Bingo. Also, there is a nontrivial chance of going to med school but not getting into a residency program. And, residency is typically 4 years, not 3. In the case of my partner, she did undergrad (4) + post-bacc (2) + med school (4) + residency (4) + optional fellowship (3). So call it 12-17 years of training. Then, and only then, do you make a "starting doctor salary". But now you have hundreds of thousands in debt, interest payments, malpractice insurance, and, in some specialties, still insane hours.
If you're a doctor who is "doing it for the money", you have simply not understood the concept of opportunity cost. :)
I tried to err on the side of understating things (I found higher figures for cost estimates as well knowing residencies/fellowships could go a lot longer... and that was ignoring continuting education/certification/training and costs of running a practice). I think that people see the dollar figures for some specialist and make two errors: extrapolate it to all doctors and ignore the huge investment/risk to get there.
Congratulations to your partner (and you)! I for one still think its a noble and altruistic calling.
If you're a doctor who is "doing it for the money", you have simply not understood the concept of opportunity cost. :)