<prompt> Human: Ive been lurking this sub for a while now, but this is my first post here. Like most Americans, I recently filed my taxes, and today I received my tax refund in my checking account. Interestingly enough, I received a full refund of my federal taxes from last year, 3,600. My main question at this point is whether I should use this money to pay down my student loans which are substantial, invest it which I have yet to start doing, or some combination of the two. So heres some info on me and my current financial situation:Im 27 years old and make slightly under 3Kmonth after taxesI have a few thousand dollars in my checking account pre-tax refundI have about 155,000 in student loan debt, which breaks down as follows:Stafford Loans 6.8 Interest: 150,000. Im currently repaying via IBR at about 300monthPerkins Loan 5 Interest: 4,500. Im coming out of grace period, and my first payment is not due until 526.My emergency fund has 19K in it.I have a trust fund with 15K in it. I dont touch this money. Its basically there for when I eventually want to buy a house and need a down payment.And thats pretty much it. I havent started investing any money for retirement yet because a I only started working this past July after graduating from med school, and b Im only a few months into repaying my student loans and wasnt sure how much Id have left over at the end of each month to invest. I recently started monitoring my budget, so after a few months I plan on seeing how much I can afford to put into a retirement account Im hoping for around 5-10.Anyways, this brings me to the question of what to do with this tax refund. If you made it this far and forgot, its 3,600. Its a substantial amount of money and I dont want it just sitting in my checking account. Given everything Ive laid out so far, do you think it makes more sense to just throw it at my loans, invest it maybe open up an IRA?, or do a combination of the two.Sorry to be long winded, and I look forward to reading your responses.  <response>: Student Loans for sure, this is a guaranteed 6.8 return, very unlikely to make more in investments so why even consider taking on the extra risk. 