[jonnathanson]

And that's to say nothing of big cities. $750k may be an outlier in Eastern MD, but it's not uncommon for specialists in NY or LA to clear $1M easily. True outliers can climb north of there.

Medicine is still an extremely reliable way to become everyday rich, if not outrageously so. It beats the pants off of corporate jobs, and it beats law on average (though law outliers tend to beat medicine outliers). It loses out to investment banking, but the lifestyle is far superior.

A smart person can do a lot worse than medicine.

[itmag]

I'm curious about those outliers. Are there any shared traits that can be identified?

[milesskorpen]

Most are likely specialist surgeons -- neurosurgeons and cardiothoracic surgeons and going to pull in big money. The trade off is a (really) long residency, of course.