Hi Rudy – There might be something to that! But what happens if you have a major medical event when you’re 25 or 30 or 35, but before you’ve saved up enough to cover it? Also, if you’re saving up a large portfolio for medical, which at today’s cost levels might be $1 million or more, you might not want to part with it for medical purposes. Finally, for some people, healthy insurance premiums are deductible, while saving for self-insurance generally isn’t.

Great article.

I came across because I’m doing some research on medical health insurance.

So, why do we need medical insurance?

What about investing the premiums and let compound over the years?

Hi Martin – That’s what these 30 rules are for, to help you detangle your finances. Take each one at a time and see how much progress you can make.

Thanks again and I apologize if my comment has become more of a rant. I would really appreciate some suggestions for how to proceed from *almost square one career-wise and financially when you are staring at the backside of 40.

All the best to you and your family 🙂

@Jim – I think you were correct to focus on retirement over paying off the mortgage, that is what I plan to do. When the market goes down you have not lost any retirement money unless you need it today, so I’m not sure what you mean when you say you have lost it all several times. Because of dollar cost averaging, when the market is down you are buying cheap shares of stock so when the market rebounds you will end up much better off than if there had not been a dip. As long as you move the assets out of the stock market to something safer like bonds as you get close to retirement and time it well you have not lost any of your investment. I don’t think retirement can really be “overfunded” when you look at the cost of nursing homes and medical care, unless you are really extreme like saving millions and millions and living like a pauper now.

#30 Never Stop Dreaming particularly resonated with me as it’s easy to get caught up in the regular day-to-day grind and forget that you’re still young enough to make a change and get the most out of life.

Thanks!

Yikes! I didn’t make myself clear. When I said throw everything you can at the mortgage I was assuming that “everything” came after saving for your retirement and your kid’s 529’s. Sure did NOT mean to mislead any 30-somethings and I absolutely agree that you get that retirement funding going with your first paycheck (and then it’s out of mind, out of sight). It’s like paying for food – of course you do that before you throw any extra $ at the mortgage. Guess I should have been more clear. Sorry. (Just don’t overfund your retirement at the cost of paying off your mortgage asap).

Jim, while i can understand your frustration & fear of the markets and how your ability to retire might seem to swing with the S&p 500, your advice may be misunderstood by many 30 year olds. Jeff is smart enough and successful enough to pay off his house AND save for retirement at the same time. Most 30 year olds are not, and those who choose to pay off their house before saving for retirement are making a huge mistake. You can’t save enough in your 50’s to make up for lost compounded interest. You can’t go back and get your company’s match from your 30’s.
In your scenario you may have created a person who hasn’t really learned what it means to save & invest. I know you were talking in generalities and each person is different. But being house rich and cash poor at 50 is not where you want to be especially if you are like most 30 year olds who believe they will never see much from social security. My point of commenting was to just disagree with the “pay off your house” first before saving. It’s not that simple and for many folks that is financially a really poor decision, interest rate on their mortgage aside. You have to look at the entire situation.