<prompt> Human: Curious how others balance student debt, home down payment savings and 401k contributions. My current situation:- Recently married and currently saving with the goal to buy a house in 2020. We live in super expensive area so unfortunately the down payment will take a couple years of saving - In grad school MBA part time funding partially with student loans. Will graduate with 50k in loans 6 interest- Contributing 9 to 401k Company match is 4Current Plan: Lower the 401k contribution minimum being 4 and put the remainder towards my loan. Continuing my house savings as is for the time being top priority. House DP Student Loan 401kAny suggestions advice in balancing these items?  <response>: Personally speaking based on what you want you say you want a house in 2020. That gives you 1.5-2.5 years to save for the down payment. Lets assume 2 years for ease of math. You say youre in a HCOL area so Im going to assume home values are in the 750k range. This means you need 150k for 20 down to avoid PMI, or find a lender that foregoes PMI at like 15 which means 113k is needed for the down payment. So, 113-150k in 2 years means you need to set aside 56-75kyear if you want the standard 20 down. Alternatively 5 down means 38k is needed, which will add PMI, and increase the overall payments. Without providing details on your income, expenses, etc its going to be really hard to provide solid advice. But, if your goal is to buy a house in 2020, assuming no savings now, you should be absolutely drop your 401k down to 4 and work to save that down payment before anything else. With that being said, I very much dislike 6 loans and would be refiing those ASAP on graduation down to 4-5 probably closer to 5 with the rate increases expected this year, but trying to pay those off ASAP instead of buying a house. But Id set aside the money for either the house or paying downoff student loans. 