You can follow along with my progress on paying off my student loan on my balance-tracking page here.

Every time I receive a paycheck, there are 4 places that I can put the money:

1. spending

2. emergency fund

3. investments

4. towards my student loan

Of course, number 1, spending, is where I would like the least amount of money to go.

But how to decide how to split up the rest?

I just started working in October - my emergency fund is struggling to get off the ground. Plus, I’m undecided on how much I need, as I have a month-to-month lease, and if I lost my job, I could move back in with my parents tomorrow.

Then I start thinking about how the more I put towards retirement now, the more time I will have to enjoy the effects of compounding!

But, my student loan rate is about 6.8%! There is a good chance that money I put in the stock market now will, on average, earn a higher rate than this, but it is a little too close for comfort. If my rate were 4%, I think I would definitely stick to making the minimum payments for now!

For now, I am paying much more than I need to towards the loans (my minimum payment is $200/month) because I just hate the idea of still having this debt sitting out there 6 years from now. It only took me one year to rack it up!

I basically split my extra earnings - about 40% to emergency fund, 30% to loan, and 30% to investments/retirement.

If you were in my position, how would you handle these options? Would you put 100% of your money to student loans, to get rid of debt ASAP? Or would you put 100% to building the emergency fund, and get that built quickly, then move on to investments and extra student loan payments once the emergency fund is at your target level?