How do you escape the community poor mindset?

I can only advise on one aspect of your post, and YMMV obviously. I was paying my law school loans down aggressively.

I stopped and took the furlough. Credit score is in the 700s. And I have $100k in savings.

It’ll get paid when / if it gets paid.

As long as you pay what you’ve committed to pay (ON TIME) it hardly matters, in my experience, to your credit score.

On the other hand, your debt is smaller than mine (I owe a quarter - yep literally). So it might be cheaper for you to pay it off quickly. But I would only do so if it still leaves you in a comfortable financial position. Otherwise, I have to agree with your dad on that one.

/r/financialindependence Thread