<prompt> Human: Gonna crosspost in rstudentloans. So first off, Im writing this post out of a sincere concern for the future. This is not an attempt to showboat not that I think there is anything below worth being exceptionally proud of. Nor am I looking for sarcastic responses suggesting that I have rethought past choices. I have to work with what I currently have. Most of the following is build up, so bear with me. Just want to provide a complete picture. Im in my fourth year of work as an attorney. This year Ill make 102,000 with a discretionary bonus which Ill estimate as 10,000 just for the sake of argument. My monthly take home after my firm deducts health care premium and a max 401k contribution 6 with 3 match is approximately 5,200. I have about 14,000 in the bank currently. I have about 4,200 in credit card debt of which 3,700 is interest free on promotion. As for the remaining 500, Im throwing about 100 a month at it to get rid of it. The credit card debt is a combination of Best Buy, clothing store and furniture store debt. In all, I am probably putting 300 a month towards that credit card debt. I own a house in a relatively low cost of living area of the country. I currently owe about 168,000 on my house which I financed for 30 years at 3.75. Ive been in the house since May 2013. My monthly mortgage payment with PMI is about 1190. I put some money into my home when I first bought it kitchen renovations, so I expect I could sell it in the 190,000 range if necessary. I currently lease a BMW up in April 2017 with a monthly payment of about 540. I also pay your normal usage for gas, insurance house and auto as well as a small life insurance premium and supplemental disability income insurance. Those insurance premiums for non house and auto are about 60.00 a month. I probably spend 1500-2000 on basic living a month food, entertainment, dry cleaner, medical, misc drug storehardware store purchases, etc. I used to track my expenses to the dollar but got away from it when I started traveling for work a good bit and it became an annoyance. I have a girlfriend so have the normal expenses associated with that. Other than my 401k contribution, Im not really saving much it seems, but Id need to look at that closer with some expense tracking. All in all, Im not in a bad spot. I take trips when I want to. Im never prevented from buying something because I cant afford it. Normal items, not silly stuff like 1000 shoes. So whats the problem? Well I have about 250k in student loan debt. 25k or so from undergrad with the balance from law school and some re-capitalized interest during some early periods of forbearance. Its all government student loan debt no private lenders with an average weighted interest rate of 7.4 horrid. Im on an income based repayment plan now based on my debt to income ratio where I pay about 1,000 a month. This doesnt even cover the approximately 1500mo in interest that is accruing. So every month Im paying 1000 just to be only 500 worse than the month before. The only light at the end of the tunnel is that after 25 years of this, it all gets forgiven currently in the form of taxable debt forgiveness. The thing is, if I were to put 2000mo towards the loans, I dont make an appreciable dent in it to move the needle in my favor and still end up paying for 20 years while being more miserable due to having less income to use for things I could use. Short of living in a hovel, biking to work, and eating ramen for 10 years while throwing 4000 a month at the loans, I dont see a way out of this crippling debt. Call it vanity, call it pride, but Im not going to live a sad and miserable life for 10 years. I just wish there were a solution to get the debt paid off in a reasonable fashion without sacrificing my entire life to do so. Do I simply keep paying the minimum amount and hope that legislation down the road somehow alleviates the problem? No guarantees. If I can predict and plan for a large taxable event some 25 years from now, perhaps I can mitigate its effects.  <response>: Law school grad here with 97k remaining from 170k. What are you doing? You do realize that you will be paying taxes on this forgiven amount at the end of 25 years. You need an emergency fund. Your basic living leaves you with 3200mo to go toward debt. Is it fun having most of your salary go toward debt? No, 80 of my take home goes toward my loans. Do you have to eat ramen and live in a hovel? No, but some sacrifice for the loans you took out should be expected. 