I graduated from school with 50k in private loans and 18k in federal loans. I've been paying on my loans for over a year, and although i'm paying 580/month between the two loans, I think it's manageable by my standards. My husband however, did not do so well as far as his loans were concerned...he has 95K in private loans and 12K in federal loans. Unfortunately, he wasn't too concerned with the bigger picture when he was in college and probably had the delusion that "someone else" would take care of it. Reality bit him in the ass. :-) Anyway, you can guess what his payments are going to be when he has to start repaying in May. We make 86k between the 2 of us...what can we do? I don't want to put a band-aid on this issue, rather I want to really solve the problem. We don't have anything to sell and already live like paupers. We also have a relatively well-off relative that would be willing to co-sign a consolidation loan for our private loans, if that would even be a smart thing to do. What can we do to take care of this in the shortest amount of time possible?

Hi there!

I don't have the answer, sorry. But I know where you are coming from. I have 130k in Fed alone, already consolidated with Direct, then some Private loans I'd like to get consolidated, but don't know who/where to go about it. They are at Sallie and I need to desperately get them away from Sallie.

Good luck and I will be watching this thread.

Hmmm...well, here is what I did to attack my loans: Try to increase the income with a minimun increase in time spent on working. Meaning, see if there is something else you can do at your current job that will get you more $$. do that. Might not be glamourous, but will put extra money towards your debt.

At 86k, you're doing well, depending on your cost of living. Kids?

Another thing you might consider is an online gig like Ebay sales. I've also found good part-time, skilled gigs on craigs list. Best of luck. When you start to conquer your debt, make sure to report back with the good news!

If your credit is good, see if you can get some 0% credit cards with cash advance to pay off chunks of the debt. Consolidate the loans to lock in low interest rates. Continue living like paupers. Better yet, find better paying jobs.