You’ve finally finished your medical residency, and now is the time when your life should start to feel settled. But instead of feeling settled, weird things are happening.

You have the degree and the title, sure. You also have a real salary. And yet, you’re still living in a place you don’t know whether you’ll keep or get rid of, and working hours make it impossible to have a normal routine. 

And if you decide to move, where do you go? A house? What if your next move happens because of another job or a fellowship?

It’s not like you finish school and start working when you’re a doctor. There are stages you need to go through, and each one can turn your life upside down. And as for feeling settled – that means different things to different people. 

Someone feels settled right after they’re done with training, and for someone else, that can take years.

Training Can Keep Life Temporary for Years

Every time you feel like you’re at a finish line, it ends up feeling temporary. Medicine is funny like that.

You’re done with medical school, but now you have residency. Then you get through residency, but maybe there’s a fellowship next. Then you FINALLY land your first real job, and you still have no idea whether you’ll be in the same city 3 years from now.

That uncertainty isn’t exactly what you’d call “fun”.

You don’t think of buying a home during medical school because not only can you not afford it, but it also wouldn’t make sense because you don’t know where you’ll end up once residency starts. Although residency will give you a paycheck, it won’t give you a lot of freedom. Your schedule could be all over the place, and even if you were 100% sure that you’ll be in one city for a few years, you might leave as soon as you’re done with training.

And let’s not forget fellowship. That could mean another move and another few years of “I’ll figure it out later.”

The truth is, doctors look settled on paper, but in practice, their life can feel temporary for a long time. 

Your income’s solid, and your job is very respected, but you’re still renting and putting off big purchases.

What Has to Settle After Training

Once you’re done with training, you’re done with a big chink of work, and you’re a lot closer to getting your life in order.

Still, you’re not exactly there yet. Here’s what has to become more predictable before that happens.

Where You’ll Live

Earning a good salary? Good for you, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ready to buy a home. Are you sure you’ll stay where you are now? What if you move because you get a better job or because of your partner? 

Renting can make more sense for a long time.

Also, your finances are probably pretty unusual at this point.

Your earning potential could be strong, but you may also have a good deal of student debt and not a lot of (if any) savings. 

If owning a home feels like the right next step, licensed medical physicians can look into physician mortgage research and lender matching to learn about your mortgage options specifically available to eligible medical physicians and connect with third-party lenders. 

Eligibility, loan terms, and approval all are determined by those types of lenders.

Whether Your Paycheck Feels Like Financial Stability

Compared with residency, your first attending paycheck will probably seem huge. But does that mean that life will start to feel easy all of a sudden? Heck no.

A lot of your expenses that were delayed during training will all show up at the same time, like student loans, insurance, replacing some things you’ve needed to buy for years, retirement savings, etc.

To be clear, that jump in income certainly helps, but it doesn’t mean you’ll have a lot of breathing room yet. For most people, true financial stability comes a little later.

Whether Your Schedule Becomes Predictable

When you’re a doctor, your schedule is unpredictable, and even when you’re done with residency, you shouldn’t expect normal working hours. Depending on the specialty, you could still be dealing with being on call, nights, weekends, emergencies, admin work, and incredibly long days. 

You’ll get a better sense of what your normal schedule will look like over time, but until that happens, you’ll probably have a really hard time with plans.

Conclusion

At some point, you’ll start to feel like you can relax a little because your life will become more predictable, but it’ll be a while before that happens. When you become a doctor, what you get is a career. But stability? You’ll need to wait a bit for that. 

For most people, that comes later, once they know where they’re staying and what a normal week in their life will look like.

So, if your life feels temporary and you’re done with your training, you should know that that’s completely normal.

2 Interlinking Opportunities:

From https://basicmedicalkey.com/so-you-want-to-get-a-job/ with anchor looking for a job

From https://basicmedicalkey.com/balancing-clinical-training-and-financial-responsibilities/ with anchor future stability

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