<prompt> Human: My boyfriend and I went to a really great school, that happened to be vey expensive, go figure. I managed to receive financial aid through scholarships and grant-in aids to pay for my college tuition, escaping with around 20k in debt - which my parents plan on covering most of it. My boyfriend, however, wasnt so lucky and now has 30k of debt in his name, and over 180k in his moms name. We are planning to move across the country together and start building our future - but Im extremely worried that we are already starting off underwater...wed prefer to be at least just floating. I got a great job with a large company, and he is hoping to find a job there too - his major is in business. Does anyone have any advice for him us on how to manage this massive amount of debt without totally screwing his mom over?! We are really desperate for some good advice. Thanks in advance.Assistant: My boyfriend, however, wasnt so luckyIm sorry, but this was almost certainly due to poor planning and luck had nothing to do with it. But thats what happened and if you are determined to tie your future to him you have to deal with it. Or his mom does.As someone else has already noted, the best solution is to make six figures and live poorly. This can certainly be done if his degree is worth what he paid for it, physicians do this all the time and its basically the same thing.Hes invested heavily on the hope of a very high income, now its time to get that income. If he can do this, then yalls future can be very golden with that continued high income. So he needs to continue to shoot for moving up the ladder in a big way. This can happen but it is time to focus on getting there.Human: No need to be sorry, I need all the feedback and advice that I can get. You are absolutely right. There seemed to have been no awareness of the cost of this school before signing up for 5 years, and no communication between his family of how much debt he was actually getting into. In my eyes, this is not putting your child through school, just ignorance. I love him and his mom dearly too, so this really just...sucks. Theres no way that well be making anything close to six figures in the next few years. Maybe if we combined our incomes - but do spouses really do that for the other without any issues? I just feel like down the road, if we are really in this for the long haul, there will come a point where I feel resentment. I guess the next best thing to do is start making baby steps towards chipping away at the debt. Finding him a well paying job, and a financial team to help him with consolidating or whatever else they do with this kind of debt. Thanks for your input.  <response>: Theres no real Financial team to help. He just needs to consolidate, buckle down, and pay it. I know this isnt rrelationships, but you seem pretty adamant that this isnt the kind of life you want to lead, and not the kind of life that you want to get used to. If you ever plan to get married, youll have to eventually tackle this debt and that will mean putting off vacations and a house and the like. Just something to consider. 