Originally Posted by
wmupilot85
To an extent, yes. Say the company gives me a match of $850/year based off 3% invested, and that takes 6 years to become fully vested in that amount as well. Lets say that I also pay $1,000 a year in interest from student loans. I'm still in the red from the free money, vs putting more into the student loans to get the payment down faster. I feel my money is better spent paying down anything that accumulates interest, rather than putting it somewhere that will gain less in the short term. In the long term, will the capitalized interest be higher on the 401k? Yes (well should be depending on the economy), but at what expense for how much extra did I pay out of my own pocket on the interest for my student loans in that time.
Then lets look at this another way. Say in 3-4 years I'm hired into a legacy carrier like Delta. My profit sharing check alone, would be able to max out a 401k account for the year. Far surpassing anything that this company would give me.
That seems like a very short-sighted and myopic view of the situation to me. The money you put away now is worth more than the money you put away 10 years from now just by vitrue of the fact that it's been accruing interest that much longer. Now that said and without knowing your situation exactly, I've known plenty of guys who couldn't contribute to their 401k and make ends meet at home, but you should understand that you are borrowing from your future self in order to pay your current self's student loan. In other words, it's worth more long-term to carry your loan an extra year or two and get the free money (plus interest!!) Than it is to just retire the loan asap. Even more so if you are still getting some sort of tax deduction on the interest.
Here's another alarming thought: what if Delta never calls or you lose your medical?
Another thought: most pilots are probably getting more like $2400-4000 year with the match.