if your job is ultra secure....get rid of your debt!

and put that $520 a month in a seperate account to build up for your reserve

 

hold up.... you say you make about 10k a month before taxes... you dont have any other debts besides car loan and mortgage.... unless your mortgage is like 4k a month and have a crack habit, i dont see how you arent able to pay off the loan completely within a few months with your 10k monthly income.

 

option 2 gets my vote

 

pay off car, if you truly have nothing else you could pay off with 10k then payoff the rest of the car, to me if you owe 10k and you have 10k, then you really have 0k, i would payoff now and start saving that car payment money to rebuild the wealth

 

That's the key, auto-deposit it to a separate account to insure you actually save the $500-ish per month.

 

Haha, well, I don't have a crack habit, but LA is very expensive. My small place is ~$3k+/month, including HOA and property tax. Also, the 10k was pre-tax, so I take home ~$6k/month. Between condo, car, and living expenses, it's tight for these first couple years of home ownership, but I have a fixed rate, so it'll be well worth it.

 

Since your job is secure, you have 2 options. You either pay it off and save yourself some interest or invest it. If you are confident about your income, you should consider investing. Keep in mind that you will be purchasing some very valuable stocks and/or funds at great prices. Also, if you do choose to invest, it's imparitive you understand that it will be a long term deal. Don't expect to see any gains in the near future. However, you will be in a good position once the market turns around.

Terrance

 

I don't really see additional investing as much of a consideration. I contribute to my 401k, and I lost 50% during 2008; I do understand it's long term, but the amount I currently contribute is sufficient...

 

I would save my money

 

Damn, you bank 120k @ 25 yrs old.

You run a law firm financial, but you gotta learn to keep your own expenses down.

If you have 10k in cash, I say do half. Pay 5k to car company, leave 5k "emergency" cash. Cash is key at current makret, so you want to have that around just in case.

If you do that, you will only have to pay about 6 month left on the car. Which is not bad, or pay all later.

Another method is to reduce your paycheck taxes now, and pay later. Instead of taking home 6k, you can take home 8k?

I gotta try the CPA test to make the 120k. sigh.

 

We should have all been econ majors and economists, it's the only job where you can be wrong most of the time and still retain your job.

 

NO, we should've become Doctors.
"Nurse, come here, i need to exam you for research purpose"

 

Not necessary to hit that payscale.

 

For an accountant, which I am (auditor) you pretty much do need to pass the CPA exam to go into the six figure payscales. In a Public accounting firm there is no way you will go into six figures without passing the CPA because after 3 yrs (Senior level) your promotions will stop until the CPA is passed and most of the National firms will just fire you if you have not passed it by that time.

There is also the private accounting route, but almost all of the six figure positions there are filled with accountants with 7+ yrs of public experience and they usually have their CPA as well.


Anyway back onto the subject, Im not 100% sure since Im not the pushy sales rep/ loan officer. But the way they made it sound is even if I did pay down my loan early, I would still be paying for all of the principal+interest in the loan. They pre-calculated the entire amount of the loan and in order to pay it off early, all of it would have to be paid for. But again Im not 100% sure, Im not a auditor not a loan officer haha.

 

Not necessary in SV/high tech, with 10+ yrs. experience and some managerial experience. But the cost of living here is high in the tech capital of the world.