I literally went from #1 to #2 this past year after having finished all my endless medical training and starting practice.

Ok, I worked a lot more than 40 hours per week for most of my time in #1, but for the final 2 years at stage #1, was definitely at or even under 40hrs / week for about that amount of pay.

I think you're overestimating how much money you'll have available as option #1. $20/hr doesn't get you far at all, even as a single person. With a typical 8hr ish workday, that works out to about $32000-$36000 / year. If you're living at your parents' house, it becomes much more doable, but if not, you'll shell out at probably $10k+ in rent if you don't have a roommate.




IN addition, The two major costs you might be overlooking if you think this earning level is saving a LOT of money is:

- Retirement savings. Do you have a plan for retirement and an idea of how much money you will need, including health care? It's all fine and good as a 20 something living super frugally, but how do you plan on living when you get old enough that you have limited mobility, and ever increasing health care and medical costs which are unlikely to be readily covered by the gov't?
- Do you plan on having kids? Lots of 20somethings say hell no, never! but change their mind once their older. Life is very different with a family - $36k/year is really scraping rock bottom for a family of 3, and as 4, nearly qualifies for food stamps.
- Planning on buying a house? Be prepared to save for a LONG time at that income level to make the downpayment. You'll also be priced out of nearly all communities with a good public school district (these tend to start minimum $200k, even in the cheapest communities like Rochester, NY.)

I can be as frugal as one gets, having lived at very low income levels for 15 years, or nearly all of my adult life thus far. I managed to save money, but I wouldn't say it was easy - I had to watch costs on everything I did, and price usually was the determining factor for nearly everything I did or chose. Spending even $20 to go out for a dinner+movie alone was a serious cost, and if I doubled it for a date, it mentally hurt me.




Now that I've spent 1.5 years at #2, for me at least, I would absolutely choose #2. Mainly for the long-term security sake. Yes, you'll likely burn out if it's a 80hr-wk high pressure job, but you would make so much in 2 years that it makes #1 look like a joke. As well, if you have the skills to actually get hired anywhere even for a short period of time at #2, you'll have a skillset that will be marketable enough to find a job at less money, somewhere in the world. Whereas the skillset of #1 is usually low-level enough that if you lose your job, you'll be out of ANY work for quite awhile.

I'll be honest - I could definitely make #1 work if it was just me, and all about me, and be totally happy with my simple, frugal life. However, I got married and just had a kid 2 years ago, and if anything, wow I'm glad I make good money now. I knew this before going to #2, but I can't even imagine bringing up my child on a family income of <$60k/yr, and that's excluding all luxuries and pricey options. Once the family is involved, all of a sudden you can't just live in a shack in the crappy part of town - the houses that are family-friendly are usually pretty expensive, and if you're in a urban or nice area, think insanely expensive.

No contest for me, having done both. #2 all the way. Even if #2's income level was $100k, it would still be a no-brainer #2. (I'd set my #2 pay limit at $60k, or roughly 2x the pay of #1 for me to start even to seriously reconsider doing#1, even as a single person.)

(Of note, even with my current income level which actually gives a significant amount of 'disposable', I have to play catch-up for the last 10 years of lost wages due to training, so all that disposable goes right to catch up retirement savings and emergency fund. So at least for the next decade, it's not really disposable. I still ride an entry level $650 road bike, and don't plan on upgrading it even though I ride pretty seriously.)