<prompt> Human: It seems apparent that its pretty universally thought to be a bad idea, but I would like some opinions on if that still holds true in a particular scenario that I have.me and my wife both 33 have separate 401k accounts through our employers, hers is 95k, mine is 75k. She has hers maxed out, I do not technical have mine maxed because there is no max, but I put aside 20 of my salary towards this account, and my employer matches 25 of what I put in Im trying to work it up to the full 17,500, but we just had a kid and want to have more liquid for a bit.Our goal is to have my private student loan paid off in the next 4-5 years, she recently earned an unexpected raise that puts us above the income to be able to claim student loan interest deductions, which makes it slightly more important for us to pay off this debt which is 13,500 at 8.235 interest. When I try to run this loan through a loan calculator, it says it will take over 30 years to pay off based on minimum payments, Ive been paying 50-75 over minimum already, and even at that, its going to take hell of a long time to pay off.So, does it make sense to take out a loan probably about 12000, can pay the rest off with extra cash laying around against my retirement savings at 5 year CD rate 1 2.45 fixed at todays rate to pay off this, our highest interest debt.I could also start to contribute a little more to my 401k to help offset the difference and get more of that free 25 match.Cons- removes 12k decreasing monthly from the market for 4-5 years- Monthly Increase in amount due by about 100 although Ive been putting 50month extra into the loan already- Ive been at my job for the last 11 years, and its a stable, rewarding job but if something were to happen, I would owe the remaining balance of the loan or face penalties.Pros Eliminates our highest interest debt Paid off in full in 5 years or less, Current loan will be paid off in full... I cant even seem to calculate whenSo, I need help with the big picture here, I just cant wrap my brain around it, and I feel like Im overlooking something, because to me, it seems like an easy decision to take the loan.Assistant: If I recall correctly, the income for married filing joint that phases out the deduction for student loan interest is 155kyear. Why is it going to take you 4-5 years to pay off 13.5k on that income?Human: Well, it would be easy if suddenly we were making that much money, but its been a slow process that involves lifestyle changes. Yeah, if we went from making 90k to 1xxyear than we would just pay it off. Its a good question though, we could do this, Im just trying to determine if the interest we would lose in the next 5 years paying that off at 8.325 is better or worse than taking the loss on the retirement for the next 4-5 years.Weve never made a lot of bad financial decisions, we carry no credit card debts and dont spend money wildly, our mortgage is only 1000month, including escrow, but we do enjoy our life, we dont live a 100 financially clean lifestyle, we DO spend some money where we dont need to, and thats not likely to change. I think a lot of people on PF would frown on our ways of doing things, but we dont drive super expensive cars and we save reasonably for retirement, etc, but we enjoy vacations and dining out.We also just had our first child, which is a whole other huge amount of expense.  <response>: Im just gonna be blunt about it - theres a lot of superfluous info in there that doesnt really matter. A slow process to get to what youre earning right now is fine and explains why the debt isnt already paid off. I get that. But now that you two have a big income you should seriously set out a budget which you should be doing anyway and figure out how fast you could pay off the debt. Even with your first kid, I would imagine you could pay this thing off in a matter of months, not years.Im just trying to determine if the interest we would lose in the next 5 years paying that off at 8.325 is better or worse than taking the loss on the retirement for the next 4-5 years.Maybe, maybe not. I think you could cash flow your way through the debt so fast you dont even have to worry about this question. 