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First, six months in an emergency fund is nothing. Bump it up to nine or 12 months. Many experts throw this 6-month number around, but it's not realistic. If, God forbid, something really adverse happens to you (job loss, disability, a relative needing help, etc.), you wouldn't survive with 6 months.

Second, go with ETFs and do automatic investment. The fees are way lower than on mutual funds, and ETFs give you great diversification. You're in your 30s, so you got plenty of time to enjoy double digit returns over, say, 20-30 years until retirement.

Maybe you need to seek help on your case: either a (free) student loan counselor or pro bono attorney, so you can see things clearly. Normally, qualified (and non-qualified) education loans can be discharged, depending on your circumstances. It looks like you took out the loan around the financial crisis of 2008. Who was the lender?

It's important to know because bankruptcy laws don't make it easy to get your student loan debt eliminated, but it's possible to discharge student loans in bankruptcy if you meet a high bar. Specifically, you have to prove repaying your loans would be an undue hardship.

While different courts use different tests to evaluate whether repayment is an undue hardship, many use a version of the Brunner test. There are a few parts to it, including whether you've made a good faith effort to pay your loans, whether you'll be able to maintain a reasonable quality of life if you're made to repay them, and whether repayment difficulties are likely to persist for a long time.