Should I pay off my student loans as quickly as possible?

Slow

But that's just me

I think 6-8% debt is kind of the range where it becomes a tough decision. Anything less and it makes sense to invest the money, especially with student loan interest being deductible. Anything higher than 8% and it's probably a no brainer to just pay it off.

Personally, 6.8% is high enough for me to want to prioritize it over additional retirement savings. I would certainly still prioritize the free 401k match, but I'd probably route everything else towards the loans. That's just my opinion. I wouldn't call anyone stupid for slowing down those payments though and maxing out the Roth while you can. You'll never get those years back on the Roth.

The only other thing that I would consider is emergency fund or other cash. There are conflicting opinions on this, but if you don't have a good emergency fund, then maybe putting your money in a Roth over the loans is the best route. Once you pay the loan, that money is gone. If it's sitting in a Roth, you can always get your contributions back. Just something to think about.

First step is to refi, then evaluate. 6.8% is way to high.

Refi on Sofi and I can send you a referral code

I'm paying off mine aggressively because my payments are cutting into my fun money as my savings has remained unchanged. Should kill them with this years bonus in the fall.

I was going to start digging into that after the other poster suggested it. I assume I can keep the tax deduction with a refi, or is that the catch?

Tight, definitely sounds like step one.

Refinance loans if you can to lower interest rate.

However, student loans are some of the most forgiving loans there are. Tax deductible, tons of possible forgiveness scenarios, etc. it's very low on the debt priority.

With that said, it appears you do not have much debt. Good for you. I'd prioritize your retirement contributions first, 401k and Roth while eligible, and also a comfortable emergency fund. After that, any additional funds could be directed towards the student loans.

Anyone else have a referral code haha? I need to check out sofi.

My wife had loans with interest rates up to 7.6% at one point. We've paid off the highest interest rates except for one at 5.6% which we will eventually knock out. I am with some others in this thread, where my level of comfort sinks when the interest rates hover between 5% and 8%. Once the 5.6% is gone, I am not going to be rushing to pay off her loans with rates of less than 5%.

If you can refinance and still get the benefits of a student loan, by all means go for it. Considering this has you troubled as it stands, set up auto-drafts so that you are contributing 15% of your salary into retirement (Roth IRA + 401k), and then focus the rest towards bills and loans. Making it a goal to contribute and max out your Roth IRA and 401k is a great goal, but it will encroach on other plans that you might have.

One other point of consideration regarding the Roth IRA, you have approximately 16 months to make a year's worth of contributions. So 2015's contributions can be applied anywhere between 1/1/2015 - 4/15/2016. One payment of $343.75 at the 1st of the month can set you on a path to max out your 2015 contributions and allow you to stretch out your payments through the whole payment window.

Not to hijack, but I just logged my info into SoFi and it says it was unable to refi my student loans at this time due to either work experience or credit score. I've been with my Company for four years and my credit score is "Excellent" around 785-790. Can your credit be too good to do this refi? Who else should I talk to?

What kind of credit score is Sofi looking for?