What comes to your parents comes to you

I'd ask your sister to clarify what she means by healthcare being low and slow return of earnings. I don't know what it is like in Singapore, but here in the United States, healthcare, especially for senior citizens, is a growth industry. It depends on what part you go in. If you are a nurse's aide or an orderly, no, they don't make very much. But at other levels, you can make a pretty good living. Again, it depends on what your goals are and what you want in life.

I work in preclinical research which is considered part of the healthcare field. Due to confidentiality agreements I am not free to say what I make, but it is enough to support myself on my own. I don't make a lot of money but I am able to buy small luxuries from time to time. I get enough to eat (maybe too much!) and people tell me that I wear nice clothes. Yes, I wish I made more, especially in this matter of trying to buy a house. All the decent houses around here are twice the amount that I can afford to pay--but those are the ones being foreclosed on the most precisely because the banks and real estate companies encouraged people to spend more than they could realistically afford and now all these houses are sitting empty because nobody can afford to buy them. But the banks won't lower the price so that people can! So it looks like I will have to stay where I am a bit longer.

I'd say if you feel that you would have a better fit in healthcare, go check it out. Sometimes it is better to make a little less and be happy than make a lot and be miserable--at least that's what I have been told. I don't have any experience in being rich and miserable so I can't tell you if that is true. I do know that being poor or lower income isn't much fun. I don't fit in where I live because I am too well educated and come from a better background than many of my neighbors who are poor and have a lot of problems because of their poverty (or are they poor because they have a lot of problems?). Having seen poverty first hand I can say that it sucks and anyone who tells you different is lying and a fool.

Thank you.

My sister referred to stock equity, because pharmaceutical stocks have lesser returns than the market in general - but in the long run, there're definitely lots of resources pumped into healthcare. Thing is, how much?