Doctor, Pilot, and $1.2M Saved at 29 in Anchorage

Eric Chan is 29 years old, living in Anchorage, Alaska, training as a family medicine resident, moonlighting as a future Air Force flight surgeon, and quietly sitting on $1.2 million in savings and investments. That's a story worth unpacking.

Eric grew up in Texas with two loves: medicine and aviation. When he was going through medical school at The University of Texas at San Antonio, he stumbled onto the niche intersection of aerospace medicine — the discipline that keeps pilots and astronauts healthy and mission-ready. That discovery changed everything. When it came time to choose a residency, he didn't just look at prestige or pay. He looked for a program that aligned with where he wanted to go. That's how he and his wife Veronica ended up in Anchorage, at the Alaska Family Medicine Residency at Providence Alaska Medical Center. Cold winters. Big mountains. And a career path that most doctors don't even know exists.

The Income Picture

Eric brings in about $160,000 a year from two sources, and the split is genuinely interesting.

Residency salary: His work at Providence Alaska Medical Center pays around $76,000 per year. As a family medicine resident, his days are anything but routine — he rotates through hospital medicine, OB (yes, delivering babies), and pediatrics. A typical shift runs 6:30 AM to 5:30 PM, five to six days a week, plus night shifts. It's a grind, but that's residency.

Air Force Financial Assistance Program: This is the part most people won't have heard of. Eric receives about $84,000 a year from the U.S. Air Force through their Financial Assistance Program. Essentially, the Air Force pays a substantial annual grant plus a monthly stipend to medical residents who commit to serving after their training. For Eric, that means a three-year service commitment as a flight surgeon after residency wraps up. It's a trade — a generous one financially — and he went into it eyes wide open because it's exactly what he wanted to do anyway.

Combined, those two streams put him at roughly $160,000 a year while he's still technically a trainee. That's a rare position to be in.

Budgeting in Alaska: More Expensive Than You'd Think

Alaska isn't cheap. Eric is upfront about the fact that groceries, gas, and dining out all run about 15–20% higher than in the lower 48 states. That's a real cost-of-living premium that erodes purchasing power if you're not paying attention.

His and Veronica's biggest lever for managing this? Housing. They sublet a room in their landlord's home for $1,300 a month, which includes utilities and furnishings. That's an exceptional deal for Anchorage, and it keeps their fixed expenses low while they're in a temporary phase of life.

For groceries, they spend somewhere between $500 and $700 a month. They do what smart budgeters do: bulk buys at Costco for the staples, and Fred Meyer's for smaller, more flexible purchases. Gas runs $100–$200 a month, which sounds reasonable until you remember that Eric's commute to the hospital is only about five miles each way. Short drive, high gas prices — it more or less evens out.

Overall, it's a lean-but-comfortable setup for a couple in a high-cost state. Nothing extravagant, but nothing spartan either.

The $1.2 Million Portfolio — and How It Got There

This is the number that stops people in their tracks. Eric has about $1.2 million in savings and investment accounts at 29. How?

It starts with his mother. She was self-taught when it came to investing — tracked the stock market on her own, figured things out through curiosity and discipline — and she passed that education down to Eric. He started out picking individual stocks, the way a lot of young investors do when they first get excited about markets. Over time, he migrated toward a more conservative, diversified approach: ETFs and mutual funds that let compounding do the heavy lifting without the volatility of single-stock bets.

One piece of the puzzle that deserves special mention: his mother set up an education fund for him when he was a child. That fund had grown to nearly $146,000 by the time Eric was drawing on it — a powerful example of how time in the market, even with modest contributions, builds serious wealth.

Beyond the inherited head start, Eric made a personal commitment throughout his career to save roughly half of his income. That's not easy for anyone, let alone someone going through medical school and residency. But he stuck to it, and the results speak for themselves.

The Target: $2.5 Million and Financial Independence

Eric's goal isn't retirement — it's optionality. He wants to build a portfolio of $2.5 million, at which point a 4% annual withdrawal rate would generate roughly $100,000 a year in passive income. That's the classic FIRE math, and it's a solid foundation. It doesn't mean he stops working; it means he gets to choose the work he does. For someone going into a military career driven by passion rather than pure pay, having that safety net underneath you matters.

He's already more than halfway there at 29. With the Air Force income running for at least three more years, and the earning power of a fully licensed physician after that, the $2.5 million target is well within reach.

Life in Anchorage — and Why He Actually Loves It

Growing up in Texas, Eric didn't exactly have a lot of experience with deep snow and sub-zero temperatures. But he's embraced it. He talks about hiking and skiing as genuine pleasures, the kind of outdoor life that Anchorage makes available in ways that few cities can match.

There's also an aviation angle to living there that he clearly loves. His home sits near Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and several military bases. He's surrounded by the world that calls to him — planes overhead, military culture nearby, aerospace medicine as his professional North Star.

What Comes Next: Flight Surgeon, Korea, and Maybe NASA

After his residency at Providence Alaska Medical Center is complete, Eric's path is mapped out pretty concretely. He'll go through flight surgeon training at bases in Alabama, Ohio, and Washington state. From there, he'll be assigned to a squadron in South Korea, where he'll be responsible for the health and readiness of pilots and aircrews.

He knows the financial trade-off. As an Air Force physician, he'll likely earn about half of what he could make in civilian medicine. That's a real sacrifice, and he doesn't pretend otherwise. But this is the intersection of everything he cares about — aviation, medicine, service — and for him, the math works differently when you account for purpose.

The long-term dream? Becoming a NASA flight surgeon. It's a highly competitive, niche role, and Eric is building his career deliberately toward it. Not everyone who aims for it gets there, but few people set themselves up as methodically as he has.

Eventually, he and Veronica plan to settle back in Texas, closer to family, once the Air Force chapter is done. But for now, they're in Alaska, building something real — financially, professionally, and personally.

It's a good reminder that the highest-paying path and the most fulfilling path aren't always the same one. Sometimes the smartest financial move is the one that keeps you invested in your own life.