<prompt> Human: Hello PF,I 33M am in a long-term relationship with my live-in girlfriend 33F and am thinking about popping the question soon but I have some reservations regarding our finances and in particular her student loan debt.A little bit of financial background about each one of us:Her: My girlfriend is a teacher that makes about 34kyr and is not great with money. When I met her she had recently gone through a bankruptcy but then she had gotten a couple off-the-wall loans after loan on some furniture and a horrible, horrible title loan. She was living paycheck to paycheck, wasnt a great situation for her. After dating for about a year she moved in to my place which freed up some of her income and she was able to take care of those loans on her own which was great. She felt better about her financial situation and so did I until... collections started calling about her student loans. Apparently her bankruptcy lawyer told her to stop making payments to her student loans and she never was told to start back up again after the bankruptcy. So at this point, after fees and whatnot, she has about 60k in student loan debt.Me: I was lucky enough to get a career making 100kyr without a college degree so I have 0 in student loan debt and very little debt in general. I have recently gotten much more mature and focused about my finances and savings thank you PF!!. I have a net worth of about 250k currently and planned to start trying for the FIRE thing.Up until recently her financial situation didnt bother me much or really affect me, everyone hits rough times and not everyone handles money in the same way.But heres where things get complicated. We just found out we are expecting in September. So, I think its about high time to put a ring on it but this prospect kind of terrifies me with the huge disparity between our financial situationsdebt. To compound this we have been talking about her quitting her job to take care of the baby when it is born which means that I would be paying her student loan debt which, I know, could skyrocket if we file jointly once married as they will see my income.I am fully expecting all the people to come out shouting It shouldnt matter if you love her! and all that jazz but this is a tough pill to swallow for me. I am quite proud of where I have gotten without a college degree and student loan debt and now to get saddled with it anyway kind of kills me since these were debts that she acquired long before we met. I am more than willing to help out the best I can but I dont feel like it is right for me to have to just absorb all this.According to my girlfriend her parents heavily encouraged her to go with the teaching job widely known to be a low paying career and to finance it all with student loans with no help from them. Im wondering if asking them to help their daughter out of this debt is completely foolish?So my question is this: how should I navigate this? Should I have a conversation with her parents to see if they can help or is that a horrible idea?TL;DR Baby on the way. I hardly have any debt, my girlfriend has a ton of debt which will likely become my debt if we get married. Wondering what I can do and if asking her parents for help is a good or bad idea  <response>: Sounds foolish to me. She is 33. Time to be a grown up and take responsibility for her own actions. 