<prompt> Human: I went back to school to be a dentist and now I have 320,000 of federal student loan debt. I currently have a job that makes about 100,000 before taxes. My take-home is around 65,000. My husband also has a job with a take home of 62,000. We have two children with no plans for more.My loans are now due and my first bill came in at 3,800 per month. This is based on a standard 10 year repayment with 6.8 interest. We cannot afford this at this time.I have been researching payoff options and recently applied for income-based repayment. This means I would pay less over time and have a significant portion of my debt forgiven at the end of 20 years around 400,000, due to interest. However, I learned from this sub, initially that I would owe tax on that amount which would mean I would probably need another loan in order to afford the tax. Looking forward all I see is a never ending sea of debt and loans. Is there a resource to analyze whether it is better in the long run to ditch the debt as fast as possible or to stretch it out and rack up the interest but have a manageable monthly payment? Im a bit lost at the moment and feeling extremely overwhelmed. Thank you. Edit: Thank you to everyone! I appreciate the insight and the calculations. I realize my original post sounded a bit whiny. My husband and I sat down and did some number crunching and the current plan is to sign up for IBR but pay as much over as we can. As our expenses go down childcare and my income goes up, we should be able to get rid of it much faster than initially thought. It seems much less overwhelming when its all laid out.  <response>: As a dentist I can tell you that you are very underpaid. Are you working at least 4 days a week? You should be making at least 150K-200k. Second if you are only making that are you working in public health? If so look into public loan repayments. Some states, indian reservations do this. 2 other options are corporate jobs that suck your sole out but pay 200K plus. Or Go in lots of debt and buy a practice. You manage your practice bad and you make 30, you manage well and you can make 50. I know many dentist that refinanced to adjustable rates at 2-4 for their loans. Yes the rates can go up, but at least you can start making a bigger dent in that loan. 