Can I ask why you are investing in IRA when you are not getting the tax deduction for it? Since you aren’t getting the tax deduction now, and then will just have to pay income taxes on it when you withdraw it at retirment you’d be better off puting that 6k in a taxable account where you’d only have to pay capital gain tax which is lower than income tax rates.

Unless you are planning on using the backdoor Roth conversion to convert that 6k in the IRA into a Roth IRA and then pay no taxes on it at all in retirement.

Just have to say, that while I completely understand the logic of using debt to leverage your net worth, it’s only a valid argument if your intent is to increase your net worth at all costs. There are a lot of reasons to live debt free that are just as rational as debt leveraging. Millennials especially, after seeing firsthand how much trouble you can get into if you over leverage yourself and then lose your job, tend to have a different opinion on investments than our parent’s generations did. Banks and credit card lenders have no problem loaning you MORE than would be good for you. Debt = Risk. And yes, sometimes risk pays off, but sometimes it doesn’t. The more debt you have, the higher the monthly income you MUST maintain to keep up. That’s part of why our society is SO stressed out. For a lot of people, we’d rather have zero debt and be able to use our monthly income anyway we want. Zero debt means that, if necessary, you could continue to live just fine on a much smaller income. I would much rather be in a financial position where I don’t have anything to fear from losing my job (or can QUIT if I’m ever in a position where I’m being asked to go against my integrity or character). I don’t need ALL the money, I just need ENOUGH money to live my life comfortably. And for the record, I have nothing against your comment :) for someone interested in debt leverage, you are correct. I just wanted to add the other side of the argument for anyone on here who can’t put their finger on WHY they can’t help but pay off debt before investing.

The $3,600 is a monthly expense

OP here – that just means that we contribute the maximum amount to our IRAs ($6,000 this year) each January so we have the full year of investment benefits.