<prompt> Human: Throw away due to the financial details contained below. My boyfriend and I have been together 12 years and are considering marriage so he can get on my health insurance plan; it is significantly better than what his employer offers but the same general price. We are not sure if financially marriage makes sense and would appreciate input. I make 62,000 a year at a city gov job. I have law school debt of 220,000 and am on PAYE and hoping the PSLF program is still around in 10 years. My payments are approx 250 per month. Ive been in repayment for several years, but just started a PSLF eligible job. At no point during repayment has my payment kept up with interest. Law school was one of my worst decisions. He makes approximately 59,000 a year with 30,000 in student loans. He is not on an income based repayment plan. He is 4 years into his 10 year repayment. His payments are approx 500 a month I think. We have no credit card debt. He has a car loan that has 9,000 left to repay. We are hoping to purchase a house in the next two years and will not have children. We also live in a community property state with state income tax. The calculators have me confused and Im not a tax expert. Does marriage, filing jointly or separately, screw us over financially? Im pretty concerned that it does.  <response>: There is no general answer about what is best. You will just have to do the math. Sorry.You have 3 possible permutations:- stay as you are, single. Your taxes and student loan payments will remain similar, assuming no significant changes to your income.- get married, file jointly: your income taxes might go down a bit and you might save on health insurance if your plan is better, but your student loan payments will go up significantly. His should not change.- get married, file separately: your income taxes might go up, since married filing separately is not the same as single. There are other downsides, like no direct Roth IRA contribution you could do backdoor if its suitable for your situation. 