UK student loan repayment and the falling value of the pound. Thoughts?

[olliecjb]

Currently I have 17,400 pound of student debt in the UK with an interest rate of 1.25%. Currently I pay off 406 pounds per month (the lowest I'm allowed to pay based on my overseas assessment form). I'm living in the US and wondering what you would all do with regards to paying off the debt.

I am in a position to pay off more (could double that payment quite easily) and is it worth doing with the pound falling so low versus the dollar or should I continue to invest in my 401k (nearly maxed out for both spouse and I), (Roth IRA completely maxed for 2016 for us both), car paid off and 6 months in emergency funds saved up.

What would you do?

[gldms]

My hope (and maybe I'm being delusional) is that, after the whole Brexit thing has settled down in a couple of years, the pound will climb back to its historic average value of about $1.50.  Now, the pound is about $1.20.  Hence, relative to the historical status quo, paying off your loan now would yield a one-off 25% return on your investment (I'm even ignoring the interest on your student loan).  That's not too bad and is certainly worth considering if you have already maxed-out your tax-advantaged 401K and IRA contributions.  I'd compare  that one-off 20% gain with what you would get if you put the money in an ETF index fund that is sitting taxable investment account.  Yeah, do it!