Personal Finance in 9 Words

IF YOU ARE DEBT-FREE:

IF YOU ARE NOT DEBT-FREE:

* When you have paid off all your non-mortgage debt (or all high-interest non-mortgage debt – see below), switch to the “Debt-Free” column.

- For more on paying down all non-mortgage debt vs. paying down all high-interest non-mortgage debt before investing, see “Investing 101/Before You Invest/Starting to invest early.”
- For more on paying down debt, see Paying Off Debt.
- For more on spending less than you earn, see Saving 101 and 10-Step Financial Fitness Workout.
- “Save and invest” assumes you have an emergency fund in place. Investing carries no guarantees of any particular results (see here and here). See also Investing 101.

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