I struggle with the emotional versus mathematical aspects of this.
I really want to kill all of my debt. A large portion of my debt is from all the crap surrounding my divorce, which gives it an extra emotional kick.
However; with the tax benefits and the interest rates of my debt it makes much more sense to max out my 401(k) first, then use the rest to pay down the debt as quickly as possible.
I will max out my 401(k) this year and every year going forward...but wish all that money was going into the loans.
Just
breathe, man. ;)
The widespread irresponsible use of debt in our society has produced a flood of helpful advice intended to save us from bad choices, and to an extent that is good. But the overly broad nature of the advice (because, let's face it, it needs to be dumbed down for the sake of the average debt-crippled consumer sucka) has dulled the message into "all debt is bad, never have debt, be afraid of suffering for as long as you have any debt", and so on. And for those of us living a deliberate, calculated, optimized lifestyle, the net effect of that conditioning can actually make us so debt-averse that it holds us back, by making us fear the responsible use of productive debt.
I have plenty of debt too. All else being equal, I'd love for the number to be 0 instead of hundreds of thousands. But, all else is never equal: virtually all of that debt is directly tied to productive assets earning higher returns than what it pays, and the rest is still driven by rational decisions. Not paying off my car loan after I started adopting MMM-ish habits might be questioned by some here, but in those two years, I've invested the difference in real estate and earned 5x as much (all tax-deferred, thanks to mortgage interest and depreciation) as I paid in interest. Focus on the positives and the net gains, and make responsible steps toward paying off that debt when it makes sense for you, and you'll be fine.