<prompt> Human: Im 31 and just finished a PhD in Engineering. Due to student loans from undergrad and grad school I have 95K in student loans and no house, savings or retirement. Talking to friends who went into engineering right out of undergrad, they have 200-300K in their retirement and 30-40K saved up in cash savings. Can I recover from this deficit? I feel like grad school really set me back financially compared to my peers who just went to work right away.  <response>: PhD in engineering easily makes 100k right?Contribute max to 401k each year and you still make 80k pretax.You can easily live off less than half of that. Pay off your loans and retire by your mid 50s. 