You will never make more interest on an investment than you will get charged interest for the same amount as a loan. Ever. It does not happen.

This is barely more accurate than a coin flip. Until 2021, it wasn’t that difficult to find loans with rates under 5%. Anything under 4% is basically free money and you’re normally better off investing in something low risk than to pay extra.

So for me to sit on money that could go towards paying down debts, I’m just needlessly paying more in interest than I would be otherwise.

If you don’t have any emergency funds, or not enough to cover a single large emergency, this is dumb. Cars break, roofs leak, etc. Even if you have an emergency where you can pay on credit, you’ll likely be looking at credit card interest rates. Or, you lose your job. Fun fact, most job loses occur when the economy is struggling. Another fun fact, most investments are doing really fucking poorly when the economy is struggling.

Keep some money on hand in case something happens.