I'm a father of 3 young kids living in Connecticut, I make a good income $150 - 200k depending on year end bonus (which is 50% of my pay). For whatever reason I've been living above our families means. Moved to a large house a year ago (I did put 20% down), have 2 newer cars, 2013, with monthly payments just over $1k/m.
My wife works a limited amount of hours a week but I believe this actually costs us money. She is considering leaving work, preferably before school is out, or else I'll be paying for daycare. If this is to happen I need to scrub off some monthly expense. The one expense I'm focused on is my car payment which is $600 a month. I have a few options but 2 of them I'd like to explore.
1. Pay off the remaining $8k, then refinance at current bank over 36 months. Which would reduce this down to ~$200/m and I could pay off the remaining at year end. I have the savings from my previous years bonus but I need this to cover my mortgage for the remainder of the year.
2. Use $8k of my Roth 401k to pay this off.
3. Stop contributing to 401k to pay it off faster (I currently have about 12 months left)
4. Sell vehicle, which is an option but I'm not sure if I want to explore this right now.
I'm really only considering option 1, 2, 3 right now but I do have my eye out for a lower priced used vehicle that is reliable. Everyone has their own balance of Mustachianism and I'm working my way to get there.
Some might suggest selling my house, but selling my house does not make financial sense to me right now because I would lose so much to realtor fees, but it will be in the works eventually. Also note that this isn't the only step I'm taking, as far as cleaning up wasted expenditures.
Your response is greatly appreciated. Thank you.