In debts now, help please
I like the answers others gave, if it's some substantial debt you definitely could go the bankruptcy route but it damages your future, also it's morally unethical to borrow all that money and not intend to pay. Second, if you can pay off the entire balance and clear out the 23% interest than I'd do that first. One less bill to concern yourself with. Now let's say you've been making $100 payments monthly on each card (my assumption for this examples sale) now instead of paying $100 to the remaining cards balance each month and saving the other $100, pay $200 against the remaining credit cards balance. By not taking home any money this way you are tackling the liability that is costing you money every month. Unless you have a great investment opportunity on that remaining $1000 or haven't created much of an emergency fund yet, I'd consider putting more of that money towards the debt. Gaining 0.01% on savings interest still means you're eating 25.99% in debt monthly. If you're able to I'd venture out to open a zero interest card and do a balance transfer over to that new card, there will be a minimal transfer fee but you may get some cash back out of it and also that zero interest for a year would help hold off more interest accruing while you're tackling the balance. Pay off the debt first.  Life circumstances change without notice, and starting any stage of life with a debt puts you at a disadvantage.  Luckily, your debt is small.  Please also consider accumulating a 6 month emergency fund before making investments. This will further protect you when life hands you a curveball. Wikipedia has a nice definition of financial literacy (emphasis below is mine): [...] refers to an   individual's ability to make informed   judgments and effective decisions   about the use and management of their   money. Raising interest in personal   finance is now a focus of state-run   programs in countries including   Australia, Japan, the United States   and the UK. [...]  As for how you can become financially literate, here are some suggestions: Learn about how basic financial products works: bank accounts, mortgages, credit cards, investment accounts, insurance (home, car, life, disability, medical.) Free printed & online materials should be available from your existing financial service providers to help you with your existing products.  In particular, learn about the fees, interest, or other charges you may incur with these products.  Becoming fee-aware is a step towards financial literacy, since financially literate people compare costs.  Seek out additional information on each type of product from unbiased sources (i.e. sources not trying to sell you something.) Get out of debt and stay out of debt. This may take a while. Focus on your highest-interest loans first. Learn the difference between good debt and bad debt.   Learn about compound interest.  Once you understand compound interest, you'll understand why being in debt is bad for your financial well-being. If you aren't already saving money for retirement, start now.  Investigate whether your employer offers an advantageous matched 401(k) plan (or group RRSP/DC plan for Canadians) or a pension plan.  If your employer offers a good plan, sign up.  If you get to choose your own investments, keep it simple and favor low-cost balanced index funds until you understand the different types of investments.  Read the material provided by the plan sponsor, try online tools provided, and seek out additional information from unbiased sources. If your employer doesn't offer an advantageous retirement plan, open an individual retirement account or IRA (or personal RRSP for Canadians.)  If your employer does offer a plan, you can set one of these up to save even more.  You could start with access to a family of low-cost mutual funds (examples: Vanguard for Americans, or TD eFunds for Canadians) or earn advanced credit by learning about discount brokers and self-directed accounts. Understand how income taxes and other taxes work.  If you have an accountant prepare your taxes, ask questions.  If you prepare your taxes yourself, understand what you're doing and don't file blind.  Seek help if necessary.  There are many good books on how income tax works.  Software packages that help you self-file often have online help worth reading – read it. Learn about life insurance, medical insurance, disability insurance, wills, living wills & powers of attorney, and estate planning.  Death and illness can derail your family's finances.  Learn how these things can help. Seek out and read key books on personal finance topics.  e.g. Your Money Or Your Life, Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes, The Four Pillars of Investing, The Random Walk Guide to Investing, and many more. Seek out and read good personal finance blogs.  There's a wealth of information available for free on the Internet, but do check facts and assumptions. Here are some suggested blogs for American readers and some suggested blogs for Canadian readers. Subscribe to a personal finance periodical and read it.  Good ones to start with are Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine in the U.S. and MoneySense Magazine in Canada.  The business section in your local newspaper may sometimes have personal finance articles worth reading, too. Shameless plug: Ask more questions on this site. The Personal Finance & Money Stack Exchange is here to help you learn about money & finance, so you can make better financial decisions.  We're all here to learn and help others learn about money. Keep learning! Here is my personal opinion.  Please take what I say with a grain of salt.  I've been in your position before so I had to rewire myself.    With that said, all your poor decisions were made in the past.  Certainly, today, there are consequences that you are facing for the decisions you made, but still, they were in the past.  So, you CAN eat and you CAN live.  Perhaps, not to your liking but this is a rare opportunity.  You see, (I am assuming your American), we Americans often feel that more in life means more happiness.  But being in debt like you can show you that there is another path.  Just having enough.    Things like, enjoying every bite of the meal you just ate, or enjoying every moment while you're not thinking about the poor decisions you've made in the past will help you greatly in the future.  I found that because of my debt problems living in the present moment was the only way I could stop myself from loosing all sanity.  In fact, because of that I started to not focus on how to get out of debt, but how to live with debt.  It became much easier once I was able to naturally accept that there is debt, and it will be paid someday, but this is how life is and it doesn't bother me.  I found that by letting it go, eventually not only the mental problem, but the debt began to solve itself.    I know it sounds like mumbo-jumbo, but doing everything as a small step, for example, when you get in the shower today, feel the hot water.  I mean like, REALLY FEEL IT.  You have HOT RUNNING WATER.  Think about the hot water and how good it is.  This is the moment.  Maybe tomorrow you won't have hot running water, but that's ok because IT'S NOT TOMORROW, it's today.  Doing it like that, with everything, saved me from most likely something horrible.  Hth you a bit. Pay down cc debt asap, take your time on your student debt, it's low and you can write the interest off related to it. If your a teacher maybe you can get it forgiven.   But you borrowed from your future self when you younger so ya you gotta start living reasonable. I know one piece of information that can help you (in a macabe sort of way) - from what my wife has told me, if your partner dies, you are not responsible for paying for their debts, especially student loans. I expect the same thing for credit cards - if someone were to happen to charge $2,000 on their credit card and get hit by a bus, the credit card company can cajole and plead for you to pay for it, but you have no legal requirement to do so.  Unfortunately I do not have as much information about as if you spouse is living. Hi guys, I have a difficult university finance question that’s really been stressing me out....  “The amount borrowed is $300 million and the term of the debt credit facility is six years from today  The facility requires minimum loan repayments of $9 million in each financial year except for the first year.  The nominal rate for this form of debt is 5%. This intestest rate is compounded monthly and is fixed from the date the facility was initiated.  Assume that a debt repayment of $10 million is payed on 31 August 2018 and $9million on April 30 2019. Following on monthly repayments of $9 million at the end of each month from May 31 2019 to June 30 2021.  Given this information determine the outstanding value of the debt credit facility on the maturity date.”  Can anyone help me out with the answer? I’ve been wracking my brain trying to decide if I treat it as a bond or a bill.  Thanks in advance, If you want to work within that constraint, then I sincerely suggest you find a credit councilor.  It may take you a while to dig out of debt, but with a little help from someone that knows the ropes, you can do it!  Remember, even though you want to pay back those debts, many times the sky-rocketing interest rates work against you.  Most of the good councilors know how to work the system to get these rates reduced, and sometimes even get the interest you've already accumulated reduced.