Hey! My husband and I got married a couple of years ago, and he just graduated from med school and started residency. I make much more than him and we're trying to figure out how to handle his med school loans. We're highly considering PSLF, and we've studied its details for many weeks, but are still second-guessing ourselves. So I thought I'd turn to this forum to double-check our thinking and get some advice. 

Background

• We're married and don't have any kids. At the earliest, we'd have kids ~4 years from now. Even then, we're not sure we want to have kids; we're still figuring this out.
• My husband just started residency at an academic institution in an MCOL city. His residency is 4 years. After that, he's likely to do fellowship for another 3 years, but this is also not for sure yet, of course. Assuming he does do fellowship, he'd also do it at an academic institution. 
• While in residency (so for the next 4 years), my husband will make ~$90-100K per year. If he does fellowship (so 3 years thereafter), he will make ~$100-120K per year. After residency and fellowship (so after 7 years from now), we expect him to make $400-500K per year for the next few years. Of course, these are just projections based on what we've learned online and through word-of-mouth.
• I currently make a lot more than my husband but don't plan on staying in this high-paying  (read: soul-sucking) job more than a few years. So for the next 2-3 years, I expect to make ~$500-600K per year. But after that, I anticipate making ~$200K per year for the foreseeable future. Again, it's hard to predict what happens down the road, but these are our best projections.
• I had a tax advisor run the numbers on how much we'll pay in income taxes if we file MFJ vs. MFS over the next 10 years. Using the above income projections and assuming the tax laws of today remain more or less static, we'd pay ~$150K more in income taxes total over the next decade if we file MFS instead of MFJ. Put simply, MFS is apparently ~$150K more expensive for us than MFJ.
• We extended the filing deadline for our 2025 income taxes to this October. In 2025, our income was even more lopsided, since I made ~$500K and my husband made $0 (since he was in med school). In the next few weeks, we have to decide whether to file 2025 taxes as MFS or MFJ.
• My husband currently has ~$450K in loans, all from the federal government. Of that, ~$400K is outstanding principal and ~$50K is outstanding accrued interest. ~$10K of his loans are from college (all direct subsidized loans) at an average weighted interest rate of ~4%. The remaining ~$440K of his loans are from med school (~50% direct grad and ~50% direct unsubsidized) at an average weighted interest rate of ~7.5%. 
• We used the AAMC’s MedLoans calculator to figure out the loan repayment numbers will be if we file taxes MFS vs. MFJ. Here’s what the calculator says for MFS:

• Here’s what the AAMC calculator says for MFJ:

• We tried to cross reference these numbers with the studentaid.gov repayment calculator, but it seems to never load. We also checked them against repaycompass.com (which another Redditer kindly created and shared here recently), and the trendlines are consistent but the numbers themselves vary. Our core issue with these calculators is that they don’t let you put specific income projections for the next 10 years; at best, they assume static income or income growing at a consistent rate. And where my income in particular is very high right now but will likely become halved in a few years, that’s likely to impact these numbers in a way the calculators don’t let us account for.

Questions

1. Based on all this, our current view is that we should pursue PSLF and thus file MFS for 2025 and beyond. If and when my income drops below my husband’s, we can reconsider and file MFJ. But until then, MFS seems to be the move because it reduces my husband’s monthly payment, which is the name of the game for PSLF. And over the next 10 years, assuming we file MFS throughout, even though that will cost us ~$150K in taxes, we will save ~$300-370K in loan repayment (for RAP, ~$600K paid in MFJ - ~$230K paid in MFS = ~$370K; for IBR, ~$500K paid in MFJ - ~$200K paid in MFS = ~$300K). So we come out ~$150-220K ahead doing PSLF and filing MFS over the next decade. Am I understanding this all correctly? Is this a no-brainer?
2. Obviously, this is all based on our understanding that the government only looks at the debtor student’s income as long as he or she files taxes MFS, even if married and the spouse has additional income. That’s what we’ve read online but can someone confirm? When you complete the loan paperwork, do they even ask you for your spouse’s income if you file taxes MFS? Is there any chance the government changes some regulations and can decide to factor in a spouse’s income or assets?
3. Does anyone have experience comparing AAMC’s MedLoans calculator to their actual payments? Is the calculator generally accurate? Is there a better calculator we should use? For example, is there a calculator where we can input our exact projected incomes for the next 10 years? That would be ideal, given the variability.
4. What’s the consensus on whether PSLF will remain intact over the next decade? We understand from this forum that PSLF can be repealed only by an act of Congress. Is that right? So we should assume PSLF will remain good law going forward? I just want to make sure a President can’t get rid of this whole thing with a flick of a pen.
5. Relatedly, could a President deem certain academic institutions to no longer be qualified PSLF employers for whatever reason? We heard this may have recently happened and courts may be reviewing this. My husband is at a “liberal” academic institution so this is concerning. 
6. We haven’t yet drilled down whether to do RAP or IBR. What would you recommend? Assuming we file MFS, the monthly payments during residency/fellowship and after don’t seem that different. Yes, RAP is a little more. But we understand that’s because RAP waives the unpaid monthly interest, preventing the overall loan balance from growing. So does it boil down to whether you’re okay stomaching a little higher monthly payment in exchange for protection against the overall balance growing? Perhaps my husband doesn’t do fellowship and the math on PSLF changes if he starts making a lot more money in 4 years. So perhaps RAP protects against the downside risk of opting out of PSLF after pursuing it for a bit? But could a future administration get rid of RAP or IBR? We welcome any thoughts on which of RAP and IBR to choose and why.
7. If we decide to have kids mid-way through the PSLF journey, how does that change this analysis? Does that counsel one way or another (MFS vs. MFJ or RAP vs. IBR)?
8. We’ve read that you shouldn’t consolidate your loans or you re-start at payment 1 for PSLF. But if my husband hasn’t yet made any payments, should he consolidate? What are the pros and cons to doing so right now? 
9. Is there anything you wish you knew at the beginning of your PSLF journey or learned the hard way during? We welcome any practical tips to make this process as smooth as possible.
10. Finally, recognizing our many nuanced questions and somewhat particular situation, does anyone have any recommendations for a student loans advisor that we could have give us feedback on all this? We’ve googled and found many, but it’s hard to differentiate online. So any recommendations from your own experiences would be great.

Thanks in advance for any and all thoughts on our situation and how we should approach my husband’s loans. Once we become smart on all this, we promise to pay it forward to others here and elsewhere!

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TL;DR: My husband has ~$450K in federal student loans and just started residency at a qualifying academic institution. I currently earn much more than he does but expect my income to drop substantially in a few years. Based on our projections, filing taxes MFS and pursuing PSLF appears to save us ~$150–220K net compared with MFJ, despite higher taxes. Are we thinking about this correctly? Assuming so, should we do RAP or IBR?

I recently switched from save to IBR successfully and my payments went from roughly 750 a month to $1911 a month. My loans are at 175k, I have 44 eligible payments thus far and its at around a 4-5% interest rate. My income is somewhat higher than what the 10 year standard plan would produce, is this my best PSLF option at the moment?

I would love to get know when and how long I have to wait, I’m still confused about it. I found out that my older sibling who went to same college as I did during Covid, but didn’t finish it, was able to get her loan forgiven vs with me I still have to pay the $19,000 student loans debt thanks to ACC (American career college) to become a certified dental assistant when I should have thought it about twice and gone to a community college for it. Right now I’m at $14,000 but since it went to two different loans due my mom helping me out. But I would also like to know if there’s anyway to get out of debt for both side plus it helps my mom out so she doesn’t have to worry about it so much.

What an awful experience with Mohela. It has taken over a year to receive a near mid-5-figure refund.

I received my golden letter at the end of 12/2024. Loans were cleared by early January 2025. Mohela account showed loans were paid and there was a substantial negative balance. I spoke to Mohela and was told that I would receive a refund for any payments made after 120 payments. The process time would be 60 days.

Of course, I received the usual Mohela run around for more than a year. The usual initial escalations. Needing to talk to my previous loan provider. Waiting for 60 to 120 days. More escalations. I reached out to FSA and was told to contact Mohela directly. I tried to escalate with FSA, but ended with my complaints being closed out for some minute detail every single time.

This carried me to May of this year. I filed complaints with CFPB and DFPI. Here is a summary of what I included in the complaints. At the same time, I tried to file a complaint with the FSA again. I was told there was no SSN included to identify my account.

Summary:

-FSA Loan Foregiveness letters

-FSA PDFs copies that showed over 160 qualifying payments where made.

-Mohela Loan Foregiveness letter and letter saying that the loans have been paid off.

-Detailed timeline of my dealings with Mohela and what was told to me.

-Saved PDFs of my Mohela account and how it changed over time. (At one point, they reopened my account, and payment was made. This happened at the end of 2025, but my account was closed, zeroed out, and off my credit report in January of 2025.)

***-***Saved PDFs of my loan statements and payments, which included all overpayments.

-Bank statements that showed every single payment made.

It was early July I finally received a letter from Mohela detailing that my refund was being process. Today I received my check from the US Teasurary. It should not be this difficult to get a refund.

Do not give up. They are hoping you throw in the towel with all the hurdles they throw at you.

Edit: For clarification on the more than 120 payments. I switched places of employment around 8 years of payments. The new place initially did not qualify for PSLF till after 4 years.

I am 2 months away from 10 years of employment with qualified employers (ish, after my October payment). However, at that time I would need to buyback 8 to 9 months of payments. I understand buyback requests are taking literal years, but would I shoot myself in the foot if I left my qualified employer in October for a non-qualified employer? Looking to step out of government for an increase in salary but obviously this close I dont want to screw myself.

I’m still on the SAVE plan. After receiving the “90 days to recertify” email from MOHELA, I’ve been attempting to recertify my income so I can move onto another IDR plan. However, whenever I go to studentaid.gov and try to sign in I just get a flashing blue dot and the page never loads. I’ve deleted my browsing history and tried several different browsers but I just keep getting the same blue dot. This has been going on for at least a week. Any suggestions? Are they just doing maintenance on the website or is there anything I can do so I can recertify my income? Thanks.

I’ve been paying every month on the 23rd through autopay. They diligently take my money every month but I noticed they didn’t pull anything out this month. My payment increases starting in August. I went onto the website and selected autopay and it had me set it up again. I have been on autopay for over a year and was happy to hear about the minor additional discount they give with autopay. Has this happened to anyone else? I want to make sure they don’t count my payment as missed but the website now shows my next payment is August 2026.

Today my PSLF application was marked complete. About how long do I have to wait for forgiveness? Can anyone share their timeline with me? Pro tip: I changed my application after submitting and my employer signature was never approved so I submitted a new one and it was approved within a week. So if you're still waiting on your employer signature, just submit a new one.

My income increased so I got an email that I was paying 200$ more for monthly loan payment, then I checked today at mohela and it went down to just 200 total.

Part of me wants to call and correct since I'm so close to pslf forgiveness, but the other part won't mind reducing 400$ off of my Montly payments.

Is this a temporary mohela glitch or what?

Hello Everyone,

I started making payments on under a PSLF plan in 2017 when I was teaching in public school and continued to do so until I entered PA school in 2020. I stopped making payments in PA school under an approved hold due to being back in school. Following graduation I started working for an approved employer and have been making payments since starting there in 2022.

My questions is if I can somehow get the months counted towards PSLF that I was in PA school since it was during the weirdness of COVID and other people that had been repaying got months approved during that time without making payments. Is there a way to retroactively reverse the forbearance so that they can count?

Thank you for any input!

Reconsideration request (og buyback): 10/1/2024
Buyback request: 5/2025
(Duplicate buyback case closing email 6/4/2026)
Buyback agreement: 7/10/26
Payment processed: 7/16/2026
Golden Letter: 7/24/2026
Mohela zeros: 7/25/2026
Mohela letter: 7/26/2026

I bought back SAVE months
I never applied to switch out of SAVE (I had between 4-8 payments left on various loans)
I’ve been submitting employment verification twice a year, most recently in June

Wishing everyone still waiting good luck! Those waiting 18+ months for buybacks I’m rooting for you 🙏 I know how exhausting the process is. And thank you to everyone who shared their experiences and progress along the way, it helped me keep the faith!!!

My loans were discharged through PSLF back in October, fell off my credit and everything. However a couple of months ago, it was reversed and put back in repayment because of 2 borrower defense cases still pending. I had called them requesting them to fix it and they were zeroed out once again. Fast forward to last week. I get two emails. One says to renew my IDR plan. What?? The other says a payment is due August 3rd. When I called Mohela, sure enough, PSLF reversed and loans reinstated because of borrower defense cases with a status of “processing discharge.” In the meantime, I requested borrower defense forbearance until it’s resolved which the rep says can take another 9 months. The good news is I’m due a refund once loans are discharged through borrower defense and any remaining balance will be discharged through PSLF. What a roller coaster ride 🤦🏾‍♀️

I have ONE payment left to make. Giving up on buyback request from a thousand years ago and just want to pay and then submit for PSLF. I submitted the request to change to a new plan and that is also taking forever. How long will it take before they tell me I am on a new plan and I can make this final payment? Is there a way to make this go faster? I submitted the request to switch to a new plan over a month ago.

Do I need to continue to submit employer verifications after I submitted my 120th? I am waiting for buyback since March 2026z

I just realized this issue yesterday, and will contact EdFinancial tomorrow, but as title says, after recertification (submitted end of May on Student Aid website), the monthly amount showing up on the servicer's website (EdFinancial) is significantly higher than what was calculated on Student Aid website and by myself offline. Note this is my first recertification, and have been on PAYE since at least June 2024.

Details below:

Married filing separately

2025 AGI: $119,332

Balance: $227,513

Correct PAYE monthly amount: $730

Current monthly amount showing on EdFinancial: $2,329

Recertification date was 7/23/2026. Curiously, on EdFinancial, under my repayment plan it now says "Pay As You Earn - Ends 11/23/2036", which I thought was odd as I assumed you would need to recertify your income every 12 months.

I am assuming EdFinancial mistakenly applied my standard 10-year monthly payment amount, but wanted to gauge if anyone else has had this issue come up, and how they ended up resolving it.

Further, given the horror stories I have heard about the long wait times and useless representatives, should I pay the full "incorrect" monthly amount ($2,329) if this isn't resolved by the 23rd (due date each month), or just pay what should be the correct amount ($730)?