Pfffft.... Congratulations on being 24 and thinking about retirement. You are going to win the game of life. You are 24 and have 9.5k in student loans. That's a joke, pay off that shit right now.
Step 1. Pay off your 9.5k Loan. Throw every extra cent at it until its paid off... You'll figure out how to find a few extra grand once it's almost paid off...
Step 2. Max out retirement accounts
Step 3. Put aside a little cash to replace your ride in case it explodes
Step 4. Are you going to buy a house or have a wedding in the next few years? Save up for it.
Step 5. Max out taxable investment accounts
70k-17k=53k .... Where is the rest of it going? Taxes... Cable TV, Cellphone plans?
Taxes, rent (985/month from June 2011-June 2012 and 400/month from June 2012-June 2013). I moved back home with the parents to a) reduce my rent b) reduce my food budget to essentially zero c) accelerate debt repayment. It also conveniently works out since the program I'm in at work requires me to move around the country once a year (for 3 years in total), and one location was close to their house.
I'm not living rent-free with them because I'd feel like a mooch + they could use some extra cash (not the most mustachian people)
I've been paying my loans off aggressively for a while now. When I graduated in May 2011 I had $100 in a savings account, no credit card and roughly 35k in school debt. But a nice shiny new Mechanical Engineering degree.
So at the start of this year my loans were 25k. As of this year I've paid just over 15k into them, 17k pre-tax into 401k, one huge "worth it" expense was I had LASIK to correct my "Can't see the big E on the eyechart without my glasses" for 5k.
So thats 37k + (6 x 985) + (6 x 400) = 45.3k
I count debt repayment as savings so out of my gross of ~70k I have a 45% savings rate? Might be missing something.
(Excuse my rough math, I use Mint for general net worth and budget tracking but don't look at the individual expenses as much as I used to)
Admittedly I'm playing it a little fast and loose with the numbers here, but you get the idea.
Thanks for your insight about saving up for a new(used) car and wedding / real estate. I figure once that loan is paid off I'm gonna take the 1500 a month I was paying into the loan and continue to automatically deposit it into a savings account once a month, where from there it'll go to whichever retirement vehicle / taxable account / savings goal.
Anyone have any idea if there's any correlation between the Roth IRA and the date I file my taxes? Like if I file my taxes ASAP, use the return to max the 2012 Roth IRA, then in 2013 I max it again, when I file my taxes in 2013 am I going to have to declare 10k worth of contributions? Or do I amend my 2012 return with extra red tape and paperwork?