it's also worth considering whether your employer's 401(k) is even worth a darn, many I've seen are not (high fees, poor fund selection, etc.) I see a dangerous time coming with people dumping money into their plan's "aggressive" or "moderate" allocation structures or what have you with the thought of...."but it's my 401(k), of course it's good for me!"

you still need to get the match, as said before that's free money but often beyond that, you're better off in a roth or trad ira.

but that's a hard left turn on a thread that doesn't appear to really be helping Marie make a decision!

just about all the advice given is sound but I imagine you can see how vastly different people's approaches can be. my guess is the chief determining factor is behavior.

unlike Marianne (I'm not picking!), I had no doubt my habits had changed and I would not be running up debt again and I would be faithful to my retirement. I was right. a little less than a year of sacrifice and lots of overtime later the debt was gone (I can't put a figure on the emotional benefit I gained from that).

currently I'm at 13% of my gross income going into retirement and steadily raising that all the time. that's not easy in the working class pay range and the servicing cost of the debt would have made even half that amount a stretch. for me it was better to be rid of it.

I suppose there just might be people out there for whom it's better to keep the debt, make the minimum monthly and keep hopping it from one 0% card to another. mabye the balance always being there will keep them from running up anymore whereas if they paid it off they would just turn right back around and do it all again.

I'm trying to see the other side.......but it's a long way away....