Should I start at level 1 in debt?

So I finally got my first in person d&d group together in over 10 years (yay!) and my character is starting off being a member of the local knights faction. My dm is offering me the ability to start off with the best armor my character can use (half plate) but I would be taking out a loan from the knights. I'm not sure if I want to start off that much in debt or not.

One other consideration is that we're doing grim realism rules from the DMG so starting off with higher ac may be worth being in debt.

What do you guys think?