a few points about anonymous saver's advice.
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Depending on your age, I would probably pay this down a bit before you save up 6 months worth of an emergency fund (unless that would only take you a month or two
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In an earlier post I mentioned sending an extra $50/month to student loans. This is the same as sending one exta payment per year. This would probably shorten repayment from 30 years to 22 or 15.
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Also, I would hold off on the Roth IRA until you get you student loan down a bit.
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Disagree. The student loans are costing you 6% or 7%, and you get a tax deducation, which lowers the real rate you are paying. The Roth could earn 10-15-25% if invested properly. You are young, get compounding to work in your favor by investing money early. That loan payment is not going away anytime soon, and delaying retirement savings makes it harder (the more time you give yourself, the easier it is).
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Once you have your 6 month emergency fund, and get your student loan in order, start saving for a down payment for a house. You can easily set up subaccounts in any of the online banks (labeling one as "Emergency fund" and one as "Down payment" can help with your organization of your money).
How much extra money do you have after each month of bills?
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I agree with much of this. The order of "paying down debt", "saving for retirement", having an "emergency fund" and "saving for a house" will be the priorities which push and pull you one way or the other.
My suggestion was to write down each goal, then indicate a plan which accomplishes that goal. Do NOT link the goals. Look at how to solve each issue independantly. You will probably then see a "path of low resistance" to complete each goal you list.
For example
$50 extra to student loans each month lowers repayment period from 30 years to X years.
$200 to IRA each month increases savings rate from 8% to z%. In X years I will have $Y.
$100 to savings each month creates an emergency fund of $A in B months.
$100 to house fund each month creates $C in D months.
If you also did the budget anonymous saver mentioned, you will see if it's possible to do all these things at same time, or if you have to make choices. Some of these are short term (once emergency fund is there, that $100 a month is freed up in budget).
I don't see any problems with original post or what is going on, this suggests to me the best approach is a broad one (investing some, paying down debt some, saving some for a house). I would not think that selling out for one goal (house) would supercede the other goals (investing or student loans) with some minor exceptions in this case.
The debt the OP is carrying is bad only that it will take 30 years to pay off- student loans are tax deductable and I do not consider them to be bad debt (like credit card debt).
The OP should be commended for getting close to 6 months expenses saved already. And should also be commended for examining his 401k and realizing OP was leaving free money on the table.