<prompt> Human: Hello PFMy wife and I are trying to kill off our student loans stat and are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Weve got about 36,000 left 3.25 interest and are putting around 1800mo into it. We estimate that we can be debt free within about 20 mo at that rate. My wife has about 14000 in stocks that her grandfather gave her years ago and were considering cashing those in to help knock out a chunk of our remaining loans. What I want to know is - is this a smart idea?Heres how the situation shakes out right now:Debt - SL 1 - 10,265 3.25 SL 2 - 13,405 3.25 SL 3 - 12,591 3.25 Stocks - CSI - 47 shares worth 920 total with a 5.42 yield IBM - 27 shares worth 4319 total with a 2.77 yield KMX - 50 shares worth 3228 total with a negative yield its done very well in years past, though NSC - 53 shares worth 5397 total with a 2.21 yield I know nothing about investing and Ive got no idea whether or not these are good investments. I love the idea of getting out of debt sooner, but I dont want to make an unsound decision based on emotion.Edit: Sorry, formatting is being weird and I cant seem to fix it  <response>: It might be the mathematically best option to keep the stocks and pay off the debts slowly. It is possible that these shares combined have an average annual growth of 3.25 or higher.However...I am debtfree. I paid off my student loans years early. Their interest rates were really low. However: the peace of mind of not having to worry about these debts anymore, was worth something to me. Now that the last payment is roughly ten years ago, I can tell you that I still think that this is the best choice for me.So some reasons to cash in the stocks and pay off the student loans with them: Peace of mind. Simplifying your finances. Instead of assets and debts, youll only have debts, and later on youll have no debts and will build your assets. Stocks wont give a guaranteed 3.25 return or higher either in the next couple of years. Stocks are very volatile, and on the short term you can also lose money on them. The student loans will give a guaranteed 3.25 return. You know very very little about stocks. If you were asking about investing in stocks, I would not advise you to invest in single stocks since you know so little about them. You got them gifted to you, but still your lack of knowledge could mean that youd be better off with cash instead of stocks.I dont know what your wifes grandpa intended for her to do with the stocks? If he wanted her to use them for education, then cashing them in makes even more sense to me. If he, on the other hand, wanted her to keep them and build a portfolio out of them, then I guess that is a wish to at least consider... 