I can't resist a game... put me in the FIRE curious camp
Intro: I am 28, DH is 29. I started reading a lot of the financial sites when my student loans came due and I was trying to figure out if I should pay extra on them
So I came across the FIRE idea then. We are not actively chasing it, but it is something DH and I have discussed. Our current plan/idea is to make good financial decisions and set ourselves up well, so that hopefully we will at least be FI. Work optional is the main thing - DH worries more about the RE part because his dream job is something he would be really passionate about, so we just want to be secure and not have to base decisions off having to keep a job we don’t like until our 60s.
1. Contribute to get 401k match - free money!
2. Pay down CC Debt - luckily we’ve never had any CC debt. The Debt is an Emergency article is the first one I read on MMM, and that whole take really resonated with me personally. I think too many people think of it as ‘normal’ even some I know.
3. Pay Ahead on Student Loans - we paid ours off a little over a year ago and it just made us so happy to get rid of them vs having $1000 in payments for 10 years. That put us at 5 and 7 years ahead of schedule and saved us over $12k in interest. We had interest rates ranging from 3.5% to 8%
4. Pay ahead on auto loan - we are about to pay off my auto loan. This wasn’t the best decision based on the numbers, as it’s a 0% loan, but it was more about reducing our monthly payments and it was lower/within easier reach than the other one that has a 3% interest rate
5/6/7. Max 401k/HSA/IRA - basically working on how to balance this now… This year I maxed my 401k, though that wasn’t planned or expected, I just worked a ton. I put $3000 in my HSA plus $1025 from my employer. DHs 401k was at the minimum 3% until a couple months ago, so I think he’ll have put around $2500 in his. No IRAs here. I think I’ve figured we should contribute to get the employer match, then max an IRA if fees are less than 401k, then back to 401k… but I can’t figure out where to put an HSA in this. Do any of you with HSAs have any insight?
I’ve got a 401k from a previous employer with just under $2000 in it that I need to do something with too.
8/9. Extra Mortgage Payments/Liquid Savings - Probably split this in some way when we'd get to that point. We don't have a house yet but our first will probably be a starter home, so this is a ways down the line for us and may mean extra mortgage payments are not the way to go.
These will shift a bit for us as things change. I think I’m one of those people who is happier balancing some of this stuff vs putting every spare penny in just one pot. For example, while we paid off our student loans we also saved all of the cash needed for our wedding/honeymoon, saved towards a house downpayment, and saved about $32k in 401ks/HSA over the twoish years. That just made me feel better that other things were progressing at set amounts each month while every penny beyond that tackled the loans. We currently live with my in-laws, which obviously helps. We don’t have $0 living expenses, we contribute a lot, but it is way less than it would be if we were in an apartment (a one bedroom is running $1400 and up typically). We would like to buy, but the market has been pretty crazy, plus 25-30% of our income is from OT/commissions so if I base a mortgage payment off our base salaries, it’s hard to find anything in that price range.
Families influences on these views/financial matters in general? That could be a novel just based on me! I can do it if anyone’s interested… I’ve had a lot of crap going on around me
DH and I have gone down the battle of the numbers a time or two. Once was for the bi-weekly mortgage another the other was for DVC and lastly for travel hacking. My math won each time because his numbers wound up being "alternative facts and fake news" simply based on knee-jerk inaccurate pre-conceptions of how stuff works.
I like how you phrased this as a battle of the numbers
DH and I went through things a few times, not always agreeing. It was mostly the same as yours - fake news/ideas from coworkers, etc that he had and I re-educated him showing him facts and figures to back it up. Now when I bring something up typically his response is, Please explain this to me because you’re better at this stuff than I am.
. This number is painful for me to read, LOL! 
It's just hard for me to comprehend 
(not saying it's wrong...just not something I've ever personally experienced).
We do not plan on retiring here though. I'd like to keep paying off our mortgage til it's gone and use that cash when we sell to downsize and move somewhere cheap and warm. 
