Timeline for Can it be irresponsible to repay a student loan?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
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| Dec 3, 2019 at 16:57 | comment | added | Jay | I'd recommend cutting spending before cutting saving for retirement, but yeah, while saving for retirement is a good thing, it's not sacred. But if he's making $80,000 a year, that's a pretty good income, it should be -- not "easy", but far from impossible -- to have a decent lifestyle and pay off the debts and save for retirement. Just cut back on luxuries. And if you're making $80,000 a year, probably most of what you are spending money on is luxuries. | |
| Jul 23, 2015 at 14:17 | vote | accept | Andy | ||
| Jul 23, 2015 at 14:17 | comment | added | Andy | Thanks @user541852587, I'm accepting this answer because, while there are some good points in other answers that I'm going to use, and some points here don't apply (for instance, I am currently only putting enough in 401k to get the match) this answer presents the best range of options in a reasonable manner while making the mininum number of assumptions. | |
| Jul 22, 2015 at 20:14 | history | edited | user541852587 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 22, 2015 at 20:13 | comment | added | user541852587 |
@All Thanks; I've seen answers that might argue against it, but I agree with all of you that it's a very wise approach when you have very high interest and in some cases, moderate interest debt that's crossed a certain threshold of income and cashflow.
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| Jul 22, 2015 at 18:09 | comment | added | Jay | Reducing or stopping contributions to a retirement plan in order to pay off debt, especially high interest debt, especially if you are on the brink of bankruptcy, is a very good idea. Reducing or stopping contributions to a retirement plan so you can spend the money on wild parties and vacations is a very bad idea. There is the obvious trap here of stopping the retirement contributions, and then saying to yourself, Oh, we're okay now, we can continue our high spending, hey, maybe we can even run up some more debt ... | |
| Jul 22, 2015 at 17:20 | comment | added | JTP - Apologise to Monica♦ | +1 I don't know why you are treading so lightly. 2 is perfect. You warn to get the match, but no more. I agree 100% that paying 12%+ debt takes priority over the savings. | |
| Jul 22, 2015 at 15:33 | comment | added | mikeazo | I'm surprised that #2 is considered an unpopular choice on these forums. Depending on the exact situation, I might even recommend to drop retirement to 0% for a while. Gotta stop the bleeding some how, that extra money is like gauze. | |
| Jul 22, 2015 at 14:45 | history | answered | user541852587 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |