Good discussion and I generally agree that most folks are poorly paid right out of training, and the income potential goes up as a partner/ owner especially in areas that aren't as saturated, but often even in areas that are.
But one very important point- if you have to earn over $1 million vs $500,000 to be happy, then I feel real sorry for you. My life wouldn't be one iota better if I earned that much. I live way more comfortably than when I was making $180K right out of training but to tell you the truth I'm not that much happier.
Even as a practice owner, I earn way less than $500k. Guess I must be a *****. Funny thing is, when I see the folks that earn in the seven figures at our society meetings/ pharma dinners, they always look stressed and wonder how I manage to walk around with a big smile and take so much vacation. You gotta work to earn. There are no shortcuts in life. I've quoted on this thread before- Pinto did a study, no correlation between number of cases/ volume/ revenue and happiness. High correlation between income saved and happiness. I pretty much beat everyone in that number.
Frequently, but by no means always and not referring to anyone on this thread, the folks that earn seven figures are the ones that push femto/ multifocal IOLs unnecessarily on patients, or get a lot of Optometry referrals and don't even examine the patients before surgery. And frequently, but not always, the folks who make $1.2 million aren't happy because the next guy is making $1.25 mil.
I didn't go into medicine to work nonstop, nor take shortcuts or hawk stuff to patients to make more money than I need. Perfectly content here with my sub-$500K salary here. Sometimes it's fun to be "poor". Just saying.
Ophtho is a terrific field that is fun to do and pays reasonably well, but if you're a med student reading this and wants to earn the most, please find something else to do.