Doctors are some of the wealthiest professionals around. In addition, they attain high job satisfaction from curing diseases and helping other people. Becoming a doctor results in great rewards, but getting there is also a long and arduous process.

Considerations

Doctors do not receive a standard salary. Their location, specialty, how long and how much they work affect the size of their income, according to Dr. Andrew Doan of MedRounds. In addition, doctors who own their practice tend to make more than those who work for someone else, but self-employed doctors must pay their own health insurance and fund their own retirement.

Salaries of Common Specialties

A general practitioner can expect to make about $137,119 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. General surgeons start out at around $228,839 per year. Anesthesiologists are some of the highest paid doctors around, making an average of $259,948.

Expert Insight

Doctors accrue an average of $140,000 in debt getting their medical degree, reports Dr. Doan. They also spend about 11 years year after high school getting their medical degree.

Fun Fact

As a whole, doctors' incomes place in the top 5 percent of all workers in the United States, reports Dr. Doan.

Potential

Physicians, and the entire health care industry, can expect the highest rate of job expansion out of all other industries from 2006 to 2016, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Source:

MedRounds.com; Doan, Andrew; How much do doctors and physicians make?; 2009

Bureau of Labor Statistics; Physicians and Surgeons