My wife is in her medical residency. She (we) have over $200k in student loan debt. Other than that, we have our mortgage and no other debt. That $200k looms over us at all times, it is an enormous amount of money. When she is practicing medicine in a private practice, she will be a high earner, but the amount she is mandated to pay on the loan will sky rocket. The process to get to a doctors salary takes about 12 years. Then, once she is practicing she will be paying off the debt for the first few years. So, that is over 15 years to wait before "living the good life," as they say. There is a misperception that doctors have "the good life." It's a really long and hard path. Eventually it leads to a fulfilling career with some nice monetary rewards but it takes a LONG time.