<prompt> Human: Yesterday my employer let us know that they will be offering a new program in January. Instead of matching up to 6 of our salaries in 401k contributions, we will have the option to put that money toward student loans. I currently have about 33k left and with regular monthly payments of 470, they will be paid off in roughly 6.5 years. I can currently add about 500 to the monthly payment, and at that rate, they will be paid off in 2.5 years. Using my employers new program, I could have them paid off in 18 months. My 401k will be at about 12k by the end of the year. I make 50k, so the annual contribution between my self and my employer is 6k. That 6k over 40 years will be worth 60k at least. Short-term, it would be nice to pay off my loans a year earlier, but long-term, my 401k loses a pretty big chunk of money. Is this a good assessment? I appreciate all responses, thanks! EDIT: DoWhatYouWantBB mentioned that the interest rates of my loans are important: 5,217.24 6.55 5,307.00 6.55 2,661.26 3.15 3,153.32 3.61 2,643.21 3.61 2,220.92 3.60 4,459.38 3.60 6,712.55 3.60 Assistant: The people here will need to know the interest rate on your student loans to figure this out properly. Human: Added them, thank you! Maybe I should just do this program for the two high interest loans to get them over with and then go back to the 401k and pay the 3 ones off?  <response>: In my current job I devoted more to paying off loans than signing up for a 401k early on. I paid off my high interest loan about 6.55 and Im slowly working toward the lower interest ones all below 4 while putting more to my 401k and other investments to cover what I missed earlier. 