This may sound odd but I really don't understand all this talk about money. A surgeon friend once gave a talk to a highly academic private girls school and was depressed when almost all the questions were about income. She pointed out that surgeons were, to some extent, manual labourers. Though you could earn a decent amount it was restricted by the hours you were prepared to work. If you really wanted to make money you were better off in a profession (law, banking etc) where you could, when you were senior enough, benefit from the labour of others.
Most people, presumably, go into medicine because they want to treat people. (OK DD did know someone who from the get-go was very focussed on his ambition of specialising in private prostate surgery - apparently an area where labour reward ratio is particularly good.) There are all sorts of non monetary rewards, and so much more interesting than working in an office, or being a cleaner.
It is also worth noting that medical careers have longevity. On the central London private school run, the impact of an economic downturn is interesting. People over the age of 40 are worried. They might have been earning super-salaries but if they lose their job they will struggle to find another, even on a much reduced salary. Suddenly people start asking about careers in the public sector. Similarly an art teacher I knew, at about the same age, had old art school friends who had spent two decades as high flying advertising creatives ask her about moving into education. (And actually a surprising number of well paid graduate finance jobs can be "up or out". You work very long hours and then it you are not considered promotable after two or three years you are out.)
The same does not apply to doctors. As they get older and more senior consultants can end up interesting portfolio careers. Some teaching, some research, as well as day to day work, whilst Thursday evening and Fridays private work pays the London mortgage, with a gold plated pension to look forward to. If you don't feel like retiring at 60 there is always retire and return. Whilst those less interested in climbing the career ladder there is a lot more scope for flexible working, and for living in nice, relatively cheap, parts of the country.
Over the length of a career, especially if you factor in job satisfaction (assuming medicine was the right career for you) doctors earnings can really hold their own against supposedly better paid professions. Obviously if you decide at the outset you are hard done by, you may not realise it.