<prompt> Human: Hello money people.I have about 70k in student loans at 3.8. Ive redone my budget and should have enough spare money to pay off this loan in the next year.However. Everything Ive read advises that if your loans are under 5, it is generally better to invest the extra money. I understand that the basis for this advice is that the markets generally average out greater than 5 ROI.__BUT__. It _feels_ wrong. The debt is certain; the investment ROI is hypothetical. Markets both stock and job are volatile and everything in me just wants to pay down the loan and be debt-free for the first time in my adult life. My biggest fear is that Ill invest this money, the markets will crash, I will lose all the money and my job, and the debt will still be there.So. Convince me to do the proper thing, rather than the emotional thing.__Edit__: Thank you all for your input. You have made me feel very positive about doing the thing I want to do, and thats is a great place to be!Also for posterity: Those of you who mentioned having an emergency fund and taking full advantage of retirement savings, thank you as well -- that is excellent advice. When I said spare money, I meant that all of those things are well-padded and maximized.  <response>: Honestly if I were you Id pay them off ASAP, just mentally having that gone is nice and since youre only losing out on one year of potential gains its not a huge loss. 