u/Clear-Koala-5751

I’m trying to decide how aggressive to be with my student loans while keeping enough cash on hand.

I owe about $37k total in student loans:

$24k federal student loans at rates between 4% and 5.5%

$13k private student loan at 7.9%

My income is about $82k/year, rent is $1,450/month, and I currently have around $8k in savings.

The private student loan rate feels high enough that I want to attack it quickly, but I’m also nervous about keeping my emergency fund too low. I don’t want to put too much cash toward the loan and then end up relying on credit cards if something unexpected happens.

Would you build savings up more first, or start putting most available cash toward the 7.9% private student loan?