The hidden financial costs of each specialty
Marriage and the partner that you choose has probably the largest impact on your financial wellbeing and prediction of your future wealth.
Divorce could easily cut your nest egg in half.
Does anyone take into account their personal or partner’s specialty choice into the decision for marriage, especially knowing that psychiatrists are the very highest risk?
In one study, psychiatrists had a 50% likelihood of being divorced, surgeons had a 33% likelihood of being divorced, and specialties like internal medicine, pediatrics, and pathology has a divorce rate of around 22–24%.
Note that psychiatrists work among the fewest hours of all physicians, so it is somewhat unclear as to why a staggeringly higher rate of divorce was found.
One study suggested that the likelihood of a physician ever being divorced is 24.3% (with female physicians experiencing significantly higher odds of divorcing than male physicians).
In that study:
Adjusted odds ratios (95% CI) of divorce for male physicians: 1
Adjusted odds ratios (95% CI) of divorce for female physicians: 1.51 (1.40 to 1.63)
Estimates on marriage satisfaction: 63% of male physicians report high marital satisfaction while only 45% of female physicians report high marital satisfaction.
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