[ceejayoz]

> That ignores risk and also financial burden.

Not having an emergency fund is about the riskiest thing you can do.

> If you owe $2k every month to NelNet or another institution, it's much harder emotionally and financially to quit your job to travel the world or start your own company.

The emergency fund helps with that. When built up, it should cover 6-12 months of zero income. Amassing it first means losing a job doesn't mean deferring payments on the student loans and winding up with years more payments to make as a result.

> We had Federal Loans and the interest rate was still 6.5%

One of my wife's student loans is at 2.5%. At 6.5%, it's not below inflation and paying it off makes more sense.

[tswartz]

We took a slightly different approach. Have a 3 month emergency fund, then pay every extra dollar towards the student loan. Paid it off in 3.5 years instead of the 20year plan NelNet wanted. Now we are building out a 6-12month emergency fund and putting money into retirement. Maybe in the short term we are behind in retirement saving, but now we have a lot more cash every month to put into savings and investing. I would still recommend this approach because it emotionally feels wonderful to pay that last f*ing payment :)

But sometime emotions get in the way of financial strategy.