Dan & Merry,
Any other debt and I would agree, but I highly recommend taking your time paying off your student loans. Consolidate your debt, get a low interest rate and a much lower monthly payment on it. First, you'll be able to live with some measure of comfort instead devoting "everything" to pay it off as quickly as possible. Second, you'll be able to start investing for retirement earlier. The single most important factor for making your savings grow is time -- smaller investments over a longer period of time will produce a greater nest egg than larger investments over a shorter period. Google the rule of 72 or the rule of 7 and start playing around with numbers, you'll see what I'm talking about very quickly.