&gt; it&#x27;s not unusual for a doctor these days to plan to make their last payment on these loans in their forties<p>To underscore this, take someone who goes straight through: finish undergrad at 22, med school at 26, internal medicine at 29, cardiology at 33. Again, no gap year, no research, certainly no PhD. At age 33, this person will have enough income to start making meaningful payments toward their debt, rather than just paying subsidized interest. It would be near-heroic to pay this off before 40 unless they were in private practice in the Midwest. And this is the best possible case: shortest training time, lucrative specialty, private practice.