Pause Roth 401k Contributions or Not?

[behrcarrie]

My husband is the sole bread-winner in our home, as I stay at home with our children (one disabled). We own our home...we have a $1015/month mortgage payment (that includes insurance and taxes). Our home is valued at 120k and we have 104k and 17 years left on our 20 year mortgage.
My husband makes just under 40k a year (working a lot of overtime), but he just broke his wrist and is down to 40 hour weeks for the next 2 months. Our home NEEDS new windows and roof, as well as big fixes to our bathroom due to mold/mildew damage. We don't have much for savings, and do no extras in our strict budget (approved for us by a financial advisor). We have his $3000 school loan to start paying on in December as well.
Right now he has about $59000 in his Roth 401k. My question is this: Would it be wise to pause our 5% Roth 401k contributions for about 5 years to #1: Repair our home, #2: Pay off our school loan and pay down our principal on our mortgage so we can buy a new home in 5-10 years. Would we loose too much to recover? Bad idea?

[bjl584]

You would lose 5 years worth of investing which could equal six figures in the account upon retirement. Do you receive a match? Maybe contribute just to the match and divert the rest of the money to savings to build up cash for the home repairs.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

How old are you? How old are the kids? I think the house payment is possibly too much for you to handle with $3k/month income and $1k house payment. So about 33% with overtime. So perhaps you should consider refinancing if possible to a 30 year? How big is the house?

I don't like the idea of stopping 401k. But we need more details. What is your husbands base salary and how much is overtime.

[feh]

How old are you? How old are the kids? I think the house payment is possibly too much for you to handle with $3k/month income and $1k house payment. So about 33% with overtime. So perhaps you should consider refinancing if possible to a 30 year? How big is the house?

I don't like the idea of stopping 401k. But we need more details. What is your husbands base salary and how much is overtime.

Yes, I think we need more info before thoughtful answers can be provided.

That being said, my initial thoughts:

• you are house poor (housing costs are too high of a percentage of your income)
• true needs (leaking roof, mold) need to be a higher priority than retirement savings

[snafu]

Mold and mildew has potential for nasty health issues. While DH is recovering from broken wrist and has reduced overtime hours, I wonder if he could attend the free Saturday classes at any of the big box stores when they feature bathrm work. Does any of the worked needed fall in the category of DIY? Would you and DH consider spending time on You Tube or Library books learning bathrm remediation? I was truly surprised at how easy it was to remove old tiles and water soaked sheet rock. [it was fun] Installing blue board was the same as installing sheet rock and although it took several weekends [inconvenient for main bathrm] it wasn't overwhelming. The most difficult was 'nipping' tiles around the faucet and shower head areas. I didn't think DH did the baseboard corners very well but a healthy amount of wood filler made the problem invisible.

I'd start watching CraigList for tools/items needed 1st to track prices and 2nd because there are terrific deals from people who have overbought tiles and flooring for example.