Submitted by Ok-Law-4866 t3_yibuvg in personalfinance
93195 t1_iuhv39t wrote
Contributing at least the 5% minimum to get the TSP match is a no-brainer, as there is nothing out there that beats immediately doubling your money. So keep doing at least that.
$100 to your IRA really isn’t enough to matter either way, but it’s a good habit to maintain, so keep doing it. Increase it as you get year end raises, time in service raises and promotions.
While the interest rates on your debt aren’t terrible, it’s still over $60K in consumer debt. Ideally that number should be zero. That much debt is going to cause problems when you want to buy a house later. Work on getting rid of it.
Ok-Law-4866 OP t1_iuhvivp wrote
So no savings just pay off the debt is that I’m hearing?
93195 t1_iuhvnac wrote
I won’t say “no” savings. I will say the debt should be a priority.
potent_dotage t1_iuiqop7 wrote
The most important purpose of (non-retirement) savings is to tide you over if you lose your income. I am not and have never been in the military, but my sense of it is you don't really need to worry about job security.
The second important purpose is to avoid needing to go into debt for unexpected expenses. But if you're already in debt and can just borrow at 4% or less again, there's no reason to hold back paying off higher interest debt.
So if those things hold I agree with this answer: maintain the match and small Roth IRA contribution, otherwise focus on the debt, specifically the car debt. As others have said you might sell it, but if you're underwater, you'll probably have to focus it down first. At that point you can revisit the decision to sell or not.
I've never spent that much on a car but I'd be thinking about how my situation would be strictly better if I sold it and then took out another loan on, say, a new Corolla. Used car prices are still insane so currently that might be a better idea long term than trying to buy used.
Alternatively, if you don't drive a lot, you might follow the other advice and sell it to buy a high mileage used car to use until the used car market returns to its previous state. You can occasionally find some deals on decent Toyota or Honda cars with 200k+ miles; if they are mostly highway miles and the car is well-taken care of, they'll still have a good bit of life left in them. As long as the engine and transmission are good, it's usually not too expensive to keep them on the road (certainly less than your current car payment).
Ok-Law-4866 OP t1_iuis0xc wrote
Thank you for this detailed answer. You also explained why nobody mentioned anything about saving up a small e fund and I appreciate you
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