Longtime reader, first time poster. I know this is an old post, but there are a lot of TPMG folks here so I'm hoping to get some advice from you all. I read through all 10 pages of this thread and between the HR docs and here, I think I have a pretty decent grasp of all 3 plans. What I don't understand though is what order should we be investing in to make sure we're using the appropriate buckets correctly. A little background info:
-spouse is TPMG doc, 5 years in (partner) making 350k+
-me: stay at home parent
-mortgage $1m (yay norcal), 3%
-both our student loans total 450k, 3%
Living in the Bay Area and having kids during residency, we obviously accumulated quite a bit of debt early on. We haven't contributed to plan 3 at all because of constantly paying down all that extra debt. Our only real investment aside from Plans 1-2 has been the house (value risen 100k).
1) Should we be contributing to retirement accounts or just keep attacking the debt? On one hand, I know there are tax benefits to contributing, but that would be at the expense of having all that debt even longer. I am still leaning towards contributing though.
2a) If we contribute, what order should we start in before going to the next bucket? Fidelity website gives 3 options: pre-tax, roth, after-tax. What about 529? We can't max everything out because of the debt load.
2b) I am still trying to understand the difference between backdoor and mega backdoor conversions and how these would tie into 2a above.
3) Where do accounts in my name fall into this since I have no income? Should we use spouse's salary to contribute and fill space under my name? IRA? Taxed brokerage account?
-spouse is TPMG doc, 5 years in (partner) making 350k+
-me: stay at home parent
-mortgage $1m (yay norcal), 3%
-both our student loans total 450k, 3%
Living in the Bay Area and having kids during residency, we obviously accumulated quite a bit of debt early on. We haven't contributed to plan 3 at all because of constantly paying down all that extra debt. Our only real investment aside from Plans 1-2 has been the house (value risen 100k).
1) Should we be contributing to retirement accounts or just keep attacking the debt? On one hand, I know there are tax benefits to contributing, but that would be at the expense of having all that debt even longer. I am still leaning towards contributing though.
2a) If we contribute, what order should we start in before going to the next bucket? Fidelity website gives 3 options: pre-tax, roth, after-tax. What about 529? We can't max everything out because of the debt load.
2b) I am still trying to understand the difference between backdoor and mega backdoor conversions and how these would tie into 2a above.
3) Where do accounts in my name fall into this since I have no income? Should we use spouse's salary to contribute and fill space under my name? IRA? Taxed brokerage account?
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