<prompt> Human: I need help formulating a plan for my student loans as the end of my grace period is quickly approaching. My balance is 120K, almost all principal at this point and almost all at 6-8 interest. Its a mixture of Stafford and Grad PLUS. I am looking at a monthly payment of 1300 on a level 10-year repayment plan. I have looked into the PAYE option and the monthly payments would be even higher; Im also wary of the forgiveness tax bomb down the road.My partner and I have no other debts, though we are planning to take on a mortgage in the next 12 months.My partner wants us to throw extra money at the loans each month to get them off our back sooner and minimize interest paid over the life of the loan. Hes interested in possibly refinancing the loans to accomplish this.I would rather pay the standard monthly payment on the loans and put our extra money toward retirement. We are in our mid-20s and I just would hate to give up the benefits of compounding interest.FWIW, our IRAs are fully funded and we each contribute enough to our 401Ks to get the employer matches. To me this is the bare minimum; we can continue doing this even if we pay more to my loans, but I would really rather do more. I only have 10K in retirement so far and my partner has about 40K.So what should we do?  <response>: Paying off a loan at 7 interest is essentially the same thing as earning compounded interest at 7. By paying off your loans faster, you are contributing to retirement as youll have to pay them some day.Contribute enough to retirement to get whatever match you can but start throwing money at those loans.If you can manage to refinance the loans to below 4, maybe that advice will change. 