You can start here: I am a service provider in the finance industry, so I get to see people's financial details

Medical specialists really start with RM40k in the private industries; but they are akin to running a business within the hospital, so their income can fluctuate quite a bit. Currently I am doing a service for a specialist, she earns about RM20k plus in her first month in the private sector after about 15 years in the public sector, and hey highest in come so far is RM60k.
You are right, medical specialists really do make money. Those who do not have first-hand knowledge/experience should not talk nonsense they do not know about; I am at the forfront of people's finances, I know more about my clients' finances than their own spouses

Thanks for sharing. You are right, and I was surprised the person I was talking about only had a "masters".

Are there two pathways to specialization? Masters of medicine and.... Surgeon training? How does a doctor get to become a surgeon?

While this is true, it is perhaps oversimplification. I think what you are referring to is procedural specialties. Not necessary just surgical vs non-surgical.

If you offer a procedure, then your charges will naturally be higher per patient. If all you are interested is money, then choose a low risk specialty with common procedures and high volume.

For example.. dermatologist.. they do loads of things in their clinic, from aesthetic injections to skin biopsies for suspicious lesions. I can tell you there are dermatologist who earn huge amounts and don't have to deal with critical inpatients like the rest of us. They do their clinic and go home in the evenings. Good pathologist or radiologist is another one . can report slides from home. If you're good, the volume is crazy because everyone refers to you. Clinic based general ENT or urologist can also make loads without taking on heavy risky cases.

First of all it is very hard to enter private if you do not have the backing and credentials of your peers.

Secondly a fresh specialist who enters private will find it hard to survive bec aunty uncle go based on recommendations of friends, secondly if unsure, see the qualifications of the Dr (the longer the better with UK Ireland Glasgow Edinburgh) since the public wouldn't know his actual skills and management esp those tourists from Indonesia.

Third of TS family members wanna study medicine just don't. It is not worth it at current point of time and a waste of money.

Fourth internal medicine is the fastest route to becoming a specialist but so many tom dick and Harry owns the paper Mrcp and not many of them can do what the old time internists can do namely tubes insertion, echo, bone biopsy for hemato oncology.

Fifth it will take a long time to become a really great surgeon. For a surgeons value is his skills not his long list of qualifications (some surgeons are labelled oral surgeons bec tokok sing song but can't cut or poor results)

There are many fields out there can yield a faster return incl food industry. And medicine is not longer a guarantee.

U need to be in gov sector or in service while u pursue your postgrad, including the UK parallel papers.

how come my friend saw those clinic-only paediatrician , say he only earn like GP 15-20k .. meaning he doesnt hospitalize patients , just clinic

Don't worry. Most general doctors don't have the money to go for specialist course which usually cost more than RM 1 mil  . And also the time it takes to go through a specialist course which could take almost a decade. only rich kids can afford.

So u alrdy pass ah?
Got a lot of people enter already then halfway  through can't make it?

Then how old u graduated from master. Got people grad at 40 years old?