Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background.

Pay off credit card debt or earn employer 401(k) match?
Agree with Randy, if debt and debt reduction was all about math, nobody would be in debt.  It is an emotional game. If you've taken care of the reasons you're in debt, changed your behaviors, then start focusing on the math of getting it done faster.   Otherwise, if you don't have a handle on the behaviors that got you there, you're just going to get more rope to hang yourself with.  I.e., makes sense to take a low-interest home equity loan to pay off high-interest credit card debt, but more likely than not, you'll just re-rack up the debt on the cards because you never fixed the behavior that put you into debt. Same thing here, if you opt not to contribute to "pay off the cards" without fixing the debt-accumulating behaviors, what you're going to do is stay in debt AND not provide for retirement. Take the match until you're certain you have your debt accumulation habits in check.