Thanks for the replies everyone. I understand there is a substantial risk involved with crypto investments and after reading all of this perhaps I won't take out 10k but something smaller still seems feasible. To clarify, the specialties I plan to pursue start at 300k/year salary minimum. Paying off 300k of loans is entirely doable on the salary alone but it still impacts quality of life for some years. Having said that, paying off that additional 10k on a minimum 300k+ attending salary will have minimum impact. It's a different story if someone was looking at a 50k/year salary with 300k of debt but a physician salary does guarantee the ability to pay the loans off, the only difference is length of repayment. Thank you again for all the honest replies