<prompt> Human: I am very fortunate to only have about 9k worth of student loans left to pay. I have a pretty stable job that gives me enough to pay my bills and have a bit extra to create an emergency savings I have about 3 months worth so far and a nice bit of spending money if Im semi frugal. Each year the company I work for gives out a holiday bonus that is a small percentage of my income paid to me from the past 5 years of employment this will be my 3rd year of getting the bonus, but I havent been with them 3 years in full yet. I can essentially expect around an extra paychecks worth of cash at the beginning of the year each year as a result, and, combined with my tax return, I get a large chunk of money to either add to my savings, spend, or invest in anyway I want. I thought it might be worthwhile to pay off my loans. If I put all of this extra money toward my student loans this upcoming winter, I should be able to pay off the balance sometime next year or the year after! My current rates on the oddly 2 loans are 6.55 for one 4k amount and the other is 5k and split into a subsidized rate and a non subsidized rate of 4.25 4k and 6.55 1K respectively.Is it smart to use this extra money to become debt free within a year or two? Or is it better to either add it to my emergency savingsinvest it? My fathers thinking is that by investing it, I would get a higher rate of return than what Im losing through student loans due to the tax money I get back from paying the interest on my loans... Im just a bit confused as to whats best.Help? Im happy to add any missing information you might need if I missed anything.EDIT: I should add, the company I work for doesnt have a 401k offering or matching program. They have a profit sharing program and invite employees to buy stock in the privately held company. I have a Roth IRA, but I havent been good about maintaining it...Ive been thinking of moving to vanguard and having them manage it for me while I make automated contributions to it going forward.  <response>: Personally, I would pay off all of the student loans ASAP. The interest rates are a bit on the high side particularly the 6.55 ones and you only have 9K total. So I would just get rid of it all now, then focus your full attention on savinginvesting going forward.Also, I know this wasnt really part of your question, but if youre consistently getting a large tax refund every year, you may want to adjust your withholdings to keep more money in your paychecks. 