It's best to avoid using savings to pay off debt. Depleting savings puts you at risk for going back into debt if you need to use credit cards or loans to cover bills during a period of unexpected unemployment or a medical emergency.
Our recommendation is to prioritize paying down significant debt while making small contributions to your savings. Once you've paid off your debt, you can then more aggressively build your savings by contributing the full amount you were previously paying each month toward debt.
Typically, you can't pay bills from a savings account. Savings accounts are for long-term storage, not short-term repeat transactions. They do not have an associated debit card or checkbook you can use to make purchases.
Pros of paying off debt
You can reduce the amount of interest paid over time. This is particularly helpful if you have high-interest credit card debt. It can help improve your credit score. Once your debt is paid, you can focus fully on saving and other financial goals.
Senator Elizabeth Warren popularized the so-called "50/20/30 budget rule" (sometimes labeled "50-30-20") in her book, All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan. The basic rule is to divide up after-tax income and allocate it to spend: 50% on needs, 30% on wants, and socking away 20% to savings.
Standard financial advice says you should aim for three to six months' worth of essential expenses, kept in some combination of high-yield savings accounts and shorter-term CDs.
As accounts become more and more past due, more fees can rack up and/or the credit card company could offer a settlement, or they could attempt to get a judgment against you for the total amount owed.
Is your money stuck in an online savings account? No. Just like a traditional savings account, your money is accessible to you when you need it. With just a few clicks, you can move money in and out of your savings and into another account.
If you have low interest rate loans, and expect higher returns on the investments in your 401(k), it's a good strategy to contribute to the 401(k) while you are also paying off the debt, making certain to pay off high interest rate debt first.
On average, Americans carry $6,194 in credit card debt, according to the 2019 Experian Consumer Credit Review. And Alaskans have the highest credit card balance, on average $8,026.
Investing and paying down debt are both good uses for any spare cash you might have. Investing makes sense if you can earn more on your investments than your debts are costing you in terms of interest. Paying off high-interest debt is likely to provide a better return on your money than almost any investment.
You should aim to have everything paid off, from student loans to credit card debt, by age 45, O'Leary says. “The reason I say 45 is the turning point, or in your 40s, is because think about a career: Most careers start in early 20s and end in the mid-60s,” O'Leary says.
Paying off debt can feel like it has to be your only financial priority. But you should do some saving while you're paying down debt. Even a small cushion of emergency savings can keep you from going deeper into debt when an unexpected expense pops up.
Three disadvantages of savings accounts are minimum balance requirements, lower interest rates than other accounts/investments, and federal limits on saving withdrawal. If you're fortunate enough to have extra money for long-term goals, first, pat yourself on the back!
High-Yield Checking Accounts
There are high-yield checking accounts that offer better interest rates than savings accounts. Some of these checking accounts offer up to a 2% annual percentage yield, in contrast to lower savings account rates.
The simplest way to make this calculation is to divide $10,000 by 12. This would mean you need to pay $833 per month to have contributed your goal amount to your debt pay-off plan. This number, though, doesn't factor in the interest on your debt.
One major reason people pay bills late: They simply forget.
Of those that were delinquent, 35% said they paid late because they forgot to pay their bill. Another 33% said they paid late because they needed the money to pay for essentials. And 32% said it was because they had an unexpected emergency.
In fact, a good 51% of Americans say $100,000 is the savings amount needed to be financially healthy, according to the 2022 Personal Capital Wealth and Wellness Index.
A sum of $20,000 sitting in your savings account could provide months of financial security should you need it. After all, experts recommend building an emergency fund equal to 3-6 months worth of expenses. However, saving $20K may seem like a lofty goal, even with a timetable of five years.
Fast answer: A general rule of thumb is to have one times your annual income saved by age 30, three times by 40, and so on.
You may have heard carrying a balance is beneficial to your credit score, so wouldn't it be better to pay off your debt slowly? The answer in almost all cases is no. Paying off credit card debt as quickly as possible will save you money in interest but also help keep your credit in good shape.