<prompt> Human: 1 Should I pay off my student loans first, or concentrate on getting a down payment for a home first?IIRC My interest rates on my loans loans about 20k in total are low. Therefore I dont anticipate having these loans will cost me more than a couple K throughout the years of interest2 Is it necessary as a first time homebuyer to put a 20 down payment on to avoid PMI?3 When investing extra money, should I max out my 401k contribution first, or invest in Roth Standard IRAs first? I will setup my 401k to at least match, regardlessThanks!Assistant: 1 Should I pay off my student loans first, or concentrate on getting a down payment for a home first? IIRC My interest rates on my loans loans about 20k in total are low. Therefore I dont anticipate having these loans will cost me more than a couple K throughout the years of interestDefine, exactly, what low is. 2 Is it necessary as a first time homebuyer to put a 20 down payment on to avoid PMI?To avoid PMI, yes. Necessary in general? Probably not. However, a good rule of thumb is to not have a mortgage after down payment more than 2.5x your annual salary, if you want to remain comfortable with saving extra after paying the housing costs.3 When investing extra money, should I max out my 401k contribution first, or invest in Roth Standard IRAs first? I will setup my 401k to at least match, regardlessGeneral rule of thumb, which is mentioned here a lot is: Have emergency fund of 6-12 months worth of expenses Contribute to 401k up to an employer match Invest in IRA of your choice 5500yr Then max out 401k to the federal max 17500yr Then contribute to post-tax investments mutual funds, real estate, etcThat all assumes that you dont have any shorter term goals, like saving for a house. In that case, depending on the rest of your debt situation, Id do steps 1 and 2, then save for a house in a savings account depending on the time frame.Human: Thanks for the info!My loan interest rates are about 6.8-7 and thats across 3 different loan accounts each one being 6.8-7. Im not sure if thats low low, but the monthly interest rate doesnt seem to be too high when compared to looking to saving up for a house.Either way, thank you for your other tips!  <response>: 6.8-7 isnt low. Look at it from the other side - could you beat a risk-free post-tax rate of return of 7 if you invest your money elsewhere? On a 5-year term, thats over 3,800 in interest; on a 10-year term its almost 8,000. Dont make a habit of treating amounts like that so flippantly. If a stranger on the street asked you to give them 8,000, what would you say? Why is it only a few thousand dollars when youre giving it to a bank instead of a stranger? If youre going to make 6 figures and have no other debts, youll make plenty of money to pay this debt off quickly and save up for a downpayment on a house in a reasonable timeframe. It doesnt have to be eitheror. 