<prompt> Human: Im current in the Air Force with a job that Im pretty happy with and that is very in demand outside in the private sector NDI Nondestructive Inspection from what Ive been told. I currently have 17,100 in federal student loans: Loan 1 6617 at 4.41 Minimal amount due 67.30 Loan 2 7394 at 4.04 Minimal amount due 82.47 Loan 3 2533 at 3.51 Minimal amount due 27.61 Loan 4 640 at 3.51 Minimal amount due 10.34 Total Minimum Monthly payment 196.72 Im paying 300 a month using the snowball method. The avalanche method only saves me 100 over the course of the entire lifetime of the loans.My dad keeps telling me to just pay the minimal so that a future employer will pay off the rest since thats the new thing companies like to do as an incentive to potential employers. There was an article posted here a couple days ago, that has now been removed, talking about student loans now at 1.5 trillion dollars. At the bottom of the article it mentioned the same thing that my dad is talking about. Should I do it or just keep paying the 300?  <response>: you should absolutely not count on someone paying off your student loans. if it happens, thats a huge bonus, but in the meantime you need to assume its not going to happen. you dont even know who your next employer will be. if you have the possibility to pay more than the minimum, you should. Your interest rates arent crazy so youre not in a big hurry to pay it off, but youre still paying interest each month, and being debt free sooner is so worth it. 