ZBL

Buy what you want, do your own math on what you can or cannot afford in terms of car cost and cost of debt. None of us can tell you one way or the other, as we all have different financial situations, some making more money than others before/during med school and residency. Bottom line is cars cost money, and a luxury car is not usually a “rational” decision, its a luxury decision - whether that matters at all depends on your finances. If you think you can support the carrying costs of a Porsche and are ok with it maybe not being the economical solution, then nothing any of us can say should change that.

You do as all great entrepreneurs have done: you take it upon yourself.

There’s no official certification. You hang a sign and call yourself a “skin expert” and that’s all ....and of course manage any complications that come along with it. Of note, if cosmetics is the primary thing you want, you could also just become a nurse since it’s all unregulated.

Not in FM, but of those I’d suspect sports med is the only one where your practice may focus exclusively on that niche area (and palliative, and maybe OB). Otherwise it is probably a mix of general practice and those other areas. Note GP derm is not a real thing - it’s a self-proclaimed title.

lol this thread is a joke. I wish you all the best.

In your previous career, did you need to pay 200K just to get through school? Did you have to be up at 3:30am running on zero food or sleep as you are making life and death decisions or physically intervening to save a life? Did you have to work Christmas, take 26h call q3 days, and regularly work 70-90h weeks? Just curious, because that's what a first year resident does. There's a reason doctors are paid well. You are quoting an AB earnings report as all-encompassing fact without really knowing where the data came from, why the data was collected to begin with, and what actually came of all of it, to say nothing about how much you may or may not know about what actually goes into physician billing, operating expenses, or how a practice is run etc. Also, no idea where you are getting the private earnings estimates since they are, you know, private.... and it seems you are assuming that if government billings are low, a physician's private billings must be huge? You are making a lot of data assumptions that are incorrect or unsubstantiated. Not going to argue these points any further than what I have here.

I will play the role of enabler: Med school is tough. You will make money later. Don’t underestimate the enjoyment of your youth, it disappears fast. Residency is hell, so play the part - get the Demon or Hellcat.

I’ll suggest a bit of a different idea. Instead of maxing out the TFSA, why not put in an amount you would be comfortable losing. If your education and living aspect is all taken care of, and it won’t affect any student loans or anything, then put a small amount in the TFSA, 5K, 10K, 20K etc - whatever you would be comfortable with should it go POOF, gone. Here’s why I say that: Investing is hard. It’s not as easy as read a book then put money in this stable ETF or mutual fund and sit back and relax for most people. You can read all the books in the world on investing, assessing company value, how to balance a portfolio etc but no resource in the world will teach you how to control yourself and your discipline if something suddenly tanks, or if it suddenly rockets, or if the entire market falls, or if that YOLO out of the money call just looks too good to pass up. Like medicine, investing is more about experience than simply reading how to do it. Also like medicine, you need to have a bit of a game plan going in and a bit of an algorithmic approach should things get crazy. In a market as volatile as ours is now, you can gain A LOT of experience in a short amount of time compared to say 2010-2019 where the only market direction was up. Therefore, I think using a small portion of the TFSA to practice investing is wise - better to do that now and make your mistakes with money you won’t miss compared to down the road when you are playing with staff-size dollars. Of course, the likelihood of your investment going to zero is probably near zero as long as you aren’t just straight up gambling on ridiculous calls or penny stocks.

No, you most certainly will not be a certified dermatologist going this route. The fellowship is non-accredited - the only way to board certification in derm is through a derm residency.

You do electives in ortho, be friendly and work hard on electives. That’s all. Ortho is not competitive in Canada. But I’d recommend exploring all options when you start med school before committing to any particular specialty. Often times clinical practice differs dramatically from pre-conceived ideas of what a given specialty is like on a day-to-day basis.

Probably not the best use of time as a med student, and unlikely to be very successful in this strategy. This is speculating, not investing.

2020 is a write off for most people in the world so unless you’re aiming for something very competitive, I’d take advantage of relaxing and doing whatever you want that’s not med school related, especially as M1.

The difference is that in IM 90% of your reading will be related to things you’ve at least heard of during medical school, whereas in derm 90% of your readings are on things you never knew existed.

IM and select IM subspecialties, surgery, peds, path...and a bit of derm in the first 2 years.

Suture practice isn’t suture practice until you have a surgeon and a fellow staring you down as you fumble through closing skin for the first time. So I wouldn’t bother for now.