Cool - glad to hear someone else has thought about this same situation. And your point about setting it aside somewhere we can get to it is a good one. I suppose that, rather than socking it into an IRA or similar, we could put it into something a little more liquid just in case we needed to dump it in a hurry somewhere down the line.

Wait 5 years

So I'll state an important bit here(or it is to me). Everything in life is a risk and you can't control the possibilities. All you can do is do your homework with the best possible information at the time and make a decision based upon that. If you do that then no matter how it turns out, you should be ok with that because that's the best you can do.

If you always play it safe and take the conservative approach you will miss out on quite a few opportunities in life. The important point is to do your homework, and if you do that, most times it'll turn out right. I think of many things in life like poker, I make the best decision with the information I have at the time. Cards will fall as they may and I may have won when I wasn't supposed to or lost when I was supposed to win but that's life, you don't regret because you made the right choice at the time and that's all you can do.

You should get angry if a bad outcome happens because you didn't do your homework. You should never feel upset if you get unlucky and something happens that you couldn't control or predict. That's just life. Or the football analogy...even the best CBs get beat from time to time, the point is to put it behind you and play the next down to your fullest.

You can start paying down the first $7500 while you figure it out. You don't want you wife stuck in a job she decides she doesn't like, or pass up on something better just because you are locked into the forgiveness plan which will 'probably' still be around in five years.

You should also have a stern talk with your employer about a student loan repayment benefit.

Because our student loans stay with us, even after bankruptcy. :/

Yes. And use rep as leverage in negotiations.

Yea but the real question is, if the government goes bankrupt would the students loans go with it?:D

Not even a question in my mind, as long as she's sure she wants to teach. Sitting on the debt is worth roughly $200 per month over the next five years. I wouldn't worry about the feds canceling the program.

wow? you're married? huh. interesting.

Pretty amazing, isn't it?

made myself lol!

Yeah, no arguments there. I just keep going back and forth on the issue. As I've mentioned, the numbers pretty clearly say that I should just wait. But the time will come here pretty shortly where I am $17,500 away from being able to say I'm debt free (aside from the mortgage), and I know it's gonna grate at my nerves to have it sitting out there.

Still, I'm kind of liking the Saul Good idea mentioned above. Let it sit, but make "payments" into another liquid account just in case something falls through. At least that way, I'll be able to say that I'm practically done with our student loans, even if I'm not in actuality.

She only likes me for my money.

i figured it was for the tags.

This, option 4....