The 23k target is the federal poverty level for a family of two, multiplied by 1.5. Its the deciding factor on loan repayment amounts each year.
I understand the diminishing return but I'm more or less trying to challenge myself to get to that number.
I'm thinking our 457 will be at $18,000 x 4 = $72,000 after the 4 year residency. We know that she will be changing employers at that time and my understanding is we could access the money at that point if need be (say they govt votes against the public service loan forgiveness program)
As it sits my 401k would be around $72,000 at that point as well and lets assume about 14k in HSA.
If I were able to get closer to 53k for myself each year and the maybe 18k in the wife's name through the solo plan, we could still contribute to the 457. 53+18+18 would mean I'd have a large portion of my 401k savings taken care of by the time I turned 30. I would then hopefully concentrate on paying a house off asap wherever we decide to plant our roots, and prepare for parenthood. If I understand correctly we could borrow 50k from each of our 401ks to put towards a home, and take the 10k first time homebuyer withdrawal from the IRAs.
Maybe I'm out-thinking myself at this point and should focus on Roth and taxable stocks while we're in this lower tax bracket. I just figure tax bracket + 10%(loans) which are deferred to the next year. In other words if I'm in the 15% bracket this year, I will have to pay the 10% next year in the form of monthly payments when I might be at 28% tax.
The "dream" for us would be to take a couple of months off before she becomes an attending physician to do some traveling/move, since this would allow us to have 1/2 year on resident's salary and 1/3 year on physician salary for her and 10/12 salary for me that year. The next year we will see a large spike in income with her status and I expect at that point to be paying full price on the loans moving forward.