When my ex left me on my birthday in 2006, he left me with $18,000 of debt on a home equity line of credit, and about $3,000 on a credit card. Savings? Ha. Gone. Fortunately, he couldn't touch my 401k, Roth, or investment portfolio or that would have been gone too.

Today:
HELOC balance $0!
Credit card balance $0!
Emergency savings balance $6000

I also have 214 hours of comp time accrued from overtime I worked during back-to-back blizzards in 2006, that can be fairly easily converted to cash. The value pretty much grows at 4% per year as I get raises.

Now I'm trying to figure out whether it makes more sense to pay off my mortgage ($114k @ 5.25%) or invest more. I'm already funding my 401k as much as allowed, but I could open a 457 plan or put $$$ in the Roth. Ideally I'd like to retire in 10 years or less if at all possible.

Anyway, I've been an avid GRS fan but never joined the forums before. My small success prompted me to register.

Congrats on overcoming some serious obstacles.

Do you have any other invested assets? I guess my question is, what do you have to retire on in 10 years?

Are you staying in the same home for the next 10-20 years? How much is the time off worth in dollars?

I have other invested assets...not quite enough to retire on, unfortunately, so I need to buckle down and figure this out. I have my home, with a LOT of equity, and a second home in the mountains that is paid off. no plans to move, although I am considering moving to the mountain home at some point and could either sell my home here in town or use it as a rental. My comp time is probably worth $5k - $6k.

Fortunately, I also have a job I love and boss worth his weight in gold!