Large Student Debt vs REI

[Ali Dawood]

So this is my dilemma: I have no money at all right now since I'm a full-time dental student living off of student loans, so at this time I'm in no rush to start investing. I'm just trying to learn everything I can. Next summer when I graduate, I'll happily take my diploma and grudgingly begin paying off my ~$450K worth of student loans (and that's JUST FOR ME, my fiancé will add on another ~$450K the following summer since she's also a dental student). Please don't comment on the ridiculousness of the student loans -- I already lose sleep about it.. BUT I try to keep a positive attitude about it since I know our combined income potential. Plus there are programs to help us with payments, such as IBR (income based repayment). With IBR (which we'll probably start with), our estimated monthly repayment is a little under $3000/month combined for 25 years vs the standard plan of ~$11,000/month combined for 10 years.

I'm assuming that we'll both make between $200-300K combined our first 1-2 years working for another dental office (private, corporate, etc) until we pick up our speed and earn more. Most associate dentists are paid between 24-33% of production per year, so the faster we can complete procedures, the more we can get done in a day, and the more we'll get paid. If we make the low end of that ($200K), we'll be able to pay the ~$3000/month loan repayment, pay whatever our expenses for the month will be, and should have some income left over.

For that excess income, would it be smarter for us to save it for potential RE investing, or add it towards our student loan repayment?

I'm hoping to build a RE portfolio of various properties with passive income to help offset (if not simply pay) for our student loan debt, and eventually be a secondary cash flow. I know it won't happen overnight; it's a process and it will take time. Also, the interest rates range from 5.41%-7.9% for the loans. The interest rates dropped (thank God!) this past summer so we technically have 4 different loans, each with a different rate.

Any opinions/suggestions would be greatly appreciated, and I'm sorry for the long post! Thanks!

[Steve Hyduchak]

Interesting thread. I wish you the best of luck in paying off those loans as fast as
Possible and having a happy and successful life. I like you were told to go to school and get an education... "It will give me a more comfortable life, yadda yadda." In a first year law student now and am packing my bags and finishing the year and getting out. Luckily I only have 50k in loans from undergrad and law school combined. But it's sad that we are put into a system that doesn't equal the reward anymore. Imagine going into an Audi dealer and wanted a 100k vehicle in our current situation.... They would laugh! But they give us all these graduate loans at a high interest rate that accrues since disbursement now, scary stuff. It's funny that all doctors and lawyers tell us not to go to med school or law school, I thought I'd be different and make it but it's just a burden of debt to my life and I have lost sleep already like you said about it. My friends are working "unpaid internships" all summer so they won't even make money.. Just live off more loans. It really disgusts me.

Anyway I wish you the best of luck and hope you tackle that debt and start your life! God bless and take care