Morning,

I'm in a bit of a conundrum here and would appreciate any advice.

My wife and I have been married for 3 years, she is a Therapist at a hospital and is on the 10 year Income Based Repayment plan.

We have filed Separately but Married the last 2 years, but I'm starting to wonder if this is a good idea or not because it seems that we owe A LOT each year.

Our incomes together would create an increase in the monthly loan amount to about $1,000 from the $320 it currently is with her income, which is why we file Separately.

We also bought a house in June of this year and am not sure how to break that out or we could both claim the same. I don't understand why we can't claim school loan interest since we file separately either (could someone explain please).

Anyway, just looking for some advice here on how to go in the future and maybe not have to pay in $5,000 every year. Thanks.