All Forum Posts by: Jason Avila

I am coming up 20 years in the Army. Preparing to retire. Have paid down all debt except 3 mortgages and one vehicle. The plan was to retire debt free with exception of the vehicle. With the current COVID pandemic, TSP (Thrift Savings Plan) is allowing loans up to 100% of what's invested. I only have a little more than 80k in there but the repayment interest would only be .625%. And it all goes back to me anyway. This is only available through 22 Sept 2020.

Question is, should I take the loan out and find an investment? The repayment would be on a 5 year term so repayments would still be close to $1,400.

A few of f my concerns:

- I don’t have an investment lined up.

- opportunity cost of the a rising market.

- if it isn’t repaid before retirement it’s counted as a withdrawal. W/tax hits.

- monthly payment.

Open to all input. Thank you in advance.

@Bill F.

Thank you so much for the break down. The 17% will be paid. And I’ve already been able to throw 1k at the 12k card every month. That was a planned move. It was a balance transfer and consolidation to take advantage of the promo. I’m on track to have it paid by the end of the promo. I’m hoping to apply any spare cash to the car, including the monthly payment that was going to the 17%. Somewhat of a snowball strategy. I appreciate the help and confirmation that paying the debt was the logical step.

@James Hamling

I really appreciate the words. It is a step. And I’m sure I’ll look back and see the sacrifice as more than worth it.

@Sean McCluskey

These are great ideas. Thank you again. Having the lender run both scenarios. Then maybe I meet half way and refi the car like you said. Perfect.

@Sean McCluskey

Thank you for the suggestions. You're right with the car hitting the DTI hard. We do have a second vehicle that's paid off, so it wouldn't kill us to sell. Just not sure it's worth taking the loss. We rolled in a loss on a leased vehicle to this vehicle just to get out of it. Looking back, it would have been better just to pay that 5k loss when I turned the lease in. Lesson learned. Thank you again.

@Joe Splitrock

I appreciate the feed back. The cards weren’t used to finance a life style they were actually used to make renovations on some of the properties. In prep for refinancing. But that was the idea of paying them off, to stack the cash that would normally go to the monthly payments.

@Chris Thomas

Thank you for the reply. I figured paying off debt was the best route. Just wanted to make sure I didn’t screen myself by letting go of all this cash.

@Ian Gorman

I appreciate the response.

The car has a balance of 22,500. 5.89%

Card 15,700. 17%

Card 12,000 1.99% 12 month promo.

Card 3,200 0% 48 month promo

The main idea was to pay off the 17% card then work on the car. Both together account for about 600 a month in cash flow.

I have about 25k in cash available. I also have about 45k in non-real estate debt. Credit cards, car loan.

I really want to refinance my current residence to get it rented and look to buy a new home. Both the refinance and new loan get held up by my debt to income due to the bad debt.

The question is, should I dump all the cash into those debts, hold on to it, or look to invest it?

A little back ground.

I'm active duty Army, own two rentals and a primary residence. One rental is on a VA loan the other two mortgages are conventional. The hope is to refi the Va loan into a conventional so free up my entitlement. But I don't believe it would appraise with 20-25% equity. I appreciate any words of wisdom. Thank you in advance.

@David Pere

I just caught one of your YouTube videos. Great info. I did have a question that maybe you can answer.

I have all my investment in Roth TSP right now but had it in traditional for years. So there's a balance there. The question is, if I retire before my TSP loan is repaid, will it be taxed as a disbursement? And if I pick up another Fed job within a month or so, can i avoid that? Just not sure how going from one fed job to another impacts TSP. Thanks in advance.