Hello,

My wife and I are in a bit of a predicament. She has a Master’s degree in teaching, but unfortunately has yet to find full time work as a teacher and it looks highly unlikely that she will get one (we are not from the area and they rarely even consider hiring outsiders). She has a loan that will soon be coming out of forbearance and will bring her monthly student loan payments to several hundred dollars above what she makes monthly by subbing. She has tried looking into different repayment options, but since we are now married, it seems that most will want to include my salary. I have a good salary, but unfortunately I also have my own massive student debt, pay for the house, car, groceries, etc. and would not be able to afford to pay her loans as well. I previously consolidated my several federal and private student loans with SoFi and was able to cut my payments in half, but things are still looking grim.

Are there any options for IBR that don’t look at combined income? Are there other options we should be exploring? We are nearing 30 and would love to start a family, but can’t seem to get ahead. Selling the house would be an option if it wasn’t already cheaper than renting in this area (even something half the size).

My wife and I are going through this right now. The only way to get around the combined income is to file taxes separately. Then they will only look at her income. You will lose some tax benefits, nearly all as a matter of fact, but if you have very disparate incomes it might be worth it. It will be well worth it for us, especially as we plan to start a family.

Our issue right now is that she came out of default through consolidation while we had filed jointly, so we have 3 payments to make calculated as being off of both of our income. Almost $900 per month! We are in forbearance right now but I still haven’t received a clear answer on whether or not the payments will be recalculated next year when I switch to married filing separately.

I thought our government wanted people to get married?

Can she consolidate all of her loans with a direct consolidation loan?