I drove down to Eureka tonight. I wasn't sure why I felt it necessary to come down, except that the Rock Falls house is unkempt and overwhelming and I seem to have connected the feeling of morning sickness with it, so whenever I walk in the house, I feel nauseous. (For the record, there are some They Might Be Giants songs that I can't hear without feeling sick because Annalivia listened to them all the time when I was prego with Daniel).
Anyway, it turns out that being down here afforded me the opportunity to sit beside Dennis and watch as he paid off all of our credit cards, one by one. I won't embarrass us by mentioning what that number equals, but suffice to say, it was a lot. And now we are free.
The only debt we now have is my student loans in the amount of about $40,000. We are wondering whether we should just pay those off, or... not. They are financed at an interest rate of about 4.6%. Our current investments have been paying, on average, about 14%, I think.
What would YOU do? And I mean, YOU, not Dave Ramsey. I'd like to hear your opinions.
In the meantime, I think tonight, we may rest a little easier. I know Dennis sure will.
WOW!
ReplyDeleteThere is a part of me that so wishes to have NO debt that I would be inclined to say just pay it off and be totally FREE.
And mind you, I know nothing about finances.
But... if your investments are paying that well (and how did you manage that?!) what if you paid off a big chunk of it and then made a plan for several more chunks to be paid, say, quarterly, but meanwhile the remaining funds are invested and accumulating. Set a date by which it will be paid off, but take the chance that you might make some money in the process. Of course, if you'd still have the monthly bill perhaps this is not a great plan. That's just my hair brained thought first thing this wednesday morning.
so many blessings are flowing, aren't they?
i would pay them off. i think i'm allergic to debt. everytime i think of ours i break into hives. :)
ReplyDeletebut in all seriousness, i would pay off the loan if i had that cash available. congrats!!! and for a moment there, i forgot that you were pregnant! you're moving and leaving a job and pregnant all at once...how are you feeling (besides the morning sickness)?
~liz
Sarah -- in regards to investments, my dad is a very successful financial planner. He works with The American Funds, almost entirely. They're a great company with a strong history and great ethics, if you ever have need.
ReplyDeleteLiz -- I'm doing ok -- a little queasy and WAY overwhelmed, but ok. It will be better in a couple of weeks, I think. :)
Thanks to both of you -- I think we've decided to pay it off. We decided -- if we have the money to devote to a monthly payment, why not pay ourselves and our investments? Then if we need that money, it doesn't belong to someone else.
I take my previous comment back. The great thing about having a dad who is a good financial planner is that he can think outside the box! So, we think we're going to invest in a relatively conservative investment that will pay quarterly and should net around 8-10% interest, which we will use to pay off the loan. That way, we still have the loan payment available as part of our budget AND in the end, we will have an investment that should appreciate in value. Pretty cool solution, eh? Thanks, Dad!
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