Pay off debt or save money?

Question

We have a lot of debt. We have more total debt than we make in a year, and more than half is student loans.

We're trying to build up our credit by both saving and paying stuff off. But is it a waste of time to save money? Right now, we're saving 5% each from our paychecks. And if we have it, sometimes we send bigger amounts just to have more in there.

Uh . . . I'm paying on my debt. It's not sitting there unpaid. I'm talking about paying it off in large chunks.

oudidnot: I grade that stuff for a living. I will give some people crap if their questions are impossible to understand. But I'm here to play, not work!

Answer 1

A balanced strategy that includes both debt reduction and savings is usually best, which appears to be what you're doing. However, if you already have enough savings for minor emergencies and you have a lot of high-interest debt, it may be better to adjust your strategy for a couple of years to reduce the debt.

As for helping your credit, the savings don't affect your credit score but reducing your loan balance does.

Answer 2

This is a question that people often struggle w/ when first trying to get out of debt. Here's one way to look at it: Let's say you make only the min payment and save the rest in case of an emergency. You do this for 6 months, during that time, your debt isn;t going down by much and you're throwing money away in finance charges. However, during the same time you've been able to sock away an emergency fund. But, the emergency never comes. In that scenario you would have been better off not saving and using that money towards debt repayment. Now, let's say that you didn't save anything, have been very disciplined and been paying all extra towards debt repayment. But WHAM!!! An emergency arises. It shouldn't be a big deal because now you should have more room to pay for the emergency on your credit card. Yes, doing this can bring you back to sqaure one but at least you made headway until the emergency occured. The other way you never made any headway. For this reason I suggest you pour money into debt repayment. Saving for an unknown emergency IMO is a waste of time and money. If no emergency comes by the time you pay off debt, you can then start saving money.

Answer 3

You are most likely spending more in interest on you debt than you are receiving in savings. In the long run your best bet is to pay off your debt and then start saving. Another way to save a little money is to review your monthly expenses. Take one month and write down EVERY PENNY you spend and see where it is going. That's right, EVERY PENNY, write down all of your rent / mortgage, utilities, fuel, food, subscription, donations and anything else that you spend money on. Once you have this, sit down and review what is actually necessary. Example, do you really need the movie channels? Can you survive a few months without them? Did you know that the $10.00 each month you spend on movie channels could knock off hundreds of dollars in interest over a few years on your debt? Don't look at this as though you will never be able to enjoy life because you will. You can get the movie channels back later and trust me, you will value them much more after you realize what you had to do to get them back and you will be debt free to boot! There are many ways to save money. Do you really need to eat lunch out every day? How about bringing a bag lunch? You can buy lunch for a week if you bring it from home for about the same amount you would if you eat out for just one day. I know it seems hard to do and you feel like you are loosing everything in your life that you are working so hard for but in the end it is worth it because you know that you own everything and you are not paying three or four times as much for it in interest. Hope this helps, good luck!

Answer 4

It all depends on the interest rate on your debt vs. interest rate on your savings. It's always a good idea to have some money (about 3-6 months total salary) easily accessible in savings, then focus on paying down your debt, pay the minimum on each debt with what ever extra you might have each month going toward whatever debt (credit card) has the highest interest rate. When that card is paid off apply the payment you were making to that to the monthly payment of your next highest interest debt. If you don't have any savings, you will end up charging emegencies to credit cards and going throug the cycle all over again.

Answer 5

It sounds like you are doing well by saving and paying debt.

Student loans have a lower interest rate than other debt and is deductible on your taxes.

Most people forget to save in an emergency fund.You should have 2-4 months of income saved in a money market fund for emergencies.

If you don't save and put all your money toward bills and you have an emergency you will put it on credit cards and have more of the worst debt none of us want,but always seem to have.
Keep saving and paying debt and over time you will be debt free.

Good Luck

Answer 6

You are never wrong to save money while paying off debt. By saving only a little money while you are paying down debt, you will have a cushion if you need it. That will keep you from going into further debt. Besides, since you are working so hard shouldn't you reward yourself. In the long run you will be glad you did. By the way, emigrantdirect.com is offering a superb 5.05% return on your savings. This is a regular liquid account that I learned about from Suze Orman on her show. I spent years paying off debt without saving a dime. Now, I am saving first and paying a portion of my debt. Not only am I watching my debt decrease, I am seeing my savings soar and I couldn't feel more inspired to continue the habit. Good Luck!!!

Answer 7

I went to a financial consultant once with the same question and similar circumstances. He said to pay off the debt before you start saving. Pay off highest interest rates first and then go from there. A good book is the automatic millionaire, there is a lot of good advice and tips in the book. Good luck
P.S I used the spell check cause I did not want to give an English teacher miss-spelled words, although there are probably run on sentences. Punctuation is not my strong suit.

Answer 8

If you have a dollar in one hand, and a dollar in the other, you have two dollars. That's your net worth. If you give me a dollar, you have one dollar, your new net worth. It depends on the interest rate of the debt and potential interest on savings. If you have the debt at a good rate, and can save receiving a good rate then I would go in both directions. If the cost of the debt in interest is overwhelming, I would get rid of that and then move into saving mode. Interest is the whole ball game. It sounds like you have huge debt, but if that's a house, it's not relevent. If it's credit cards and other similiar consumer debt, you need to get rid of that and fast before you can move on, but again, interest is everything.

Answer 9

I agree with CarMan about the balanced strategy. Here's a calculator that may help. It will help you see if you come out ahead by saving until you can pay the debt or paying more toward the debt each month...
http://debt.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Eliminate-Debt-Or-Invest

Answer 10

I am a big believer in the fact that you should have at least one month's worth of expenses in a savings account to cover any unexpected expenses.

Once you have at least one month's worth of expenses saved up, ATTACK the debt!

You can calculate your debt freedom date by visiting my personal finance web site http://www.josephsangl.com and clicking on "TOOLS" at the top of the page. The "Debt Freedom Date" calculator will tell you how many months it will take you to become debt-free!

I did this, and I have been living debt-free ever since!!!