You've made a commitment to change your spending habits. You have a budget and you are working on getting out of debt and building up some savings. You just received a bonus at work. What do you do with it? The old you would have gone on a vacation. The new you is looking to the future. Your first impulse is to pay off a credit card or two. But then you consider putting it in your emergency fund -- there isn't near enough money in there. The debate over emergency savings versus credit card debt has been around for a long time. Let's look at the two sides. Save for emergencies Putting your extra money into savings for emergencies seems like a good idea. You will have the peace of mind that everything is taken care of. If an emergency comes up, you can pay cash for the emergency and not have to charge it on your credit card. You probably have too much debt to get an emergency personal loan through a local bank, so having the cash saves you. Pay off your debt Paying off your debt makes sense in the long run. You won't pay the extra interest to the lender while money sits in savings. If your money is only earning 3% in savings, it could work better for you by eliminating a 15% loan. Having that money in savings instead of using it to pay off your debt is costing you at least 12%. If you use it to pay off your debt, you will be out of debt faster. If you have an emergency, you'll probably have to charge it on your credit card, which will cost you. You can see how it can be confusing. Looking purely at numbers, paying off the debt is the best way to go in the long run. But we aren't purely numbers. Accidents and emergencies happen. Emotions run deep. Some people find it easier to pay off their credit cards and close them if they know that they won't need them. You have to look at your own finances and goals. Are you focusing on the long run? Or are you focusing on right now? Look at your family's needs. Run each scenario through your calculator. It could be that you change your mind about where the money should go. We know that by putting the money towards your savings, you won't have to accrue any more debt in the event of an emergency. If you were to put it towards your debt, how could it help your savings? You are able to pay off your debt faster, putting money into your savings on a regularly basis faster. When you pay down your credit card debt, you have more available credit that you can use as your emergency fund. The credit isn't there for everyday use, just like a savings account isn't. What you want to do is get to the point where you have no credit card debt and an emergency fund. If you have one but not the other, you aren't safe. You need to have both. If all else fails and you can't decide what to do, put half of the money to your debt and half of your money to savings. Either way, it's better than just spending it. |
