[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by JinCO

I don't understand how you could suggest that we pay debt that is at fairly low interest rates before investing in our 401Ks. We would end up paying more in taxes if we did not invest in our 401ks

True. The taxes are another factor. When I was prepaying my student loans, I didn't have a 401k as an option (still don't) and I was still maxing our IRAs. So additional investing would have been in taxable accounts with after-tax money which wouldn't have been quite as lucrative.

I don't agree with paying off debt just because debt is bad or because it will improve our "peace of mind".

I do think peace of mind is a powerful motivator, but that means different things to different people. Ultimately, you need to be able to sleep at night. If you are lying awake worrying about all the debt you have, then you probably should be focused on paying it off more quickly. I wasn't exactly losing sleep over my student loans, but having them did really bother me, so I paid them off pretty quickly. I could have done it even quicker if I hadn't also been investing at the same time, but I think doing that would have bothered me even more. I found a balance that worked for me.