I am interested in sending some money back to the US in order to pay off student loans and also be able to put some money on the side for savings. I recently moved out of an expensive apartment to share one with friends, which is saving me about 1000 francs per month. (aces!) I figure I could afford to send 1000 francs for the student loans and 600 to save/invest. I currently pay about $290 a month on my loans and it is a 10 year loan. (at around 4.2% interest)

The problem is that almost since the day I moved in, the US dollar has really firmed up and the Swiss franc has lost about 8% against the dollar and it doesnt seem to be slowing down which is starting to make me rethink my plans....i.e if am paying 4% on interest is is still worth it to make this commitment to pay it off faster especially since my money is worth 8% less now + exchange fees and etc.....

Anyone think the dollar will continue its rise?

If any of us actually knew which way the currency was going to go we would already be living on a beach somewhere! Personally I hate having debt, even at 4.2%. Mainly because what I pay back in interest is money I cannot invest myself. While the markets may return 10% long term, you need to be invested long term and if you are paying off debt you cannot guarentee that you will be able to stay invested (eg. job loss). I would either pay it off asap (<2yrs based on your info), or try to switch to a CHF load to pay it back since CH loans are even lower %, then you don't have the complexity of currency risk in your debt portfolio...

Today's rate is 1CHF = 0.92USD/ 1USD = 1.087CHF. (www.xe.com)

While this may not be so good as a few months ago, in the longer term this is still a very low dollar and IMO worth taking advantage of to pay off a loan in $...