My wife and I each have about $47,000 in student loan debt for a total between us of approximately $94,000 (mine are FFEL and her’s are Direct loans). We both work in education and live in a community property state (CA). Our AGI for 2013 was approximately $102,000, we filed married jointly (we had 0 children then). My current student loan payment is $569 and my wife’s payment is $469. My wife is currently on maternity leave and will not be working again until August 2015 as she will be on a child care leave. We are trying our best to limit our payments and are looking at IBR and are trying to apply for PSLF but unsure if we can do to our combined incomes.. What is the best way to minimize our payments during her leave and will married filing separately help us next year as well as to qualify for PSLF.