Also, Ontario Physician and Ontario Engineer; its spelled divine….

I have respect for specialists, but my GP seems to have nearly disgust for the human body, and doesn’t even take my blood pressure. If he has to be involved with touching the human body, the student doctor from abroad does it, or I get sent to a specialist.

Doctors and dentists have a very difficult job and can make a salary of between $150-up to $1m for the very best, which is good.

However engineers may make $50-100k for an average engineer, but the best earn millions. Think cars, think Ford and Mercedes families. The patents on all the small inventions earn millions.

Also, we all want to have the best healthcare. In order to attract some of the smartest people into medicine, lucrative salaries need to be offered. Sure, we will get doctors even if the salaries were mediocre, but I want my doctors that may one day save my life to be amongst the smartest people out there. Thats why pay needs to be high.

If you want doctors to be average earners, they will be the ones with average grades. With my or my families life on the line, I’d rather have the smartest brains looking after us!

Spouse doctor received an email for medical work this Holiday Season. Rural towns within 3 hrs drive from Toronto offering shifts.. nothing new. One very interesting one was a Northern Ontario town offering a Minimum of $2800/day plus percent of billings.. for about a 10 day period over the Holidays. They pay for your flight (and pay work time when you fly) and also put you up for the time there. So for under 2 weeks the pay is probably $35,000+

For your entertainment, this is my present portfolio:
2 500
330 300
941 500
AO1 120
Av. 600
AZN 60
BAM.PR.T 100
BBD.PR.B 100
BCE 300
BLND 300
BNA.PR.C 100
BMO 148
CAS 519
CM 180
CSCO 100
CSGN 60
CTU.A 600
CTY 160
DDIC 100
DGE 100
DII.B 200
DL 200
DRX. 300
EBF 100
GSK 190
HPQ 200
INTC 100
JNJ 100
KO 50
KPN 800
MEDIQ 100
MRK 101
MIC 200
MKS 500
MRW 425
MSFT 230
NA 30
NGT 388
NOVN 45
POW 100
PWF 100
ROG 20
S 300
SCMN 5
SL. 1000
SLF 100
SSE 100
AT&T 306
TPK 700
TSCO 300
VOD 1400
WB 100
WJX 100
YLO 300

IN TFSA:
5K GIC 3.5%
DRX 4000

IN RRSP:
ORA 800

All of the stocks in my taxable portfolio pay dividends, or at least did when I bought them. As you can see, I take risky bets in my RRSP, which I will no longer contribute to as my tax rate is too low. I will just bank more contribution space for later. I search for stocks that are selling under book value without counting goodwill, and have very little debt, for my TFSA. I think it’s more important not to repeat mistakes than focus on victories in investing. Regrets: YLO: Never tell yourself ‘bah its just 1k’ and buy something you know is fishy. CTU.A and 3330: Why I decided to buy retail in a quasy recession, I will never understand. Av., DL, SL. and SLF: Although I don’t think these are that bad. It does seem that insurance companies are presently having a hard time generating enough investment return. However long term elements, namely extended life expectancy still makes them attractive in the long term. CSGN: Never buy simply to diversify. I knew I should have just bought more ROG to increase my Swiss dividends. Which BTW are subjected the worst withholding tax, 25% I believe maybe 20%. The others are 15% for my Dutch and US holdings. 0% for Hong Kong. And Canadian dividends actually lower my income tax by 3% of every dollar earned. I will no longer invest in other currencies, except in Hong Kong and perhaps dividend reinvestment. Not until my Canadian dividend income has reached at least 38k a year or the amount where under dividends are actually tax negative. This current portfolio produces over 8k in dividends a year (hard to know exactly how much since I keep adding and the companies increase.and decrease dividends) and costs me 500 USD in interest. I do not care whatsoever about capital gains and almost never sell.

Like Graham said, you only invest for one thing: Dividends. Either paid to you at least once a year. Or paid to you when a company dissolves and that you had paid 66 cents for every dollar they had, giving a 50% return.

Party on…

I believe physicians are greatly overpaid. Much like the new crime bill can be compared to an expensive band-aid which tries, mostly unsuccessfully and often temporarily, to fix a problem. When a preventative approach would be much more cost efficient. Especially when the biggest contributors to crime, drug addiction and poverty, could be greatly reduced with a fraction of the budget the band-aid solution will cost. And the savings are even greater as you don’t throw members who could contribute to society in jail where they do nothing but cost us all money while rendering no services. That is without mentioning the human element which obviously makes inprisonment of individuals less attractive than investment in their well being. The same thing can be said about doctors and our health system. Rather than invest on prevention we prefer to pay greatly for a band-aid solution. And so, instead of investing in prevention and people’s well being as they develop. Which would gives us a healthy population. We prefer to spend enormous amounts of money on providing people with a few more years or some level of relief once the problem has occurred. And this, with the help of costly surgeries and drugs which have many detrimental side effects. When prevention has only one side effect, a higher level of well being. One only has the look at heart disease for proof of this phenomenon. The very fact that a case of malnutrition is considered a disease is very telling of our health care approach. This ‘disease’ has been a cash cow for health care for many years, when it’s prevention is simple. And when, for many years, the government has been a cause of this ‘disease’ through its subsidization of meat and dairy products.

The truth is, just as a plumber has a undeniable interest in your plumbing having problems. So does a doctor have an interest in your health having problems. With 500k, one could make much greater impacts on peoples health by investing in their well being, than by paying one physician to deal with their ailments once they can no longer be prevented.

I have met many incompetent doctors in my life as well as very good ones. I am both grateful towards them as I am displeased with some of them. My mother went to doctors for 1.5 years to determine the cause of her intense heart burn. Somehow her cancer was not detected until it had reached the liver and she had but a month to live. Truthfully, I am glad she was not subjected to the expensive treatments that may not have even given her a good quality of life. Some would say there is no price tag for any extra time but is it really worth hundred of thousands to extend someone’s life? Especially when this extension is often an agonizing one. Perhaps it is worth the cost, but it certainly does not compare to the preventative measures she could have taken. Which may have in fact been free and would have given her a higher quality of life. Namely, vegetarianism which would have immensely lowered her chances of having intestinal cancer in the first place.

In the meantime, I have this society to thank for the 700k I inherited from my dead mothers assets and life insurance, at the age of 28. Making my valuation at the time 800k. Since then I have grown it to 1.1 million and have just turned 31. I have roughly 1.7M in rental property with .75M in mortgages. And 200K in stock with 35k on margin, with the debt being in USD of course, exchanged at 1.05125 USD/CAD. I made 60k off my investments last year (I don’t work), and paid 2k in taxes using depreciation on my properties. I spend less than 15k a year. And that includes my car payments which is for the business and thus a write off. In fact I try to spend less than that, choosing to live at relatives who charge me low rent or going as far as not heating when I stay in apartments that I rent. And try to invest 5k a month after paying off my mortgages. In order to grow my earnings by 10% a year when you include rental increases. Money has not given me happiness and never will. I live this life which I am not really proud of in order to achieve my ultimate goal. Which is to have a profound impact on the world. I would not trade my million to be a doctor, even if I know such an investment would be financial wise. Sometimes I envy the prestige, salary they make, and mostly the possibility of having both while saving/helping lives. However, I do not believe doctors help people at all. And in fact, partly because of their high salary, and partly because they have a direct interest in playing along with a band-aid health care system, are on the problem causing side of the scale when it comes to human equality and well being, not on the solution side.

I see professional day in and day out. I respect all those who genuinely love their job. They attend several seminars to further their education in my establishment and most genuinely work around the same hours as I do. They deserve every penny they make and then some especially seeing and hearing their stories on a daily basis.

The only issue I have with several doctors is that they are generally socially challenged for the most part. Luckily most of them are specialist and have very little need to talk to people thankfully. But A family doctor with no people skills deserves 10$ after tax.

As far as restaurant business income, it’s high to say the least, assuming your not 1 of the thousands that fail day in and day out for those who think it’s easy.

Do what you love in the end. I respect all those who do. But those working for the public who are unable to have a “human” conversation should not be doctors just because they can regurgitate useless undergrad information just as I did for Biology for 4 years or university.

Do you ever wonder why North American doctors (the U.S. especially) have such high salaries?

Doctors in Japan earn about 1/3 less than American doctors on average ($15,000 a month for Americans), have longer work hours, and arguably the same quality of education. And what about a doctor from an undeveloped nation, like Kenya? Forget about it.

So what’s the secret to the success of American doctors? Let’s just say, that it’s a kind of safety net. The creation of organizations, such as the American Medical Association, ensure that doctors will always be a profession in demand, and that it will entail lucrative pay.

Have you ever wondered why there always seems to be a shortage of doctors? It’s not from the lack of people interested in medicine, it’s simply a limit created by the AMA to always keep doctors in high demand. And the less doctors, the more likely people are to have some affliction. And bottlenecking an essential service is the best business tactic one can use- but definitely not for the customer.

But how do they set the limit? That’s easy- they make everything hard. Medicine inherently is not an attractive career option- not very many people have the commitment, dedication, or passion for such a calling. That’s when they have to sell M.Ds, by creating strict admission guidelines, expensive tuition costs, and limited seating for medical schools. Things like the mcat are introduced to add further pressure to would-be applicants, and more coin for the organisation’s wallets. Application is an expensive process! Suddenly, medicine becomes prestigious. The debt is only a temporary issue- as soon as a newly-licensed doctor starts to roll in the big bucks, their debt is slowly cleared. It’s like a wholesome pyramid scheme!

Most other countries, by comparison, treat medicine as a trade, and not as an elite position of which you can have incredible influence. No, just another cog in the health care machine. And that is the blunt reality of medicine- being a doctor is a kind of trade, you apply contemporary science to find a practical solution to a person’s problem. Theorizing and solving mysteries is left to the drawing board. Isn’t it funny how people who were doctors in other countries end up driving taxi cabs in North America? Do you think that the AMA hands out licenses by the bundle, just to solve the doctor shortage issue in America? Fat chance. The situation isn’t going to get better, the amount of doctors are only increased to reflect population changes, nothing more.

Add to that, the intimate relationships with the pharmaceutical companies, and other questionable industry, and you’ve got a match made in corporate heaven. Doctors get all sorts of neat things from these companies, only if they play by their rules. And they can only play by their rules, otherwise, the doctor’s licenses go through the shredder and they are out on the street with nothing but their stethoscopes. Drug safety, ethics… Who cares, when it comes to money.

So what do we do about this? I’m not sure, I’m afraid. It’s clear that the doctor shortage isn’t going away anytime soon. To people who hope to get into medical school, but probably aren’t in the best situation now: slow down. There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with becoming a doctor, and going in head first will make you another brick in the wall. There is so much to consider, that we must take a cautious approach to such things.

As to the issue of doctor salaries… Let’s just say I’ve never heard of a doctor who has up to their neck in debt, unless they were really bad doctors. There is always more money available for doctors- such as becoming a shill for a drug company or some ‘health’ product.

Without the high prestige we have for doctors, they wouldn’t earn as much. I’m sure doctors deserve quite a bit of compensation for their work and sacrifice. But in this case, I doubt the Hippocratic oath would condone making money at the expense of others.

You really have to be an idiot to spend 5-6 years in medical school + intense pre – medical school preparation + 4 to 8 years of residency & fellowship + huge debt + stress full lifestyle with thinking of earning higher then other professions. There are so many other ways of making decent money but this is what distinguishes a physician from others … to help the sick and save lives.

Now I am a general surgery trainee in USA and I have full right of complaining about compensation in general surgery when you compare it to the long working hours, poor quality of life and law suits on top of that but then i tell myself that I choose to do what I am doing and I knew very well how my life is going to be.

For me the most frustrating thing is the difference in compensation between different specialties and sub specialties in Medicine and Surgery. I could not believe my eyes when i saw that for a heart transplant a CT surgeon is making 4000 $ including post op ICU / floor care and fup visits upto 90 days (yes this is what a CT surgeon makes !!! ). Now compare that to fixing 2 hip joints or even putting 2 Laparoscopic gastric band procedures (obesity surgery). These are going to be compensated the same as a heart transplant with probably 1/3 the stress, time and complexity. Also compare that Orthopods and interventional radiologists are making the same (around 400K-600K) so do poor psychiatrists / pediatricians and anesthesia NURSES in USA (130-160 K) which i think is insane.

My point is people complain when they feel being exploited. There is so much discrimination in salary with in medical specialties and sub specialties let alone medicine and other professions.

Bottom line is
1. Do you home work before choosing a profession and once you are in that profession stop complaining.
2. Govt should take steps for decreasing the discrimination in compensation between professions and with in a profession because insurance companies will not.
3. Stay happy with what you do and earn. Money has no limit neither does it gives you happiness.

All the best.