RE: where do you get more, pay more?

I agree with that, your house will appreciate/depreciate according to market conditions and there's not much you can do about it other than home improvements. A Roth will earn you interest on the $8000 which is far greater than saving $60 on monthly mortgage payments by putting an extra $8k down. What's more, if you lose money on your Roth IRA, there is a way to claim the losses on your tax return and withdraw money from your IRA. I thought this was interesting and would share with you.

1) Withdraw Full Balance to Claim Losses

In order to be eligible to claim losses on your tax return from your IRA investments, you MUST withdraw the entire balance from that account. For example, if you faced a loss of $5000 this year on your Roth IRA account, you must withdraw the full balance from your Roth IRA in order to be eligible to deduct this $5000 allowable capital loss from your tax return. On the other hand, if you faced a similar loss from your SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA or Traditional IRA, you must withdraw the entire balances from all these Traditional IRAs in order to deduct any losses.

Source: www.definerothira.com

2) Losses on your Traditional IRA

You can deduct losses made on your Traditional IRA only if:

*

the total balance you withdraw is LESS than the after-tax amounts (basis amounts) remaining in your Traditional IRA.

* the IRA basis is any non-deductible contributions + after-tax IRA rollovers from 403b plans, 457 plans or other qualified retirement plans.

* you fill out IRS Form 8606 which is used to determine the basis of your withdrawal amounts from your Traditional IRA. IRS Form 8606 is also used to calculate your actual IRA loss to be included in your income tax return, and the total amount of your IRA withdrawal.

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