Dave Says: Debt Snowball and Rental Property

Dear Dave,

Should rental property debt be included in the debt snowball?

Matthew

Dear Matthew,

No, it should not. The debt snowball is Baby Step 2 in my plan, where you stop saving and pay off all debt except for your home—and I would include rental properties in there—from smallest to largest. Prior to this, you should start with Baby Step 1, which is saving up a starter emergency fund of $1,000.

As a reminder, Baby Step 3 is going back and fully funding your emergency fund with three to six months of expenses. Notice that I said expenses, not income. After that, Baby Step 4 is investing 15 percent of your household income in Roth IRAs and other pre-tax retirement plans, and Baby Step 5 means setting aside college money for the kids.

Baby Step 6 is where you pay off your home, and Baby Step 7 is when you relax, build wealth, and give. Again, Baby Step 6 would include any rental properties that weren't bought and paid for with cash. My advice would be to pay off your home before taking care of the rental properties, and that's simply a risk management perspective. Now, if you owe just $30,000 on your rental properties but still have a $3 million mortgage hanging over your head, you might go ahead and knock out the rental properties first.

Think about it this way, Matthew. Which would you rather lose in a worst-case scenario: your home or your rental properties? If they're in the same general range of debt, I'm going to pay off the home first and the rental properties last.

—Dave