<prompt> Human: the good news is that its us md medical school debt so i have a pretty secure job looking ahead. im at that point in medical school were i really need to figure out my specialty. the only problem is that i want to be in one of the lowest paying specialties general pediatrics in one of the lowest paying areas of the country northeast. conservatively, i expect to be make about 135Kyear following 3 years of residency ill be making around 55Kyear for those three years.im 26 and my wife is a teacher. ive already decided not to do a residency in a major city which should help with COL expenses. im just concerned that i will never be able to pay that money off at that low of a salary. how much should i pay a month during my residency wife and i combined salary 100k?as much as i love general pediatrics, is it naive to think I can make that little with such a large amount of debt?  <response>: The key will be to live like youre both public school teachers and not like youre a doctor for about 5-6 years. If its a low paying area its probably also a low cost of living area, so I bet you could live a decent middle class lifestyle on 50,00 of that salary gross. Shove the other 50,000 towards the debt. You could probably knock off about 90,000 of that debt during your residency depending on how long it is. Then once you land that 135,000 a year job if you could probably allow a little bit of lifestyle inflation you earned it! but still pay of the rest of the debt within 3-5 years. 