@michaeldavis It’s never too soon to be thinking about big expenses like a home, wedding, etc. But there’s a substantial opportunity cost to deferring retirement savings until after you’ve saved for those short/medium term expenses.
$1,000 into retirement savings now is ~$12,200 (inflation-adjusted) at age 60. If you focus too heavily on saving “liquid” money and wait five years to contribute, that $1,000 is suddenly only ~$8700. You’ve lost almost 30% of that nest egg by waiting a measly 5 years.
You can always reduce your retirement contributions later to more quickly fund a short term goal (where the long term impact will be less significant), but you can’t go back in time and increase your contributions.
As per paying off the loan early, it’s up to your risk tolerance. With a ten year term and 4% APR, the mathematical answer is probably to let it ride in favor of increased retirement savings. But it’s a relatively insignificant sum, so the psychological benefit of zero debt might tip the scales towards paying it off.