debt

$20 bill closeup

How to potentially double your money’s impact via lump sum debt reduction

It can be hard to visualize how paying a debt off works. There’s an interplay between principal and interest. You pay money to reduce the principal, but during that time, interest on the debt has piled up, reducing the impact … Read MoreRead More

Monkey face rock

If you’re still unsure about what method to use to pay off your debt

If you’re like most people, you’ve got some form of debt. It could be a car loan, it could be credit cards, or it could be “good debt” like student loans. No matter, it’s got to go. You need to get … Read MoreRead More

Captain Obvious Reports: How not to have more credit card debt

Sometimes I like to get deep into the rabbit role with details. The post I wrote immediately before this detailed the ins and outs of rebalancing your investment portfolio. An important topic to discuss, but it’s hard not to be … Read MoreRead More

"Do Not Paint" sign

Should you get a loan to pay off your debt?

Paying off debt is hard. It can feel like you’re not even making progress. Sometimes this is actually true. If you make minimum payments on your credit cards, you’re basically never going to pay anything off. And if you’ve got … Read MoreRead More

Explosion

The debt blunderbuss, or can you have an emergency fund and still pay off debt?

There is a financial cage match article that I can’t write: debt vs. the emergency fund. It’s not hard to see why there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to question of what comes first before the other. How much debt you … Read MoreRead More

Seed sprouting

If you feel like you have too much debt to ever save for retirement

Debt reduction and wealth building are part of the same process, so you are working toward your money goals even if you don’t think you are. I believe retirement is possible for us. But at the same time, I’m on … Read MoreRead More

Spiral windows

Is it a good idea to get your student loans forgiven?

Like approximately everyone, I graduated college with student loans. If there was a way to get my loans “forgiven”, no one told me. At the time, all I knew was that I had to either pay what I owed, pay interest … Read MoreRead More

Financial cage match: Paying off student loans versus investing for retirement

  Recently, I made the bold claim that those who have debt aren’t ready to start saving for retirement. I added some relaxing caveats, but I really wanted to put them in an order. Debt first, investing later. I don’t … Read MoreRead More

The mortgage: debt’s final boss character

  My friend Rami talks about many facets of life from the perspective of certain video games. And certain video game tropes do occassionally leak into other forms of art and even real life. For example, can anyone really read … Read MoreRead More

Why I’m going back into debt (or why I was never really debt-free)

  I’ve long railed against debt. Debt slows you down from achieving what you want, and forces you to pay companies that don’t have your best interests in mind. I paid off my last debts four years ago, and I … Read MoreRead More