Same here. I am a programmer with a wife who is a doctor. It took her about 12 years after she started her practice before her total earnings surpassed mine.

One thing that rarely discussed in this kind of conversation is taxes. A doctor spends 12 years earning next to nothing and going into debt for training costs. Then the second they start making a real doctor salary, the IRS thinks they are 'rich'. They are taxed at the highest tax bracket even though it might take them another 10 years to surpass someone who was earning barely a six-figure salary the whole time.

If you spend 9 years earning nothing and then make $1M in your tenth year, you will pay much more taxes than someone earning $100K for 10 years (even though both earned a total of $1M over those 10 years).