Advice for college graduate

[evant8950]

Hello everyone

I am 22 (soon to be 23) and have just graduated college last month (December 17th) and I got a job making 50k a year. I have no credit card debt except for the one I use for everyday purchases which I pay off in full every month. I have about 21k in student loans, but I am also thinking about retirement, which is a long way away. Should I start putting money away for retirement now or focus on paying off the student loans. Right now I am living at home and my student loans are still in the grace period. I think that I could get them all paid off this year.

I think that I should build up an emergency fund before I save for retirement.

Here are my current bills
Car Note: 262
Car Insurance: 197
Cell Phone: 85
Directv: 70 (to help out the family)


This is not including gas and food.

I would like to get more financially settle before moving out.

Can someone give me some advice on what I should do or what path I should take?

Thanks

[Shewillbemine]

Good start.

What is the interest rate on your student loans?

Does your job offer a 401k with matching contributions? It's smart to put in at least the same percentage your company would give you money for.

Most people would tell you to sell your car and buy a much cheaper one for cash.

[bjl584]

Originally Posted by evant8950

Hello everyone

I am 22 (soon to be 23) and have just graduated college last month (December 17th) and I got a job making 50k a year. I have no credit card debt except for the one I use for everyday purchases which I pay off in full every month. I have about 21k in student loans, but I am also thinking about retirement, which is a long way away. Should I start putting money away for retirement now or focus on paying off the student loans. Right now I am living at home and my student loans are still in the grace period. I think that I could get them all paid off this year.

I think that I should build up an emergency fund before I save for retirement.

Here are my current bills
Car Note: 262
Car Insurance: 197
Cell Phone: 85
Directv: 70 (to help out the family)


This is not including gas and food.

I would like to get more financially settle before moving out.

Can someone give me some advice on what I should do or what path I should take?

Thanks

The short answer is to do both. I would start contributing to your company's 401K at least up to the match AND start to pay back your debts.

I would focus on putting extra toward the car loan for now and get that paid off as fast as possible. You can pay the minimum on the SL's until the car is paid off. SL's have a tax advantage, as you can write off part of the interest. Car loans do not. Once the car is paid off you can either put more toward your loans, bump up your retirement, save up for something else, or do a combination of those things depending on your goals and plans.

[artwest]

First contribute into your company's 401k up to the match.

Then do the following in order.

1) Put about $1,000-$2,000 into a savings account to use as an emergency fund.

2) Pay off all of your debt. List the smallest balance to largest balance. Make minimum payments on everything except the smallest balance. Throw as much money as you can against that and get it paid off as quickly as possible. Then take what you were applying toward that, add it to the minimum that you were paying on your next smallest balance and pay that off as quickly as possible. Continue to do this until all debts are paid...which in your case appears to only be 2 debts, the car and the student loan.

3) Build your $1,000-$2,000 EF up to 3-6 months expenses. In most cases $10,000 would be a good EF.

4) Start funding a Roth IRA. I believe the maximum allowed is $5,000 per year. If you can match that, that would be great.

If you follow those 4 steps and stay out of debt, you will become quite wealthy.