~500k Combined Debt- Manageable or Catastrophic? Forum

[alicepaul]

Related question- how does debt repayment work for a married couple? I am lucky enough to be graduating without any debt, but my SO will be accumulating about $100,000 dollars in debt (including undergrad). When we get married, will his debt become my debt? If so, how would LRAP work considering I will almost certainly be doing PI (he may as well). I know there is a maximum income to be eligible, but how does that change with two incomes? Financially, does it make a difference if we get married before or after a large portion of the debt is paid off?

Sorry if this question is extremely convoluted.

[rayiner]

Related question- how does debt repayment work for a married couple? I am lucky enough to be graduating without any debt, but my SO will be accumulating about $100,000 dollars in debt (including undergrad). When we get married, will his debt become my debt? If so, how would LRAP work considering I will almost certainly be doing PI (he may as well). I know there is a maximum income to be eligible, but how does that change with two incomes? Financially, does it make a difference if we get married before or after a large portion of the debt is paid off?

Sorry if this question is extremely convoluted.

The debt will remain individually yours, but your individual payment amount will be based on your combined household income. E.g. if you do PI and your spouse does big law, your individual payment will be much higher than if you were not married. How LRAP works will depend on how your school's LRAP interacts with the federal IBR/PAY-E programs.

[Danger Zone]

Related question- how does debt repayment work for a married couple? I am lucky enough to be graduating without any debt, but my SO will be accumulating about $100,000 dollars in debt (including undergrad). When we get married, will his debt become my debt? If so, how would LRAP work considering I will almost certainly be doing PI (he may as well). I know there is a maximum income to be eligible, but how does that change with two incomes? Financially, does it make a difference if we get married before or after a large portion of the debt is paid off?

Sorry if this question is extremely convoluted.

The debt will remain individually yours, but your individual payment amount will be based on your combined household income. E.g. if you do PI and your spouse does big law, your individual payment will be much higher than if you were not married. How LRAP works will depend on how your school's LRAP interacts with the federal IBR/PAY-E programs.

Alice, you'll have to crunch the numbers to figure out whether marriage is financially worth it. While married couples enjoy substantial tax benefits, you will also pay much more toward your student loan debt as a result of your IBR plan being based on your combined income. I know that sounds callous, but it doesn't mean you can't have the ceremony and reception. It just means that maybe you don't sign the marriage license.

[anyriotgirl]

Related question- how does debt repayment work for a married couple? I am lucky enough to be graduating without any debt, but my SO will be accumulating about $100,000 dollars in debt (including undergrad). When we get married, will his debt become my debt? If so, how would LRAP work considering I will almost certainly be doing PI (he may as well). I know there is a maximum income to be eligible, but how does that change with two incomes? Financially, does it make a difference if we get married before or after a large portion of the debt is paid off?

Sorry if this question is extremely convoluted.

The debt will remain individually yours, but your individual payment amount will be based on your combined household income. E.g. if you do PI and your spouse does big law, your individual payment will be much higher than if you were not married. How LRAP works will depend on how your school's LRAP interacts with the federal IBR/PAY-E programs.

Alice, you'll have to crunch the numbers to figure out whether marriage is financially worth it. While married couples enjoy substantial tax benefits, you will also pay much more toward your student loan debt as a result of your IBR plan being based on your combined income. I know that sounds callous, but it doesn't mean you can't have the ceremony and reception. It just means that maybe you don't sign the marriage license.

if you live in a common law state, could you run into trouble doing this?

[alicepaul]

Related question- how does debt repayment work for a married couple? I am lucky enough to be graduating without any debt, but my SO will be accumulating about $100,000 dollars in debt (including undergrad). When we get married, will his debt become my debt? If so, how would LRAP work considering I will almost certainly be doing PI (he may as well). I know there is a maximum income to be eligible, but how does that change with two incomes? Financially, does it make a difference if we get married before or after a large portion of the debt is paid off?

Sorry if this question is extremely convoluted.

The debt will remain individually yours, but your individual payment amount will be based on your combined household income. E.g. if you do PI and your spouse does big law, your individual payment will be much higher than if you were not married. How LRAP works will depend on how your school's LRAP interacts with the federal IBR/PAY-E programs.

Alice, you'll have to crunch the numbers to figure out whether marriage is financially worth it. While married couples enjoy substantial tax benefits, you will also pay much more toward your student loan debt as a result of your IBR plan being based on your combined income. I know that sounds callous, but it doesn't mean you can't have the ceremony and reception. It just means that maybe you don't sign the marriage license.

Haha. That doesn't sound callous at all- I asked the question, didn't I? Obviously a piece of paper will not define our relationship, but considering that it is a large amount of money to pay off, it is something to take under serious consideration. Will definitely have to crunch the numbers to get a better sense of our options. Thank you for your help!

[alicepaul]

Related question- how does debt repayment work for a married couple? I am lucky enough to be graduating without any debt, but my SO will be accumulating about $100,000 dollars in debt (including undergrad). When we get married, will his debt become my debt? If so, how would LRAP work considering I will almost certainly be doing PI (he may as well). I know there is a maximum income to be eligible, but how does that change with two incomes? Financially, does it make a difference if we get married before or after a large portion of the debt is paid off?

Sorry if this question is extremely convoluted.

The debt will remain individually yours, but your individual payment amount will be based on your combined household income. E.g. if you do PI and your spouse does big law, your individual payment will be much higher than if you were not married. How LRAP works will depend on how your school's LRAP interacts with the federal IBR/PAY-E programs.

Alice, you'll have to crunch the numbers to figure out whether marriage is financially worth it. While married couples enjoy substantial tax benefits, you will also pay much more toward your student loan debt as a result of your IBR plan being based on your combined income. I know that sounds callous, but it doesn't mean you can't have the ceremony and reception. It just means that maybe you don't sign the marriage license.

if you live in a common law state, could you run into trouble doing this?

We will not as far as I know (attending Michigan).

[anyriotgirl]

if you live in a common law state, could you run into trouble doing this?

We will not (attending Michigan) and likely never will-- the states with common law are Alabama, Colorado, Kansas, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Iowa, Montana, Utah and Texas.

oh I was asking a question, not issuing a caution. I'm curious.

[alicepaul]

if you live in a common law state, could you run into trouble doing this?

We will not (attending Michigan) and likely never will-- the states with common law are Alabama, Colorado, Kansas, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Iowa, Montana, Utah and Texas.

oh I was asking a question, not issuing a caution. I'm curious.

Oh my bad. That is a good question.

[Danger Zone]

if you live in a common law state, could you run into trouble doing this?

We will not (attending Michigan) and likely never will-- the states with common law are Alabama, Colorado, Kansas, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Iowa, Montana, Utah and Texas.

oh I was asking a question, not issuing a caution. I'm curious.

Possibly, but I think you'd have to be living together for a several years before that happens. Would have to do more research.

[rayiner]

Married people do not really enjoy any tax benefits unless one spouse stays at home. A typical couple where both parties make similar money will pay a tax penalty. It's not a huge penalty, but it's significant (about $8k/year for a double big-law couple).

That said, it's not a reason not to get married. You won't pay more over the life of the loan if you're married versus single--your individual payments under PAY-E will just be different. Try this calculator: https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/m ... tor.action.

Also, there's good reasons to get married. Power of attorney if one person gets sick, etc.

[Danger Zone]

Good point, lots to consider about marriage other than finances.

[koalacity]

Married people do not really enjoy any tax benefits unless one spouse stays at home. A typical couple where both parties make similar money will pay a tax penalty. It's not a huge penalty, but it's significant (about $8k/year for a double big-law couple).

That said, it's not a reason not to get married. You won't pay more over the life of the loan if you're married versus single--your individual payments under PAY-E will just be different. Try this calculator: https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/m ... tor.action.

Also, there's good reasons to get married. Power of attorney if one person gets sick, etc.

The bolded is true for PAYE, but not for the LRAPs at most schools. Fortunately for her, Michigan does not factor in spousal income with their LRAP (so even if she decides to do biglaw instead of doing PI and he does end up doing LRAP-eligible PI work, her income won't affect his eligibility for Michigan's LRAP). At Harvard, Stanford, and NYU (among others), spousal income is considered. If I recall correctly, Chicago and Michigan are the only T14s who exclude it.

[cinephile]

Going to Boston right away then subsequently doing BU/BC would probably be a good idea for the relationship, too.

Maintaining a happy marriage with one person in law school is supposed to be challenging -- maintaining an engagement while both people are 1Ls in different cities sounds really difficult and really not fun. Would you guys get to see each other even ten times a year? That sounds really hard.

Agreed.

Every year the applicant pool gets worse and worse, so you have nothing to lose by waiting and applying to a Boston school next year.

[Gungnir]

Also, I already live in Boston. BU/BC is sounding compelling, but I do have concerns about how competitive I would be for the full ride with my numbers (174/3.2). The BU ED or the PI scholarships seem like my best bet.

[Elston Gunn]

Married people do not really enjoy any tax benefits unless one spouse stays at home. A typical couple where both parties make similar money will pay a tax penalty. It's not a huge penalty, but it's significant (about $8k/year for a double big-law couple).

That said, it's not a reason not to get married. You won't pay more over the life of the loan if you're married versus single--your individual payments under PAY-E will just be different. Try this calculator: https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/m ... tor.action.

Also, there's good reasons to get married. Power of attorney if one person gets sick, etc.

Maybe my tax prof was wrong, and I'm no expert, but I thought a substantial majority of couples got tax benefits, and a small proportion--who make very similar money, e.g. double big laywers--paid a "penalty." For example, I'm pretty sure if you're a married couple with one doing PI and one doing biglaw, you'll reap significant tax benefits.

[A. Nony Mouse]

At the moment, if you're married but file singly, under IBR/PAYE your payment is based only on your income. Now, I don't know how that plays out for LRAPs, or if you yourself get significant enough tax benefits filing jointly that it's not worthwhile to file singly. The husband and I don't have kids or a mortgage and we're both out of school, so I'm not sure we were getting any worthwhile tax benefits filing jointly.

A couple things, though: if you're in a community property state filing singly as a married couple may be so complicated that it wipes out any benefit. (At least, that was our experience.) Also, there are proposals to eliminate the married-filing-singly loophole. (Again, for federal repayment plans. My school has no LRAP worth the name so YMMV.)

[Otunga]

I've applied to each of BC and BU and unless you get their full PI scholarships, which are rare, you're not going there on a full offer. My stats are a good amount above the 75ths and I didn't get one at either (not that I'm going for PI). However, I agree with the general idea being suggested that either school at a relatively affordable price is better than Georgetown at sticker, not only financially, but for your relationship also.

[BlakcMajikc]

I've applied to each of BC and BU and unless you get their full PI scholarships, which are rare, you're not going there on a full offer. My stats are a good amount above the 75ths and I didn't get one at either (not that I'm going for PI). However, I agree with the general idea being suggested that either school at a relatively affordable price is better than Georgetown at sticker, not only financially, but for your relationship also.

99% sure I got a full ride to one or both -- and def wasn't a public interest fellowship.

[eljefe1]

Don't go to law school. you have a sugar momma.

[sparty99]

You should not go to law school. This is a horrible decision.

[SFrost]

I've applied to each of BC and BU and unless you get their full PI scholarships, which are rare, you're not going there on a full offer. My stats are a good amount above the 75ths and I didn't get one at either (not that I'm going for PI). However, I agree with the general idea being suggested that either school at a relatively affordable price is better than Georgetown at sticker, not only financially, but for your relationship also.

I would have to disagree. I got 80% tuition offer from BC and 100% from BU (I think it was 40/yr Dean scholarship and 6/yr need-based). Didn't apply for PI or anything. I was >75 GPA and >50 LSAT

[anyriotgirl]

I've applied to each of BC and BU and unless you get their full PI scholarships, which are rare, you're not going there on a full offer. My stats are a good amount above the 75ths and I didn't get one at either (not that I'm going for PI). However, I agree with the general idea being suggested that either school at a relatively affordable price is better than Georgetown at sticker, not only financially, but for your relationship also.

I would have to disagree. I got 80% tuition offer from BC and 100% from BU (I think it was 40/yr Dean scholarship and 6/yr need-based). Didn't apply for PI or anything. I was >75 GPA and >50 LSAT

totally anecdotally, but from what happened with my IRL friends and those schools, the boston schools seem pretty homer-y when passing out the money

[BlakcMajikc]

I've applied to each of BC and BU and unless you get their full PI scholarships, which are rare, you're not going there on a full offer. My stats are a good amount above the 75ths and I didn't get one at either (not that I'm going for PI). However, I agree with the general idea being suggested that either school at a relatively affordable price is better than Georgetown at sticker, not only financially, but for your relationship also.

I would have to disagree. I got 80% tuition offer from BC and 100% from BU (I think it was 40/yr Dean scholarship and 6/yr need-based). Didn't apply for PI or anything. I was >75 GPA and >50 LSAT

totally anecdotally, but from what happened with my IRL friends and those schools, the boston schools seem pretty homer-y when passing out the money

would make sense. I'm a NYer but had a pretty strong why BC/BU based on family...

[jbagelboy]

Sounds like she already made a shitty choice given your joint goals (only 15% of h grads clerk anyway). Don't compound it with an even shittier one. You don't need to go to law school just because she is

[McAvoy]

Don't go to law school. you have a sugar momma.