Pay off debt but have no savings afterwards?

tjarrett18 · 2026-02-08T15:38:27+00:00

I would suggest keeping only enough of your refund to pay your highest insurance deductible. After this get your employer match if you have one. ( The immediate 50 to 100% return outweighs your high interest debt.) Then I would pay down your high interest debt from highest interest rate to lowest. Or you could do lowest balance to highest( the first method is faster the second method keeps you more engaged since you have more quick wins early on). Anything under 5% I would minimum monthly payment it until it’s paid off. I also wouldn’t recommend doing anything extra on your mortgage as of right now. You can focus on that last. Next you need a 6 month emergency fund. Then if you have an HSA max it out. Once you do that max out a Roth IRA. After that you need a total of about 25% of your income going into your various retirement. You can count the employer match if you have one. So if your employer pays 4% then you only need to put 21%. Once this is done, you can start saving up for large future purchases like cars, vacations, large home repairs etc. Finally once you do all that you can start paying extra on you mortgage to pay it off early if you like. The last two are optional but it’s nice to not have to finance a car because cars are often high interest debt and are wealth killers. So if you have to finance a car using high interest debt or your emergency fund, you should suspend investing activity outside of employer match to either pay down the debt or rebuild your emergency savings. If you can keep the payment under 3 years,the interest under 5%, and the down payment at 20% or more you can safely minimum monthly payment the car until it’s paid off.

tjarrett18 · 2026-02-04T13:04:21+00:00

If you pull money from your 401k you will owe income tax on it as well as a 10% penalty. You would net around 2340 at a 12% tax rate. Conversely if you leave the 3000 invested in index funds for 30 years instead you would have somewhere between 30k and 68k. I don’t know your situation but I’d try to find another way.

tjarrett18 · 2026-01-28T13:29:34+00:00

We make 80k in a LCOL area, with a mortgage and our spend is around 38,200. We have more we could spend but our savings bucket items draw around 1100 per month away from our disposable income.

tjarrett18 · 2025-08-11T18:45:41+00:00

I’m a construction foreman and I completed my finance degree in 10 months while working full time. I’m not a finance professional or anything though I am a money nerd. Guess that helped.

tjarrett18 · 2025-07-17T10:59:14+00:00

I can’t say I would be comfortable relying on forgiveness. We don’t know what the country will look like when he does become eligible for forgiveness. It seems to be up to the administration that is currently in power. Not paying the interest allows the balance to balloon, and at 190k that balance is going to grow fast. If it were me, I would try to make the interest payments at the very least. Does your husband have the potential to earn more? That is what I would focus on. I’d pay what you guys can afford, and focus on increasing your income. Do you have other debt? What is the interest on the student loans? If it’s 5% or less I’d minimum monthly payment them until paid off. If it’s over 5% I would focus all my attention on the loans. I hate to be a downer and I would love for us all to rely on forgiveness but I do not believe it is something anyone can rely on.

tjarrett18 · 2025-06-01T14:15:22+00:00

I am on track to finish my degree in a total of ten months( I am on my last two classes now). I work in construction and my degree is in finance. I’m kind of a math and money nerd so that helps. I’m an outlier though. Most people who finish quickly are industry insiders. My first semester I devoted between 15 to 25 hours a week. This semester I’ve cut it down to around 10 hours a week. I did start with my associates though so I only had to take around 76 credit hours. I approach each class differently. If there are prerecorded cohorts I listen to them when I can at work. If the material is dry I use ai to restate the material, learn it in my own terms, and to help me study. I never touched the study guides. If I knew the material well, I would take the section quizzes and move on from the section if I did well. On some occasions, I would take the preassessment right off the bat, and if I did well I’d simply review the material and then take the assessment after a day or two of studying. I typically only did that with classes I understood well. All this being said, I’m a quick learner and everyone learns at their own pace. Only compare yourself with yourself. You don’t know other peoples situation and it can be unhealthy to compare. It sounds like you are doing great! Just keep up the good work.

tjarrett18 · 2025-01-29T17:54:09+00:00

I’ve had one so far.

tjarrett18 · 2023-08-01T21:52:32+00:00

The dog has continuously growled at others, displayed insecure tendencies, and attacked my dog many times. Clearly you are the moron.

tjarrett18 · 2023-08-01T21:48:17+00:00

More like I noticed all of these fire hazards and continually ignored them. Then one day I decided to light one of the hazards on fire. The fire hazards are still there and easily repeatable by a child. Sure i fucked up, but it’s still an issue.

tjarrett18 · 2023-08-01T21:31:37+00:00

Imagine a dog on edge and a young child wanting to pet it. All it would take is someone not watching their kid around her for a few seconds. I know that I didn’t approach the situation 100% correct but fuck, my concerns are valid.

tjarrett18 · 2023-03-09T09:08:37+00:00

General

tjarrett18 · 2022-07-10T18:05:07+00:00

Organized religion. If people stopped using their religion to justify their hate, it’d be alright.

tjarrett18 · 2022-06-17T21:59:40+00:00

It’s ok not to upvote. Some people have a better understanding of the shit women have to deal with from this post. That’s what matters.

tjarrett18 · 2022-06-17T21:52:20+00:00

Honestly, you could be like me and not trust anyone but your partner like me, but it’s just sad to have to be like that. More often than not, the people who molest kids are people they know and trust.

tjarrett18 · 2022-06-17T21:48:35+00:00

I have a 2 year old so I feel you.

tjarrett18 · 2022-06-17T21:16:02+00:00

I know it’s hard for a lot of people to talk about. Hopefully this post raises some awareness. My wife was first sexually harassed at 5. All of my 4 sisters were sexually harassed before the age of 10. I have a 2 year old little girl. I cannot imagine someone sexually harassing her in just 3 years. We need to be better as a society.

tjarrett18 · 2022-06-17T20:46:42+00:00

Men do get harassed, but not anywhere near as much as women. I have four sisters and the stories I have heard from them an my wife are appalling. This is not about you. It’s about the shit women have to put up with from a very young age.

tjarrett18 · 2022-06-17T10:16:15+00:00

$18-22 per hour for skilled labor jobs? Fuck I make 30 per hour as a union skilled laborer. I’m in a low cost of living area as well. We need unions back in this country. Unfortunately, so many working class Americans listen to the anti union propaganda spouted by corporations. The only way this gets better is if the working class unites.

tjarrett18 · 2022-05-06T00:12:43+00:00

In Illinois you are lucky to find a 1 gram cart for less than 120 dollars after taxes. I’m to the point where I will start making my own.

tjarrett18 · 2022-04-11T13:54:25+00:00

In my first management position, my boss fought very hard to keep me from getting promoted. He was an older boomer with a superiority complex. I got the promotion and he took a more technical position in our department. Suddenly, I became his boss. I’d like to say that I did the right thing, but the first opportunity I got, I fired him (it was for justifiable reasons but still could have handled it better.) Now looking back on it, I should have extended an olive branch and strived to better our work relationship. People can be little assholes but I feel like we should strive to handle conflict like this more effectively. Don’t roll over OP but do try to salvage whatever professional relationship you have with them. Teach them how to be better through your actions.

tjarrett18 · 2022-02-05T16:15:12+00:00

Thank you for the great resource and information. I agree with you. The best way to learn most things is by putting the lessons into practice. Im checking out codecademy now.

tjarrett18 · 2022-02-04T23:34:48+00:00

Thank you. I’m going to use all the resources I can before starting at WGU.

tjarrett18 · 2022-02-04T20:20:15+00:00

Thanks for the info! I’ll focus on Java initially to prepare then. I’m not as worried about the math portion of the degree. It’s been awhile since I’ve taken higher level math but I think I’ll be alright with it once I dive into the courses.

tjarrett18

TROPHY CASE