Originally Posted by Unregistered

There is always a financial opportunity cost with residency, at least for FM. The benefit of residency is of course the knowledge gained and the friendship made during residency, not just within FM, but with your other co-mos as you rotate through the hospital postings.
It is hard to put a financial value on mmed (if you pass it) or on clinical knowledge gained, or friendships made.

This is speaking from a FM r3 (yes I passed akt lol, even though I didn't expect to) exiting in July. I joined FM at pgy4 (IMG), so now I am pgy 7 (yeah so the financial opportunity cost quite painful, as I am free to leave for past 2.5 years once I got my full reg)

I do plan to leave after mmed in nov for private. (Some catching up to do with my peers financially so mentally prepared to slog for next 2-3 years then evaluate life again)

Hard to say if I really regret joining residency (prob only can answer that qn in 10-20 years time retrospectively). I actually confided with my preceptor before, who told me FM residency is 3 years of sacrifice, but knowledge gained and friendship could be valid for life. (Which I guess is true, even if we ultimately don't get the paper qualification, I e mmed)