Haha that sounds great but no, we live in Portland, Oregon, we definitely can’t put one of our incomes into retirement savings! I make more money than her ($63k) but there is no way I could support us both on it. Neither of us have an IRA and no plans to open them, just employer plans. We are actually trying to figure out if she could qualify for PSLF–I just recently realized that it was a possibility for her (she didn’t realize it was because she didn’t graduate, but apparently PSLF doesn’t care), but I’m not sure about whether her loans qualify. I don’t think she has ever looked into any kind of forgiveness or kept that in mind when considering her repayment plans, but something to look into for sure.
There’s an amazing ton of good info in the PSLF Facebook group, of all places. Also, there’s currently a waiver for people who have the wrong sort of federal loans; as long as hers aren’t private and she’s working for a government or nonprofit employer, she’s likely to be able to qualify.
Yeah, I really need to look at her loans and figure it out, I don’t know much about them but clearly they are becoming my business now! I believe they are all federal, but one loan isn’t eligible for the current pause, and I’m not sure why? And she works for a hospital system that is a 501©3. We’ll try and tackle it this weekend.
1 Like
I fought my way through the labyrinth to forgiveness this time last year, so if you run into questions (you will) and want help, I’d be glad to try.
I appreciate that, thank you! Once my grad school loans are in repayment I need to figure it out for myself as well, I also work for a nonprofit, so figuring it out for her will be practice.
1 Like
Yeah it sounds like you two need to figure out how you want things like this to play out, and what you’re each willing/not willing to do.
I think I might just need to accept that I don’t get the lifetime learning tax credit and I’ll owe a few thousand more in student loans than I anticipated when I graduate, and that’s the cost of getting married, because intertwining our finances seems like too much to handle, honestly!
1 Like
I don’t have any advice, but one of my closest friends files married filing separately from her spouse because of IBR from her law school loans. She is planning to apply for loan forgiveness in the future so it made aot more financial sense to give up the benefits of married filing jointly vs the loss of IBR.
Which is just to say that, it may the right answer! Luckily you have a few months to run the numbers and figure it out.
1 Like