<prompt> Human: Getting stressed out here and hoping for some advice on how to proceed. I just found out my wife has a large consolidated student loan I didnt know about that she has been repeatedly putting on forbearance for years. The total amount is close to 100k and what I have been able to figure out so far monthly payments would be over 500 when they kick in for well over 20 years.Problem is that I make decent money 85k but with a new mortgage, a kid in school and credit card debt we are more or less breaking even each month already. With my income i cant imagine I qualify for economic hardship or similar. Wife makes some money but she mostly does home schooling with our daughter and some intermittent contract work. We arent indulgent by any means, but we would still like to be able to do some things like eat out once a month, go on vacation once a year, etc. We just dont know what our options are to get in front of this since at some point soon they are going to deny any more forbearances. Oh, and doubtful that it matters but the real kicker is that my wife didnt even finish school, the loans are from multiple places she attended, none of which she graduated from.Thanks for any help!!  <response>: So going to get downvoted to the cellar for this, but have you considered a strategic divorce i.e. you still stay together but get a legal divorce? She could then get an ICR plan based on her income which probably wont even cover the interest and after 20 years the remaining balance gets charged off but she has to take it in as income as forgiven debt for tax purposes. Who knows, she might even be eligible for an earned income tax credit to add about 5K to your joint haul. 