Hey all! Relatively new to the MMM blog and brand-spanking new to the forum in search of some sound financial advice. A quick about me: I just finished graduate school in May with a whopping $110k in student loan debt at 5.3-5.6% and live in the really, really fraking expensive (but otherwise quite lovely) city of Boulder, CO, just down the road from the MMM himself. The upside: I have an awesome job as an engineer with one of the University's research labs (sko Buffs!) that affords me a nice work/life balance while still raking in some pretty serious piles of dough. I share a two bedroom apartment with my girlfriend and one of our friends within walking distance from work that keeps my monthly bills very low (~$800/mo for rent, utilities, etc.) for the area and get a 10% match on 5% contributions to a 401a with the university. I also contribute an additional 15% (combined) before tax to the great 457 and 403b plans that are offered. After taxes and other deductions for vision insurance (blind as a bat and getting blinder every day) and HSA contributions, I shovel roughly $1950 at my student loan payments for a pay-off date in ~5 years. On top of this, I contribute $500 after tax to a Wealthfront personal investment account which I'm nominally using as a house down-payment fund even though I'm almost certainly better off renting given the state of the local real estate market. I don't really keep track of the rest of my spending after that, because while I'm sure there's room for greater efficiency, I like to leave a little room for life (I know, that's some wussypants shit right there).
My question to you financial whiz kids out there is this: am I really making the best use of that $500 after tax? Should I be squirreling it away before tax instead, working on hitting the maximum contributions of my 457 and/or 403b? Or should I be putting it in an IRA? Roth or Traditional? Or, should I be dumping that on to the garbage fire that is my student loans for an even earlier payoff date? I drive a 1996 Toyota Corolla paid in full (current mileage is well under 5k a year, but I am guilty of the occasional car-clown habit), don't have any other long-term debt, and I keep my reward credit cards paid off in full.