<prompt> Human: My wife has 13K 5.5 in student loans left to pay off. I want to get it done with. She thinks its better to increase monthly payments and stretch it out over a year. 2 options.Option 1SavingsEmergency fund - 22KChecking - 9KThose are the 2 accounts I would look at to erase the debt. Is it wise to use the emergency fund for the loan? Option 2We take home about 7000month between the two of us after 401K deductions. Of that we send 1000 to Edward Jones for a ROTH IRA,ROTH and Stock accI know, I know - VNAGUARD...but I dont have a clue how to invest and another 500 to savings. Is it wise to stop these investments to tackle debt and miss out on the compound interest? Currently we pay 400mth to the loan. If we stopped the above investments we would divert it all to repayment and could knock it out in under a year. Thoughts?  <response>: If you paid off your loan in full, youd still have 18K remaining in cash, which is still a very good amount. There is no reason to stretch this out for a year, and pay unnecessary interest. After you pay off her loans, focus on rebuilding your cash reserves. 