<prompt> Human: Im going to try to keep as many extraneous details out of this post, but please bear with me.My wifes parents took out about 50k in student loans to pay for her college. The loans were in my wifes name, except that on the private loans through Sallie Mae now Navient, her father co-signed. This was all done with the agreement that my wife would pay her government loans 30k and her parents would pay for the private 20k. This is the information I have been going off of since before we got married, and the arrangement and payments were reasonable.Fast forward about 5 years from when I met my wife. Were married, child, etc. My wife and I are teetering along in the world of finance despite constant budgeting with YNAB and cutting back everything that we can. My wife is finally able to get a job now that my son is a little older, and Ive been looking at getting a raise or a new job. Regardless of all that, though, Ive made sure her student loans were paid each month, no matter how bad other aspects of our finances have been because I know how dangerous student loan debt can be.But now my in-laws have fallen on hard times and they cannot make their payments. Her father has become physically disabled and I fear might be slipping into early dementia. Her mother is a nervous wreck keeping them afloat with her modest salary. Theyre trying to get early social security for her father, but the process is like pulling teeth, and meanwhile, my wifes student loans are about a month and ten days past due.My wife and I cannot handle the monthly payments, and I honestly never thought Id have to deal with this debt since we had an agreement theres a life-lesson in there for all of you unmarried doey-eyed folks in there somewhere. I handle the finances in the house its just the way the roles naturally fell and so its even more frustrating that Navient has to talk with my wife about this and not me. Further, her fathers increasing incoherency and her mothers nervous nature means that I didnt find out about this situation until the loans were already left unpaid for over a month. Apparently they are doing the best they can, but that isnt an answer about their dealings with Navient or whether they are going to be able to make a payment any time soon?So my questions are:1. How much longer do I have until my wifes credit is screwed forever?2. Are there ways to get the payments reduced so that my in-laws can make the payments?3. Do private loans go away after 30 years? My in-laws have been making the minimum payment with this in mind, I recently discovered...4. Can my wife add me on as a person that can make changes to the plan and discuss these loans with Navient so that I can get stuff done?5. What the hell do I do?6. Should I start making their payments immediately or do I lose any bargaining power in doing this?Thanks rpersonalfinance. Im really upset because I went from thinking I could start looking at making a FIRE plan and being an rchurning afficionado with one more raise at work to having my spouses credit shot and doubling the debt overnight. I appreciate your advice.  <response>: How much longer do I have until my wifes credit is screwed forever?Well it is already slightly down. If you continue to miss payments, it will get worse. There is no such thing as being forever screwed.Are there ways to get the payments reduced so that my in-laws can make the payments?Talk to Navient. You can also check something like Sofi.comDo private loans go away after 30 years? My in-laws have been making the minimum payment with this in mind, I recently discovered...To the best of my knowledge, no. If you do something like this on a federal loan, the amount forgiven counts as income, so you need to pay taxes on the entire amount. For 20k, that could be 5k due at the end of the year. For 100-200k, the amount is going be 20-80kCan my wife add me on as a person that can make changes to the plan and discuss these loans with Navient so that I can get stuff done?YesWhat the hell do I do?Cut expenses to bare bones and pay off the loans. If your in-laws have home equity, or your own your car, you can use the secured asset to try to lower interest rates at the risk of repossession. 