I am at the very end of paying down all debt - we have about 7,500 left at 3.9%, 3.15%, 1.8%. I know those are all really low, and we would be better off investing what we're putting toward debt. But my husband and I made a pact to become debt free in 2013 and the psychological boost it will be outweighs the possible interest loss, I feel.
Anyway - to knock out the rest of the debt we are putting the full $2,000 we don't spend every month towards it. This gets us all finished on the first of December.
We have also stashed 6,500 in a Roth IRA in my name, and we have 4K in an Emergency Fund (<1% savings account).
The plan is to finish the debt this year. Then next year on Jan 1st open a Vanguard account for my husband's Roth IRA, max it out for 2013 before April, then continue on through the rest of 2014 maxing out both Roths, and putting the remaining extra savings in a taxable account for a home downpayment.
UNLESS, I use 3K of our 4K emergency fund to pay it down even sooner, getting us debt free by October!!!! Then we can continue as we were going to before, but using the first few months of would have been earmarked "house" to rebuild the emergency fund.
We have about 2,000 in non-negotiable expenses every month. We could cut it down a bit if my husband lost his job (unlikely, but it is our only income). We have a baby and I stay home. If something REALLY emergency-like happened, we would still have the 1K, we have credit cards that we never use, and there is family that would be able to help out in a real jam.
So - convince me not to do this! I am just TEARING MY HAIR OUT ready to be done with this debt. We have already paid off about 30K and I want to be DONE!!!