Hi all,
Trying to figure out how to afford my loan payments now that I’m being forced to pick a plan other than SAVE. We made big life choices (including buying a house) based on the very affordable SAVE payment calculated from my work as an attorney in a civil legal non-profit.
I am married, but we file separately. We have one child, who I claim as a dependent on my taxes. I have 60 certified/eligible payments toward PSLF forgiveness and I plan to continue in my non-profit work until I achieve loan forgiveness.
I have a $219k balance on my Direct loans, with a 6.875% interest rate. My earliest loans were issued in 2002, so I believe that I’m limited to Old IBR or RAP, moving forward.
I anticipate gross wages of $99k for 2026. Based on my 2025 AGI ($94k), my Old IBR payment is estimated at $655 and RAP is estimated at $651. Historically, my husband and I both put 8-12% of our wages into our respective 401ks.
I would like advice about if the below plan is reasonable to minimize my loan payment, as a $650/month would be really difficult for us to manage.
- Have spouse reduce his 401k contribution to $0 and me max my 401K contributions ($24,500 for 2026). This will allow us to have approximately the same monthly household budget.
- This should reduce my AGI to $74,500 for 2026
- Estimated RAP payment based on an AGI of $74,500 would be $385 and old IBR would be $419
We have already made the changes to our 401k contributions (which will be effective as of our May 15 paychecks) with me putting 24% of my check into the 401k.
My big question is wondering how many paychecks I would need to provide in order to certify income using this new, lower income information rather than my 2025 taxable income. I get paid twice a month. My assumption is that I need to provide 2 paystubs that cover a 30-day period, but I cannot find anything definitive.
Assuming the above plan is a legitimate approach to minimizing my monthly loan payment, I’m incentivized to make the switch as quickly as possible, so that I can start earning credit for these months.
Assuming this is a reasonable approach, is there any reason that I couldn’t even more significantly contribute to my 401k for a couple months (essentially contributing the bulk of my income, with the plan that I would max out 401k contributions early) and then use those very low monthly paychecks to certify? They would be substantially lower than the paychecks for the second half of the year due to hitting the $24,500 contribution cap early. This seems like it may cross a line of misrepresenting income because I will not be able to keep contributing to the 401k at such a high rate for the entirety of the year. That said, my income at time of certification would be honestly represented.
Thanks so much for your thoughts. This is such a hot mess and I'm just trying to make sure that I do what's best for my family despite the chaos.