Would you care to see the list of “professional” degrees:

You’re right, some people do. They’re the senior partners at law firms or senior attendings. If you’re lower than that, you don’t get the benefit.

Yeah... that’s not going to happen. My wife cannot tell anyone “no” at the hospital. If she does, people can literally die.

I define success by not having to worry about money, ever. As a tax attorney married to a neurologist, money is literally one of the least of our concerns. That’s how I define success. Anything less than that may be something, but it’s not successful in my book.

Then you’re not a professional, plain and simple. You may be something, but not a professional.

If you work for a labor organization, your organization probably has rules similar to union type rules. Even my law firm, whose clients are mostly union, has some of those kinds of things. Absolutely none that relate to hours.

I am a professional who is a tax attorney married to a neurologist.

No, salaried professionals do not get a lunch break. We get time to eat lunch when we have time to squeeze it in. That means, eating at your desk while looking through some email or doing some other work.

Obviously this is not geared towards professionals.

Well, Social Security, for my age bracket, is at 68. That’s much longer than most trades guys are working. So, I don’t think Social Security will adapt a profession-based structure. Though, it would likely save money.

But here’s the thing, our lifespan is longer. In the 1950s through 1970s, if you retired at age 65, how long did you have in retirement, on average? Maybe 10 years? Sure, there were some who lived much longer. There were also those who died the day they turned 65.

Most of the trades guys are union and are therefore typically have defined benefit or defined contribution pension plans. Under ERISA, a Normal Retirement Age below 55 is highly suspect and will likely be required to be increased. Between ages 55 and 62, you need to justify why it’s in that range (is this typical of…

Really? You think that an old person who’s living with their children has a massive inheritance? Most likely not.

I have a degree in finance, a JD and a Tax LLM, I calculated nearly every scenario regarding what would happen if one of us lost our income. Do you know what we did? Bought a house we could easily afford on our incomes without cosigners.

Excellent strawman. Let me address it.

What happens when whomever is the non-borrowing resident (I’d imagine a grandparent or aged parent) dies? Suddenly, several thousand a month in income could vanish.

I really only ever bring up actual numbers if I’m prompted. I’m very conscious about the fact that, together, my wife and I make probably 3 to 4 times more than 90% of my friends (of all my friends we still probably make at least twice as much as the next closest). So, I don’t ever want to come off as rubbing it in…

Probably wise to not become a lawyer post-2011. It took me graduating Magna from JD, #1 from LLM, published in a national tax journal, and 2 years of federal court clerking to land a decent (at the time) job at a mid-sized firm.

Wow, most times, as a tax lawyer, I get derision, or at best, a look of abject boredom.

I’m open if asked directly, but sometimes it’s really awkward. For example, my wife is a resident physician and makes, as all residents do, around $50,000 per year. She works horrific schedules and has more responsibilities than any one person should have. To anyone who knows a resident, they know the residents are…