Postponing 401k contributions to pay of debts

Interest rates?

You should pay off the card ASAP.

I would quit the 401K for now and get the debt paid ASAP. You have an identified time line so its not stopping the 401K indefinately. You have a schedule and a goal. 2 years no retirement is not going to kill you in the end.

Alternative, put in just enough to get the company match and throw anything above that at the debt.

Return on investment is pretty important here. Always get the 100% match if your employer offers one, that is literally doubling your money and even beats the return from paying off your credit card debt. Wanting to pay that off makes sense but you should be able to call your card issuer and get it reduced quite a bit unless you've been late on your payments. Give it a shot, it costs nothing to try.

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the student loan is @ 6%

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car loan is 6%

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The 401 match definitely beats both of these too. Contributing extra to the 401 is a closer decision, but I'd probably still elect to pay off the debt, since a 6% guaranteed after-tax return is hard to beat.

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the other is 1.9%

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Do not pay this off early ever - that is about the rate of inflation and therefore is basically free money.

Bottom line - take advantage of the employer match first. And unless you can pay off the credit card debt in a single check, call them and ask for a rate reduction while you do pay it off.

I can understand the desire to be debt-free and all but you are costing yourself money if you don't take advantage of an employer match.

Forgive the stupid question but I am not really good with this stuff. My emplyee handbook reads as:

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Company will make a matching contribution equal to 100% of the first 3% of your pay that you contribute to the plan on pre tax basis, and 50% of the next 2%

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So does that mean I need to contribute a minimum of 5% to take advantage of the company match?

It looks like if you put in 3% then they will put in 3%. If you put in 5% then they will put in 4%.

I would at LEAST put in that first 3%, preferably 5% to take advantage of the free money. I am trying to tackle my wife's student loans but I'm not about to not put in my 6% as my company matches that $1 for $1. Growing at roughly 20%, it's a no brainer.

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If your employer matches your contributions, I would contribute enough to the 401k to get 100% of the employer matching funds, and then attack the debt with whatever extra money I had. Don't walk away from free money.

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I'm a Dave Ramsay guy, but I'm here with this - and I have heard Dave say on the radio show to give the minimum to get the match during Baby Step 2. However, on the website, he says "no" - I guess it is more of a psychological approach (the whole thing is, really), when you're at Baby Step 2 - you're "all in" on the snowball.

I see the advantages both ways, but I hate to walk away from free money.

Since your employer contributes 4%, put in at least the 5% to match it. If you can't live without that money, put it in "after-tax" get your match, then withdraw your contribution. That way you still get your match by basically contributing nothing. Take the free money when it's available.

As for the rest of the strategy, pay off the CC ASAP. Don't contribute extra to any of the others until it's paid off. As for the others,
I'd consider going back to 401k before paying them off. Student loans should be tax deductible, and interest rates are low enough that you should be able to outpace them.

i folllow Dave Ramsey's plan somewhat. I am using his "snow-ball" method. We drive sensible vehicles (civic & a wrangler) they are just new, so the loans are new. i am not willing to sell either to free up money. I drove a beater for 5 years before deciding to get a jeep and by my wife a new car. It's just that I have been having this credit card debt hanging over me for a long time and i am sick of it. So I came up with a schedule to get rid of all debt minus the mortgage. We are doing ok with our current income on paying off the debt. We had other debts that we have paid off. These are just he last of the debts we owe and I was thinking about how I could speed up the process even more.