[LuxLiving]

I vote for doing both if you can! I think it was David Bach in his 'Automatic Millionaire' that speaks of the psychological benefits of seeing the debt shrinking while at the same time the retirement money is going up!

I get it this way by visualing one debt glass being drained while at the same time the retirement glass is slowly filling.

This is how we did it. We couldn't afford to wait on the retirement funding AND the debt had to go. The Hubster didn't seem to mind/understand the he was leaving matching funds on the table. I couldn't do it. They're offering it and we're refusing to take it? NO WAY! I don't leave my Christmas gifts unopened, why would I leave free cash at work? Guess who won???

We started throwing any extra we could scrape together at the debt while we started him out at 1% of his salary going to the 401-K. He was convinced we wouldn't make it financially doing this - had to promise we'd stop if it got too tight. Well, he never missed a dime of it! We are now up to 9% - soon to go to 10%. We have never missed a meal or been unable to meet our payments.

Find a calculator and see what the actual difference will be in your take home pay. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

I think American Funds has one on their website that you can get to even if you don't invest thru them.

Then do as others here have suggested, keep rolling that CC over to lower interest rate cards and keep hammering at it w/every penny you can scrape together. We figured a few austere years would be worth it in the long run. Better now when we are younger and healthier than older and unable to make complicated financial decisions that affect what sits on your plate, what healthcare you can afford! Meaning we can sacrifice more easily now on the MINORS - later we don't want to have to sacrifice on the MAJORS!

But be mindful - like someone mentioned - not all 401Ks are the same - some have terrible funds to choose from. In that case, I would get my matching dollars and then perhaps do more of my retirement investing elsewhere. Yeah, you'd lose some tax advantages BUT if you're not getting a reasonable return or lose all of your investment then I think you'd be better off somewhere else w/your retirement investing.

Do both if you can! Yeah that's the ticket!!