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Paying Off Debt Is Not The FIRST Priority
Other things that are more important
When I graduated from college, I made the mistake of paying off my debt as fast as possible. Yes, I said it was a mistake because it was. So, learn from my mistake.
I am not saying it shouldn’t have been a priority to pay off debt. It was a good thing for me to do so. However, if I had been wiser, I would have put some of the money I used to pay off my debt early to flesh out my emergency fund and into long-term investments.
The reason I tackled my debt so aggressively — I hate being in debt. I felt better when it was paid off. And at the time, interest rates were much higher than they are even now. So I did save quite a bit by paying my debt off early.
So, maybe working so hard to get the debt paid off wasn’t really a mistake. Maybe it was simply, in hindsight, the lesser of the options I had.
If I had been wiser, I would have maintained aggressively paying off debt as my primary financial goal, but I would have set aside a small percentage to pad my savings account and another small amount to put into my retirement fund.
If I could go back in time and advise my younger self, here is what I would tell them:
- Paying off debt is important but it’s not the most…
