General financials:
I can afford to pay them off in full and have plenty left over for general life needs
The interest rates on them should be 4.53% according to their chart of when it was awarded.
If I do hold onto the money and pay off monthly I can put everything into a CD but I'll still be losing .03% if I lock in the student loan money maybe I'll beat but .07-.43% so not a ton of upside unless there's sudden political will to actually follow through on student loan forgiveness.
Is there anything else I'm missing when considering this? I am leaning towards just pay off as I've been planning for this, but I want to make sure there isn't something else to do.
I don’t think there’s a bad decision.
A CD isn’t the only option. A 2-year treasury note pays 4.82% right now. You could do that and then reevaluate in 2 years. Having more accessible/liquid assets leads to more flexibility if you need money for an emergency or even a move or downpayment or whatever.
There’s also the very remote possibility for loan forgiveness.
I don’t think the interest spread is large enough for that to be the “slam dunk” answer though. If you’re not great with money or just don’t want to deal with another administrative burden I’d lean towards just being done with the loans.