Pay off debt or invest (age old question)

Pay off debt or invest (age old question)

Member since 2020 · 104 posts · 36 votes

I have ready many, many opinions on the topic, but never one with my specific scenario, of course. I would love to hear some opinions on what others would do in my shoes. 

I'm a 36 year old in the Clearwater, FL area. I just sold my home (purchased 5 years ago) for a nice return and am now at a crossroad. I moved in with my girlfriend and am paying half of all the expenses, including mortgage, which comes out to around $750/month. In total, my monthly expenses have dropped by $1,500 after selling the house. With that, here are my current financials:

Liabilities: Student Loans ($55K @ 4.8% & $250/mo), Car Loan ($9.5K @ 5.5% & $300/mo)

Assets: Cash ($105K), Stocks (Not touching these, but around $20-30K)

Expenses: 2K/month with the loans

Subtracting expenses from take-home leaves an extra $2.5-3K each month. Also worth noting: 7% of my paycheck currently goes to a 401K and I get a 3.5% match from my employer. 

Credit Score: Excellent

Would you suggest I:

- Pay off all my debt first

- Pay off none or some of my debts, such as the car loan ($9.5K) which frees up $300/month, and use my available cash (Less at least 6 months worth of expenses, so probably up to $70K) to invest

- Some other approach

The $65K in debt is only costing me around 5% and I'm not stressed about having those debts. My gut is telling me I would regret investing (paying back) that much money to get a 5% return when I could get much more than that by investing it. However, I want to make the smart decision, whatever that may be. My goal is to have at least $2K/month in cashflow within the next 5 years; more would obviously be great. Though I have no interest in fully retiring, I also want to be in a position to retire, if desired, within the next 10-15 years. Having that financial stress gone would be amazing. 

I look forward to hearing your input. Thank you!

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Robert TinkerPro Member
Rental Property Investor · Round Rock, TX · Member since 2019 · 246 posts · 159 votes
6y

@Phillip Rosin Pay off the $65k. Then you would have $550 more each month, guaranteed. Your debt to income ratio is now better allowing you to qualify for loans for your investing easier.

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  • Member since 2018 · 433 posts · 208 votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Fernando E.:

    @Phillip Rosin Although I don’t agree with all of Dave Ramsey’s principles, most of his teachings are solid and this includes paying down debt and being In a more solid financial footing. In my humble opinion, if I was in your shoes, I will pay off the debt leaving you with about $40K cash, reducing your monthly expense to a low $1500. Further, save 6 months of emergency fund about $9K, $10K for good measures leaving you with $30K. At this point you are debt free with 6 months cushion on whatever life throws at you.

    At this point, you will feel much in control of your financial position, hang out in BP forum, learn what niche works best for you through education and REI, networking. If you have a full time job strive to make more $ to invest in REI and get a deal by Q1 2020 maybe a BRRR wherein you only need to put minor touch up on the house. It doesn't have to be full BRRR but you don't need a home run right away jusr don't lose money.

    Good luck, you got this!

     I find the Dave Ramsey show quite entertaining. I listen often. Some things he says are daft. I've heard him tell people to sell cash flowing assets to pay off their primary residence. That's insane. He doesn't bother asking how that asset is performing. I'd agree if it's got a 4 percent return... maybe... there's a huge difference between avoiding debt until the home is payed off and getting rid of a performing asset to pay off a liability like your personal residence...

  • Member since 2020 · 104 posts · 36 votes
    6y

    Thank you everyone for the input! I'm happy to have found a forum with so much great knowledge and broadness of opinions. This has really helped me so far. I've paid off the car loan and am still deciding on the student loans. I'm leaning toward aggressively paying them down over time and using the cash to invest now (well, soon). I'm going to spend the next few weeks evaluating properties and learning as much as I can... and then decided what to do. 

  • Financial Advisor · Salt Lake City, UT · Member since 2020 · 13 posts · 3 votes
    6y

    Hey, Phillip! Love that name (it's my middle haha!).

    Congrats on paying off the car. What a FEAT! Your student loan rate seems very reasonable, and I would focus on the big portion that seems to be largely un-addressed. The big heap of cash.

    Money sitting in a bank - even a high-yield savings account - is barely keeping pace with inflation. I would do what you said you might do and do a combination of throwing a bit of extra principal at the student loan debt, investing your free cash by maxing out a Roth IRA (if your income bracket allows it), and saving enough money in cash to get more invested into real estate properties and then take whatever remaining money you have and invest it into the market in a diversified portfolio of asset classes and risk levels in relation to your comfort with risk.

    What a great position to be in, and congrats on giving yourself such a great head start! If you want to discuss anything further I'd be more than glad to give you more info on my own personal thoughts. Best of luck, Phillip!

  • Matt BurrPro Member
    Real Estate Investor · Chelsea, MI · Member since 2017 · 56 posts · 13 votes
    6y

    @Phillip Rosin

    Won't beat the dead horse much but personally I would pay everything off. You will be left with a good chunk of cash, great monthly cash flow and a clean slate to map out the rest of your investing. 

    Also keep in mind just because you have "a good interest rate" you still have to make the whole payment and it affects your overall cash flow the same no matter what rate you have. 

    If you have not already check out "Rich Dad Poor Dad". It is a great book that I think maps out your situation exactly. In summary your debt isn't being paid by someone else so you need to pay it off. 

  • Member since 2020 · 104 posts · 36 votes
    6y

    @Matt Burr Thank you for providing your point of view. That is certainly another good way to look at things. 

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