Hey all,

I currently have ~$76k in student loan debt, and I am going to start full-time employment next month. I originally took out the private loans with variable interest rate, which has since fallen to a current rate of 1.15%.

My current loan term is a 5 year payoff. I am currently in the "pay interest-only" grace period, which ends in November. So starting end of November, I'd be making ~$1.4k payments for the next 58 months, at which point the loan would be paid off.

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I have two questions, both of which are related to refinancing:

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1. Given how low refinance rates are right now, should I refinance my loans to a slightly higher fixed rate (probably around 2.0-2.5%) to protect myself from the variable rate eventually ballooning again? Do you think that'd happen soon?
2. I'm planning to max my 401k to the employer match amount, max my Roth, and then max my 401k to the limit in that order. After that, given that I can refinance my current 5-year loans to relatively low-rate, longer-term loans (variable rate ~1-2% or fixed rate ~2.0-2.5%), should I refinance to a longer-term loan and just pay the minimum each month?
   1. The rationale here is that with the ~$1k or so in savings from the lower loan payment each month, I could turn around and invest that amount and presumably make more on my investments than the loan interest rate would cost me. Am I being over-idealistic and dumb to consider that?

Please feel free to tell me I'm an idiot in regards to any part of this post, but I would really appreciate your help and advice!