<prompt> Human: Ok so Im young, but I have a decent job Engineer. I have 401k that matches a set amount of my contributions. Right now I am thinking of doing further investments beyond the 401k. The idea I had is that I might try to make some slightly higher risk investments in the stock market in addition to my 401k. I figure that since Im young, I have the time for those to either failpan out very well. If they fail, Ill have time to rebalance. The main problem with this is that I have lots of student loans. While some are better interest wise than others, I have heard from many that it is quasi useless to invest if you have debt hanging over your head. How should I balance investment versus paying off my loans?  <response>: The conventional wisdom is that if the interest rate on the student loans is 4 or less, dont pay them off early and invest the money you would have spent paying them off early in the market. If the interest rate on the student loans is MORE than 4, than every extra penny you have should be going to pay them down as fast as possible. 