Refinancing/marriage effect on student loans

[foreverbull]

Has anyone else experienced a similar situation (i.e. marriage while repaying or starting to repay and/or refinancing) and what did you opt to do?

I'm leaning toward refinancing and joint filing but am a little concerned about keeping the monthly payment down to a reasonable number.

 

[Pragma]

Kind of depends on the type of loan and if you are aiming towards any of the forgiveness options. Some of the income-based plans let you file separately and not count your spouse's income, which will keep your payment low. However, if you don't have a forgiveness option then I'd pay as much of it down as fast as possible (at least interest as JS stated).

 

[MamaPhD]

Congrats on your marriage. Hopefully by now you and your spouse have reached a mutual understanding about how you will handle money matters in general. My husband and I came into our marriage both with modest student debts, which we kept in our respective names. Our philosophy was (and still is) to combine incomes, keep prior debts legally separate but in practice treat each other's as our own, strive to get the best terms possible, and make any future major financial decisions together.

 

[foreverbull]

Congrats on your marriage. Hopefully by now you and your spouse have reached a mutual understanding about how you will handle money matters in general. My husband and I came into our marriage both with modest student debts, which we kept in our respective names. Our philosophy was (and still is) to combine incomes, keep prior debts legally separate but in practice treat each other's as our own, strive to get the best terms possible, and make any future major financial decisions together.

Thanks! The main issue is that we are trying to be fiscally smart about how to tackle the debt in a way that allows for lower payments in the present that we can adjust upward in the future when in a better financial position and lower overall payoff amount (balancing flexibility in payments with as low of a payoff amount as possible).

 

[foreverbull]

I didn't mean that your debt won't affect your spouse or that he should not help pay it off, only that, if it is in reconsolidated into shared debt, it is still student loan debt, and, if you get divorced, you die, or whatever, your spouse will be responsible for paying it off. By keeping it in your name, you protect your spouse from those outcomes.

For sure! My spouse has no student loan debt, so that isn't an issue for me personally, but that's a good point for those who are considering reconsolidating their own loans to a joint loan....you are putting your partner on the hook for your debt if something happens to you. Good to keep in mind!