When I first met my husband, he was tossing around the idea of going to law school.  He eventually decided not to, of course, as he wouldn’t be able to actually start his new career until he was nearly 40.  It was a good decision, especially since he was primarily thinking about it because he heard through the grapevine about how much a friend-of-a-friend makes as a lawyer.

Also I think owning one’s own practice is a scary thing, as there are lots of responsibilities connected with being self-sufficient.  You don’t have someone else paying you for sick time or personal leave, or handing out paid vacation days.  When you work you get paid, and when you don’t work you don’t get paid.

There are other professionals, such as doctors and dentists, that are in the same boat as far as owning their own practice.  That’s why there is something called long term disability insurance, which basically protects you from losing your income if you become ill or disabled for any amount of time.  Disability insurance for physician and lawyers sometimes even pays you full benefits even if you are able to do another job, just not your own; this type of disability insurance is known as “own occ” or own occupation disability insurance.  Dentist disability insurance works the same way.

Concerns like that in combination with all the other responsibility — paying for office space, employees, health insurance, etc. — can make becoming a lawyer or doctor seem awfully daunting!

As a doctor or lawyer, something as simple as tendonitis can interfere with your ability to generate income

Technorati Tags: dentist disability insurance, disability insurance for physician, law school, long term disability insurance