Money is not an endpoint. Wealth does not equal happiness. The endless pursuit of wealth will leave you empty, burned out, and wanting to poke your eyes out with a bicycle spoke.
As a radiologist your income is, to some degree, as high as you want it to be. Radiologist incomes vary from 100k to nearly one million per year(1). Your income is a trade off between your family, your hobbies, and how much you want to beat your head senseless every day doing ultrasounds and reading cases.
Many radiologists fall into the trap of trying to maximize their income without first defining how much is enough. If you define “enough” as “as much as possible” you are on the fast track to ruin.
Try it. Try starting the day with no endpoint. At the end of every day, you will read that extra case, give the green light to that extra ultrasound, or do that emergency study. Fail to do the extra work and you will have that empty feeling that you did not do enough that day. Slacker.
You will do great (and make serious bucks) for a few years. At some point, you will start resenting your clients. You will start charging exorbitant emergency fees to penalize your clients in an effort to do less work. You will ignore the small clients that helped you build your business. You may even start yelling at your clients because you are so frazzled you cannot take the 2 seconds to listen to them . Nonetheless, you wont stop because you do not have the capacity to know when to say when. Your goal is more so you do more, more, more. Always more. Slacker.
As an endpoint – more is not a destination. It is a recipe for disaster.
A better approach – pick a number and stick to it
A much better approach is to determine how much you need to make each day to reach your financial goals. I recommend working with a financial planner (2) to determine how much wealth you will need to accumulate to pay for college, pay off your loans, save for retirement, etc. Take that number and get an estimate of what you will need to make each year. (3)
Before you get too cocky with this life planning stuff, remember you never know when you will be hit by a bus and be left incontinent with a headache for a few weeks. You never know when your wife will leave you for the trainer at the local health club. You never know when someone will give you an injection and send you to the steps of the mental home. Do yourself a favor and pad your number by several thousand each year just in case life gets in the way of your plans.
Once you have your yearly number divide it by 260 (the number of work days in a year). You are not going to read films 7 days/week. Not for very long at least.
How to use your number:
Once you have that number, you are now able to approach your career in a healthy manner that will leave you fulfilled and satisfied at the end of each day.
- Now and only now can you negotiate your employment contracts. If you work backwards (e.g know your number then find a job) you will be in a much better position to know which jobs you can take to reach your goals. Too many radiologists take jobs then kick themselves because they cannot afford the things they want.
- You will know when you CAN stop working each day if you are paid per case. It is very different to get to the end of the day and say “well, I reached my number for the day. Ahh that feels good. Let me go see my family.” as opposed to “I know I read a lot of cases today but I should probably read a few more. If I do not read more, I will feel guilty. Did I read enough cases today? Sigh. This job never ends.”
- If you are among the radiologists who went into radiology looking for the “radiation vacation” finding your number will get you off your bum each day and force you to read those extra cases.
Your number, however, should not be used as a limiter. Hitting your number does not mean that you must ALWAYS stop working each day. You are certainly welcome to allow yourself to make more money and read more cases. My experience, however, is that when you read those extra cases you will be left with a feeling of satisfaction that you went above and beyond RATHER than resentment because you felt you had to read the cases because more is better.
I realize that telling you that you will be doing the same amount of work but with one approach you will feel accomplished and the other way you will feel empty does not make sense. It does. Trust me. Jedi mind trick.
Last thing
Although making money is always a good thing, it is highly recommended to place a high priority on other things in your life. On most days, once you reach your number, step away from the computer. The world will go on without you reading cases.
There is always the enticement of reading a few extra cases to make a few extra bucks. That is good every once in a while but over time, the stress of those cases each day will accumulate and be like a 50 pound sack of potatoes weighing you down. Those extra cases are where the resentment and burnout come from.
Once you reach your number each day – be done. It is OK if you feel fresh and ready to do more at the end of the day. You know you reached your number. You do not need to do any more. Be satisfied with that and go out and get some sun.