There are few student loan totals large enough to make what is otherwise considered "high income" not wealthy.
The difference in lifetime earning between two people, both of whom have a high five figure or low six figure income and good growth potential, one of whom has $150,000 in student loan debt, is not very large.
Housing debt isn't relevant unless to wealth unless the house in question is underwater.
Don't forget about lost earnings and interest. Med school followed by 250k job vs. 120k withought med school is not as clear of a win as you might think.
If you start at a $120,000/yr job at 22 and retire at 65, with increases of 2% a year, you will earn ~$8.3 million nominal over the course of your career.
If you start at a $250,000/yr job at age 30 and retire at 65 , with increases of 2% a year, you will earn ~13 million nominal over the course of your career. That doesn't include the (modest) pay during the second half of medical training.
The estimated cost of attendance for the most expensive medical schools top out at around $60,000 a year for four years. Assuming you meet the requirements, the federal government will lend you $40,000 of that at 6.8% and the rest at 8.5%. If nothing is paid off until after one's residency, that means our doctor would be starting his career with $330,500 in debt and a $250,000 salary.
Meanwhile our petroleum engineer(?) would be earning $140,600 at that point. If the doctor put away the difference every year until his debt was paid off, it would take less than four years.
So at 34 your doctor has zero debt. Let's assume the 120k job is saving 10% at 8%ROI for those 12 years that's worth ~250k at 34 and adds an efective 20k a year in interest. On top of that there paying significantly more in taxes and that lifetime earnings gap is far less meaningful.
Fair enough. At that age, the doctor will be making $270k debt free and the engineer $152k + $20k. In any event, the non-financial trade-offs swamp the financial ones, I would think.
My basic point in the great-great grandparent post is that bellyaching of the form I'm not really rich because of X, usually doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
The difference in lifetime earning between two people, both of whom have a high five figure or low six figure income and good growth potential, one of whom has $150,000 in student loan debt, is not very large.
Housing debt isn't relevant unless to wealth unless the house in question is underwater.