<prompt> Human: We are 3132, first year of marriage. Our income is about 150k 9555K. EngineerNurse.We have 140,000 in student loans 90K50K. 1500monthAbout 7K in credit cards together. We must be doing something wrong because we make 5x poverty level, but we have nothing. Maybe 1k in savings, she has 20K pension at work, I have nothing for retirement since I just started after grad school and my work so far has been contract.We dont have fancy cars 03 civic, 03 regal, we live in a shitty cheap apartment 800month.As I understand our first priority should be getting an emergency fund of about 15,000. We would also like to get a house, but have no money saved up at present.I was just doing taxes and together our taxes were almost 40,000 withheld. But then because of the income were not even eligible for most deductions. Its really frustrating, because its like we get screwed out of every benefit because of our income, but we really have less than most people who make way less than us. Were theoretically well-to-do, but functionally poor. It really, really sucks.No hope of inheritanceswindfalls, her family is very poor and my family is lower middle class. Because our loans are all 6 federal loans, over half of the money we pay each month goes towards just accrued interest, so the principal goes down hardly at all. Sorry part of it was venting, but I just need advice on how to get out from under this psychologically crushing situation and get somewhere safe while meeting our goals.  <response>: First I would post a budget. Even after taxes you should be clearing around 8000 or more per month. Where is it all going? 