[Noah930]

MRM's post above about sudden increase in salary brought up a good point. When I was a resident or fellow, there was a financial planner who came in to talk to the group of us (and indirectly sell his services too, of course). He claimed that if he could get us to save 20% of our pre-tax income for retirement, he could guarantee that we'd be able to retire in 20 years. Except for in California. He wasn't taking on any more clients from California.

His point was if we could live on a resident's salary, why couldn't we afford to save (for retirement) once we were collecting an attending's salary? Once making that kind of money, if we were able to set aside 20% of our attending-level salary for retirement, then we'd 1) save a lot, 2) use time (and compounding) to our advantage, and 3) get accustomed to living at a certain level (below our max financial ability). With 20 years of compounding, we'd have a nice nest egg at the end. It was food for thought.