Refinancing/marriage effect on student loans

Situation: in forbearance due to lack of steady income, just got married, and needing to start paying on loans (relatively high amount, spouse has no debt and makes decent income, but a large loan payment would definitely be a big challenge). Need to start paying but will not personally have a steady income for awhile while building practice.

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.

 

Thanks! We definitely discussed things prior to marriage, and we have an agreement about mutual financial support as part of being partners (I would have done the same for my spouse). I worked full-time last year in my postdoc and supported us both financially until my partner could find a job, and my spouse is now working full-time while I build up the practice, so in response to @Jon Snow, there's no real ability to keep debt fully separate if only my spouse is pulling in real income but forbearance is ending..I'm fine with keeping the debt in my name, but perhaps you could speak to the effect of placing it in both names?

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).

As a general update, I thought refinancing might be a good option, but I didn't realize that graduated payments weren't an option, so I'm better off with my current federal loans and pay off extra principal as I'm able with the REPAYE plan and then refinance for a better interest rate once the fixed monthly payment is doable (and making sure the lender allows for overpaying on the principal without punishment).

 

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!