I have no special knowledge. I just finished a graduate finance class, and that was really interesting for an English major/librarian. I've done lots of playing around with online calculators and loan amortization tables to run interest rate and time variations when I was looking at mortgages and car payments. It's always a balancing act between competing interests. I think it's important to keep as stable and balanced as you can (that is, maintain a cash flow), while making sure "they" get as little of your money as possible. Having savings is great, and having a solid emergency fund is superb. What interest rate are you getting on your savings, and what are the interest rates on your loans? It's important to keep conscious of this difference.

It's also important to remember that the loans aren't an endless special project you're saving up for: they're an obligation you're getting rid of. The sooner you are done with the loans the sooner that money reverts back to you for you to enjoy.

I made a strong effort to kill off my loan principle as soon as reasonably possible. Once I saw the principle shrinking it became addicting.

When you say "Not sure how often this happens" you should consider asking if it won't freak them out. Just tell them what you're up to and that you want to do some planning. They may appreciate that. They may also have someone in-house who knows this stuff backwards and forwards.

Again, you need a loan amortization table--they're all over the web--to run variations. Besides loan amount and interest rate, you're going to need information on length of loan, then you can see where you'll be in 5 years. There are probably smarter ways to do it, but I've only taken one class so far!