<prompt> Human: SITUATION RESOLVED: I spoke with my case worker and she informed me that I would have to submit receipts for anything I use the money for, and that I couldnt put the money in any account other than my checking account, even if I would spend the money on replacing my things at a later date. Ive decided to bite the bullet and replace my things with money I have saved it is a fund for emergencies, after all! and avoid taking on debt. Thanks for the feedback; its been fun!Hi there! I live on the gulf coast and much of what I owned was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey. Things were rough for a while, but with help from FEMA and my employer Ive landed on my feet. I was offered a 20,000 loan by the small business administration, but I dont need all that money to replace my things. Im living in a cheap place now and have few expenses, so Ill be able to save enough to furnish my place once its rebuilt. Im pretty debt-averse, but I would only need to beat 1.7 to make money here. Im leaning towards rejecting the loan, but I want to know if Im throwing away an opportunity to make money. If I were to invest it, I would probably put it in an index fund and not touch it until I have to put a down payment on a house, send any future kids I might have to college, or until I retire. The terms of the loan were 20,000, 30 years, fixed 1.7 interest rate, monthly payment of 77. Im in my early 20s and have a stable job where I make 27,000 per year with good benefits. My employer is paying for me to earn a graduate degree, which will significantly increase my earning potential after 2020. I have no debt currently. Thanks guys! EDIT: Some have said that taking this loan would be unethical. I appreciate people bringing that up; I dont want to do something that is inherently wrong. To provide some more context, the damages to my property were assessed at 20,000 . I could use the money to replace all of my furniture and items with new ones, but I think that I can spent far less than that and refurnish my place with things I find on Craigslist. I have a little money saved up that I could use for this purpose, leaving the bulk of this potential loan money usable for investing. Does that change the ethical assessment? EDIT 2: Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! Keep it coming. Im thinking now that I would put the money in a CD if I were to take the loan due to the risk of losing my principal in the market, at least until I would pay it off which I think I could do in 5 years. I still need to have an in-depth conversation with my case worker about the terms before I really decide to take it or not.  <response>: Some have said that taking this loan would be unethical. I appreciate people bringing that up; I dont want to do something that is inherently wrongI disagree. You pay taxes, you pay into the system that subsidizes this sort of thing. Now you are eligible to benefit from it.Even Ayn Rand collected social security. 