<prompt> Human: We are fortunate to be in a strong financial position. Our only debt beside mortgage is about 9,700 in student loan debt at 3.25. The loan will be paid off at the end of 2023 at the current payment rate. We dont have any trouble making the 100 monthly payments and could cut a check tomorrow to pay it off in its entirety. But its likely I know, not guaranteed to clear more than 3.25 investing that money over the same period. Because of the loan payback structure, the most recent breakdown of PI was 30 interest. Ouch! Obviously as we get closer to the end of the loan it will be next to 0. So the questions are: Pay it all off now or invest? If I invest, should I put it in, for example, a Vanguard SP or total stock market fund or Berkshire stock and just transfer money from the investment account to checking in the amount of the loan payments every month? Every quarter? Annually? I have a medium-high risk tolerance. Any ideas I havent thought of would be very much appreciated!  <response>: There is no period in the last century where the market has had a long term pre-inflation return of less 3.25. Moreover, student loan interest is likely tax deductible for you, making the post tax interest rate closer to 2.5. Adjusting for inflation, that means the real return of paying off the loan is closer to 0.As if that werent enough, if this is a federally backed loan, there are substantial safeguards built in to protect you if you ever find yourself in dire financial straits, such as forebearance and pay as you earn.If you have not maxed out your 401k403bSep-IRAtraditional or Roth IRA, you are better off funding those and contributing to a total market index fund than you are paying this loan off early. 