law of averages, my friend. i've met plenty of struggling entrepreneurs and traders who are dead-broke. but almost no poor lawyers/doctors.

So the bottom line is, if you want an almost certain way of living a comfortable lifestyle (read: BMW, Condo) in SG, law or medicine seems to be the way to go.

But if you're the kind who thrives on luck, then I agree, becoming a successful trader or a businessman would definitely be a lot more lucrative (read: Ferrari/Bentley, GCB) than law or medicine.

well said.

Many successful traders and businessmen, especially traders, would disagree with you. They will say it's due to their skills, acumen, intelligence, experience that they become successful. Some will go on to write books, give interviews and seminars to talk about their road to success... and make more money along the way. There are also a few who aren't even successful by any measure, and yet went ahead on the seminar circuit, and if they are lucky enough, there are idiots who willingly pay them to attend such seminars.

To be a lawyer or a doctor, you need above average grades so its not really about choosing your career, but your inate ability. Lawyers and doctors are not poor, but most are not rich either.

I think its more about how much risk you want to take. The doctors and lawyers that I observed becoming rich have largely been successful businessmen. They have taken the risk to go out on their own to start their own firms or clinics. Equivalently smart colleagues who stayed in hospitals or established law firms, have not become anywhere as rich. However, starting your own business involves risk, worry and affects your quality of life, particularly family life. So, its back to square one. If you want to sacrifice your quality of life for money, then head in that direction. Doesn't matter if you are lawyer, doctor, financier or hawker.

In fact, in finance, many become quite wealthy (like the wealthiest doctors and lawyers) without taking risk in starting their own business. They just work for global banks. Doctors and lawyers usually have to risk their own capital. Those in finance that take the risk to break away and start their own hedge funds often fail, but those who succeed like Tan Chong Koay of Phiem, can be worth hundreds of millions to billions, which is far greater than any doctor or lawyer that I know of.

Thanks for this! Do you have hard salary figures? Its difficult to find these without contacts in the industry (fyi I did try asking during my hospital attachments and the med student scolded me :( ) and the previous-lawyer poster guy was very vague on this.

Edit: I am 'elitejc'.

If you read the papers, you can see that entrepreneur doctor Susan Lim charged her patient from Brunei $20m and Teng Ngiek Lian of Target Asset Management was winding down his $2.7bn fund.

I know that locum GPs earn about $7-8K per month and GPs with group chains like Healthway earn about $10-12K pm all in.

hi, just curious what is the general consensus of definition of "rich"? how much $ a month, then will u be considered rich? (monetary sense im not talking about work-life balance etc here)

it seems to me that most of you do not consider lawyers and doctors to be rich. only comfortable. but the average lawyer/ doctor would rake in $10-$15k per month after 6 or 7 years of work. Plus their spouse who may/ may not be in the same profession, it adds up to quite a bit.

Is that not rich enough?

(sorry im just a student who does not have any idea of what working life and expenses is like. it would be great if anyone could clarify)

10-15k is the norm nowadays. 100-200k per month will make you rich.

100-200k per month is only well-off. 1-2 million per month will make you rich.