This person rights into Dr. don at Bankrate and ask should they pay off their credit card debt or save for a down payment on the house. They have 8 months rent free. He says save the money for the down and skip paying down the debt.

I am not a financial advisor but I think this is horrible advice. You should pay the credit card debt to nothing and then focus on buying a home. We as American need to learn to stop buying things we can not afford. The Credit Card debt is a symptom of poor budgeting and financial focus.

This Dr. is prescribing the wrong medicine. Get rid of the debt and then move on to the house.

Deciding between debt and down payment

Deciding between debt and down payment

technorati tags:down payment, debt, house

Today my daughter said in the car; “I want money so I can put it in my bucket!” I was so excited because her bucket is the place she keeps her best toys for safe keeping. She lets no one touch her bucket or the items in the bucket. In essences it’s a savings account for a 23 month old child. She is less than two years old but we think it’s important to teach her the value of money. She has a piggy bank and every time she receives a cash gift, together we put the money in her piggy bank. We let her know it’s her money but we are saving it for later. So far she understands.

Back to today’s story, I was so proud of her for saying what she said and inside proud of us for making the decision to show her the value of money and saving, at such a young age. These lessons will help her to make sound financial decision as she gets older.

Here is the down side of this story. We were on our way home from the mall where we just spent $300 in new clothes for our child. The upside is we paid cash.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.