I'm currently 20 years old, and a junior in college, looking to graduate with roughly 25k in student loans. This past year my cost for college went up. (my dad started making more money so I will be getting less financial aid, unfortunately due to large family size my dads pay raise is not going to translate into being able to contribute to my tuition) Whereas previously my tuition was covered through a combination of scholarships, grants and federal loans, there is now an extra 2k a semester that I will either have to pay out of pocket, or get in loans.
A couple weeks ago, I found out that my dad apparently started a ROTH IRA account for me about 10 years ago, and there is currently about 8k in the account. From what I can tell, if I chose to I could withdraw the majority of this money relatively tax free. So my question is, should I just leave that account untouched until I graduate/get a job, when I would start investing into it and take on more students loans to cover my current tuition costs, or use the 8k to cover the extra cost of my tuition for my final three semesters?
While I'm trying to not be too optimistic, I can say that I've worked hard at making sure I have been doing internships, and building connections so at this point it looks like getting a job right out of college shouldn't be too unrealistic. My goal is to pay off all my student loans within the first 3 years of graduating, at which that point I will more than likely be proposing to my current S/O of 3 years (I know that sounds cliche and youthfully optimistic).
Like I said earlier, I am currently financing my education without the help of my parents, and am also working a part time job. So should I use that money now? or bite the bullet, take a little more debt, and let it sit in the account? Hopefully my post/question was clear.
Submitted January 27, 2017 at 11:16PM by little_seizures http://ift.tt/2kDnzgY
