I have $4,500 debt at 0% and monthly payments are $232.
Breakout:
Loan 1 (school loan): $2,330 (monthly payment $72) - 0.1% interest - 33 payments remaining
Loan 2 (consumer): $2,214 (monthly payment $160) - 0% interest - 14 payments remaining
I have just been paying the minimum monthly payments on these since it is ~0% interest.
I will be getting a bonus/stock vesting in May for about $6k. My company offers an ESPP that is a 15% discount on the lower of the stock price at the beginning or end of offering period (6 months). We can contribute a max of 15% of our salary and I'm currently contributing 9%. Even if the stock price goes down in the offering period, I'm making ~17% gain. I always sell the stock immediately to lock in the gain, and I then invest in VTI.
Option 1:
Invest $6k bonus in VTI, continue to pay minimum on debt and contribute 9% to ESPP.
Option 2:
Pay off $4,544 in debt, invest remaining $1,456 in VTI, and up the ESPP contribution by $216/mo (to 12% of pay) for next offering period, which will begin on August 1st.
I'm trying to decide if it's worth losing out on VTI investment returns of the extra $4,544 investing in Option 1, to be able to invest more in the ESPP earlier. I'd otherwise have to wait until debt is paid off or I get a raise at work before I can up the ESPP contribution %. With Option 2, I'm contributing an extra $1,296 every 6 months and gaining at least 17% ($220). I'm thinking that Option 2 is better because it is a little less risky than VTI and the return is potentially greater with the discount. Can someone give me a sanity check please? :)