<prompt> Human: So, lets say you have a car payment with less than 3 interest. Why would I be trying to pay any more than the minimum payment? I can make more than that in mutual funds even in a terrible year. But I was listening to Dave Ramsey and he seems to think the risk than the reward and other financial planners agree with him. It seems as though you are just throwing away free money by paying the car off in a quicker time frame. Thanks  <response>: You make a valid point, but you also need to consider leverage and cash-flow.If you have a car-payment that is 1 interest, but its on a 70,000 car and you only make 50kyear, you are extremely leveraged. What ends up happening is you get people who finance a bunch of depreciating, material crap, and they justify it because of the low interest. This is all finedandy if those people have the money to pay it off, but if your money is tied up in investments, youre taking a risk.In 2008, you have 100k in a debt at 1 interest, but you also have 100k in the market getting at least 6 returns, right? Except suddenly the market tanks, your 100k is now worth 60K. Your collateral backing the 100k is also worth very little. You lost your job. Youre suddenly in a way worse situation than the guy who has paid down his debt to 20k and lost his job, but he wasnt being smart and leveraging the money like you were.Im not saying you should follow Dave Ramseys advice to a T. But you are being a bit naive in assuming that the only factor that matters is ROI. 