<prompt> Human: We have about 75,000 in student loans and we are filtering through the options of getting them paid down the payments begin in April and Im somewhat lost as to which option would be the best balance between financially strenuous and least lengthy. We dont want to pay these things for the next twenty-five years as we are both over 30, and our income has significantly jumped.Are loan consolidation plans a good idea?Currently, if we choose the 10 year equal paymentmonth option, it will cost us a little over 800month. While high, this is feasible, but we just want to make sure we are doing what is best, not just what is feasible.  <response>: I generally tell people to avoid consolidation. It always seems atteactive but has its drawbacks. The big one being it typically collapses a bunch of smaller loans into one loan which eliminates the ability to snowball the loans. I started using this method about 5 years ago. My monthly is 64 lower even lower in 2 months while allowing me to get married, move into a house, and have a kid all while having hobbies and vacations. 