<human>: I have $38,400 in private student loan debt that has basically never been paid. The loan is from when I went to a for-profit school when I was 18, I graduated in 2004 but never found work in the field. It's taken me since then to finally get a good enough job where I can start making payments on it. 

I was young and stupid and didn't make any deals or communicate with them in any way, i just ran and avoided it. Now that im a bit older and wiser i've started making payments on my loans and made efforts to get my federal loans out of default with an income-based repayment play consolidation (the federal loans are only a few thousand dollars).

After I made my first payment to each of the 2 private loans I got a call from Navient (formally sallie mae) offering me a buyout option of $4500 to wipe out my private student loan debt. The condition is I have to make the payment by the end of the month. Technically I could pull it off, it would hurt like hell but i could do it. I get paid monthly so I could just use the vast majority of my savings and my paycheck to pay this off and be a bit late with other bills and just eat ramen for a month.

I know it might sound obvious, at least it did to me, "of course take it" but what are the consequences? I know if I pay it in full over time it will look "better" on my credit but right now im paying $350 a month and at that rate it will take many years to pay off (3.5% interest), im 31 now and I'd like to start a family and get a house sometime soon, **my question is: This seems a bit too good to be true, what are the consequences and is this a good idea for the long term health of my credit and financial situation?**

p.s. it's really true, you spend your 30's trying to fix what you broke in your 20's if you're not careful (and i definitely wasn't).

Summarize the given text in a few sentences.
<bot>: 40k in student loan debt. Loan holder offered me a settlement of $4.5k if I send the lump sum by the end of the month. Consequences of settlement?