<prompt> Human: Hey everyone,I am 27 and I make 72,500 a year in a high cost-of-living city. I fully expect to receive a small bump in pay sometime in May, bringing me anywhere from 76k - 82k. I am fairly confident I will be hitting six figures sometime in the next two years; perhaps even immediately depending on how things go with my current work situation but of course this is not guaranteed. I have four loans:1 One FEDERAL: Remaining balance of 19,652.57. Fixed rate of 5.875. Monthly payment of 154.642 One PRIVATE: Remaining balance of 28,070.54. I feel stupid for not knowing but I believe the rate is variable assuming this because it is private and it is currently at 5. Monthly payment of 217.87. Dont worry, Ive just sent an email to them to figure out the deal with the interest rate!3 Another PRIVATE: Remaining balance of 35,921.03. Variable rate of 2.86, tied to LIBOR. Monthly payment of 253.81.4 Another PRIVATE: Remaining balance of 44,425.87. Variable rate of 2.86 as well, tied to LIBOR. Monthly payment of 252.96.Total balance: 128,070.01. Total monthly payments: 879.28. Average interest rate of 4.14.My poor mother has been gracious enough to pay for half of these, and this is the only reason why Ive been able to stay afloat I only started making this kind of income recently. Shes done far too much for me and I really want to start taking over my payments 100. Ive drastically cut my spending and live very frugally. I tuck away approximately 25 of my gross salary in savings between a 401k and a regular old savings account, the latter of which serves as my emergency fund. I only have 1.5 months of expenses saved in there but at the rate I am saving I can have 3 months of expenses saved by December. EDIT: Just realized I was calculating this based on current expenses; obviously, in a true emergency my budget would be presumably smaller. So, I already have 2.5 months of basic expenses saved up....and on top of all this, Im trying to achieve rfinancialindependence.---Here are my questions:1 Do I consolidate? Why or why not?2 Will it be harder to get a loan consolidation when times are good ie. when interest rates are higher?3 Open ended: In general, what the hell else should I do?---EDIT 2: Thanks everyone for all of your responses. Youve definitely put me on the right track. This thread was life-changing!  <response>: In my opinion, stopping your 401k match that some people are suggesting on here is silly. I would pay up to their max and nothing more. The rest of your money should be dumped into paying off your loans. 