<prompt> Human: So I have several public loans totalling just under 30k with a 6.8 interest rate. Im currently working for a county government and am interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement, which means I qualify for the PSLF program. The best way to benefit from PSLF is to minimize payments as much as possible with an IBR plan. I know the conventional wisdom is to pay off higher interest debt before investing, however in this circumstance would it make more sense to pay as little of the debt off as possible so that most of it is absolved and just begin investing instead? The risk to this is that if for whatever reason I dont work for a government agency or qualifying employer than I would be shooting myself in the foot, but if I pay off this debt and do end up working in government for the entire time than I will not be making use of this awesome program. What are some opinions on this?  <response>: I would agree with this, provided you will stay in the government that amount of time. However with just 30,000 you may end up not having much forgiven. For instance I ran the numbers through an IBR calculator and if you made 50,000 a year, easy to do in law enforcement with overtime, you get the last 12 months paid for through PSLF. On the other hand, if you are going to an agency where you can reduce your taxable income substantially, with pension payments, 401ks457s or if youre lucky, both, etc. then it can be a good deal. The program works better for prosecutors, nurses, teachers, doctors, etc. where you spend six figures on graduate school. 