Need Help Tackling Crippling Debt (~115k)

So, here's what I would do:

Look into Credible or SoFi or Earnest for refinancing your Wells Fargo loans. I would not try to refinance your federal loans, because you'll want to be able to defer those during grad school or switch to income-based repayment plans when times get rough.

Try to get a higher-paying job, regardless of how much it relates to your degree. Don't burn bridges, stay in touch with the people you would want to write you a recommendation letter. Make the minimum payments on your federal loans and throw all the rest of your money at the private ones.

Focus on getting rid of those private loans and staying up to date on the federal ones. When you've finished paying the Wells Fargo loans, and with a higher salary and no living costs it could take you as little as 2 years, you should be in decent shape to go into a nursing program and defer the rest of your loans in the meantime. Hopefully you'll come out on the other side with a 6-figure salary that will make it a lot easier to pay everything off.

25 is not old and there is no point in dwelling on this false idea of "lost time" when the rest of your life is waiting. I have a friend who's almost done with her accelerated nursing program and her classmates range in age from 23 to 50. There's a 35-year-old single mom doing it. She has no regrets about starting at that age, because she wasn't in the financial or mental headspace to start it before then, and she's still got 30+ years of work life ahead of her and she's ready for it.

/r/personalfinance Thread Parent