<prompt> Human: The average graduating orthodontists student loans are in excess of 450k nowadays I know people with close to 900K. My total is 680k for Grad Plus etc. at a combined interest rate of 7. Naturally, I am doing IBR so that the debt payments arent crippling. However, I am left with a bit of a dilemma...In deferring wealth building to go to professional school etc. it would be nice to finally be able to develop savings for retirement, put money towards college for my two children, pay down my mortgage which is far less than my student loans, and buy a practice, but there are these massive student loans. Throughout the entire educational process everyone was told what a smart investment this education was and that you should have no problem paying down the professional school loans, but the reality seems to be different. Even if I put away no money for savings, it would be a stretch to chip away at the loans at all.The way it looks with IBR is that I am only going to only be able to make minimum payments that wont pay down the loans even if I begin to earn substantially more money because it will have to be put that towards equity in a practice another loan, ugh and other things that make sense for someone just entering the workforce. I am really not sure what good options I have overall. I absolutely do not trust those Facebook ads about refinancing. My monthly payment would go up substantially, and I would lose all the protections that I currently have within IBR such as interest not capitalizing. They look like just another bunch of vultures taking advantage of students and their debt as far as I am concerned.Does anyone know what exactly happens at the end of the 20years with the remaining balance? The IBR website is very vague and it is unclear whether or not the balance is simply forgiven or if it is then treated as taxable income that I am responsible to pay...Assistant: Does anyone know what exactly happens at the end of the 20years with the remaining balance?Taxed as income.Human: This is what it says on the current site different prior to the changes - I am on the old plan: Under all four plans, any remaining loan balance is forgiven if your federal student loans arent fully repaid at the end of the repayment period. For any income-driven repayment plan, periods of economic hardship deferment and periods of repayment under certain other repayment plans will count toward your total repayment period.  <response>: Currently, the only program where the forgiven amount at the end is not treated as taxable income is the PSLF program. 