

[ko]

Craigy wrote:

Tim wrote:

Actually, the pyramid in any other profession besides medicine is very steep. Hire 50, one makes partner, for awhile.

Click to expand…

^^^^^ This  ^^^^^

This seems to be the thing that most docs ignore when they suggest law, business, finance, etc.  Unlike medschool, where you study hard, graduate anywhere in the class, work hard, and boom you’ve got a guaranteed meaningful and well-paid job, when you get a business degree, you can work as hard as you want and there are still no guarantees or even great likelihoods.

That new york biglaw friend of yours pulling in $800k is busting his ****************** and likely has been doing so his whole life, has at least one ex-wife and is currently married to his future ex-wife, and may actually be up to his eyeballs in debt maintaining that lifestyle.  Dare I say, he’s probably working harder than most (not all ) of y’all docs on here do, with all of the same stress or worse.  Fridays off and wednesday afternoon tee time doesn’t come until late in the game when you’re an old man.  And again, that’s all assuming you survive and make it up the pyramid.

Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more - and that's if you even make partner - if you're in the less then 10% that even make it to partner from your cohort that start at your BigLaw firm. And that's if you're even in the minority of your law school class at your top law school that even get a BigLaw offer. And that's if you're one of the small minority that even get into the top law school in the first place.

[Kamban]

q-school wrote:

both my brother in laws are stay at home dads. my sons keep saying they want to be like uncle steve or uncle john.

Click to expand...

DCdoc wrote:

I thought I would want to be a SAHD. Now I have 3 kids under 3. I look forward to going to work.

Click to expand...

If I ever become a SAHD I might even become a bit more religious and ask for forgiveness and even do penance in order that I might go back to work. I love my daughter dearly but both of us agree that I am cut out to be a SAHD or even taking care of her by myself for more than 3 weeks continuously, max.

Hats off to the men who are SAHD. I need structured work to have a fulfillment in life.

[q-school]

Kamban wrote:

q-school wrote:

both my brother in laws are stay at home dads. my sons keep saying they want to be like uncle steve or uncle john.

Click to expand…

DCdoc wrote:

I thought I would want to be a SAHD. Now I have 3 kids under 3. I look forward to going to work.

Click to expand…

If I ever become a SAHD I might even become a bit more religious and ask for forgiveness and even do penance in order that I might go back to work. I love my daughter dearly but both of us agree that I am cut out to be a SAHD or even taking care of her by myself for more than 3 weeks continuously, max.

Hats off to the men who are SAHD. I need structured work to have a fulfillment in life.

Click to expand...

i fully agree when kids are young.  howevah, with kids in school for 8 hours it doesn't seem nearly as taxing (to me).  who knows though.

it's definitely not for me.  i'm already worried about how i'm going to fill my hours in retirement.

 

[Lordosis]

I could not imagine what I would do to fill the time between getting the kids on the bus to them getting home.  Cleaning and cooking and shopping only take so long.  We do it now and we both work and we have 4 little kids.  It is hard but doable and totally worth it.  I realize my ways are not for all families and some find great use in a stay at home parent.  Just saying it has not worked for us.