u/Mental-Hold339

First, thank you to all the people who helped on my last post about getting switched to IDR!

Ok, my husband is finishing up residency, starts an attending job later this summer. We have been on SAVE but we wanted to get switched to IDR (PAYE) because that will be better for us than RAP. Current loans are just under 300k, resident salary is about 80k/year. I'm a SAHM to 4 kids so he is the only one with an income. We are intending to do PSLF. We applied to IDR last week and got approved a few days later, thankfully!

With his approval we got a notice of repayment change that our new monthly payment will be $0 beginning in June which makes sense given our family size and his resident salary, but it said that starting NOV 2027 our payment will go up to $3,015 a month? I knew it would go up when we recertified with his attending salary, but when I did the loan simulator with what will be his attending salary, it was estimated around $1500/month. Plus, the government doesn't yet know his new salary nor have our taxes reflected that so where are they getting that number from?? When we recertify his income this time next year and it will be with his attending salary, should I expect to start paying that $3k every month?

My husband is finishing up a 3 year residency this June, starting as an attending in July. We have 8 loans, 4 direct unsubsidized and 4 direct grad plus. Balance is just under 300k.

I know we need to recertify his employer when he starts his new job. His new job will be a huge increase from his current salary. Will his payment reflect that immediately because he will have just certified a new employer? But I thought payments were calculated based off of the last year’s tax return so does the payment amount only go up once a year?

Currently we are on SAVE (and in forbearance obviously). We applied to change to IDR in OCT 2024, but I think at the time applications were not being processed??? Anyways, it’s still in review! I see on studentaid.gov that applications are available. Should we reapply? We don’t want to go on RAP. PAYE will be better for us.

Lastly, his loans are not consolidated. I’m confused on the advantages/disadvantages of consolidating. He has 14 qualifying payments on 3/8 loans, and 9 for his other 5/8 loans. It seems like consolidating will just average them all out?

We are really in the dark about all things PSLF and currently my main source of info is Reddit 😅