Hello - love this site and forum! I'm somewhat of an investing newb and have some questions about PSLF and combined income. Here is my spouse and mine's info:
Me: Student loans ~$200,000 @6.0%, currently MS4 going into internal medicine with plans for either hospitalist, pulm/crit or cardiology
Spouse: Student loans ~$150,000 @6.0%, currently a physical therapist 1.5 years out from school and doing PSLF
Combined: ~$10,000 in index ETFs and ~$15,000 in Roth IRA through Vanguard
My Spouse is currently ~18 payments into PSLF and has been paying about $200/month through IBR. This year her IBR monthly payments will increase because she got a raise last year (now making ~$70,000/year), but probably only a couple hundred dollars or so/month. I am planning on refinancing and aggressively paying off my student loans after residency.
My question is this: when I start residency and then 3-6 years later get an attending salary, how will that affect my wife's IBR payments toward her PSLF? Will our combined income essentially render the PSLF useless because of how high her IBR monthly payments will be? Is there a way (perhaps file taxes separately?) so that her IBR payments remain low because of her lower earning potential as a PT? Many thanks in advance for the help.
Me: Student loans ~$200,000 @6.0%, currently MS4 going into internal medicine with plans for either hospitalist, pulm/crit or cardiology
Spouse: Student loans ~$150,000 @6.0%, currently a physical therapist 1.5 years out from school and doing PSLF
Combined: ~$10,000 in index ETFs and ~$15,000 in Roth IRA through Vanguard
My Spouse is currently ~18 payments into PSLF and has been paying about $200/month through IBR. This year her IBR monthly payments will increase because she got a raise last year (now making ~$70,000/year), but probably only a couple hundred dollars or so/month. I am planning on refinancing and aggressively paying off my student loans after residency.
My question is this: when I start residency and then 3-6 years later get an attending salary, how will that affect my wife's IBR payments toward her PSLF? Will our combined income essentially render the PSLF useless because of how high her IBR monthly payments will be? Is there a way (perhaps file taxes separately?) so that her IBR payments remain low because of her lower earning potential as a PT? Many thanks in advance for the help.
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