By Rui Bouça, Guest Writer
As I sit to write my journey and financial history as a retired economist and a current medical student, I ponder how to start this essay properly. How can I engage with you so that you don’t feel compelled to drift away into the dopamine world of smartphones and easy access to virtually anything that offers instant pleasure?
Let me start by saying I have a unique tale to tell.
First, let’s talk numbers so you can follow along on my journey and see the big picture crystal clear. In Portugal, where I live and work, the average income is 1,361 euros per month. As we get paid 14 months out of the year (these represent vacation and Christmas bonuses that workers receive), this amounts to €19,054 yearly (around $20,300 in US dollars, as of this writing). As you can tell, this is very far from the kind of money you can make in big countries like the US.
However, the cost of living is also cheaper. You can rent a place in the major Portuguese cities (Oporto and Lisbon) for less than €700 (euros) a month. If you only rent a room, you can pay as little as €250 monthly.
How Much Do Doctors Make in Portugal?
If you think this is different, wait until you realize how little doctors make. In Portugal, doctors are in a completely different ball league compared to American physician compensation. An average doctor earns less than €3,000 monthly here. This totals €42,000 annually (about $45,000). The highest a doctor can earn in the public sector (where most doctors work) is around €72,000 annually.
In Portugal, if you want to be rich, choose another career.
Now that we have established some common ground, let me introduce myself. My name is Rui Bouça, and I am a 26-year-old freelance writer and medical student from Portugal. I have wanted to be a doctor since I was 14 years old (not for financial reasons, as you can probably tell by now). In my country, when you are 18, you must choose your desired course, depending on your grades. In Portugal, you go to medical school right after high school. Despite knowing that, I did not study hard enough and did not manage to enter medical school when high school was over.
With a tricky decision in front of me, I chose what I thought would give me the most freedom: being an economist. Why is that? Well, economics is a vast subject derived from philosophy (aren’t they all?). Economics focuses on human behavior toward decision-making. Besides this, economists who work in the banking sector can make a lot of money in Portugal (around €100,000 yearly).
I enrolled in college without ever having studied economics and fell in love with it. Macroeconomics is in our everyday lives. Most people cannot stick to a budget because they lack basic microeconomics concepts. But as time passed, I knew I was approaching a hard decision. I had to decide what to do with my life.
After finishing my bachelor’s and master’s in Economics, I was 23 years old. Fear began messing with my head. Having fantasized about being a doctor for so long, the idea of working in a 9-5 job and sitting behind a desk all day was scaring me. I feared that my work wouldn’t matter. Being a doctor was a very primitive desire because I wanted to help people—to change and save lives.
With nothing to lose and lots to gain, I joined the largest Portuguese bank to be an account manager. I managed wealthy investors and their businesses, incentivizing them to get more loans to earn commissions. This taught me valuable lessons on when not to accept loans. I saw major firms incur loans in terrible times.
The job itself was not exciting. We did the same repetitive stuff every day. In hindsight, what frightened me the most was seeing all those 50-something-year-olds stagnated in poorly paid jobs with no perspectives in life. How can you spend all your life without a purpose, without helping other people? How can you wake up every day knowing all you will do is call somebody to offer them money to buy new cars or improve the company’s installations?
The worst part was being part of the loan process. Although I merely watched and never effectively granted loans, I still felt dirty. Some people did not need loans, but the managers went with them anyway to earn commissions. At this point, the old dream of being a doctor started playing in my head again.
To me, this is what distinguishes a job in the health industry from any other job. You wake up every day knowing you can help someone. Yes, this won’t be all roses, and many health professionals are not very nice people. But you cannot take this away from me: they help.
More information here:
5 Financial Considerations for American Doctors Wishing to Live Abroad
Applying to Medical School in Portugal
With all these thoughts in my…
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