If you do the appropriate research, and have a good understanding of what factors may likely lead to continued appreciation, that gamble seems like less of a true coin toss.

@Jesse HouserFor me - it was simply a matter of Control.I can live and also more importantly learn from my mistakes and directly benefit from making the right decisions.I do invest in stocks and bonds, and even in silver coins (as hedge).

That 25% pay bump from moving to the Bay Area might get them to the $1.125m price point (it's not really linear like that, but good enough for our purposes), but it's a coin toss if they will accept $1.125m as their buying power, or rent a really nice house from a landlord that doesn't calculate DTI ("gross income > 3x rent" gets you a LOT farther than DTI would get you, if you have a zillion dollars in student loan debt).That's a broad brush and there are a lot of doctors NOT described by that, to be certain.

Buy value-ad distressed Properties and HOLD (Multifamily preferred)Hard Money Lend to Wholesalers/RehabbersBuy stocksMine Crypto-currencies

No one knows whats going to happen beyond the flip of a coin and everyone's goals and risk tolerance is different.

But the other side to that coin is be sure you're interpreting the dream correctly

First, you’ve gotta drop a lot of coin.

No, people are not going to start carrying pockets full of gold coins to transact business.But, from this point forward, the way a real estate investor operates must change.

Then, in 1792 the first mint was created to produce federally uniform coins.

If I want to account for risk that I can't quantify, I do it qualitatively, as -- by definition -- I've already determined that I can't quantify it.NPV and IRR are just two sides to the same coin.