<prompt> Human: Im 28 and an art teacher at an urban middle school in North NJ. Im making 51,000year, roughly 2700month after taxespensionhealthcareunion dues, etc. This was my first year teaching after drifting between 12hr jobs and unemployment since graduation in 2009. I went back to school 2 years ago to get my teachers certification and luckily landed a job after finishing the program. I have made 63 monthly payments of 580. Over the last five years, Ive paid 36k and my principal has gone down only 13k. I have 5 private loans, originally owned by Sallie Mae and transferred to Navient, and 4 federal Stafford loans, all of which are variable.Private 2,818.65 at 2.62int 13,236.30 at 5.25int 1,269.65 at 2.62int 21,503.05 at 2.75int 4,347.01 at 2.88intTotal: 43,174.66Federal 3,830.48 at 6.55int 1,393.14 at 6.55int 1,063.73 at 5.35int 850.06 at 6.55intTotal: 7,137.41Grand Total: 50,312.07I live very economically but I feel like this debt is going to follow me forever. The last few years have been rough and took its toll. Id like to be able to start saving for a home. I could have made a down payment just for the amount of interest Ive already paid. I was approved by a loan consolidation company for a loan but in the long run it would not be worth the increase in monthly payments I would need to make. I dont know what to do. Ive heard of people approaching student loan companies with a cash offer but dont know where to start or what options I have.UPDATE:Thanks for all the advice coming in so far! I just called up Navient and spoke with one of their Department of Education representatives. She confirmed that I do not qualify for loan forgiveness because I am an art teacher. I asked her about consolidation programs Navient offered. She said they could consolidate just my federal loans - and use the average interest of my federal loans as the new interest rate while also extending the life of the loan 30 years. She said this is not worth it. After the motivation from a few commenters, I decided while I was on the phone with her to pay off the 850 federal loan 6.55. She took my payment over the phone and congratulated me. I plan on paying the others off soon. Thanks for all the feedback, reddit has helped me more than anyone!  <response>: You have only about 20k in debt over 5 interest rate. If you push I bet you can pay those off in just 2-4 years. Once that chunk is paid off the game changes. I bet you can expect at least one pay raise over the next year or two too. Once you start knocking out the higher interest rate loans you will see more impact on the principal too. The rest are under 3, so not that much more that inflation. At that point you can just pay the minimum amount each month and start allocating excess money to a home down-payment or investing elsewhere. I know it feels frustrating and like a lot of money, but with just a couple years of concerted effort its going to start feeling like you are running downhill instead of up. 