Reply to If you took out six figure student loans for a professional degree, what was your strategy

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My spouse and I graduated into the recession (2010) with $250K law school loans, 5+% interest rates, and a pulled offer. We therefore were more risk averse than some others and focused on paying our loans down aggressively for 5+ years. Then focused on getting pregnant (worried about fertility) and saving for a down payment (tough with double daycare). That left us poised to buy in spring 2020 but then Covid happened and we waited a year to see whether we actually wanted to move out of the region to be closer to family. Ended up buying a house in the DMV in 2021. It’s worked out okay but if we had been less risk averse we likely would have gotten on the property ladder sooner which would have been much better for our net worth. I’m at peace with our approach but not sure I’d recommend to others.
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Say you finished law school in 2005, worked to pay loans down for 2 years, then said let's buy a house now before we are debt free.  So you spend $600K on a home in 2007, watch it go up in value for 1 year then watch the bottom drop out, so your home is only worth $300K and it takes another 7-8 years to be worth $600K again.  So in 2009 you have a home worth half what you paid for it, you still have at least half your loans, you are thinking of getting pregnant or have a kid already paying for daycare, no choice to move as you cannot sell your home, you would owe the bank if you wanted to move out.    
It's all about timing----for you you missed out on the years of increased home values.  But it just as easily could have been missing out on the bottom dropping out and you being so happy you were still renting and focused on reducing debt and not being underwater by 40-50% on your home.  [/quote]

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