My wife has about $60k of student loans for graduate school (~$8500 subsidized, the rest accruing interest at 5.4% and 6.8%). She will be finished this summer and then will be making approximately $75k, which we've committed to devote entirely to paying off the loans and will live off my income. Question is - between an upcoming bonus and a tax refund, we could avoid taking out any additional loans for her final semester of school this summer - OR we could make that payment to the 6.8% loans early (prob end of Feb timeframe), versus new loans coming out in May (which would be about $6k at 5.4%).
Is the best decision here to take the money and apply it to the 6.8% existing loans and accept new student loans for the may semester? Or hold on to the money and pay the tuition directly for May?