Anyone else a senior associate with a massive amount of student loan debt? I have the funds to pay a lot of it down but I just can’t pull the trigger because it’ll wipe out most of my assets (aside from my property) and I’m afraid of losing this job. I have federal loans on PAYE (or whatever it is now) so if I’m fired, I won’t owe anything (10% of $0 is $0).

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I don’t know how y’all live like this, I paid off my debt as fast as humanly possible

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1.8% is incredible

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No. I’m debt free. Not as many assets as I would like (only recently started investing), so hope that changes. Stupid AI is tempering my short term gains tho (and yes, I know it’s a long game lol).

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I bit the bullet early on and paid most of it off. Now I’m a 5th year with just $16k at 4%. My monthly payment is only $220, so I’m fine just paying the minimum. I could’ve made quite a bit if I had invested what I used to payoff most of my loans, but the peace of mind is worth it to me. The job can be unbearable at times, but knowing I have little debt makes it better.

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In this market don’t refinance anything below 5% if you have average risk appetite. If you tolerate risk do not refinance anything below 6%

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Yes. But went in-house recently and mapped out to plan to pay it off in 6 years

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I'm kinda/sorta in a similar position. Mid-level, started with $230K+ of law school debt. I've paid off $125K so far after putting repayments on the back burner to get married and buy a house, but should be able to knock out most of my remaining balance by the end of the year between monthly payments and bonus (my firm pays out at year-end). I could pay down a chunk of it now, but don't want to wipe out my cash reserves. Probably not a bad idea to start making payments in excess of your required payment to reduce the amount of money you're wasting on interest even if you're not ready to knock it all out. The student loan debt stresses me out, so it's been worth it for my sanity to focus on it again.

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You are 100% on a probability weighted basis, costing yourself a ton of money. If you're so concerned, can't you do a middle ground? Keep 50-100% of full year as-is expenses in a HYSA and dump the rest in the loans and see what remains and then from there make reasonable payments while you save and invest. It's not either or.

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I carry like 600k of debt as a 6th year including 2 rentals (one used to be my primary but I moved cities) and a car loan. No other debt.

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Yes - let it ride forever and be forgiven

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6th year with 160 finance at 4.5%. I opened a separate investment account earmarked as my student loan account and fund it with the extra that I would toss towards my loans. Long term I’m beating the rate and I’ve got compound vs simple interest working in my favor. If a day comes where I need to pull out of the investment account, I’ll have to get comfortable but it helps that the funds are held in a completely separate account.

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Yup. 😭

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Are you concerned you’re going to get fired? How realistic is that? If it’s not a serious concern but just a lingering fear, then I think the more important question would be how does your current debt load affect you? Is it a constant cloud that impacts your decisions? Does it make you feel you’re limited in any way? Or does it not really matter?
Some people can feel far wealthier with fewer assets and zero debt.

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I’m prioritizing saving and 401k. I pay interest plus an extra $500 month on my loans.

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4th year and have been on PAYE so basically just covering interest. I don’t really care too much though- I’m prioritizing saving $

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