<prompt> Human: I am in my early 30s and so is my wife, we also have 2 kids. I make 100k a year and have a 401k and savings. She makes 50k a year and has a 401k and savings. Looking over the graphic in the FAQ, I am trying to better understand what we are supposed to do with our savings and income. We have 6 months of savings for our emergency fund. I put in 10 into my company 401k, they match 6. My wife does the same with 10 but they only match 3 for hers. I have 30k in student loans and the largest rate is 3.75. Her is almost paid off with a even lower rate. We have 1 car payment at 1.99 less than 25k and then a mortgage at 4.125 less than 400k. I am trying to understand if I should put my 10 from 401k down to the 6 matching my employer then take that extra 4 pretaxed and put it towards something else in my life. Maybe paying off the student loan, car payment or towards my kids education. Also we dont have an IRA because we only have our 401k for our retirement right now. Her and I are just thinking maybe we could look at other avenues for our savings and income rather than a 401k at 10 that our company matches at 6 and 3 respectively.  <response>: Well, youve read the FAQ I have X, what do I do with it but I pretty much agree with it 100. You make enough that you should be able to do steps 2 and 4, maybe even step 5. Id only pay minimums on all those debts, max out IRAs for both of you, and see how high I could get my 401k contributions. Maxing out 401ks would mean contributing about 17.5 of your income if you make exactly 100k gross and 35 of hers. Thats a lot, but you make a lot. Again, it depends on what your expenses are. 