So, I had to rely heavily on student loans when I went to college. I have roughly $43k total. ~$20k through Sallie Mae and ~$23k in direct federal loans (It's 9 separate loans, 8 of which have a 6.8% interest rate and 1 has a 6%). Because it through 2 different companies, we pay 2 payments a month, which is annoying and cumbersome. Consolidation wouldn't really do much to reduce anything for me.

We are in a position to throw a sizable chunk of money at the loans if we want to. We are considering paying off the Sallie Mae loans completely and just having the direct loans.

We're trying to figure out if paying off a huge chunk is better or continuing to make payments is better (in terms of interest and such). In about a year, DH will be exiting the military and will be back to being a full-time student. We are trying to figure out just what we need to do to make it work once we are back home. Reducing the loan payments to just 1 payment a month instead of 2 would help a lot. These loans are the only debt we have.

Advice?