hi, i'm a financial noob. couple of questions:

i have ~125k in student loan debt. most of this is at 6.8% and some is 8.5%.

based on the little i know about investing/finance, i'm best off paying these down aggressively, right? i'm guessing any potential investment would need to net me ~10% (when including tax breaks student debt offers) to make it worthwhile?

also, would consolidation be a good idea? or is that only desirable when the bulk of the debt is at a higher interest rate?

any ways to lower the interest rate? i can afford to pay these down very quickly. if i called and told them i could pay them 50k+ right now if they lowered my interest, would they bite? it doesn't appear they have any incentive to do this as these are federally guaranteed, but though it could be a possibility.

I would definitely pay the loan off aggressively before thinking about any investments.

You may be able to negotiate a lower interest rate, not sure though. That rate seems fairly high for a student loan (mine is 4%)

yeah the rates suck, but this was the standard rate at the time it took them out. trust me, i tried to find better.

Hi can you recommend any good read on this topic? I am in a similar situation except that my rates are ~6%

I think the only case where you wouldn't want to pay down those loans is if you have an employer retirement or stock plan where you get an employer match on your contributions. The matches are typically 25% or 50% (sometimes 100%) so you wouldn't want to leave that on the table.

My bank line of credit has lower rates than that, you could possibly get lower rates just by borrowing at today's rates to pay off the old loans. You'd lose preferential tax treatment on the student loans though.

I would be very careful with this type of situation. Student loan interest is deductible, although there is a phase out level based on your income so you could lose the deduction. But there are also other benefits, they are non-secured, a bank LOC for 125k is prob going to take something (house), etc. Also student loans have forbearance possibilities; meaning if you lose your job you can suspend the loan payments while you recover, etc. This was always the reason that I kept mine as student loans and paid off other debt first. The "just in case"

I agree. Just pointing out that you are not necessarily locked in to the rates that applied at the time of the loan.