<prompt> Human: I am currently applying to law schools with a desired start date of Fall 2016. I currently work full time and I am married. I would like some advice on how best to handle our current debts and income to prepare us for me going to law school.Monthly Income after tax: Me: 4250 Wife: 2960Mortgage: 49,900, 3, Monthly Payment including escrow: 740 this will be reduced to 710 in February when PMI will be taken awayCar Loans: Me: 10,950, 3.11, 200 monthly payment Wife: 6530, 2.59, 180 monthly paymentCredit Card: 8440 balance, 2.9 interest until January 1, then 9.9, 169 minimum paymentNote that this credit card debt was originally a 20,000 7.5 parent PLUS student loan that I transferred to a credit card due to the lower interest, and not a result of over spending.Student Loans: Me: Loan 1: 2035, 6.8, 63.30 monthly Loan 2: 2350, 6, 56.55 monthly Loan 3: 6720, 5, 159.10 monthly Wife: Loan 1: 1870, 52.20 monthly Loan 2: 1380, 30.45 monthly Loan 3: 1290, 30.78 monthly Loan 4: 1250, 30.78 monthlyMedical debt: 560, 0, 32 monthly. This will be increasing due to a couple recent emergency room and surgeon visits.401k: Me: 52500 Wife: 37800Mutual Funds: 5900 Savings: 12,000Regular Monthly expenditures:Phones: 137Electric: 120Home Gas: 60Watersewage: 60Garbage: 20Groceries: 200Cableinternet: 71Gasoline: 75Various monthly subscriptions: 30Car Insurance: 132Health insurance is currently taken out before we get our paychecks. If I quit, me joining my wifes health plan will be an additional 100 - 150 a month.Total current monthly expenses including loans: 2669Total current monthly expenses without student loans: 2027We typically do a weekend trip once a month, eat out at restaurants occasionally, purchase non-required things, etc, which we are now trying to minimize. Currently, I am not certain how exactly I will be going to law school. I may be quitting my job and going full time, I may work full time and go to school part time, I may try to continue working part-time if they allow me to while going to school full time. I may also quit, go full time, and start online tutoring to make some money while in law school. I have college degrees in mathematics and nuclear engineering, which I believe would help me get an online tutoring job without too much difficulty. I also may go to law school in my current city, or go to a better law school outside my city, which would require me to pay for additional housing. Either way, my wife will continue working and living in my current city. I think I have a decent shot at full scholarships to the local schools, and a good shot for partial scholarships at distant, better schools.Overall, there is a great amount of uncertainty in how my finances will be. To add to it, my wife and I will likely have a child at some point while I am in law school. Therefore, I am trying to gauge what is the best approach as we prepare for law school.As can be seen by the above information, we can get by on just my wifes income if I quit, especially once all of the student loans are paid off, which could easily occur before I start law school.Right now, the main priority is to have the credit card paid off before January 1st. After that, I am uncertain. One idea was to just start saving as much as possible. However, in terms of need based financial aid, it seems law schools will assume any amount of savings you currently have will go towards the payment of tuition. So the more I save, the less financial aid I may be offered. Therefore, since we could build back up our savings within three months, would it be better to greatly reduce our savings, and just throw it all towards our debts, at least until I get through all of the financial aid package aspects of law school?Since my student loans are subsidized, should I just pay the minimum on them and let them go into deferment while I am in law school so that we can concentrate on our other debts? It seems financially, it may be better to pay off a car to reduce the monthly required payments than to have my student loans paid off, despite the car having a lower interest rate.Should I cash in all of the mutual funds? Would using some of my 401k if necessary to pay for law school be a bad idea? My understanding is that I can withdraw from my 401k for schooling without paying the early withdraw penalty, although I would have to pay income tax.Should we maximize our 401k contributions, which would still allow us to be saving money, but making the savings unavailable to be taken into account for need based financial aid consideration?Is there anything else I should be considering?  <response>: 1. Look to schools you want to attend and look at their financial aid assessments. For my school, not only are my grants reduced, but Im also not awarded loans for assets. My school expected full liquidation of my stocks and to contribute about 13 of my assets for each year, so my student budget was reduced by that amount. Retirement assets also counted at 50. Spousal assets counted. Spousal income counted during the summer. So, in order to best prepare yourself, you should look at specific assessments for the schools. Also look to see how having a child will change things e.g., my school increases the student budget. Its probably best to put all your money toward your debts instead of savings at this point, but this will depend on the fin. aid assessments.2. The saving grace is that your science background will lead you directly to IP law. which is in pretty high demand. Honestly, I wouldnt go to a non-T14 school unless you are willing to do IP law. Definitely get some IP exposure before you commit to going to law school. 3. Unless you get into a T14, dont move away, unless this results in a real-COL-adjusted-raise for your wife4. Unless you get into a T3, dont pay full price.EDIT:OP, I also want to point out that I hope you know that to make more than 50K with a law degree, its highly likely you will have to put in 70 hours a week, guaranteed at a big law firm. 