Paycheck

No matter how much money you've got, you can always use more.

By no means are Nathalie and I struggling to survive, but I look at my paycheck stub at the end of every two weeks and I wonder when I'm going to get to that point where I'm going to be able to make some decent money.

The common misconception is that doctors make lots of money. Yes, that's perhaps true after residency, but during residency, I make less per hour than the average dental hygienest ($15/hr). Or the average garbage collector ($14/hr). Or the average bus driver ($13/hr). Or even the average motion picture projectionist ($13/hr).

Motion picture projectionist?! Really?! I couldn't believe it either.

After taxes, the average resident physician brings home a whopping $10 an hour.

$10/hr? Sometimes, I wonder if I should have stayed in engineering, where I would make three times that working half the hours without the fear of malpractice suits and the responsibility of other people's lives. I should have listened to my dad.

[In the style of Napoleon Dynamite]: Friggin' idiot!



See how you rack up against other workers: National Compensation Survey