<prompt> Human: I was fortunate enough to have my education funded by my parents, but my wife was not, so I have little experience with loan repayment. I want to know the best way to pay off the debt. We both combined make 6200 a month take home pay. We also want to achieve a down payment for a house of 50,000. Here are the loans breakdown. She currently has them consolidated into a low payment monthly of 343 per month but it is over 10 years. 3031.22 5.75 3023.45 5.35 4717.29 4.25 4681.92 3.15 2021.39 6.55 2016.56 6.55 1963.88 6.55 4329.22 3.15 1864.09 6.55 Assets: 401k and Roth IRA are funded for myself. Emergency fund is set. 22k in a taxable investment account 7000 cash in checking - free to be used towards either goal. 10000 in online savings, for down payment towards the 50K goal Is it best to try and get the lendor to split the loans up so that I can pay off the 6.55 first, or should I just negotiate a higher monthly rate towards every loan at once? Thanks in advance for the advice!  <response>: You did not inherit your wifes student loan debt. When you get married, her debts do not become your debts. You are not liable for her debts until you specifically agree, in writing with the creditor, to be liable for the debt.Even though your wife is making consolidated payments, her loans are not consolidated. She can pay towards specific loans as long as she specifies which loan she wants a payment to be applied towards call the lender for specific instructions, as they vary by lender. In terms of priority, she does want to kill them in chunks rather than by simply making a larger monthly payment that applies to all of them. Her priority is:1864.091963.882016.562021.393023.453031.224329.224717.294681.92When she sends in the check for the monthly payment, shell include a second check to be applied to the current priority loan. As loans get paid off, the monthly payment goes down, which means there will be more available for the second check, and the process builds on itself. 