<prompt> Human: I am 25 years old, I live at home rent-free. I have about 17k sitting in a checking account. My NET income is about 2600month. I have about 12k in student loans at 6.375. I have been making payments of 1800month towards these loans, and plan to have them paid off entirely by Jan 2014. Minimum payment is 168. I pay off my credit card in full every month, about 500 in regular expenses. My dad has been on my case lately because I have not put any money into any retirement funds. He thinks that my loan payments are entirely too high. He recommends paying twice the minimum payment and redirecting the rest to a retirement fund and stock investments. Years ago he opened up a Roth IRA for me and has invested in several penny stocks through that. The account is at a significant loss. While I think that theres some merit to the idea of maxing my Roth, Im very uncomfortable putting money into this shared account. If I dont invest in what he wants me to invest in, I will get endless shit. However, I dont want to invest in what hes invested in.Question: Am I being silly?The way I see it, putting the money into paying off my loans guarantees a 6.375 return in the form of interest I wont pay in the future. That seems like more than I could reasonably hope for in the stock market. Even if I invested in index funds in the Roth, it would not produce that kind of return. ...right?The way I see it, I should pay my debt off first, and THEN max my retirement funds. The only way Id see doing otherwise is if my employer offered matching on a 403b, but they do not. Help?  <response>: If you can pay off your loans by Jan 2014, do that.Youll have until 415 to max out your 2013 IRA anyway, and it seems like you will probably be able to do that.And for the love of all that is good and beautiful in this world, do not invest in penny stocks. Thats gambling. Hint: Youll lose. Invest in a target date retirement fund, or if you feel like you want something else, choose a lazy portfolio or index funds.If I were you, Id also plan on supporting your dad in his retirement. 