Hi everybody! I’m hoping to get some advice here.

I graduated with a masters this past May. I took out 46k in loans (covering both bachelors and masters), which now have 3k in interest on them. This is all federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans. The biggest loan is an unsubsidized grad plus loan, which is 20,500 at 6.6% interest, while my other loans have much lower interest rates. I have a job making 55k.

I know the advice is often to not refinance federal loans because you lose income based repayment and other loan protections, but I would like to get a lower interest rate. If I pay off these loans the way they stand, I will pay over 100k back when I only took out 46. Ideally I would like to pay these off in 5 years and a single loan with a lower interest rate would help.

I could refinance now and start making debt payments immediately, but then the loan would be private. Or, I could refinance in December when the loans come due and make excess payments now. Or, I could consolidate loans but I don’t really understand how that would effect me. Or, I could not refinance and try to pay my largest loan first.

Any help?

Thank you all so much