And people also cut on food, but they refuse to cut on entertainment. HELLO!! It’s going INTO YOUR BODY!! .. Jeez.

Anyway, different topic, that.

That is truly about priorities. BUT I do think it’s stupid to try and get out of debt and instead of cutting your lifestyle, which must happen, you use your retirement savings. Let’s say you were saving 5% and use that to pay off debt for 2-3 years and then suddenly you pay off debt but how do you start saving again? Especially if you have to save more than 5%?

You don’t. Truth is you haven’t gotten used to living on less of your income. And that is something that needs to happen.

If you say 10% to retirement and you live on 90%, then I say 90% is living and debt repayment should come from that 90%. Not from the 100%.

I think that Jim, the problem is even stopping retirement for 1 year is often difficult to get restarted. And why are you cutting the retirement first? Or if you stopped your retirement did you stop all other extras as well.

Say you were to stop contributing to retirement for a short period of time in order to focus that money to get out of debt. While the money you already have saved isn’t going anywhere, you can boost the ability to pay off debt quickly. I don’t think you should allow more than a year or so of not saving for retirement though, time works against you.

The other idea is whether or not it is smart to cash out retirement savings in order to pay debt. Overwhelmingly it is a costly financial move to make. After holding, a penalty, and then having to pay income tax on the money taken out, only half of what you take out can go towards paying off your debt. It’s like taking out a 50% loan to pay off debt.

I think it’s okay to stop retirement to pay debt as long as it’s short term. It’s expensive to take out the money you already have saved though because you cannot put that money back, ever. It’s probably best to find better ways to pay off debt while continuing to save for retirement. I agree though that lifestyle choices and the extras have to be addressed well before looking to stop retirement.

Being a reckluse isn’t easy for some people. Some people see this as a “quality of life” issue. To some people, enjoying a meal out once per week is more important than having $5 million once they retire. Some people think that $200k is enough for retirement (I’m just throwing numbers out there). So, some people may be perfectly happy with having no cable, no cell phone, clunker car, and no social outings that require spending money while having loads in the bank, others may view that type of lifestyle as “boring” and unhappy….. So it is all a matter of pespective and what one perceives as a priority and quality of life.