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Originally Posted by arrwheader
I have been looking at ways to get out of some debt as well and have been looking around for advice. The appeal is to just be able to stack money quickly and feel more secure or able to buy land at some point. Our only debt is car loans (one is a camper we use a lot) and our mortgage and student loan. No credit cards or anything like that. We are able to put money in savings every month and pay for these things comfortably and have spending money (me and the wife have separate spending accounts for things we wanna buy for ourselves). We’d like to pay off all the debt and eventually the mortgage. I’ve looked at some aggressive methods and it just seems to not add up right like forgoing retirement contributions or throwing every extra dollar we have on the debt to where we are not saving any money. I have a hard time with any of these options and we always end back in the same place just making our payments and living life. Starting to think that’s just the balance we’re at. We aren’t saving every dime for retirement but have some debt to do things we enjoy. Same time I’d like to pay at least the car loans off and snowball to mortgage but easy said than done.
The aggressive things just don’t seem to make sense because we mortgage the future but then there is ok once it’s paid off play catch up, but there’s opportunity cost there. Idk Ramsey seems extreme like others have said in today’s world. We are kinda stuck here.
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What do extra payments on the car and/or student loans look like? That's probably where I'd start, just doing the math on how much, say 1 extra payment a year or every 6 months, to each of those saves you in interest in the long run.
So, maybe you're not paying them off as soon as humanly possible, but could save hundreds in interest over time. If you have a decent rate on the mortgage, I wouldn't worry about it.
Messing with 401k/retirement investments is only something I've done in very short term and targeted situations, so I agree it's probably not worth going that route.