Looking for advice from anyone who has been in the same boat. I'm graduating this May with about 400K in debt (undergrad, grad, med school). Leaning towards PAYE loan type, hoping for PSLF in the long run. Here's the catch... my wife is done with school and makes about 160K so if we add her salary and mine, my minimal monthly payment is over 2K a month. Plus her's is 3K since she refinanced to a 10-year repayment plan. Between bills and child care we're in a tough place financially.
Option 1: file jointly and deal with the crazy high student loan repayment. The advantage here is is will keep up in a 24% per year tax bracket verses 32% per year tax bracket, which puts around 17K back in our hands if in the lower tax bracket.
Option 2: file separately and my loan payments are lower, mine drops down to the $200 per month range but hers stays at 3K. We however end up in the higher tax bracket for her and have to pay 8% more in income taxes.
We plan to get a CPA this year to look things over, it wold be great to find someone also familiar with medical school debt/loan options. Just haven't had luck yet.
Option 1: file jointly and deal with the crazy high student loan repayment. The advantage here is is will keep up in a 24% per year tax bracket verses 32% per year tax bracket, which puts around 17K back in our hands if in the lower tax bracket.
Option 2: file separately and my loan payments are lower, mine drops down to the $200 per month range but hers stays at 3K. We however end up in the higher tax bracket for her and have to pay 8% more in income taxes.
We plan to get a CPA this year to look things over, it wold be great to find someone also familiar with medical school debt/loan options. Just haven't had luck yet.