New here - looking for advice :-)

[maat55]

I would sell the Tahoe.
Lower your 401k to the match.
Bump up your EF to 3 months EXPENSES only. (5 to 8k)
Take all extra income and attack the 2nd mort. first.
In this plan you need to save and buy a cheap work car.
Increase your investing to 10% of your income.
Payoff SL with any extra income.

Keep in mind you need to have a car fund. Start with a moderate amount, maybe, 300 per month. Only buy used cars with cash. After you payoff your SL, you can bump up your auto fund and have a consumer fund for tv's etc.

For longterm investing you can look at T. Rowe Price, they offer good long track record funds with little or no startup.

[jIM_Ohio]

jIM_Ohio - What great advice, thank you. A couple of quick questions. 1. what does PRPFX stand for? 2. are there any good investment calculators out there that anyone would recommend? 3. One thing I have always struggled with is determining how much money i will need at retirement; any good rules of thumb I should follow?

1) PRPFX is permanent portfolio- it is a moderate risk mutual fund which I invest in myself and really like. You should only invest in it if you read it's objectives and understand its risks.

2) investment calculators- meaning trying to calculate how much you need to retire on? I don't think 30 year projections are useful. The best calculator I can suggest is know your current expenses. When investments are 20-33X your annual expenses, consider retiring. 25X is the typical number used (so if you spend 40k annually, 25X that number is $1 M to retire on, 80k annual expenses is $2 M). The best calculators are not investment calculators, they are spending calculators.

3)
The best advice in this regard is
a) spend less than you earn
b) set aside 15% of current income for retirement
c) keep debt at a moderate to low level
d) when investments represent 25X annual expenses, retirement can be considered.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I would keep the retirement going, but earmark the money to paying off the second mortgage. If you're going to sell the Tahoe throw cash at the loan so you can sell it.