<prompt> Human: In a couple months Im going to be graduating from professional school with about 65,000 in debt. I am currently married and my wife will bring home about 20,000 after taxes next year and I will bring home about 45,000 after taxes next year. We have about 50,000 in the bank because I took out extra loans just so we could be safe. The loans are currently at 5 12 interest but my dad is going to help refinance them down to 3 interest starting this summer. We do not have any retirement savings currently. Our rent next year is going to be 1100 a month and groceries should run us three or 400 a month. We do not have any car payments and with all of our other bills we should be spending around 2000 per month. So my biggest question is should I take 10 years at 3 interest to pay off that loan or should we just try and pay it off aggressively in the next 12 months?  <response>: You should certainly repay the extra money. Now that school is almost over, would you borrow from a bank at 5 or 3 just to stick it in the bank? Probably not. Applying that extra to your principal knocks it down to about 20k outstanding if you keep a little as a starter emergency fund. At that point Id rather have it out of my life, so Id aggressively pay it down then ramp up savings for retirement and cars and a house and anything else life requires. Doubly so if you refinance through dad. I dont ever want to let money come between me and my family. things might be rosy now, but if you run on hard times you dont want to be i the awkward position of telling dad that hes getting stiffed this month. It changes how Thanksgiving dinner feels.That said, the Finance 101 answer would be to string out low interest debt as long as possible since its possible to invest that money and make a higher return. You certainly shouldnt borrow at 3 to stick it in a savings account and make 1. I wouldnt do that since it introduces risk that Id rather not have in my life. 