<prompt> Human: Hello everybody,Im not really sure who to turn to and dont have a family to consult. I live in an expensive city, currently pay about 2100 in rent including utilities, etc., and have accumulated 179,000 in student loans over the past few years due to law school. I started a job last month paying 180,000 and would like any help as to what the best way to pay off my student debt is. I have a total of 6 govt loans: 3 Direct Glad PLUS loans approx. 35k at 6.410, 36k at 7.210, 37.5k at 6.840, total approx. 109k and 3 Direct Unsubsidized Stafford approx. 24k at 5.410, 23k at 6.210, 23k at 5.840, total approx. 69k. My monthly payment is set to be just over 2kmo.I was thinking about refinancing through SoFi to consolidate all the loans into one with the following options: 10 year with a 5 interest rate paying about 1,900mo or 15 year with a 5.49 paying about 1,500mo. Im not sure if theres a disadvantage in doing so, or if I lose any protections offered by my government loans. Should I refinance?Any helpadvice would be very much appreciated. Thank you!  <response>: It might be best to just try paying things off fast and going from there. The math on refinancing sounds great, but you can save even more just by paying off your highest interest loans first. I have a few friends who have been firedburnt out from big law, and its rough. The protection of being able to switch to a 25-year-repayment program with zero effort and income based repayment with just a little bit of effort is more than worth the interest rates. Even if you dont burn out and stick it out with big law for life, the comfort of knowing your life wont be over if you lose your job will help your overall stress levels. 