Drowning in Student Loan Debt -Help!

[Eric Sipe]

I want to start investing and have an investment plan, but there is one thing standing in my way: debt. Should I pay debt off first and then invest? Should I invest first and slowly pay off loans?

So a bit about me. I am just about to start my first job and am about to have to make payments towards my student loans. I have $38,876 in student loan debt. I know a LOT of people have a LOT more in debt, but I am still concerned. (I also have about $10,000 in car payments left - another stupid choice I made when I was younger; I do have a credit score of 752 and absolutely no credit card debt.) As far as student loan debt pay-down goes, how should I approach this?

My current loans are:

	Amount	Interest rate	Time (years)	Monthly Payment
Private	$ 7,000.00	8.24%	10	$ 78.49
Private	$ 5,000.00	6.24%	10	$ 50.00
Federal	$ 26,875.99	4.96%	10	$ 290.54

The student loan refinancing company said they could give me this:

	Amount	Interest rate	Time (years)	Monthly Payment
Total	$ 38,875.99	4.44%	10	$ 394.00

Should I refi my student loans through the company then? Thanks for the help!

[Jay Hinrichs]

refi to lower interest then double up on payments. or triple up if you can..   this is not insurmountable debt and it could go away quickly and if some entity is paying 16k of them then your really down to a manageable figure.