Love, Money & Relationships

New Doctor is Burned Out But Broke. Is Quitting the Answer?

One of my side-hustles is writing the Pay Dirt column for Slate Magazine. This question ran about a year ago. I thought my Substack readers would enjoy it.

Dear Pay Dirt,

My wife is in her first year as an attending physician and is absolutely burned out. She wants to quit and find a part-time position that would likely pay her around $100,000 less per year. We have a 3-year-old and recently bought a house in a high cost of living area based on the assumption that she’d be working full-time. We barely have savings after her eight years as an underpaid medical student and resident.

I want to support her choices, but I also know we can’t make up $100,000 just by cutting back on Starbucks. We would have to make life-altering changes to stay afloat financially. We fight whenever I bring it up. She gets upset when I talk about the trade-offs, and I get frustrated when she refuses to consider them. How should we approach this problem? What can I do differently?

—Bad News Bearer

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