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Paying off debt or savings?

November 27th, 2007 at 07:47 am

I am always unsure of what to do with extra money at the end of a pay period. I can tell you what I usually do with it...spend it on crap we don't need. Since I am trying to change that mind set I was wondering if I should put that extra $100 towards my debt or save it. Up until now I haven't really saved too much b/c I figured it was worthless with the mountains of debt. On the other hand having spare money would prevent new debt. This is where I am at a loss. Credit cards are at about 13% interest and the best I can do on a savings account is about 5%. Is it worth saving at such a little amount when I could be using it to pay off the debt? Any opinions?

4 Responses to “Paying off debt or savings?”

  1. fern Says:

    You should always have at least some sort of emergency stash available in case something unexpected comes up, be it a car accident, sickness, job loss, a major appliance breaking down or whatever.

    After that, PAY DOWN that DEBT. You actually answered your own question in your post. You said that what you usually end up doing with spare cash is "spend it on crap we don't need." So you then can't say "...having spare money would prevent new debt," cus that's just not true. Make sure when you build up your emergency fund that this money is sacrosanct and not to be touched for anything but a true emergency. Otherwise you'll never dig out from under that debt.

  2. Ima saver Says:

    You do need to have an emergency fund. I agree with Fern!

  3. koppur Says:

    Put $25 a month into an EF and the other $75 onto the debt. I am in the same position!

  4. compulsive debtor Says:

    I follow the 1/3 rule whenever I have extra money: 1/3 to debt, 1/3 to savings and 1/3 to immediate needs.

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