Do you think about retiring? Of course you do. It’s a goal we all think about years in advance.
In my experience, doctors often have a hard time doing it completely – not for financial reasons, but personal ones. Most of us became doctors because at some point we genuinely liked this sort of thing. (Was "to help people" somewhere on your personal statement? I thought so.) We spend 4-5 years in college to get into medical school, study obsessively through 4 years of medical school, spend anywhere from 3-7 additional years (or more) in training, and then go into practice. By the time we reach retirement age, who we are is so tightly ingrained with what we do that it’s hard to just walk away and separate them.
So, many of us don’t stop. We handle the end of our careers like we handle steroids: a slow, gradual taper. We decrease office hours over time, then shutter a practice, then locum tenens here and there, and finally spend maybe one-half day per week at a VA or community clinic.
My dad was a lawyer, and he was the same way. His office went from a big suite to a subleased room to a post office box. At the end of his life, his practice was down to 1-2 people whose wills or trusts he was still overseeing, but he never gave up his license or considered himself retired. Based on other attorneys I’ve met, I’d say that’s typical. I recently met a financial planner of roughly my age who told me she felt the same way. She thought she might decrease hours, but not shut down right away.
I guess this is a good thing. We all have to work, so it’s good to have a job you enjoy, even if it makes it hard to let go.
Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.