<prompt> Human: First of all, let me apologize for the wall of text ahead and for the throwaway account. Its a complicated story and I really dont want people I know to read this. Someone over rstudentloandefaulters suggested that I post this here, so here it goes.Im 47 years old and my husband is 70 I know, weird, but it is what it is and I have no regrets. Hes old school, so he wanted me to stay at home when we got married and I didnt see anything wrong with that. He was able to bring home the money and in my mind I still worked, it was just unpaid work. Plus we were happy. Then, things got a bit difficult for my husband, though it wasnt his fault, it was his health. All of the sudden his income dropped to 70k a year, but things were still good. Money was a little tight, and thinking that this could not end well, I went back to school at 42 in hopes of finding a job and help out. He wasnt happy, but I thought I was doing something good, so I went ahead and took out federal loans, lots of it. Well, that turned out to be the single worst decision Ive ever made in my life, and I was very stupid: I decided to get a degree as a Paralegal in a state where they either hire paralegals fresh out of high school and pay them 10 bucks per hour or hire people out of law school who cant pass the bar. So now, I am at 47 with no experience whatsoever. To make matters worse, two years ago my husband had to retire and now our income is of 3,500.00 per month. There was a drastic change in our lifestyle and we have 600 dollars left to eat when all the bills and medical expenses are paid, and thats on good months, after we meet our medical insurance co-pay. Now, Im 68K in debt federal loans and Navient has been harassing me day and night. They call me everyday, several times a day, I just dont know what to do anymore. I have applied for a job at more than 50 places and was only able to get 2 interviews which were both very unsuccessful because of my lack of experience, even though I was a straight A student and graduated summa cum laude I can barely stop myself from laughing at my silly, stupid self when I remember how proud I was of that.Navients understanding is that from the 500 or 600 bucks we have left to eat, I should pay them almost 300.00 under the pay as you earn program, even though I dont earn anything at all. Their concept of expandable income doesnt reflect our reality at all, and theyre throwing my husbands income in their calculation, even though he is not a co-signer federal loans dont require a co-signer. We simply cant do that.We feel that our only options at this point are to get a reverse mortgage on our home, which really breaks our hearts because it is the only thing we have to leave to our son, or to file bankruptcy to get rid of other loans and credit card debt which my husband refuses to do because he is too proud to do that. I dont particularly blame him for not wanting to ruin his good credit because of my mistake, it shouldnt have to be that way. He says he will get a part time job, but I cant let him do that, his health is not that great anymore. Im the one who got us into that, and Im the one who has to take us out, but I simply cant get a job, and Im beyond desperate at this point.Ok, so here are my questions: What is the worst that Navient can do? Can they garnish his retirement monthly income or touch his retirement fund? Can they make us sell the house and put us on the street?I no longer pick up phone calls from them. For a while, they would grant me forbearance and stop the phone calls for 3 months at a time. This time I requested forbearance again and the phone calls keep on rolling in. I am absolutely desperate, I dont know what else to do. My husband feels like a total failure, and though people may think of our situation as weird and gross, I love him and he gave me a beautiful life - It just rips my heart to pieces that he is facing this type of stress at 70 years old and that it is all my fault. How do I get out of this hole, and more importantly, how do I protect our assets our home and my husbands assets his retirement fund? Thank you so much.  <response>: Unless he co-signed your loans then they cant garnish his wages, Pension or SS or seize his assets. You should remove your name from any of his bank accounts and property. I would go to Google voice to set up a free phone number and give that number to the collectors. You should sign up for Income Based Repayments and your repayments will go to 0. Your husband and you should file taxes separately. 