<prompt> Human: Hello PF, so my wife and I are graduating from school and our combined income will be anywhere from 250k-275k per year. I am 33 and she is 26. We will be living in the SE USA, so cost of living isnt high. I have never handled this kind of money and she has never either. So to start, we both have barely any money right now. I have 160k in student loan debt, she has nothing due to parental assistance. So I know we need to attack this loan debt, but we also need to save up an emergency fund and begin full 401k funding. We would also like to buy a decent house instead of throwing money away on rent. Any advice that anyone can give? I know I will possibly have to hire a financial advisor but I just want to know what I can do to at the start of our careers to get us off on the right path. Thank you.Edit: Im thinking our bi-weekly gross pay will be about 4,800 apiece. So to add the total up around 19k per month gross if we are making minimum 250k.  <response>: I know I will possibly have to hire a financial advisor Probably not, actually.Setting a budget is your first step - make sure you know how much you have to spend each month after your mandatory expenses are taken out of your paychecks. Building an emergency fund with 4-8 months of expenses is also a good idea. If your employers match any contributions to your 401k plans, contribute enough to get the match.After all thats taken care of, your discretionary income everything left over after your expenses should go into your loan with the highest interest rate. If you have multiple loans at the same high interest rate, knock out the smaller one first. Note that youll still be maintaining the minimum payments on all of your loans.Once your debt load is decreased you can start looking into a mortgage. You arent going to get a competitive rate with that large of a debt load. 