Roth IRA Vs Debt Reduction

Our situation today demands us to choose between Roth IRA and paying our parents back.

There are a couple of posts on this. Far less than I expected.
1) Get Rich Slowly discusses his options in “Real-Life Choices: Retirement Savings vs. Debt Reduction”. Decides to put it in Roth IRA.
2) A 21-year old contemplating between retirement and debt reduction – “401k + IRA Vs. Debt”. A lot of different people with a lot of different advice.
3) OmniNerd has a post Home Down Payment vs Roth IRA.

We just started our 401k investment. And we are not funding it to the max this year since we are slightly low on cash flow at this point. But we are committed to funding it fully next year. We will not be eligible for Roth IRA next year. On the other hand, our parents are nearing retirement. They would have taken some money from their retirement savings to loan us part of the down payment. When it’s a decision between funding our retirement and funding our parent’s retirement, I am sure you all agree with me that we should pay back our parents. So that’s what we are going to do.