<prompt> Human: I will be starting law school in the fall and with it comes a lot of debt. I am trying to be safe and expecting total of around 145K in loans to cover all tuition and cost of living. Upon starting school, I will have about 35K in savings, 30K in investments that can be immediately liquidated if needed, and 20K in retirement funds that I would rather not touch until I am old. I am wondering if this is a reasonable balance. I dont particularly enjoy the idea of my cash sitting around in a savings account with very little interest, but at the same time am concerned about maintaining an emergency fund for unexpected expenses. Should I be putting more into retirement investing right now? Should I find somewhere else to put my money?Thanks in advance for the advice  <response>: Dont focus on retirement and investments. You need money in an easily accessible form in case of unexpected investments and to reduce your total loans if possible. Ok. Now that I have answered you question, feel free not to read anything below.Your projected loans are very high. Unless you are going to a top tier T14 or top 14 school, I would seriously reconsider. And even then, unless it is one of the top 6 or so, the loan amount may not be worth it. Many schools offer grants or scholarships. Even in decent schools T14 or better, taking 6 figure debt is a risk. For not so good schools not T14, its almost always a bad decision possible exceptions for strong regional schools in the top 20 like UCLA, etc. Most people who go to law school dont make it to big law. Most law jobs other than big law dont pay enough to take 145k in loans. Even from a top tier school, big law is not guaranteed, and even if you make it to big law, you may hate it. Also, the legal field discriminates a lot based on the school you go to. This only really applies to clerkship, big law and the like. Small firms, other than some boutique ones, wont care too much. But in my firm, even the lower end top 10 schools were considered barely good enough. While you can get big law jobs from a top 50 or lower school, most new associates at top firms are almost exclusively from top 6-10 schools. Disclaimer: I am a lawyer. I graduated with 6 figure debt. I worked big law for many years and hated it. I paid off my loans, saved money, and then transitioned to a 50 hour a week job instead of a close to 100 hours a week job. If I were to do it again, I would have taken the top 10 school options I had with much less debt due to scholarships offered as I would not have been forced to spend years in big law just to pay off debt. 