text: That depends on what rate you're paying on your student loan.   If you're loan payment is higher than the 5-5.5% you can get from the bank or CD, then you're losing money on the spread.  In other words, the loan is costing you money.   On the other hand, if you had your money invested in something that gave you an average annual return that exceeded the loan rate, then I would advocate keeping the loan because you're making money on the spread.\n\nThe other issue is whether your student loan is fixed or adjustable.   Student loan rates will be going up about 1.5% in the next few months.   If that affects you then it may be even more motivation to go ahead and pay it off.   Ultimately, you just have to decide if you can invest the money for more than the loan payment with a reasonable low risk (based on what you're saying your risk factors are) because if not, then paying on the loan while you make less from the bank doesn't make sense.