I live a fairly Mustachian life but I'm working on improving it. (Couldn't resist an early reference (name) to my least Mustachian habit - I spend significant time and money on my two dogs, because dog agility is a beloved hobby and it isn't cheap - but may become my source of income when I early-retire from medicine.)
I'm currently saving around 60% of my salary as a physician (3/4-time, academic, so not huge $$).
I still have student loans. About $70,000 at 2.8% interest.
I am also saving for retirement pretax - I have maxed out my 403B contribution this year (18K), as well as my personal IRA contribution (5.5K).
What should I do with the money that I have left as savings after maxing out my retirement savings and paying the minimums on my student loans - pay off the student loans or invest?
I paid off 20K in student loans this year, just because having almost 100K worth of them was making me crazy. Then I just put 10K in Betterment, because I wanted to have my safety-net-plus either making interest (invested) or paying off interest (student loans), but I also wanted to have the ability to "get it back" in case unexpected expenses should arise (instead of using all of it for student loans, when it is then gone forever since I could never get a loan at 2.8% in an emergency). I still then have additional savings as part of my 60% of my salary that I am saving that I need to allocate.
At 2.8%, does the student debt count as a debt emergency that should be emphasized? Or should I be putting money into index funds / Betterment, since I could probably make closer to 5% there, which is higher than my interest? Or some of each?!
I am renting and do not have plans to buy (lost money on a condo in residency so I have a bitter taste in my mouth re: real estate). No children or spouse to be saving up for. Just saving with the goal of early retirement at this point, since medicine is burning me out. I have no credit card or higher interest debt.
Thanks for your help! I've been lurking for a while, but haven't noticed a situation exactly comparable to this yet, and will appreciate your words of wisdom.