I almost dumped her because of her debt. Now we're married and debt free.
When my then girlfriend (now wife) told me 2 months into dating that she had 150k of student loan debt, I felt like I couldn't breathe. I struggled with the idea of taking on that debt if we got married. I even called the Dave Ramsey show and got some advice for how to look at it. The response in the comment section was hilarious. The men all told me to run, the women said I was shallow.
But we stayed together and talked about what our future looked like, and I slowly realized that even though paying off this student debt would set us well behind where I wanted to be once I got married and started a family, there were many aspects of the woman I loved that made her a perfect life partner for me, despite this one part that I was letting overshadow everything else.
So we got married in the fall and put every penny we could towards the loans. I took all my savings, sold all my toys (motorcycles and a project truck), took all our wedding gift money, slashed our budget, and slowed our retirement savings.
What started as 150k when we first met almost exactly 2 years ago just went to 0 today. It feels so good to stop paying mohela every month, but it's also sobering to realize that we're out of debt, but we still have nothing. But at least now we get to build!
Details for those that are interested: before taxes she makes 72k, I make 90k. Medium COL. Renting, no mortgage. Her degree was a 6 year doctorate program, my degree was a 4yr engineering degree where I ended with ~15k in debt before I paid it off quickly after graduating. Her loans were all federal with a 6.2% interest rate. No forbearance or aid programs.