Should I pay off student loans early?
I’m trying to decide if it worth it to continue making extra payments to my student loans to pay off early or if I should up my Roth 401k contribution and save some in cash instead. I’m 23 and graduated college a little over a year ago. Since Aug 2025 I’ve been paying $1k/month to my student loans. I’m planning on getting engaged before the end of 2026 and I have also been saving for a down payment on a house.
I currently have about $13k sitting in a HYSA, $28k in a taxable brokerage account that I plan on selling off to go towards a down payment (I’ve never personally contributed to this account. This was set up for me when I was born and it grew with dividend reinvesting). I have a little over $10k in my Roth IRA and it’ll be maxed out for the year in October. I also contribute 5% of my $65k salary with a 4% match to my Roth 401k. Once I max I my Roth IRA, I plan to permanently up the contribution to 10%.
I have about $2,400 worth of monthly expenses because I live at home. This includes my monthly Roth IRA contribution and $1k in student loan payments. I make an extra of ~$467 per month.
Student Loans balances & interest rate:
(Private) $17,560 - 4.36%
(Federal) ~$5,500 - 2.73%
(Federal) ~ $6,750 - 3.99%
(Federal) ~ ~$8,000 - 4.50%