几周前，我讲了一个故事，说我三十个同龄人中有零 在401k外投资。在那篇文章中，我对人们没有在401K以外进行投资的主要原因进行了调查。我还承诺会跟进一系列的帖子，以解决所提到的每个障碍。这是系列文章中的第一篇。
In the poll, 25% of respondents indicated that they were paying off 债务 first, before investing. This was the second biggest vote getter as to why people were not investing.
A lot of people struggle with the question of whether or not they should take money that they have earned and use it to invest or pay off 债务.
As a general rule of thumb, it is usually good strategy to pay down 债务 first versus investing money. But not always. I’会带您分析一下我’d处理此决定。
保证投资收益是稀有品
One unique situation where it might make more sense to invest than pay off 债务 is with a 401K比赛 .
For example, my employer matches 50% of my 401K contribution. Some employers match up to 100% or more. Either is a guaranteed rate of return that is going to be higher than the APR on just about any type of 债务 you could have (excluding payday loans).
是的，这不是‘在您的401K之外进行投资’。是的，如果您为了将来而牺牲了现在，’re in too much 债务 there could be additional consequences to consider. But if your 债务 is manageable, it might make more sense to take the guaranteed returns.
您的每笔债务的实际年利率是多少？
Once you have squared away your 401K比赛 , you should then jot down the interest rate, or APR, that you are paying on each of your 债务s.
假设，让’s说看起来像这样：
- 信用卡：12％
- 汽车贷款：7％
- 抵押：5％
- 学生贷款：2％
These are the four most common types of 债务 that people have.
如果你不这样做’付清您的汽车贷款或抵押，您赢了’长时间没有房子或车辆。所以我们’我会在这篇文章中假设‘paying off 债务’ means that you are already paying off your required minimum payments and any additional 债务 pay-off is against the principal.
我们应该假设什么平均投资回报率？
这是一项艰巨的任务，因为您可以通过多种方式来切片历史投资平均数据。并且，没有任何投资保证。从1950年至2009年， S&P 500 指数（排名前500位的公司）的平均年回报率为11％。当然，在过去的十年中，我们’我们的平均回报率仅为1.5％。
但是，我们可以’不能真正将过去与现在或未来进行比较。在过去60年中，导致经济繁荣和市场增长11％的工业和技术进步很可能会赢得’将在未来60年内复制。
因此，也许我们假设年平均收益率为5％，这可以通过支付高股息的股票获得的股息来实现。您的实际回报会有所不同，但是除非发生重大灾难，否则5％的回报似乎并不过于乐观。用你的电话号码’d想做自己的评估。
过去十年来市场一直很艰难
将您的债务的年利率与非常保守的投资回报进行比较
Time to compare investment returns versus 债务. What’s not always intuitive is that paying off 债务s you’从很多方面来说，我已经假设自己就像在保证自己的投资回报率（而不是还清回报）。例如，将额外的资金投入可以有效偿还该贷款最后一年的汽车贷款，可以保证自己获得7％的投资回报，而在那一年继续支付贷款利息。
In other words, not paying off your 债务 presents an opportunity cost.
考虑到这一点，让’s look at each of those four 债务s again and analyze each individually against a potential 5% annual return if we were to invest the money:
- 信用卡：12％– this is a no brainer. If you have credit card 债务, you should probably take non-retirement funds that you’d be putting towards investments and using those funds to pay off your 债务. 12% is on the low end of credit card interest payments –有些甚至高达22％或更高。无论’s 12% or 22%, you would be considered extremely lucky to achieve that level of annual return through investments over time. Pay off that credit card 债务.
- 汽车贷款：7％ – 通过特殊促销，一些汽车贷款可能会低于7％，但这大约是我所看到的平均水平。我宁愿获得7％的保证回报，也不愿在市场上花我的钱，但这’s just me.
- 抵押：5％ – this is a tricky one. When your 债务 carries an interest rate that matches up evenly with a conservative investment return, you can really go either way. It becomes more of a lifestyle choice than anything else, in my opinion. Do you want to carry that 债务 and the stress that comes with it, or do you want to try to get better returns, which you could then put towards the 债务? I don’t think there’在这里是对是错。
- 学生贷款：2％ –我妻子仍然有2％的年利率的学生贷款。我们绝不会支付这些贷款所需的最低付款额。一世’我相当有信心，我可以找到回报率高于2％（低于多年通货膨胀率）的投资。
债务偿还与投资讨论：
- 您是如何做出这个决定的？
- 您是否同意我的方法？
相关文章：
我永远不知道在这种情况下该怎么办。我们不’t have “debt”别人指的是信用卡和学生贷款的方式。我们只有抵押贷款和两辆汽车贷款。汽车的价格均为3.9％，房屋的价格为6.5％。汽车太低了，比抵押贷款还低，我不’认为偿还这些钱没有任何意义。抵押贷款恰好在现实的投资回报率（或我认为我可以击败的回报率）的风口浪尖上，但是它’也保证。使我无法将所有多余的东西都沉入其中的是房子正在踩水，有迹象表明它将继续沉入水下。我们负担得起，不要’我没有任何计划要走开，但是如果有什么大改变，我’d不想认为我们将金钱投入其中只是为了亲吻它。
我本来要每月额外支付$ 350的抵押贷款，但后来却退缩了。您认为在这种情况下我们最好的举动是什么？
可能是时候为抵押贷款再融资了。
好文章！尽管我敢打赌，大多数人的学生贷款利率已经开始超过他们的抵押贷款利率。
我同意。我有几笔私人学生贷款，占9％。我的喂食率只有3％左右，很好。
My only 债务 right now is student loans, 250,000 at 6.9% (thank you 医疗 school), but I still opt to max out my 401k and 罗斯IRA each year. I think if it were after tax money that I was investing things would be different as 7% is a pretty good return on investment. However, with tax advantaged accounts it seems like the extra boost you get pushes my expected rate of return over the 7% threshold. I have not done the calculation to come out with a annualized return percent that the tax advantage offers but would be pleased to be directed towards someone who has.
关于以上评论，1）我不’t see how mortgage “debt” and auto loan “debt”与其他种类有什么不同“debt”;您仍在借钱购买您想要的产品或服务，而当时您却买不起，并以利息的形式付出了高昂的代价。 2）我希望自己回到2％的日子里上学。
I agree, 债务 is 债务. But most discussions offering advise on how to handle 债务 aren’t really referring to mortgage and auto loans, and people constantly have stories of paying off their 债务 when they really mean credit card 债务, but still have auto loans or credit cards.
It just makes it a little harder to figure out the right steps with regard to investing versus paying 债务, especially when the rates are low enough that I might be paying a heftier price by giving up potential return on invested money.
Debt is 债务. But some is no doubt worse than others.
哇那’有很多学生贷款。希望您真的喜欢您的工作！
我无法证明或建议某人偿还抵押贷款而不进行投资…投资是达成中期目标的一部分 – long term goals, and as a means for a safety net. I would certainly advise in many dividend stocks/funds over putting money into a savings account so that you build your emergency fund a little quicker. But you cant just take all your extra income and throw it on paying down all of your 债务…有税收优势，在下雨天需要钱。
那’很好。那里’不必完全做一个或另一个。就像多元化投资策略一样，您也可以考虑在多元化策略之间进行拆分。
我们有15万美元的信用卡和个人贷款债务，平均年利率为15％左右。利益使我们丧命比什么都重要。
我们有15万美元的学生贷款债务。
我们在价值45万美元的房屋上有41.4万美元的抵押贷款余额。
我们几乎利用了所有可能的资源来尝试获得额外的贷款或余额转移，以降低利率以至少消除坏账。
但是，我们也正在考虑在2010纳税年度的纳税义务，范围为$ 10- $ 15k…我唯一的选择是我的Chase卡，该卡恰好是我剩下的唯一一张可以满足此义务的余额，但余额为29.99％。
We make a good amount of money, roughly $250k, but have obviously made some 坏 decisions and need to use our high income to pay down these beasts.
破产不是一种选择，因为我有一个秘密清关并需要维护。还有我’害怕考虑与IRS一起纳税，因为它们还可能引发对我们财务状况的更深入了解…你怎么认为？
任何建议将不胜感激。
那里’没有理由不选择需要的税款，它赢得了’t触发审核。但是，如果您不按时付款，美国国税局将完全无法原谅。如果您错过付款或延迟付款，他们将停止付款计划，立即将其全部到期，并禁止您再次签约。因此，请务必谨慎行事。
离婚，把一切都留给你的妻子，让她的妻子宣布破产，搬进公寓，再结婚，坐公共汽车或骑自行车上班，然后从头开始赚钱吗？
我去年5月毕业，但直到11月才找到工作。一世’我也一直在想这个问题。我有7.25％的17,000和5％的6.5k（已经支付了约5000）。我的计划是每个月提供600笔贷款，同时也最多提供401k捐款。今年某个时候，我有足够的资金向Roth IRA支付5k的费用（我’我不确定哪家公司最适合这样做，以及如何开始选择合适的股票/基金/等）。这样一来，在购买新车，投资股票或还清我所还的贷款之间，大约会多出8k’我还不确定如何拆分。那里’我目前的汽车很有可能很快就死在我身上，但是假设它能再使用一年，那么8k应该去哪儿呢？
另一个问题是我想提早退休，所以我’我不确定一年是否要投入1万美元左右来获得退休金’直到60是明智的举动时才会出现。
Wow. I thought I had it 坏 but after reading all the comments, my only 债务 is still the mortgage. We recently refinanced into a 15-year bi-weekly loan for $110k at 4.375%. Prior to that, I was already 9 years into a 30-year loan but at least I had gained $43k closer to paying it off during that time. And because of that, my monthly payments are a lot cheaper now.
除了我投入457b的微不足道的钱之外，我没有多余的钱可投资，而且我每储蓄一张薪水都可以节省一点。
您还必须在所有这些因素中考虑税收优势。
例如，如果您’ve已经使您的税收优惠账户最大化，所以选择投资应纳税账户而不是还清汽车贷款，记住’我将不得不为您从投资中赚取的钱（如果有的话）纳税，但是您赢了’您不必为通过还清汽车贷款而节省的利息缴税，这样可以鼓励您还清汽车贷款。
此外，您还可以选择一些法律保护措施。例如，被起诉的401k和IRA帐户是受保护的资产。
我认为的另一件事是每种选择的货币流动性，以及有机会时。例如我’ve最近为这个决定而苦苦挣扎：我应该还清我的第二笔抵押贷款（8.625％的利息），还是应该先让我的罗斯IRA最大化？
我决定先将Roth IRA最大化，因为我可以这样做并还清第二笔抵押贷款。我的理由是：
答：我获得第二笔抵押贷款利息的税收抵免，所以它’更像是6.5％的利息，而不是8.625％。
B.如果众所周知的胡言乱语，我可以在罗斯IRA上提款。除非我出售股票，否则几乎不可能将其从我的房屋中提取出来，并且在这个市场上祝你好运。
C.我每年有一次机会在我的罗斯IRA中投入5,000美元。我还有多达25年的机会提早偿还第二笔抵押贷款。
D.我的罗斯IRA受法律保护。
当然，我赢了 ’我要尽快还清第二笔抵押贷款’d喜欢，但是当我这样做时，我’我的罗斯IRA会多出$ 20-30K。
您的方法真的很好。我没有’t thought about this and I always went with paying my 债务s first before investing. But now I know that this approach can work.
I’m paying off my 债务 first because when the money I’m paying for 债务 is free, I can invest it 🙂
Good 文章 . I generally think paying off 债务 is very important and should take priority over investing, especially in this low ROI marketing with tiny interest rates. We’re going to see the returns from 光盘 and other investment tools drop even further as the Fed is going to get closer and closer to -(negative interest) aka 0% interest rates. So pay off your 债务 and invest when you’re free and clear. 😉
我尝试将两者结合起来。一世’我打算尝试将401k最大化，以查看是否可以进行挤压。我刚买了房子。它’谦虚，但对我来说却很完美。我总是将每月最低贷款额的三倍支付给我的学生贷款。由于贷款额太大，我有时还是要努力使自己保持动力。但是，我回到了研究生院，我的公司为此支付了100％的学费！
I agree that it is not always wise to pay of the 债务 first and not to invest but one should only invest when there is almost no risk of failure in investment.
最大限度地利用您的税收优惠帐户（401k，IRA等），同时逐步在储蓄帐户中建立6-12个月的薪水，作为工作损失应急基金和大部分自付额的自付额基金（例如汽车保险，房屋贷款）保险，健康保险等）。
为您的婚礼设立一笔资金，无论您是谁，打算花多少钱，在某些时候您都必须这样做，如果距离超过3年，请记下这个目标。如果距离还不到3年，请将其保存在银行中（在线使用：我使用的是SmartyPig）。一个健康的目标是节省15-25k来支付戒指，婚礼，蜜月旅行的费用。
Now if your 债务s are higher interest rate (upward of 6%) then pay a little extra towards the principal, if they are super high (upward of 9%) definitely pay a lot towards the principal. For less than 3% interest rate 债务, just pay the minimum.
如果您还剩下这些钱，请根据您的风险偏好将其投资到股市中。在这一点上，许多风险已得到缓解，您可以真正的长期眼光进行投资（即您赢了’由于一笔小/中的看不见的费用（甚至可能是一笔大笔费用）而被迫退出市场，退出的时机将由您自己选择）。
The reason you should pay of 债务 faster is that it increases the chances that if you do need to dip into 债务, you will likely not be denied due to the outstanding amounts and accounts.
我希望我不会在这里到处都是。
Paying off 债务 would be a guaranteed return on your money, whereas an investment isn’t。这一切都取决于情况，但我认为人们不会’没意识到他们的薪水最终变成了利息。如果它’s high interest credit card 债务, i would definitely opt to pay that off first. Good 文章 🙂
The decision depends on the circumstance! For a few lucky ones investing may be a better option rather than paying off 债务. In such cases, may be the investment returns can be used to pay off a 债务. Supposing this is not the case with others, it’s better to concentrate on the 债务 repayments. In either case, a financial advisor can suggest the right way!
I have no 债务 EXCEPT for for $160K in student loans with a 2% interest rate.
我知道我应该把我所有的钱都投入到投资中，并支付学生贷款的最低金额，但是16万美元简直就是在杀了我。我不’觉得我可以考虑买房子，或承担任何风险，因为它悬在我头上。我现在只赚4万美元，我的罗斯IRA最高，但是当我开始赚更多（几年的时间）时，’很难不花每一分钱来还清这些学生贷款。一世’我这样看：如果我’被我不喜欢的东西吸引’不需要（衣服，精美的食物），我告诉自己– “Self, if you don’不要花钱去买东西，” I know I’耸耸肩买衣服。但是如果我告诉自己“Self, if you don’不要在这些东西上花钱，你可以把那笔钱用来杀死你的学生贷款！”我将离开衣服或精美的食物，然后花更多的钱还清贷款。它’对我来说完全是心理上的。还清债务=自由。
I agree mostly, however as others have stated, there is definitely an emotional value to paying off ones 债务, which may override certain financial values of keeping ones 债务.
I also agree with the feel-good aspect of paying down 债务. I’m at about $12K total 债务, paying down around $1K a month, I even managed to put $1K towards my Roth this year as well. I could have put off my 债务 somewhat as it’s average around 4-5% overall, but I wake up feeling much better when the total 债务 starts shrinking.
我同意，这取决于个人，有时，如果您进行了正确的投资，您的收入可能会比平均水平高得多，这一切都取决于情况。
哈！一世’d想看看外面有多少人还清2％的学生贷款。自1980年代以来，毕业生的实际情况更像是6％至8％。
I hear you on the student loans, mine are at 6.8% and I just started repaying them at the minimum. After I finish paying the IRS and 2 other 债务s in Dec 2011, I’为了减少总成本，我将全力以赴地抵制教育贷款。
I would agree with your strategy. Maxing out the 401k contribution if your employer matches is a no-brainer. After that I would pay off 债务s starting with the highest interest rate 债务. Next I would save for an emergency fund worth 3 to 6 months of expenses (maybe even 12 months). After that I would pay extra on my mortgage. I’我不是说这是对还是错，只是这是帮助我在晚上睡得最好的原因。
It’最好还清抵押贷款，因为对于股票，您必须支付资本利得税和股息税，这会减少您的回报。
确保获得5％的免税回报率比损失37.22％&p 500 did in 2008.
2％的学生贷款是一种神话动物。如今，尝试政府PLUS贷款的8.5％。加上为不具备条件的研究生提供可变利率的私立学生贷款’没有资格获得全额政府贷款。这是所有不可放电的债务。尽快摆脱学生贷款，让您不要’不要永远被他们困住。
同意我于2009年毕业，联邦贷款为6.8％。我在大通银行的私人学生贷款变化为5.1％，但在这种经济状况下，这种差异对我来说是有利的，因为从获得贷款以来我只看到减少了；它下降到4.9％的低点，现在是5％，但我选择退出自动付款计划，却损失了0.1％的减少奖金。
But my strategy is to pay off loans first. Auto loans and mortgages are technically 债务, but they are not “bad” 债务 to me; they have collateral and in the worst case scenario the banks could just take them back if you couldn’t pay – this is not so for credit cards and student loan 债务. I currently have student loan 债务 of around $21,000 paid down from around $32,000. It took me two years of working and promotions to be able to afford more than the minimum payments, but starting this past summer I started chucking huge amounts of cash towards it. I have an auto loan around $15K, but I am not really worried about it since I can always just sell the car if push came to shove, and it is at a low rate of a little over 3%. No mortgage as I don’不想束缚于任何一个领域。
嗨，米勒先生：
我是路透社的自由职业个人理财记者。我计划在星期一向我的编辑介绍一个故事，这个故事叫做：“Y代难题：还清学生贷款还是投资？ ”
我认为您的博客经过深思熟虑且富有洞察力，并且想就这个故事采访您。您可以这样做吗？大约需要20分钟左右。 （请通过电子邮件回复）
谢谢，
玛拉·布里尔
贡献者
路透钱