Increase your income by taking another job, or your spouse working. As you mentioned, at least a third of this debt is hers (student loan) and maybe more. Her not working is hurting both of you financially. If you can, work another job. All extra income goes to the highest interest debt first and you should start here because you don't have the room to do the "emotionally-tough" interest first that some advocate - you need all the extra cash you can get. This is to increase cashflow from freeing up income that's being used to service debt.
A very unpopularsometimes-debatable choice on these forums, but it needs to be said - this debt is shrinking your cashflow and if any of it is high interest debt (over 20%), then you need to put all extra resources to get that eliminated as quickly as possible. In this case, if you normally put away 15% to a 401k and you get a 4% match, you should put 11% of that to the high interest debt, and only do the 4%. I realize that retirement is needed, but high interest debt is exactly that - it's draining your cashflow and limiting your options. I list this as a second option to one because increasing income is the first priority.
Get rid of the credit cards as far as usage is concerned. Pay them off and end them for good. You don't want the temptation of using them again or falling back on them in an emergency. You know what I do when I get into an emergency? I work an extra job, and every minute of it sucks, but it beats paying the bank interest.
This is not legal/divorce advice but you and your partner need to get on the same page. The reason I asked the other questions I did in the other questions is that I sense (intuition) that you and her aren't on the same page. You almost seemed surprised at her debt and those are discussions people should have before they marry (sadly, most don't). Why should you make all the difficult sacrifices and she not make any? That isn't fair to you - you're a person too and relationships are give and take for both. You two are a team and that's important.
As for not paying off the debt now, student loans add back interest you don't pay to the principal. That means that over time, you end up paying more. If this doesn't sound bad, then go for it. If this sounds bad, don't do it. So this answers your question as it relates to student loans; as for other debt, bankruptcy is a possibility, but falls into the legal realm.
Increase your income by taking another job, or your spouse working. As you mentioned, at least a third of this debt is hers (student loan) and maybe more. Her not working is hurting both of you financially. If you can, work another job. All extra income goes to the highest interest debt first and you should start here because you don't have the room to do the "emotionally-tough" interest first that some advocate - you need all the extra cash you can get. This is to increase cashflow from freeing up income that's being used to service debt.
A very unpopular choice on these forums, but it needs to be said - this debt is shrinking your cashflow and if any of it is high interest debt (over 20%), then you need to put all extra resources to get that eliminated as quickly as possible. In this case, if you normally put away 15% to a 401k and you get a 4% match, you should put 11% of that to the high interest debt, and only do the 4%. I realize that retirement is needed, but high interest debt is exactly that - it's draining your cashflow and limiting your options. I list this as a second option to one because increasing income is the first priority.
Get rid of the credit cards as far as usage is concerned. Pay them off and end them for good. You don't want the temptation of using them again or falling back on them in an emergency. You know what I do when I get into an emergency? I work an extra job, and every minute of it sucks, but it beats paying the bank interest.
This is not legal/divorce advice but you and your partner need to get on the same page. The reason I asked the other questions I did in the other questions is that I sense (intuition) that you and her aren't on the same page. You almost seemed surprised at her debt and those are discussions people should have before they marry (sadly, most don't). Why should you make all the difficult sacrifices and she not make any? That isn't fair to you - you're a person too and relationships are give and take for both. You two are a team and that's important.
As for not paying off the debt now, student loans add back interest you don't pay to the principal. That means that over time, you end up paying more. If this doesn't sound bad, then go for it. If this sounds bad, don't do it. So this answers your question as it relates to student loans; as for other debt, bankruptcy is a possibility, but falls into the legal realm.
Increase your income by taking another job, or your spouse working. As you mentioned, at least a third of this debt is hers (student loan) and maybe more. Her not working is hurting both of you financially. If you can, work another job. All extra income goes to the highest interest debt first and you should start here because you don't have the room to do the "emotionally-tough" interest first that some advocate - you need all the extra cash you can get. This is to increase cashflow from freeing up income that's being used to service debt.
A sometimes-debatable choice on these forums, but it needs to be said - this debt is shrinking your cashflow and if any of it is high interest debt (over 20%), then you need to put all extra resources to get that eliminated as quickly as possible. In this case, if you normally put away 15% to a 401k and you get a 4% match, you should put 11% of that to the high interest debt, and only do the 4%. I realize that retirement is needed, but high interest debt is exactly that - it's draining your cashflow and limiting your options. I list this as a second option to one because increasing income is the first priority.
Get rid of the credit cards as far as usage is concerned. Pay them off and end them for good. You don't want the temptation of using them again or falling back on them in an emergency. You know what I do when I get into an emergency? I work an extra job, and every minute of it sucks, but it beats paying the bank interest.
This is not legal/divorce advice but you and your partner need to get on the same page. The reason I asked the other questions I did in the other questions is that I sense (intuition) that you and her aren't on the same page. You almost seemed surprised at her debt and those are discussions people should have before they marry (sadly, most don't). Why should you make all the difficult sacrifices and she not make any? That isn't fair to you - you're a person too and relationships are give and take for both. You two are a team and that's important.
As for not paying off the debt now, student loans add back interest you don't pay to the principal. That means that over time, you end up paying more. If this doesn't sound bad, then go for it. If this sounds bad, don't do it. So this answers your question as it relates to student loans; as for other debt, bankruptcy is a possibility, but falls into the legal realm.
This isn't going to be a popular answer, but I want to walk you through the numbers of your situation because I don't see any easy choices, though it's important to see why to know what can be done.
Based on your answer, you have a total of $345,000 of debt. At just 4.5% APR, that's approximately $15,525 of interest a year, or $1,293.75 of interest a month. That's assuming a fairly low interest rate, though in your situation you may be on the lower (or higher end). In addition, I am going to assume that you receive all of your income back and pay no taxes because with all the liabilities, being the sole breadwinner, and having two kids, I'm not sure how much of your money is gone to the US. So that's $6666.67 a month, after the 4.5% interest APR of debts are paid monthly, $5372.92 remaining. More than likely the debt payments are higher because some is going to principal. Also, if I'm reading all this right, your debt-to-income ratio is 4.31.
From all of this, you have a couple of difficult choices - and I am going to leave out divorce/legal options here and stick with basic financial options:
Increase your income by taking another job, or your spouse working. As you mentioned, at least a third of this debt is hers (student loan) and maybe more. Her not working is hurting both of you financially. If you can, work another job. All extra income goes to the highest interest debt first and you should start here because you don't have the room to do the "emotionally-tough" interest first that some advocate - you need all the extra cash you can get. This is to increase cashflow from freeing up income that's being used to service debt.
A very unpopular choice on these forums, but it needs to be said - this debt is shrinking your cashflow and if any of it is high interest debt (over 20%), then you need to put all extra resources to get that eliminated as quickly as possible. In this case, if you normally put away 15% to a 401k and you get a 4% match, you should put 11% of that to the high interest debt, and only do the 4%. I realize that retirement is needed, but high interest debt is exactly that - it's draining your cashflow and limiting your options. I list this as a second option to one because increasing income is the first priority.
Get rid of the credit cards as far as usage is concerned. Pay them off and end them for good. You don't want the temptation of using them again or falling back on them in an emergency. You know what I do when I get into an emergency? I work an extra job, and every minute of it sucks, but it beats paying the bank interest.
This is not legal/divorce advice but you and your partner need to get on the same page. The reason I asked the other questions I did in the other questions is that I sense (intuition) that you and her aren't on the same page. You almost seemed surprised at her debt and those are discussions people should have before they marry (sadly, most don't). Why should you make all the difficult sacrifices and she not make any? That isn't fair to you - you're a person too and relationships are give and take for both. You two are a team and that's important.
As for not paying off the debt now, student loans add back interest you don't pay to the principal. That means that over time, you end up paying more. If this doesn't sound bad, then go for it. If this sounds bad, don't do it. So this answers your question as it relates to student loans; as for other debt, bankruptcy is a possibility, but falls into the legal realm.