<prompt> Human: Throwaway for PF reasons...Hello all PF,Ill be getting married this summer, just a couple of weeks before my soon-to-be-wife will be starting her first year of medical school. Im looking for advice on how to handle her loans for tuition and living expenses, and how to transition from having two incomes to just having one.We currently take home about 7.5kmonth together and have about 4.5k in living expenses. This has been great to save cash for the wedding, but once the wedding is done and paid for, well only have one income to build that level of savings back up. My take home while still getting 401k match is 4.6k but that means well save minimially each month, if at all on just my income. Thats a hard pill to swallow since weve been able to save over 100k in retirement and cash in the past 4 years, only to have it level out for the entirety of medical school.But is the math really that simple? Its not worth it to take out any extra student loans for living expenses if I can cover all of our expenses on one income, right? How do other couples go through medical school without having one of them with enough income to support both fully? Should can? she apply for an extra 5-10kyear in living expenses just in case something happens to me or my job, and I cant guarantee my current level of income for 4 years? I have a very stable job, but its been comforting knowing I could leave if I needed to...Im finding this quite tough to handle since Ive had a sizable buffer each month just in case anything happened, both unexpected and voluntary sister needs to stay at our place for a week? sure! 3 weddings in one month? 200 gifts for all! unexpected travel for family reasons? 1500 flights no problem! want to go on a long-weekend vacation? lets make it 5 days instead! To now knowing that any unexpected costs will put us in the negative for the monthAm I just being overly-privileged with my current lifestyle, and need to accept that we need to really look at cutting costs for 4 years, since its now us instead of me and you? All this seemed so simple before we were married, since she would obviously take out as much loans as possible to cover all expenses in case something happened to us. Should I be just planning on supporting the both of us and minimizing expenses as much as possible, just so we can minimize the amount of loans taken out? We have a 6-month emergency fund, 60k in retirement, and 40k in other savings, about 15k of which is to be spent on the wedding. Its hard to think that those numbers might grow very little in the next 4 years.Thank you for the help; Id appreciate any constructive criticism if necessary to tell me Im being overly anxious. Im just trying to wrap my head around the changes that will be happening in 2018.Edit: Thank you all for the responses. We have a lot to think about and discuss based on what Im reading!Assistant: With respect to federal student loans, I believe the deadline for taking a loan for a particular semester is the last day of that semester. In other words, the fed govt doesnt require you to take the loan before the semester starts. You may want to check with her school to confirm that with them, and check how quickly you can take such a loan, but perhaps you can just keep the ability to take a loan as your just-in-case, without having to actually take the loan now.Human: Thats interesting, Ill have to look into that. It does make more sense to use the loans as a backup instead of savings I already have. Having both might seem nice but its unnecessary. Thanks!  <response>: Can confirm this. When you apply for loans you are approved for up to a certain amount. You only take what you need. And if you need more they will certainly loan it to you at any point. Last year I needed a little extra. And I had not maxed out the Stafford yet so I went back and they loaned me more.But man... this is just my opinion but you should prioritize staying out of debt over keeping your savings. Unsubsidized Federal student loans this year were at 6 for me. I just dont think its wise to take out a 6 loan to maintain your standard of living. Having to repay loans for just tuition is daunting enough let along having to pay back living expenses. 