I think the answer to your question depends on many different individual circumstances. Your circumstances will also determine if you “have the ability.” The general rule is that you should take out as little as you need and pay back as much / as fast as you can. But I think some perspective is helpful, too, as I believe money is a means and many people get so focused on it that having the money in your account/investments and never utilizing it is the ultimate ends, but I digress.
If you’re single and your decisions only affect you, by all means pay those babies off. But if you’re married and/or have dependents, what you’ll need to ask yourself is how much is a dollar worth to you in residency vs. how much that same dollar (or more) is worth to you as an attending. While I was in residency I did enough moonlighting to more than double income, though I did not put any of that toward additional student loan payments (not saying that’s right or wrong). My thought was moonlighting money represents time away from my family and we used that money for things that more directly benefitted our family. A big thing was that a thousand dollars to us then on a much lower income was worth more than two thousand dollars in the future on a much higher income.
