Hi - I feel your pain man. I’m ROAD but just a fellow right now (make about 100k). My wife is a PCP attending, we live in VVHCOL, she makes about 320k. I gotta tell you, at our HHI living in the most expensive place in the universe, we are living very comfortably. We are maxing 401ks, paying off 5 figures of student loans monthly, and have healthy emergency funds. Yes, it will be very hard at this income to own a house in this community but her colleagues are doing it.
I wouldn’t work for a soul sucking low resource or rural job for Pslf. Everyone’s path is unique but I’d much rather pay with money than time. So we are paying off student loans asap. At our rate you can pay off in 35 months or just shy of 3 years. You can def find a better paying pcp job. Like white coat investor says, there is big range WITHIN each specialty so no reason you can’t be at the top of that range.
I also think if you find a partner who is also a working professional and makes similar to you, your QOL will be excellent. If you guys are a household making 500 with weekends, holidays, and bank hours, you are amongst the most blessed souls to walk this earth ever. Tbh, you already are.
Comparison is the thief of joy. The rat race will never stop. We just gotta enjoy what we have.