Hello –
I am looking for some advice on some overwhelming loans per the title. My wife is carrying ~150k in federal loans (IBR). Our household income is around ~235k annually, where I contribute about 65% of that. Pre-2025 our net income was a fraction of that, so we are just starting to save. I want to focus on investments and purchasing a home in the coming year or two, but I also want to help with getting this under control.
For the last year or so, the loans went practically untouched with $0 minimum payments (not sure how). When I realized the interest was moving rapidly (probably 6-6.5% average if I had to guess), I realized we needed to start acting. At the start of 2026 I suggested we use her income to pay the loans down (post credit card and half-rent) leaving 2k per month to contribute, and I would handle putting money in our joint investing accounts, savings, paying all our other expenses. We've taken down about 10k at this point, but I think it's going to be a long road.
Where I really could use some advice is if we should be more aggressive with the loans (>2k), or if it is right of me to focus on saving toward our future in tandem and patiently work at the loans for the next 7-9 years (rough calculation). My parents thought 2k was a bit much, but I think it's a fair amount. I could probably kick more of my income toward the loans if that seems like the smart move, but I've seen mixed views from the crowd on this sub. On the other hand, is it a better move to pay the minimum and wait for far-away forgiveness?
Thank you very much! – TLDR: Wife has 150k in loans. We contribute 2k. Is that too little if we could do more at the sacrifice of saving for future purchases?
FWIW – Rent is $2000. Not too many other regular expenses. We understand PLSF forgiveness options, but she is happy where she works and that's very important to me.
Advice on how to handle fairly large loan
byu/Zealousideal_Cat7813 inStudentLoans
Posted by Zealousideal_Cat7813
1 Comment
man with that income level i’d probably be throwing more at those loans. 150k at 6-6.5% is eating up serious money in interest every month – probably like 800-900 bucks just disappearing.
the math gets weird when you’re making good money but still on ibr. if her payments stay low because of how ibr calculates things, maybe riding it out makes sense. but if those payments are gonna jump up once they recalculate based on your new income, you might want to hit it harder now.
personally i’d run the numbers on what forgiveness actually looks like in your situation vs just paying it down faster. with 235k household income, not sure how much you’d actually save waiting for forgiveness versus just being done with it in like 4-5 years instead of 7-9.