Salary
Average Salary: $263,322
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $10,993,166
Ophthalmologists make a good living. The range is high because there are many different variables. Do you work in a big city, or a remote location? Do you want to work in a clinic, a hospital or a private practice? Do you want to be in business for yourself or work for others?
The range varies between $100k a year to as high as $800k, with the average typical salary falling between $250k and $300k (source).
You can specialize in things like LASIK surgery, which is more of a volume kind of an in-office procedure. It's still surgery, but it's done with a high powered laser machine and only takes about an hour and brings in about $4,000 per patient. If you're popular and book ten of these a day, that's $40,000 (source).
Kaching.
But don't forget, the IRS will probably take forty percent or more, depending on what state you live in. And there's expenses, like office and staff. And don't forget the electric bill, which must be a doozy to run a high powered laser machine.
Better? Worse? Better? Worse?
You'll also have to deal with the headache of finding patients who can pay for expensive surgeries.
And you've gotta pay back all of those student loans you had to take out for med school.
But if you're good, you'll always find work, and may even be in demand. You can also sub-specialize to make yourself more valuable, or focus on research you can do in addition to having clinic hours and performing surgeries.
Better? Worse? Better?