<prompt> Human: Hey everyone, deciding if its worth contributing to my companys employee stock purchasing program while in student loan debt 48k between me and my wife and roughly half at 6.55 combined household income of about 95k, and we are snowballing about 2500 a month to our debt. Hope to be done by end of 2018 The stock plan gives us an automatic 5 discount which is why it is so attractive. Also contributing 6 to my roth 401k. Thoughts?  <response>: Lets do some easy math:For every 100 of stock you buy, youre saving 5.For every 100 of student debt you pay off, youre saving 6.55.The safest play here is to pay off your student debt first.Thats the easy math, it can get more complicated when we also consider capital gains tax, stock price appreciation, brokerage fees, dividends, etc. But to keep it simple, if you sell within a year 25 capital gains tax, and theres no dividends or brokerage fees, your companys stock would have to go up more than 3.75 on top of your 5 discount for you to come out ahead with the stock.Also, with the stock purchase plans, your company will usually hold that money for 3, 6, or even 12 months before they buy stock for you. Sign up in September, they take X out of every paycheck, then buy the stock in March. While theyre holding your money, that interest on your student loan debt is just accumulating. 