<prompt> Human: Im a recent college graduate that has accumulated 30k in student loan debt. Im one month into a new job making 44k a year and I will have to begin paying my student loans back in the near future. Im trying to figure out whether I should even bother saving besides an emergency fund, or if I should just dump any and all of my unspent money about 800 a month into my student loans. I love the idea of opening up a Roth IRA, and I have a small investment portfolio already, but I feel that any gains I can get with saving and investments will be outweighed by the interest on my loans. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!  <response>: I would say try to do both. First of, you will always find reasons that this isnt the time to put money away for the future. This is a bad habit and one that can easily be broken by merely putting a little bit away each month -- in an account you cant easily touch -- and seeing it accumulate over time. One day youll look in there and find 10k, 25k, 50k and so on until you have a nice little nest egg. Youll fully realize the beauty of compounding interest. A little bit of money compounding interest happy, happy, joy, joy. Start of with something like 50 a month. I mean, 50 a month. Thats skipping a night out on the town.Now, on the flip side, you will also fully realize how a little bit of debt compounding interest :. Thats why you have to focus also on paying down your loans. In my opinion, it is a balancing act between reducing debt and saving. Both are important but I dont think it is wise to ignore one completely and solely focus on the other. 