<prompt> Human: Seeking a bit of advice. I am starting to get some pressure from my parents to take over the student loans they took out on me for my degree. These were in addition to the ones I had for myself. I have a decent paying job and I have been busting ass over the past eight years to pay off my own, mind you. Little backstory, my parents have never been great with money, and with that being the case, I guess they both decided taking out student loans for me and my sister was the only route to take. Now they find themselves 60 years old and close to retirement with long term student loan repayments looming ahead. Big question is, is this my debt to take on? I realize it was for my education, but will I expect my children to do the same for me? I feel an obligation to pay for my childs education, just like I believe my parents did for me. They just financed whereas I hope to pay for it outright. To complicate matters, my wife had her education paid outright by her parents. I am not sure she will see too kindly to me taking on additional debt as we are just starting our small family with one toddler and another on the way.  <response>: The first question is whether your name is actually tied to these student loans or not. If your parents took them out, then Id imagine not, but you should still double check. Obviously if you are tied to them, then you need to make sure that they are repaid and that it does not negatively effect you.If the loans are not tied to you, then you have the question of how much you want to help your parents. If your parents are not that good with money, and theres a strong likelihood that them repaying these loans for you will directly effect their retirement, whether thats in them working longer or having less money available to them during retirement. Its up to you in how you feel about this, but it would seem like you might wind up having to help them later in their retirement regardless of taking over your student loan debt or not. Granted, that might be 10-15 years down the road where you have more disposable income available to help them. 