Hello Mustachians,
Background:
My partner and I were planning to buy a house for a long time, but recently crunched numbers and decided to continue renting until we can pay off our combined loans. So, that explains the cash we have in general savings/checkings instead of somewhere more useful (see below), not that I would even know what somewhere more useful would be.
Spending hovers around $4000/month (including $1220 minimum going to loans every month). Our combined income was nearly $10,000/month, before i got laid off last week. The new plan was to pay the loans off at about $5,000/month for the next 2.5-3 years. But, like I said, that won't work since I got laid off.
Now:
All we want to do is pay off loans asap. I've lost my job (about $6,000/month), and we have a combined $150,000 in student loans. We have a total of $35,000 in all our savings/checkings accounts (I was only with my employer for about 9 months). My partner is bringing home about $4,000/month, which is just enough for our expenses and minimum loan payments.
Our loans are as follows:
$14,350 at 4.3% fixed, minimum payment $200/mo
$142,000 at 7.5% fixed, minimum payment $1020/mo (interest rate is already discounted as low as possible for direct deposit, etc.)
Two questions:
I haven't done my taxes yet. I didn't have a retirement account through my employer. Should I put money into an IRA retroactively and deduct that amount from my taxes?
What's the best thing to do with our money right now?
I will get two more paychecks, totaling just under $12,000. But I also will probably be out of work for a little while because I didn't like what I was doing and really have no idea what it is I do want to do. Bonus points if you have any good job/career ideas for a 25 year old lawyer with two years' experience who hates research and writing but is an excellent speaker and has a good rapport with most people I meet.
If more info would be helpful, let me know. I appreciate any insight you can give me because I really feel lost right now when it comes to this stuff. All I want is for us to be debt-free.