u/Low-Tea3113

Details:
37 y/o - freelance (no 401(k))
$54k in Roth IRA w/ 10% rate of return
$25k in student loans @ avg 5.55% interest (all fed loans)
(not planning to have kids if that matters? & no mortgage either rn and no other debt at all)

New student loan repayment plans go into effect in July. Currently been steadily paying $309/mo on my student loan for years. Looked at my options on studentloancalculator.com (bless that website btw) and I can either pay close to what I'm paying now, $371/mo, for the next 7 years, with the final total payout to the gov being $29.7k. Or, an aggressive approach, I could pay $1100/month for the next 2 years and end up paying $22k total. There are other repayment options but they are no good -- the monthly payment is higher and/or the total balance is higher so no thanks.

I currently max out my roth contributions each year, spread out more or less evenly over 12 months. I'm reading a book on personal finance and investing and it outlines 2 routes for paying off *low-interest* debt and investing: "if you had $10k around, should you use it to proactively pay off your student loan, or invest? I f you were to pay off the student loan, you would save $3933 in interest [7% int] over ten years. If you were to invest the $10k you would earn $9672 over the same period." The profit of $10k @ 7% compounding APR over 40 years creates $140k in profit. Much better than saving $4k in interest decades before. There is more nuance here obv, its a whole chapter, but that is the gist.

HOWEVER. There is also a third door: "You could also achieve nearly the same effect by (1) paying off the $10k loan and (2) after its paid off, redirecting the money you'd been spending on monthly payments to investing."

Now I know with investing/compound interest TIME IS MONEY. So I'm wondering, with the actual figures I have, is it worth stopping all saving (roth and otherwise - I do have an emergency fund im close to completing. I save on average $1300/month currently across all accounts, but it is variable) and aggressively paying off my student loan @ $1100/month for 2 years? Then taking that extra $308/month afterward the 2 years and redirecting it to investing, in addition to maxing out my Roth?? Or some other approach?? I'm a little wary of a bill that high, in case of a month when I have less work and that bill really bites me, but/and so I could also pay some other higher than minimum amount? I guess that's a mystery 4th door that I don't wanna do the math and loan system untangling to figure out.

Thanks for sticking to the end. Grateful for solid advice reddit finance folks!