> What am I missing?

Those other people spend less than you do.

> 5,000 per month will take like 8 years to pay off which seems just so daunting.

Yeah. That’s what happens when you get a large mortgage in student loans.

Start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics

It’s just math. Spend less or make more.

Also you should have an after tax income of around $18k/month (ignoring state and local taxes), so you’ll need to figure out where that other $8k/month is going.