vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Once you take the money out for a loan, you can't access it again. See the first bullet about working with student loan vendors, they typically have ways to work with you under hard circumstances. 401k loans don't. Amortization schedule. Many 401k loans can only be amortized for a max of 5 years, if you currently have 10 year loans, can you afford to pay the same debt back in 1/2 the time at a lower rate? You will have to do the math. When considering debt other than student loans (such as credit cards), if you fall on hard times, you can always negotiate to reduce the amount you owe, or the debt can be discharged (with tax penalties of course). They can't make you take money out. Once it is out, it is fair game. Just to clarify, the above isn't saying you shouldn't do it under any circumstances, it is a few things you need to evaluate before making that choice. The 401k is supposed to be used to help secure your financial future when you can't work. The numbers may work out in the short term, but do they still work out in the long term? Most credit cards require minimum payments high enough to pay back in 7-10 years, so does shortening that to 5 (or less) make up for the (probably early) years of compounding interest for your retirement? I think others have addressed some of this so I won't do the math. I can tell you that I have a 401k loan, and when things got iffy at my job for, it was a very bad feeling to have that over my head because, unlike other debts, there isn't much you can do about it.
The chances are good that the interest you are going to pay on the debt is going to be higher than the interest you are going to receive on any type of short term investments. That would make the paying off of the debt worth more to you in the long run than saving your money. Note that without the particulars of your situation this is all just theory crafting so consult the details of you loan agreements. I cannot imagine that a credit provider did not discuss this with you before you put pen on paper.
All I need to clear the CC debt I’m in is 6k.  I couldn’t work when my baby was post-op and I can’t catch up no matter how I try and I swear to God I’m gonna steal it if I can’t figure out wtf to do soon. I work 50+ hours a week and pick up OT on sundays, and I want to be with my son otherwise but I know if I have to get a second job I could pay this off quicker but I will never see him. I know I failed using the CCs when I had to be home w him but there was no money, that was it. The cards were all zero balance and hadn’t been used in over two years but I didn’t know what else to do when he was sick. It kept us afloat. I’m back at work, we live modestly - are there people in the world who just meet people and realize they’re decent human beings and just give them money to be nice and help them out? No strings attached?
"There are a great number of financial obligations that should be considered more urgent than student loan debt.  I'll go ahead and assume that the ones that can land people in jail aren't an issue (unpaid fines, back taxes, etc.). I cannot stress this enough, so I'll say it again: setting money aside for emergencies is so much more important than paying off student loans.  I've seen people refer to saving as ""paying yourself"" if that helps justify it in your mind.  My wife and I chose to aggressively pay down debt we had stupidly accrued during college, and I got completely blindsided by a layoff during the downturn.  Guess what happened to all those credit cards we'd paid off and almost paid off?  Guess what happened to my 401k? If all we had left were student loans, then I still wouldn't prioritize paying those off.  There are income limits to Roth IRAs, so if you're in a field where you'll eventually make too much to contribute, then you'll lose that opportunity forever.  If you're young and you don't feel like learning too much about investing, plop 100% of your contributions into the low-fee S&P 500 index fund and forget it until you get closer to retirement.  Don't get suckered into their high-fee ""Retirement 20XX"" managed funds. Anyway, sure, if you have at least three months of income replacement in savings, have maximized your employer 401k match, have maximized your Roth IRA contributions for the year, and have no other higher interest debt, then go ahead and knock out those student loans."
I would add this as comment if I could. Basically a lot of people say you can't beat the interest rate when you invest vs paying off a loan which is typically correct, however you really need to learn how to save money. It's quite easy getting into debt and paying it off but what tends to happen with a lot of people is they continue that cycle when they see how easy it is and never have a decent amount of savings.  I would make the minimum payments or slightly more and then save as much as possible, learn to sacrifice on luxuries which are extremely tempting when you are just starting out to earn good money. I'm not sure about your cost of living but set up a direct debit to take 10% of your salary after tax every month a couple days after you get paid. Having a large lump sum will do wonders for your credit and will enforce good habits
I agree with the other answers here.  You need to pay off your debts first, so that you can take the money you would have been spending on debt payments and make retirement contributions instead.  The longer they hang around, the more you pay in interest and the more they are a risk to you.  Imagine if you or your spouse were laid off, which is better scenario: having to pay for your necessities plus debts or your necessities alone?  Just focus on one goal at a time, and you will do well. And the best way for you and your new spouse is to have the same financial goals and a huge part of that agreeing on a budget each month and being flexible.  Don't use it to control your spouse, you each have a vote.  I have not used Vangaurd, but have heard good things about them.  I would do some research before investing with them or anyone else for that matter. What you want to find when it comes to investing is someone with the heart of a teacher, not a product peddler.  If you have someone who is pushing financial products, without explaining (A) how they work, and (B) how they fit your situation, then RUN AWAY and find someone else who will do those two things.
The Avalanche method does not work because most people don't have enough money to make an avalanche.  If you somehow had a windfall that was greater or equal to your highest credit card balance, then by all means pay that one off.   However, most people do not have that kind of situation.  Instead they should use the debt snow ball method.  They only have regular income that is typically much smaller then the balances. Another part of your plan that is especially troubling is that you are continuing to utilize credit cards.  You need to cut them up, and stop using them.  First of course save $1000 for a small emergency fund, the pay them off smallest to largest.  Do a budget each and every month.  Work an extra job or three.  Any extra money that hubby brings in goes towards one of the credit cards. BTW you don't have a math problem you have a behavior problem.
"Normally, I'd say that because of the ""magic of compound interest"", balances of high rate cards shoot up rapidly, so pay off the high rate cards one by one until they're all zero. In this case, though, 23%, 20% & 19% are close enough that I'd pay off the card with the highest balance, then 2nd highest, then 3rd and leave the 13.24% card for last. Note that -- sooner than you think -- other card companies will send you low-rate balance transfer.  Take one ASAP and pay it down as much as possible so that when the low introductory rate is over, the balance on your now-high-rate card is low. Bottom line: balances on high interest rate card accumulate incredibly quickly, so kill them first one at a time."
There are definitely ways to retroactively consolidate medical bills -- there's an entire industry of companies offering debt consolidation (many of which are scummy/predatory, be careful! See https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0150-coping-debt and some decent articles at http://blog.readyforzero.com/are-there-legitimate-debt-consolidation-loans and http://blog.readyforzero.com/how-to-find-a-reputable-debt-consolidation-company). In general, what you are looking to do is take out a loan, possibly at a better interest rate than whatever you are being charged currently, and pay off the medical bills. If you are not paying interest on the medical bills and are just being allowed to spread out the payments, you are already golden and should just put up with the ups and downs. If you have any equity in a home, take out a home equity loan or line of credit, pay off your medical bills. Rates are still great right now. Even if you have no home equity to tap, if you have a steady job you might be able to get a nice small loan from a local bank or peer-to-peer lending site. Do your homework and only work with reputable companies, especially if doing things online.
"If it were me, I would pay off the 23%er.  That is as long as you don't borrow anymore.  Please consider ""your hair on fire"" and get that 26%er paid off as soon as possible.   From my calculations your big CC is sitting at 26% has a balance of 20K.  Holy cow girl, what in the world?  The goal here is to have that paid off in less than one year.  Get another job, work more than you have in your life.   Others may disagree as it is more efficient to pay down the 26%er.  However, if you pay it all of within the year the difference only comes to $260.  If you gain momentum, which is important in changing your financial life, that $260 will be meaningless.  With focus, intensity, and momentum you can get this mess cleaned up sooner than you think. However, if you are going to continue to rack up credit card debt at these rates, it does not matter what you do."
You'd only be left with €2,000 in the bank, so paying it off completely in a lump sum now would be unwise.  However, dropping, for example, €35,000 onto it is a reasonable option.  That would give you still €42,000 is the bank (an excellent emergency fund), save you a lot of interest, and greatly speed up the repayment schedule. (Changing subjects: how much interest is it earning in the bank.)
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I'm no financial advisor, but I do have student loans and I do choose to pay them off as slowly as I can. I will explain my reasoning for doing so. (FWIW, these are all things that pertain to government student loans in the US, not necessarily private student loans, and not necessarily student loans from other countries) So that's my reasoning. $55 per month for the rest of my life adds up to a large amount of money over the course of my life, but the impact month-to-month is essentially nonexistent. That combined with the low interest and the super-low-pressure-sales-tactics means I just literally don't have any incentive to ever pay it all off. Like I said before, I'm just a guy who has student loans, and not even one who is particularly good with money, but as someone who does choose not to pay off my student loans any faster than I have to, this is why.
You could pay off a portion of the debt and your minimum payments should also go down proportionately.  Your investment managers may be able to continue making returns in the markets in a sideways and a bear market. So you have 24k contributing to your net worth, and ~50k giving you a negative net worth. At best, you can bring this down to a negative 25k net worth, or you can start and keep using some of the gains from your investment account to supplement your credit payments (along with your income). This is based on chance that your investment managers can continue making gains, compared to paying down 24k and having possibly zero liquid savings now, but having more of your salary to start saving and make the lowered minimum payments, assuming you don't borrow more. Those are the options I've thought of, I don't see either option being necessarily quicker than the other.
Pay it all off now before you change your mind.   Having an emergency  fund is important but that assumes you'll have the discipline to leave it alone.  Obviously, you don't or you wouldn't have amassed $36k in cc debt. Regardless of the rates, your icome or any other factor, that's just way too much and a pretty good indication that you've got problems managing money.  Pay them off now while you still can!
For reference see this article.  This article does an okay job of explaining why, but it could be better.  To expand on point #4 if you lose your job, you will be forced to repay the loan in 90 days.  If do not pay it back in time, you will be hit with your highest marginal tax rate and a 10% penalty.  How does borrowing money at 40% interest sound? Why do you have credit card debt?  I'll give you the loving answer:  bad behavior.  The longer you hold this debt the more indicative it is about out of control behavior.   To remedy this I would recommend the following: While you are behaving like most people (normal); most people are broke.  Congratulations on having the desire to not be broke.  Do you now have the courage to change?  Having that courage could mean generational wealth building and freedom from debt. As a reformed overspender it has meant exactly that for me and my family.
Your first problem is looking at these as monthly expenses rather than looking longer-term at how to remove the expenses. You have a $600/month loan, but what is the interest rate? If you paid that loan more aggressively it would free up 10% of your income, but you can't pay the loan aggressively if you don't have an emergency fund. You need enough cash-flow to take care of emergencies so you don't incur more debt on less advantageous terms. The way you describe the problem, it appears that you don't know where all of the money is going, so the first step is to track all of your expenses and formulate a budget. The budget is a plan on how to spend the money for next month. At least 10% should be money you are saving for a short-term emergency fund. Another 10% should be money you are saving for retirement. Until you have 6 months of expenses saved for your emergency fund, you need to skip luxuries like taxi rides and maybe you need to reduce the amount you send home. 22% is a large amount and unless your parents are using that money to become independent (so that they won't rely on your contributions forever) it will only prevent you from becoming wealthy enough to really help them later. Only you can determine what can be cut from your monthly expenses--but if you want to save--spending less is required.
It does make sense to combine debts and pay off the worst (highest interest rate). However, if you can't get any loan, you should focus on the worst debt and pay that off. Then take the same amount of money you were paying to the next worse debt, and so on until you're clean. Let's look at an example. Debt A is at 5%, Debt B is at 10% and Debt C is at 15%. You are paying AB and C. On a monthly basis, you save 100€ to pay off C. Once C is payed off, you keep on saving 100€ and add whatever you were paying to Debt C to those savings. This way, you can pay off Debt B at an increased rate. When B is cleared, you save 100€ + whatever you were paying to Debt B and Debt C to clear Debt A. That's the theory.
It would only make sense to repay the HBP faster if you knew your marginal tax rate would be increasing in the future.  It sounds like that is not the case.  By repaying it sooner with borrowed money, you are paying extra interest and potentially increasing your marginal tax rate.  Probably not a good plan unless you know your taxable income will increase for other reasons in the next couple years.
If you have (other) high interest debt, say over 8%, pay it back first. Else, you are likely best off paying this loan back and getting the money working for you long term.
"The key part of your question is the ""so far"".  So you didn't need a credit card today, or yesterday, or last month - great!  But what about tomorrow?  The time may come when you really need to spend a little more than you have, and a credit card will let you do that, at a very modest cost if you pay it off promptly (no cost, if paid within 30 days). I learned this when I was traveling and stranded due to bad weather.  I had almost nothing in my bank account at the time, and while I actually did have a small student-type credit card, I came really close to having to sleep at the train station when I didn't have enough for another night in a hotel. As an example, if you have close friends or family living across the country, and something tragic were to happen, would you be able to pay for a flight to attend the funeral?  What if you'd recently had an accident and a big medical bill (it doesn't take much, a broken arm can cost $10,000)?  Perhaps you have a solid nest egg, but breaking a CD ahead of schedule or taking short-term capital gains on a mutual fund will usually cost more than one or two months of interest payments."
But then use this £100 to pay off the card, this will result in the following: Credit Card Debt 6,000 Monthly payment 200 APR % 10 With a 0% APR this would be paid off in 2 years 6 months. Cards are available to get free balance transfers, need to look into this. With 10% APR this would take roughly 3 years 1 month. £10,000 lump and £7,400 repaid over 3 years 1 month (saving £10,600 and 8 years 7 months). This option is the same as above, but you have the options on the odd tight month to reduce payments to £100. This also will allow the 2nd card to be used interest free for an emergency purchase (to be paid off without any interest charge) If rates are different, pay of the one with the higher APR AIM: Clear one card to free up more monthly income. AIM: Clear one card and focus on just using one, having 2nd as emergency. Same as above, but don’t increase to £200, leave monthly payment at £100. Credit Card Debt 6,000 Monthly payment 100 APR % 10 With a 0% APR this would be paid off in 5 years. With the 10% APR this would take 88 months (7 years 4 months) £10,000 lump and £8,800 repaid over 7 years and 4 months (saving £9,200 and 4 years 4 months). This also allows for some extra spending (even racking back up the debt – although not advised) AIM: Clear some debt to allow further controlled spending As above apart from this will allow you to spend to get back up to full £16,000 debt. NOTE My figures are theoretical, paying off £500 (£250x2) a month instead of the £100 (10%APR) would take: Lump sum 10,000, remaining 6,000 – 14 months (£17,000 paid) Lump sum 5,000, remaining 2 x 5,500 – 26 months (£18,000 paid) Lump Sum 0, remaining 2 x 8,000 – 40 months (£20,000 paid) Now I have finished waffling, I hope you have an idea on what you are aiming to achieve and a better idea of what to do when you receive the income  Stephen.
I think it depends on how you're approaching paying off the credit card. If you're doing some sort of debt snowball and/or throw all available cash at the card, it's not likely to matter much. If you're paying a set amount close to the minimum each month then you're probably better off getting a loan, use it to pay off the card and cut up the card. Well, I'd do the latter in either case... Mathematically it would matter if the interest rate on the card is 10%-15% higher than the personal loan but if you're throwing every spare dime at the card and the some, it might not matter. Another option if you have the discipline to pay the debt off quickly is to see if you can find a card with a cheap balance transfer, move the balance over and close the inflexible card.
If I were you, I would pay off my student loans today or tomorrow.  Wouldn't it be nice to be completely debt free and not owe anyone anything?  It doesn't matter what the interest rate of the loan is; there is no need to spend anymore time trying to worry about whether or not the market will allow you to make a tiny bit extra over what you are spending in interest on the loan.  Just get rid of the debt, and you will get to keep every bit of the growth of your investments from here on out. After the student loans are paid off, that leaves you with $15k.  I would take $10k and put it in a savings account for an emergency fund, and put $5k as a start toward your retirement savings in a Roth IRA. At this point, with a fully funded emergency fund, a start on your retirement savings, and no debts, you have really set yourself up for success.  Learn how to budget your income so that you spend less than you make and can save up toward goals like a car (paid for in cash) and a down payment on a house.
I'm not sure how much living expenses are there but half of $12,600 in the US would be a decent monthly income.   I agree that debt on debt would just add to his problems, sort of like quicksand, the interest will just makes a person sink deeper and deeper.  It seems like it might take some more radical options here to pay off the debt. Like, could he move into a much smaller home or get a roommate? How expensive was that vehicle? Could he sell it and pay cash for a much cheaper used one and use the difference toward his debt? How much does he work? Could he get a second job for just a few hours to help make extra money? Is he willing to speak with a debt counselor?
If you have $5k in cash and $5k in credit card debt, you should pay off the credit card and use your line of credit for any emergency cash need.  You're worried about not having cash on hand but that's exactly what a credit line provides. You can draw a cash advance from it if you need. If you pay it off, at least you don't pay interest during the time you don't need it. 17% is a ridiculously high rate of interest.  In actuality, you don't have $5k in savings because if you had paid for your purchases using cash, you wouldn't have the savings. So it's basically like you've drawn a cash advance from your CC company to fill your bank account with.
With all due respect to The David, the $1000 is best put against 20%+ debt, no sitting in checking as part of some emergency fund.  I'd agree with the decision to pay off the lower rate card. Why? Because we can do the math, and can see the cost in doing so. Low enough that other factors come in, namely, a freed up card. That card can function as the emergency one in the short term. Long term, once these high rate cards are paid off, you'll build your proper emergency fund, but the cost is too high right now.  The $4000 is a nice start, but the most important thing is to get your budget under control. Only you can decide how much you can cut back, and go after this debt as if it were life or death.
Here's what I'd do: Pay off the cards and medical. Deposit 35k in the best interest bearing accounts you can find (maybe some sort of ladder).  Link your student loans payments to this account. This frees up $486 a month in income, and generates a small amount of interest at the same time. Now, set up some sort of retirement account.  Put $400 a month in it. This leaves you with $86 a month to use as you please. You still have $10 000 cash, out of which you could buy an inexpensive used car, and bank some as emergency funds.