Author Topic: What would you do?  (Read 3607 times)

payitoff

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What would you do?
« on: March 22, 2014, 05:48:02 PM »
 we have decided to use my whole paycheck to pay down debt and set aside $1000 of it every month for savings, with this plan, we will be debt free by mid 2017 and would have 2 maxed out Roth IRA's every year.

question:
should i max out contribution to 401k instead of saving it after tax?

arebelspy

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Re: What would you do?
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2014, 06:00:49 PM »
Probably.

Question: why are you splitting between debt repayment and savings rather than focusing hard on the one goal, and then the other?

More details about your debt (interest rate, amounts, etc.) as well as income (to gauge tax benefits) will help us give a more informed answer than "probably," if you're comfortable sharing.  :)
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Gin1984

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Re: What would you do?
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2014, 06:13:27 PM »
What is your income/highest tax bracket?

payitoff

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Re: What would you do?
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2014, 09:09:38 PM »
Probably.

Question: why are you splitting between debt repayment and savings rather than focusing hard on the one goal, and then the other?

More details about your debt (interest rate, amounts, etc.) as well as income (to gauge tax benefits) will help us give a more informed answer than "probably," if you're comfortable sharing.  :)

just wanted to have a balance of getting ahead and paying down debt at the same time :) if we put all into debt repayment, we'll cut only about a year, plus i just dont feel comfortable not having a safety net and putting everything towards debt.

payitoff

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Re: What would you do?
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2014, 09:11:43 PM »
What is your income/highest tax bracket?

were at the 25% as of this year, we doubled our income starting last year

Jamesqf

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Re: What would you do?
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2014, 11:19:16 PM »
just wanted to have a balance of getting ahead and paying down debt at the same time :) if we put all into debt repayment, we'll cut only about a year, plus i just dont feel comfortable not having a safety net and putting everything towards debt.

The point was, what are your interest rates on that debt?  If some of it's e.g. a mortgage at under 4% or so, or a 0% interest credit card, it makes more financial sense to invest the money instead of hurrying to pay it off.

payitoff

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Re: What would you do?
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2014, 11:34:37 PM »
just wanted to have a balance of getting ahead and paying down debt at the same time :) if we put all into debt repayment, we'll cut only about a year, plus i just dont feel comfortable not having a safety net and putting everything towards debt.

The point was, what are your interest rates on that debt?  If some of it's e.g. a mortgage at under 4% or so, or a 0% interest credit card, it makes more financial sense to invest the money instead of hurrying to pay it off.

the big bulk are student loans which is about $66k at 6.8%, IRS about $18k, we dont have a mortgage, credit cards is just about $2k, and a car loan for $15k,

so about $2600 goes towards paying down this debt and $1000 of my monthly paycheck will go to savings which is either pre tax or after tax investment