student loan question

[tofer]

Greetings friends,

I have three degrees (BA, MS, PhD) with about $48,000 in total student loan debt. I am 34 years old. I recently finished my latest degree. Of the total, about $9,000 is at 6.8% interest with the remaining at 3.5%. I am paying down the 6.8% loans with an additional payment of about $900 on top of necessary payment. Once the 6.8% loans are paid off do I continue hacking away with at least the same amount or should I start converting those dollars into retirement? I presently have an ING retirement account and state pension plan (educator).

[frugal_engineer]

If those 3.5% loans are variable interest, I'd keep paying them off as fast as possible to limit your exposure when interest rates go back up someday.  If they are fixed rate, you can probably get a better return on the extra money by investing it, especially if you can put it in an IRA (for tax advantages).  Thats how I look at my loans, I just finished the 6.8% ones this month, but the rest are 5.9% and 5.0% respectively, so my bet is that it would be tough to beat that return with investments.

[Zaga]

My student loans are all at 5% and we'll be paying them off before investing more than 15%.  At 3.5% that's a tougher call.  Maybe split the difference?