<prompt> Human: Hi PF,Im a 26 year-old recent law grad. Decent salary 160k before bonuses with 10-20k increases annually. Not the best job security in the world, but relatively safe for 7-8 years. About 160k in student loans split between 6.9 7.9, with the majority being the latter higher rate. No other debt, but no savings or retirement accounts either. Own my car which will be good for another 5 years.From what I gather from lurking, the conventional wisdom for people recent grads seems to be 1 build emergency funds 2 max feasible retirement contributions and 3 use all other income to pay down the student loan debt ASAP. But does that logic hold if your express purpose in buying a house is to earn supplemental income from renters i.e. Buying more house than you need, but can afford, and renting out the additional space to renters.Im interested in a new development being built walking distance to a major university and a public transportation hub. The house would be about 450k, but would yield 2,100-2,800 in rental income monthly know someone with a rental property very near the area doing this exact thing, this is a realistic estimate making the residual mortgage very manageable. I figure once I have the house and renters and Im building equity, I can commence with operation throw entire paychecks at Sallie Mae.To me, having renters seems like a fantastic way to supplement my income and I dont really see the downside, especially considering Ill be living in my office for the foreseeable future. Im pretty confident Id qualify for the mortgage with my income and credit score, but will of course need a down payment to make it work. And that means minimums on student loans for awhile. And that seems to be roundly abhorred here.So am I naive for thinking that the potential to earn rental income build equity as opposed to renting is worth a 9-12 month delay before earnestly trying to eliminate my loans?Can someone financially literate explain to me why Im being dumb for questioning the conventional wisdom? Thanks!  <response>: Im pretty confident Id qualify for the mortgage with my income and credit scoreI sympathize with your situation, but if you owe 160k out of a 160k loan, your principal-to-loan ratio is going to look pretty bad. You might not come out as great on financing as you hope. It might be best to throw money at your loans first, put some money aside, and revisit this idea and I do think its a good one of buying rental property a year from now. 