<prompt> Human: I graduated from college last year with about 45k in loans into a job paying roughly 80kyear. After the first year, I have about 45k in my checking account and have so far just been paying the monthly loan payment down to 40k.Im looking for advice on what my best strategy is going forward. My knee-jerk reaction is to just pay off all of my student loans. However, I am somewhat hesitant to do this due to the risk of being left with only a small safety net...while my employment situation seems fairly strong, my company is known for layoffs in Q4Q1, and my division has been under preforming.My loans are broken up into several parts. Roughly: 20k 6.55 interest 8k 6.55 interest 4k 6.55 interest 6k 5.55 interest 3k 2.14 interestI think my goal should be to figure out the correct amount of cash for a safety net given my employment situation say, 30k. The thing that sticks in my mind is that, by keeping a large safety fund, Im, at worst, paying 2-3k extra in interest while completely mitigating my being laid-off risk.From there, obviously, aggressively paying down the higher interest loans is my plan. Alternatively, I know my money management skills and strategies are poor e.g. 45k in a checking account. Is there something I should be doing with my safety net funds say a 3m6m CD marginally higher interest? Would it be possible to obtain lower interest loans for my exact situation?  <response>: A good conservative rule of thumb is six months expenses. So, if youre really worried about losing your job, Id go for that amount. 