Family Finance Question: I graduated college with $120k+ in debt. At the time, I decided to go all in and pay it down. I've paid off $45k. When I found out I was pregnant (3 years later), I really didn't go through all the costs of medical, leisure, clothes, etc. for baby. How can I maintain that same drive to aggressively knock out debt while mommy-ing? Or do I need to shift my priority?

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I would make sure you are saving enough for your retirement before funding the 529.

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OP I’m in a similar position and I’ve got $45k left to pay off before we have all non mortgage debt paid. I’m planning to hunker down and get it done in 2022. I don’t think babies need leisure or nice clothes. They need medical care and love and attention from their families. I’m doing high deductible medical with HSA and we’ll be on a budget for the rest of our expenses. Can’t wait to be debt free!

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Unfortunately, I missed open enrollment to switch to an HSA plan. You will be debt free! Keep going!

Have you consolidated your private loans to get a low interest rate? If not, I’d do that first. I had about $90K in loans and refinanced. Had about a 6%+ interest rate initially and got it down to 2.5% and that’s made a lot of difference. Been almost 3 years and I’ll be done paying that completely by March.

After the loans, I prioritized retirement savings and life insurance for the whole family. And now we’re starting to make a few investments. I’m not completely sold on the value of a 529. We’re going to start saving for kids’ college after my loans are paid off and have been going back and forth on the best way to do it.

We still have money for other things, but those are a lower priority. We “splurge” on financial security before we do on items if that makes sense.

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What rate are your student loans at? Important missing factor. If 3% subsidized, just get on a 10-year plan set it and forget it. If 7% like my husbands, try to set aside an extra $whatever you can afford per month but also doing the same with a college fund (529) for your kids so they don’t have to deal with the same.

In my family we are contributing $500/month to a 529 for one kid and are not paying a dime to student loans while they are deferred but instead using that money to invest in our forever house.

A 529 is irrelevant if you have $120k in debt and no (?) retirement savings, tbh. You need to sit down and quantify the costs of your debt against spending/saving/investments. Once you do that, I really love YNAB for day-to-day budgeting.

I don’t understand the drive to payoff the student loans? If govt backed they go on deferral when ur not working and tax deduct (depending on ur income). Plus what’s the interest rate. The Q is can u beat it today? If not leave it out there & pay monthly. It’s cheap money.

Personally I’d put enough in 401k to get company match, pay min on subsidized loans and aggressively attack private loans. Yes babies need clothes buy splurge on a few cute outfits and buy basics for everyday. During winter months I didn’t take my babies out much.

How much are you spending on baby clothes and leisure that you can’t afford to pay off debt? 😬

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