I am currently making 300k/yr and have 300k in consolidated dept at 6.25% and my wife is about to start residency making 65k/yr with 260k in debt at 7.5%. I am in SAVE forbearance and was thinking of switching to PAYE to start making qualifying payments. I will likely have a pay cut with a new job in July taking me down to 200k/yr. If I file MFS I will have to pay an extra $20,000 in taxes. Mohela quoted my PAYE payments to be $3000/mo but that seems way too high. ChatGPT says that the PAYE payments scale down for MFJ based on the percentage of debt each of us have. Both of us are pursuing PSLF, I am about 6 years in and she would just be starting.
I saw a financial advisor and he recommended MFS so that wife could have very cheap payments on RAP and have the interest subsidized, and he argued that would save more money than the $20,000 I'd have to pay back in taxes. ChatGPT argues that MFJ is cheaper based on my situation. I am getting a second opinion from another financial advisor but I want more help before going in. So would MFJ or MFS be better for us? Assuming I do PAYE and wife does RAP
PS: He also told me to apply for PAYE mid July which is when I won't be working for 2 weeks in between jobs, and he said that would give me $0 payments for 12 months. I feel that is sketchy
Sketchy financial advice and MFJ versus MFS for loans totaling 560k with both of us being physicians
byu/Alarmed_Falcon2838 inStudentLoans
Posted by Alarmed_Falcon2838
1 Comment
> Mohela quoted my PAYE payments to be $3000/mo but that seems way too high
That seems incorrect for PAYE
> ChatGPT
*Never* trust AI for anything, especially for this
> PS: He also told me to apply for PAYE mid July which is when I won’t be working for 2 weeks in between jobs, and he said that would give me $0 payments for 12 months. I feel that is sketchy
The rules as written are very vague. I would argue that if you follow the application instructions to the letter it is allowed. But it is clearly in violation of the spirit of the rules