<prompt> Human: Hi everyone, so a brief overview of my situation. Im 28 yo, got married last summer, and my wife recently received a payout for a portion of her equity which means we now have 99k in our joint account. Between the 2 of us, we still carry about 250k in student loans from our graduate programs. Were talking to various financial advisors to see what their advice is, but I wanted to open this up to Reddit since Ive found this sub very enlightening and helpful for various topics in the past.Basically, my wife and I are trying to decided how to utilize this money properly, ideally pay down some student debt, save some, and invest some.We dont have any kids, but probably will start a family in 1-2 years, so looking ahead, wed like to buy a house we currently rentlive in Southern California, if that helps understand our cost-of-living a bit.Id also appreciate some tips for reducing how much we will be taxed on the capital gains from the equity payout. Im a freelance video producer considering starting a sole proprietorship would this help in any way?Some other things of note: - My wife has an IRA, I have a Roth IRA - My wife has a 401k through work - We barely have any CC debt - About 30k is split among the IRAs, some stocksbonds Thanks in advance for any advice I understand this is a very general overview, but Id happy to provide additional info if requested.EDIT 1: FormattingEDIT 2: Our joint incomes total roughly 6kmonth I left my full-time job a few months back, am actively job-seeking, and freelancing in the meantime.EDIT 3: - INCOME: My wifes position is sales-based, so her commission can fluctuate, but essentially she makes 100kyear at the moment. - INTEREST: The average interest on the loans is 6.51 they range from between 5.16-7.76. - EXPENSES: Monthly expense are roughly 5k rent is almost 12 that.EDIT 4: Thanks everyone for the responses so far. A couple other things to note that came up reading some of the comments below: - HOUSE: We are not seriously considering buying a house anytime soon, but, of course, want to in the future. Priority is, as many of you pointed out, getting the student loans under control. We had no expectation that we would even be able to afford a house with the amount we have currently, its just in our future timeline to do so, especially when we start a family.- PAYOUT: The payout is still pre-tax, so we technically dont have the full 99k to use. Sorry if thats misleading.- REFINANCING: I currently pay my loans through MyGreatLakes, is this who Id want to refinance through, or do I need to find someone else?  <response>: Our joint incomes total roughly 6kmonth My wifes position is sales-based, so her commission can fluctuate, but essentially she makes 100kyear at the moment.I assume the former is post-tax and the latter is pre-tax? The average interest on the loans is 6.51 they range from between 5.16-7.76At those rates you should be paying off as much as possible of your loans while still retaining a safetynet. 