<prompt> Human: I just found out that my girlfriend has over 250,000 USD in student loans from her undergrad and PHD. She is not working in her field, and is doing non-profit work and will likely not ever maKe more than about 60,000yr. She told me that her repayment program means her payments are based on her income, currently its about 1000month. If her income increases, so do her payments. Interest is around 6-8, and the program allows her to make these minimum payments for 25 years and then the loan balance is forgiven but in the meantime her loan balance keeps growing, albeit slowly.We will be both in our mid 50s by the time this happens. I should also mention that although the loan would be forgiven sooner if she did non profit work in the US, we are not in the US so it doesnt count. I dont know much about this, but it seems like since 25 of her after tax income will forever go to this debt service, she wont be able to contribute financially in a partnership. Housing is very expensive in my area, and to buy a house my next goal either requires a single person to have a very high income or to be a two income household. How will a growing student loan debt on her part effect us qualifying for a mortgage? I dont want to sound selfish, but this debt came as a surprise to me and Id like to know ahead of time if I will have to re-evaluate my life goals to accomodate this. Id also like to learn more about this before I start talking with her. Assistant: Whats her field?250k debt in order to get a 60k job... Human: She studied for a high income field and then found she didnt like it, and switched to a lower income type of work in the non profit world. Assistant: Generally thats the type of decision someone makes before investing undergrad, a PhD, and 250K in debt into a field. Im really not trying to steer this into rrelationships territory, but theres some serious red flags about your girlfriends financial management.It seems like a milder form of this postHuman: Sadly, I agree in principle with her choice. We have a few friends who are working in that field for the money because they also have similar loans and they are making 150-200kyear but all have a slew of relationship problems, health problems, drug problems etc.  <response>: Yeah dude, if she didnt like the field she shouldve figured that out before her masters, let alone a PhD. A salary thats an additional 120k is insane- it means a completely different socioeconomic class for your family, and for your kids. It means a smaller house, less vacations, less financial security. My sister is working 90hrs a week in finance, which is pretty well regarded as one of the toughest fields. Neither her nor her colleagues have any of those problems, so I doubt a career choice will lead to relationships issues, health problems or a drug habit. It sounds like your wife is scapegoating those things so she has a clear excuse to do what she wants. 